What is the current state of L&D, and where is it working (and not)? Some are saying that things are largely okay, while others are suggesting that things must improve. Where are we at?
The Learning & Performance Institute research suggests that L&D practitioners don’t assess themselves as having all the skills they might need. Charles Jennings’ work with the 70:20:10 Forum is pushing the model that we could be focusing on a wider range of activities beyond courses. Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner have pointed out the new roles we could be taking in their book The New Social Learning. Are we on track?
I have previously written that the industry has to change. Rather than trust my instincts, however, I’m fortunate in that ASTD itself is looking to have more up to date answers, and is partnering with me to ask some questions about the full suite of activities that are being undertaken. We’ve collaborated to create a questionnaire to supplement their usual collections of research reports. We do have an endgame on this; stay tuned.
We’re asking a short suite of questions designed to understand a snapshot of how organizations are addressing learning needs. These include questions about how effort is distributed across different activities, what pedagogical beliefs are being used, where the learning culture is at, and how outcomes are being measured.
We encourage you to both take it and promote it. We hope that through this, we can get a snapshot of where the industry believes itself to be and how we can continue to move it forward.
