😮 This stops your L&D success

Today’s Thoughts ☠️

Hey there 👋,

This edition took me 10 hours to write!

Two cups of tea, 3 aimless wanders around my garden and some frustrating grammatical disagreements with the Grammarly app brought me to writing these words.

Today’s main focus is disruption. How to be smart about it and how not to get fired because of it.

Let’s get into it.

Get your tea 🍵 or beverage of choice ready. We've got lots to discuss!

In today’s chat 👇

• The thin line between genius and chaotic L&D disruption

• 3 insights from The Future Working report by Bain and Company

• The story of AstraZeneca’s 3-year learning transformation

The Big Thought

Decoding Disruption: The Thin Line Between Genius and Chaos

There’s an old saying that I use in partnership meetings, “Don’t be a bull in a china shop” aka taking a hard-line approach to something in an environment that isn’t built for it.

I’ve seen this approach backfire with L&D consultants and vendors countless times.

Why does it happen?

Simple…

They don’t take the time to understand these 3 things:

1. Culture

2. Context

3. Constraints

If you don’t understand these elements, you can’t help an organisation solve its problems.

Disrupt, smartly

Let’s bring this to life with an example.

You’re a forward-thinking L&D pro, desperate to leave the barren wastelands of elearning behind to propel your organisation’s learning design approach into the modern era. Or, at least beyond 1998.

I get it. You want to start some change.

Now, you have a choice here:

Smart Disruption

This focuses on intelligently moving the company forward.

It’s a slow and steady approach to enabling change in the way people work.

It’s not the sexy approach all those LinkedIn posts talk about with “moving fast and breaking things”. The reality for most companies is not this.

You want to be smart.

Smart is cool. It’s a long game which you can win. You’re not asking to reinvent the wheel the next day here, you’re promoting small gains.

You test and move thinking 1 - 5% through each experience. You’re co-creating with others, not telling them they’re all wrong and you’re right.

Chaotic Disruption

There is no easier way to describe this, so I’m just going to say it.

This is a dumb strategy.

It might be the one you see plastered on social media posts and hyped up like a pro wrestling match on podcasts. Yet, it has huge real-world consequences. The ‘captain obvious’ statements proclaiming L&D needs to do this or that online are so easy to write.

But in the real world, it ain’t so straightforward, friend.

If you walk into a meeting with senior leaders tell them everything they’re doing is wrong because you need to create disruption. That’s not going to end well.

The problem is too many think chaotic disruption is the right type of disruption to deploy.

As a society, we’ve worshipped this across different channels, yet it doesn’t work 99.9% of the time because those who deploy this strategy have no clue about the 3 things we outlined earlier (culture, context and constraints).

This strategy is fast, uncontrollable and leads to more harm than good.

It’s also responsible for ending people’s careers and consultants losing work. You can’t just disrupt something this way because you think it should be another way.

That ain’t going to work. Trust me.

How to apply this in your work

Business leaders can be a tough crowd.

Winning hearts and minds as an L&D pro is an art.

When a stakeholder wants a particular solution and you know you have no leverage in the matter, don’t fight it.

The battle will be pointless and you’ll likely end up in the same place.

Instead, build the solution(s) they want but drop in 10% of the stuff you know works better. The play here is to neither give up nor try to start a war.

You find opportunities to weave in new ways of thinking and approaches into existing experiences.

You’ll then compound this play over time.

What I've found is stakeholders typically get excited about that 10% bit and want more of that. It's not a 100% win rate of course.

It has to be something that delivers a clear impact. You can’t do something different to have it fall flat and kill your own play.

The idea is to be strategic in your order-taking.

You can't expect people to change because you tell them to. It takes months even years to win hearts and minds.

Play the smart game. Make friends, not enemies.

Till next time.

Deep Thought

The Working Future Report: 3️⃣ Key Takeaways

Here’s a breakdown of Bain and Company’s The Working Future Report. You can download your copy here. These are my personal takeaways.

1️⃣ Adapt or Perish

I get that the title sounds harsh. But it’s what we each need to do.

Change is hard. Our motivations for work are always changing. Companies that fail to adapt to new work models, technologies and people's needs will serve as cautionary industry tales in the years to come.

If you want to thrive as an individual, as a team and as a business. You must adapt to the world today.

Remote work, generative AI and purpose-led cultures are just the tip of our working future.

The takeaway: many a false step was made by standing still. Move, learn and grow.

See pages: 10 - 13

2️⃣ Invest in people, not just tech

I see this mistake all the time.

Companies invest in sexy new tech but neglect to invest in the people who make it work.

I often encourage teams I work with to look at technology as an enabler, not a saviour. We can’t automate everything. Despite what the world’s productivity gurus tell us.

There are plenty of tasks and skills which are uniquely human.

Generative AI is not going to be farming your lands, solving team conflicts or fixing your physical devices anytime soon.

See pages: multiple

3️⃣ Smart companies are reshaping their talent strategies

I don’t care what anyone says.

