At the L&D Connect Unconference, held at the Skills Matter Exchange, London, participants were asked to pose questions for open space discussions. Here are the questions posed, which provide insights into the current challenges facing L&D professionals.
- Is reality television bringing a new brutality to the workplace?
- As we move away from training how do we prove our effectiveness (do we need to)?
- What does the changing nature of learning and development (traditional training to ‘learning concierge’) mean for learning and development professionals and measurement of value?
- How would learning and development look like without traditional training?
- What are the new ideas for leadership development away from the usual academic opportunities?
- What is good line management capability today? What? How?
- How do we remove businesses away from the traditional values and towards appreciating positive thinking and a more balanced view of life?
- How do we become more problem focused and less solution led?
- The senior team are ready to think about culture now! Is culture a top-down thing? How can we stop it being something that’s considered in isolation?
- What does neuroscience bring to learning and development? How can we use it well without it being gimmicky? What happens when your evidence unseats something we hold true?
- Why doesn’t Doctor Who have an L&D department? As L&D professionals do we constantly have to be innovative? How do we maintain momentum and inspiration?
- What is the next step for learning and organisational development and the academic and professional development of it?
- What do we do about L&D professionals stuck on traditional methodology?
- How do we support and improve the performance conversation?
- How do we overcome fear of change?
- How do we empower and encourage staff to challenge inappropriate behaviour?
- What can we do to reduce bullying at work?
- Do we need leaders and managers in a changing environment?
- How do we change empowerment from mechanical to organic?
- How do we transform employees from skilled trainees into self-directed learners?
- How do people educate people on what is learning?
- How do you encourage experts in one field to recognise they need help in other areas? For example, experts who become by default leaders, trainers, managers?
- How do we sell the benefits of people skills to an analytical team of people?
- How do we drive the development of new technology rather than simply using what is developed?
- Was the future of technology in learning? Will the classroom style be replaced?
- Is anyone still talking or worrying or reporting return on investment any more?
- How can learning and development better role model being bowled to people outside of learning and development?
- How do we as learning and development experts help organisations recognise the value and measure what we bring
