Jo Cook, an independent L&D specialist writes about the future of L&D and how she enjoyed the Learn 2020 event.
The future of how Learning and Development operate within a business is a subject of huge debate with much opinion. Two people trying to grapple with this subject are David Liversage and Lara Roche. They launched their blueprint of the future based on research of interviews with 20 senior L&D professionals.
The event in London this week focused on eight areas that organisations are facing challenges with in the future: VUCA (a model for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous conditions); customer; competition; technology; culture; talent; acquisitions; global. David emphasised how everything is interlinked, saying “culture needs to be collaborative, flexible and fluid, which impacts on talent.”
More Features
The challenges of learning in 2020
How effective decision-making can lead to success
Training for older workers being overlooked
How great customer service can drive new business existing sources
Lara focused on the people element by talking about the changing structure of talent, contrasting the amount of people that are currently traditional core workers in an organisation with the more fluid contractors and consultants; the future prediction is this structure being inverted, with many more people being self-employed. Within this change there is also the adaptation of so many roles going from doing to thinking, knowledge-based workers. Lara highlighted that there are “key capabilities” of the future worker, such as dealing with ambiguity, making decisions in a more agile manner and having a more commercial and strategic approach.
There was a lot of discussion in the audience around where their own organisations and talent where in these spheres and what work needed to be done to cope with changes in the next five years. Some audience members highlighted the disconnect with long tenure senior leaders in a business and the more facilitative and modern approach of middle managers.
David went on to discuss the blueprint for L&D to “orchestrate great learning in organisations” and spoke about the “70:20:10 environment needs to be more visible and opportunities taken and valued”.
David and Lara have also launched a website to support further discussion and development on the future of L&D: http://learn2020.info/
About the author
Jo Cook is an independent blended and virtual classroom specialist. Her website is www.lightbulbmoment.info and can be contacted on Twitter: @LightbulbJo
