What's your biggest challenge in 2011?

[Donald H Taylor]

A simple question - what will your biggest learning challenge be in the coming year? Let us know!

[Mark Cole]

It's a threefold matter...
Meet expectations - and exceed them where possible;
Maintain enthusiasm - of self, staff and others in my organisation - for L&D as a key business activity;
Make innovation a central aspect of all of our L&D work.

[Craig Taylor]

Ooooh, good question Don.

I'll probably keep coming back to this post to update my answer on a regular basis, but for the moment I would have to say that I anticipate it being..

... my IT department..

...which creates the challenge of staying motivated !

[Alan Bellinger]

My answer is
to make the shift from a training mindset to a performance mindset - and make it a reality, not just talk!

[Jonathan Kettleborough]

Totally agree with you Alan!  (see later post on this).

 

Jonathan.

[Karyn Romeis]

I think Craig has a point about the IT department, it's one we keep coming back to. With an increasing number of learning provisions being of a social and collaborative nature, a skittish IT department is always going to be an obstacle.

But I reckon our biggest challenge is the need to move L&D away from HR and towards Ops. Let's face it, L&D is related to performance (as Alan says) and performance is an operations issue. If the people perform, we reach our organisational goals; if they don't, we don't.

The more learning is seen as being an operational issue, the more it can become embedded in the workflow, rather than being a standalone provision that interrupts the day job. We're pretty close to the notion of ubiquitous computing, now, so ubiquitous learning is attainable. And, in this instance, the recession supports our case. I've been speaking to a lot of people with absolutely no 'training' budget about the use of mentoring and modeling, about leveraging existing skills in the business with tools like Captivate (or the cheaper alternatives), about taking learning to the coalface.

In an odd way, it's almost as if we're ready to move forward to an older model. Using new technologies to capitalise on the zone of proximal development, not a million miles from the apprenticeship model of the middle ages.

[Mattias Kareld]

Hi Don,

 

For me personaly it will definitely be to understand the business in a much deeper way than what is the case today. Because just as Karyn says, we working with L & D need to become an integral part of the actual business to be able to help people perform better (and also hopefully perform better ourselves) at work.

 

We have organisationally taken that step bringing our department into the business. Now it is a matter of change management from our side to make the people in the business understand what we can offer to them and how we can work together in creating fantastic Learning and Development for all people in the company.

 

We will also introduce a number of new tools to help us create this L & D and this will of course create a lot of Learning opportunities for myself.

 

Best,

Mattias

 

 

[Karyn Romeis]

Mattias, it sounds as if you have an interesting and challenging year ahead!

[Margaret Kelsey]

Having a business model that pivots on social media and its value in determining and shaping informal learning needs.  Looking forward to seeing what LT 2011 has to offer and will inform on this theme. '-)

[Jonathan Kettleborough]

I agree with Alan.  Training and the "how" is long gone (just a shame that many people don't want to let go of it!). 

 

The challenge for 2011 and beyond is to move towards a culture of performance, productivity and profit.  This means that L&D people need to get and understand business (which largely they don't).

 

We also need to move away from the slow "death by process" that is HR.

 

Hopefully that's enough to provoke some replies ;-)

 

Jonathan.

[Karyn Romeis]

"This means that L&D people need to get and understand business (which largely they don't)." <= Amen!

 

And as for the 'death by process', a double Amen!

[Jonathan Kettleborough]

Thanks Karyn.  With Alan, you and me, we now have the grand total of three forward-thinkers!

 

How do we go about convincing the thousands of others? :-)

 

All the best.

 

Jonathan.

[Karyn Romeis]

Oh, Jonathan, there are loads of us. Honest. In fact, in comparison to some members of my various communities, I feel like a backward thinker!