It's not fair of me to have high expectations of L&D suppliers and vendors in the market. Because I have too many high expectations of myself, and trust me, I'm failing.
The modern day L&Der needs to be aware of so many things to be effective, it's not possible to fit it into one person. It's just not. Jane Hart helped us to get a better sense of the broad range of skills in her post about new and emerging roles for learning and performance professionals.
For ease of reference, here's the particular graphic I want you to look at.
Jane's done a good job of putting this graphic together which starts to capture what L&Ders need to be aware of and, in some respect, expert in.
I think there's a consideration needed for organisational development and how the two overlap.
There is also the Burke-Litwin model of OD which is useful for looking holistically at how an organisation operates, and what it should consider when responding to change.
The modern day L&Der has a lot to try and deliver. When I say I'm failing, what I mean is I can't do it all myself. I have to be selective about the skills I'm going to actively use, the ones I'm going to keep on my radar, and the ones I should know about even though I'm not going to do anything with.
We could look at this from a number of perspectives. There's the absent skills training which is much needed in the profession. There's the evolution of the profession itself to something which is very different to what it was eleven years ago when I started my career. There's the growing understanding of all things to do with marketing, content strategy, web design, technology, neuroscience, and more which isn't even captured in a lot of places.
It places us in the profession in an interesting place.
Core to all of this, is fundamentally are we getting the right things done?
Personally, if I need to learn about advanced facilitation techniques, or a new psychometric tool, or targeted feedback about my delivery style, means very little. If I'm not helping the people in my organisation achieve their learning, and thereby helping the business to grow, then I've failed.
So I hold the bar high. Because that's what is demanded of us by the business. The thing is, they just don't know it. They just want their people to do a better job. To perform at a higher level. To be more collaborative. To achieve their personal goals. To help the business grow. That all ultimately comes from the right learning. And that right learning is what the modern L&Der has to help facilitate.
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