Summary of Revolutionize Learning & Development

“A Call to Arms”

Organizational learning must not stagnate. In many cases, today’s learning and development (L&D) industry is relying on counterproductive practices and not focusing enough on improving performance. Many employees dislike tests and feel anxious or unhappy about performance reviews. A Learning and Performance Institute survey found that its members’ weakest areas – “coaching, mentoring and performance support” – are most crucial to training’s new priorities.

To be satisfied with a learning experience, people need to accomplish something concrete and practice it until they get it right. In fact, 97% of learning takes place on the job. Yet L&D practitioners seldom prioritize the need to support performance and provide job assists. At worst, they focus more on the efficiency of training than on its effectiveness.

Current industry myths contend that trainers should design programs to suit employees’ “learning styles”; that different generations need different learning approaches; and that everyone in the wired generation is a skilled technologist. Though L&D needs to progress, stakeholders don’t promise much help in its reform. Successful...