In a Learning 2.0 world, where learning and performance solutions take on a wider variety of forms and where churn happens at a much more rapid pace, what new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?

As Harold Jarche and Jay Cross have already addressed the “learning” part of the discussion with informative and illuminating posts on the topic I’m going to talk about the business aspect of the “performance” element highlighted in The Big Question.

Now read on…

I strongly believe that to survive and maybe even prosper in these leaner economic times, those of us involved in L&D need to understand that we are also business people. As in any enterprise, we are connected to our customers and clients through a variety of sophisticated and interconnecting partnerships: with organizations, with vendors, with the board of directors, with employees, and ultimately and most importantly with learners.

Our product is our special expertise in learning and development (and all that this entails), and our market is more competitive now than it has ever been. I would assert that if, as a trainer, you feel that you are somehow shielded from the realities of business in the early 21st century, you probably won’t have much of a career in five years time.

Enterprises need e-learning. The pace of organizational change in most companies requires a constant refreshing of skills and the continual development of new competencies. In many organizations, not choosing e-learning as a method to deliver key training initiatives usually means it will not be delivered at all. To remain competitive, enterprises need to:

• Provide continual, up-to-date training and professional development
• Distributable to knowledge workers across multiple delivery channels
• Implement scalable training solutions
• Ensure plan is developed and deployed within a matter of months, rather than quarters or years
• $$$ Demonstrate economic viability $$$

Learning professionals should heed their organizations’ strategic and business imperatives, align with them, and deliver appropriate solutions to support them. To make this happen, my view is that learning professionals need to have (or should develop) the skills and expertise to perform in the following domains:

Sadly none of this is sexy, but it’s what I believe you need to accomplish to be successful in this domain.

In meetings in my organization I have been known say that being a learning & development professional is a bit like running a truck company. It’s my job to get stuff to the people who need it, and to be honest my customers don’t really care how it gets there, once it arrives on time and it good shape. To extend the analogy, I could argue that Web 1.0 e-learning was like a sports car – it looked great and made a big impact wherever it arrived, but it was quite impractical, required a lot of TLC and maintenance, and while it may be high-performing on the (one-way) racetrack of the information superhighway, try maneuvering it around the multi-storey car park of most organizations’ networks.

Web 2.0 is without equal at delivering vast amounts of information. It is an accessible, multiplex environment, so data can move back, forth, left, right – wherever it needs to go. Learning 2.0 leverages this facility exceptionally well, because communication of knowledge, skills, and expertise, is at the heart of training and learning.

Learning professionals who have supplemented their educational expertise with broader business skills have positioned themselves to add value to their enterprise facilitating their organizations’ performance requirements, and their customers’ learning needs. And that is a win-win situation. 

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Now read on…

Job seekers take heart! In the current financial maelstrom, you may suddenly find yourself unemployed, laid off, or downsized, with too much month at end of the money. Well, a report from the Harvard Business Review will bolster your confidence as you search for that all-too-elusive new role. So, especially you executives, take this time to retrain, build your skills, and take advantage of the excellent career development and e-learning programs that have emerged over the last decade or so.

No.

Actually: that’s wrong: it seems that you won’t be getting the keys to the executive restroom unless you’re a member of the correct ‘old school tie’ network, the right golf club, or can give the interview panel a "positive gut feeling" – whatever that is – in your single, not-very-rigorous meeting with your interrogators. That’s if a C-level exec bothers to attend your interview at all.

According to HBR,

…only half of those recruited for the top three tiers of management  [in Fortune 500 companies] were interviewed by anyone in the C-suite. And fully half the companies relied primarily on the hiring manager’s gut feel, selecting a candidate believed to have ‘what it took’ to be successful in any job.

When the publication surveyed fifty CEOs of global companies, along with a pool of executive search consultants who work with about 500 organizations, they found hiring practices to be “disturbingly vague:” respondents relied heavily on subjective personal preferences or on largely unquestioned organizational traditions, often based on false assumptions.

Sir Fred Goodwin, ex-CEO, Royal Bank of Scotland: did he have “what it takes?” [Image courtesy The Guardian]

Even better news for jobseekers: the evidence of the survey indicates that regardless of a candidate’s suitability for the role, their professional experiences, and their range of competencies, the executives surveyed held

…widely differing views regarding the desirable attributes of new hires. They emphatically disagreed on whether it was best to hire insiders or outsiders, on who should be involved in the recruiting process, on what assessment tools were most suitable, and on what the keys were to successful hiring and retention.

Little surprise then that about a third of promising new hires leave an organization within three years of being recruited.

The HBR admitted to being "stunned" that many CEOs are ignorant of their company’s own demographic projections mandating hiring to replace soon-to-be-retiring managers; "even those who recognize the looming shortage of talent are ill-prepared to fill it."

However, don’t despair: I’m pleased to say these redoubtable captains of industry, the self-styled masters of the universe who got our economy into this whole mess are maintaining their impeccable record of due diligence, risk assessment, and forward planning, and can’t be accused of continuing to behave like the greedy, short-sighted, self-serving parasites they’ve proved to be in the past. Could anyone really agree with a shareholder who said of the board of one of the Irish banks:

If we didn’t live in a tolerant society, the chairman and the rest of the board would be hanging by their necks by piano wire.

Now – that’s wrong too.

In a recent blog post, I discussed some of the implications and consequences of the ‘PlayStation Generation’ entering the workforce; the HBR report supports the view that if the world’s ‘top’ organizations can’t even establish a process for on-boarding employees in the present, we ordinary working Joe’s and Josephine’s are all pretty much up the Swanee if we rely upon them to hire – and perform – effectively in times to come.

The famous Suwannee River, Florida. What we are up.

The Review published a very useful seven-step guide outlining the phases of a properly-structured interview process (see Figure 1).

Don’t forget, that these fine fellows – for it is mostly men – are all looking for gainful employment too, since they have all resigned their positions in ignominy, if not shame (most of them don’t seem to understand shame). Perhaps they can take advantage of this comprehensive process too:

Figure 1. Hiring Executives Process Guide (after Harvard Business Review, 2009)

Look and learn.

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References:

Fernández-Aráoz., Groysberg, B., Nohria, N. (2009). The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad. Harvard Business Review [Internet] Available from: http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/05/the-definitive-guide-to-recruiting-in-good-times-and-bad/ar/1?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_STAT-_-MAY_2009-_-STAT0519 Accessed 19 May 2009

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