Building talent strategies is tough. I have a few war stories. I’m sure you do too.

It often feels like you’re one of those bears trying to catch those damn wriggly salmon popping up from the river. You’re starving and can see the goal but are too overwhelmed with hunger to create a plan to get what you want.

I felt like this when I didn’t have any data or clear strategic direction in which to form a strategic approach to talent.

Bain provides some useful pointers to future-proof your talent strategies. I’ve summed them up here with a sprinkle of my own thoughts:

1. From Talent Taker to Talent Maker

In the fast-paced world of business, companies often look externally to fill skill gaps, essentially becoming "talent takers.

I often class this as the choice between ‘build’ or ‘buy’.

Bain & Co. suggests a shift towards becoming a "talent maker". This focuses on the untapped potential within the existing workforce.

By offering growth opportunities to everyone, regardless of their position, companies can not only meet their talent needs but also foster a more engaged and committed workforce (well, you hope so, anyway).

2. Rethink Learning and Development Models

Traditional learning and development models are becoming outdated.

B&C recommends creating new frameworks that are more aligned with the individual strengths and career aspirations of your workforce.

3. Think Laterally About Career Journeys

The corporate world has long been obsessed with vertical career ladders, but what about lateral moves?

By considering lateral career paths, companies can better cater to the diverse strengths and interests of their workforce. Again, investing in the talent you already have. This is great for succession planning, IMO.

4. Create Better Visibility on Evolving Talent Needs

Companies often struggle to articulate their future talent needs, leaving employees in the dark about their career paths.

I’ve had some very funny ‘future skills’ conversations over the years. Too often they are opinion-led vs data-informed.

Knowing the skills your workforce needs to deliver on business goals should be a no-brainer. do more work here, and reap the rewards later.

5. Support Career Development

While each of us is ultimately responsible for our career development, companies can play a supportive role too.

Provide the right tools, better visibility, and an open environment for career discussions. People don’t want to feel like cogs in a machine but rather active participants in shaping their career paths

6. Diverse Skill Sets = 🏅

Skills pay the bills!

They’re the currency we use to play in the career marketplace.

Bain encourages companies to incorporate multiple perspectives into their workforce.

This not only improves performance but also fosters innovation by reducing groupthink. For example, Walmart built up a team of over 15,000 technologists to lead its digital transformation, demonstrating the value of skill set diversification.

The takeaway: Talent strategies are central to organisational success. What are you doing with yours?

See pages: 60 - 72

LinkedIn

I post so much on LI, even I lose track of all the stuff. Here’s a quick roundup of drops to keep you and me in the loop:

1️⃣ 5 lessons learnt from experimenting with ChatGPT for 1 year

2️⃣ The easy ChatGPT prompt writing masterclass

3️⃣ The 3 human skills you need in the AI Era

4️⃣ Why the problem, is often not a L&D problem

5️⃣ The 7 skills L&D teams need to succeed (visualised)

Don’t Sleep On ChatGPT in L&D

Let’s face it. The HR and L&D industry is slow to adapt and adopt the latest tech.

We struggle to connect with our audience because we fail to stay ahead. We’re always last to the party, and that sucks. Sometimes we’re not even invited to the party!

You might feel like this right now with generative AI.

I want to help you change that. Join over 100 fellow L&D pros slaying those AI demons to supercharge their work.

🚀 Level up your ChatGPT skills with my crash course

Smart Thoughts

Content that has caught my attention and might interest you too.

🤔  It’s a fact: AI improves employee productivity by 66%

Generative AI tools (like ChatGPT) have been around for nearly a year.

We’re now seeing data from research studies on the impact of these tools on how we work. This one from the Nielsen Norman Group caught my attention.

The 66% figure was calculated across 3 case studies the group worked with:

• Customer service agents resolving customer inquiries in an enterprise software company.

• Experienced business professionals (e.g., marketers, HR professionals) writing routine business documents (such as press releases) that take about half an hour to write

• Programmers coding a small software project that took about three hours to complete without AI assistance

Discover more in the full article.

💡 The story of AstraZeneca’s 3-year learning transformation

This is probably one of the better modern case studies in L&D you’ll find.

It’s not as detailed as I would like, and you will no doubt have questions. But as this one is written by the VP of Global Talent and Development at AZ. You could reach out directly to learn more.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

🔥  Chief of AI: New pointless job or the future of work?

In Friday’s conversation, I mentioned how Chief of AI roles are coming out of nowhere across many companies.

But what exactly is this role and how could it be valued in an organisation?

All great questions to explore whilst I sip my tea. The folks at Section School did a full breakdown on this so I don’t have to, win!

How I can help you👇

1/ My L&D toolkit stack with 20 zero-cost tools.

2/ Work smarter with AI in HR and L&D in my ChatGPT Crash Course.

3/ Work with me on your projects and L&D challenges.

Please share your thoughts with me on these pieces or anything I share on LinkedIn or hit 'reply'. Chat to you soon.