Top 10 Challenges for Learning & Development Professionals
Although he has been retired for a while now, David Letterman's acerbic, quick wit is something yet to be replaced on late night television. I was, and continue to be, a fan.
His wry observations of the human condition and state of politcs in the US is sorely missed. Every night he and his writing staff would put together a TOP 10 LIST on any number of wide-ranging topics. They were often insightful and always humerous.
Recently, the Center for Management & Organizational Effectiveness posted an insightful (not sure about humerous) article called TOP 10 CHALLENGES FOR LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONALS.
I found the top 3 particularly interesting:
- Helping people deal with change.
- Developing leaders at all levels.
- Engaging learners of all types.
Change and learning are always connected. The increasing pace of complex change requires flexible, relevant approaches to learning and development. More than ever before, using technology as a learning accelerator is a vital part of most learning and development efforts.
E-learning is a long, rich history. B.F. Skinner, the father of behavioural psychology, was a professor at Harvard from 1948 through to his retirement in 1974. He began to use Teaching Machines and Programmed Learning in 1954. He was convinced of the merits of blending technology and learning. Unfortunately the technology was neither flexible enough or inter-connected enough at the time for e-learning to really grab hold.
It is clearly a different world today. Flexiblity and interconnection is not a problem when it comes to technology. Online learning represents one of the clear paths forward as a cost-effective way to continually meet the learning challenges that come with a changing organization.
That is perhaps the best reason we created our new Online Learning Center. Given our focus over the past 30 years of helping organizations change, it is interesting to note our two most popular online courses are Living with Change (helping people deal with change) and Leading Change (developing change leaders at all levels).
I would love say we developed those courses in response to this TOP 10 CHALLENGES list. However that isn't the case. I just came across this list a few days ago and the courses were created and published in their current form last year. We just got lucky. Sometime, things just work out.