Learning & Development MANIFESTO
(To be read with a healthy dose of sarcasm and self-awareness.)
Oh, we — the overworked and ever-suffering Learning & Development professionals —destined to serve the business at the crossroads of two eternally warring paradigms:
We’re too busy to learn!
Why haven’t you developed my people?!
With this declaration, we cast off the shackles of blind obedience, boldly ushering in a New Era of Learning & Organizational Development.
From this day forward, we vow to defend truth and honor in the name of employees everywhere.
From now on, we…
Refuse to respond to the comment, "We need some training. Can you do it?" with a flippant, "Sure, do you want it by yesterday? With sauce and fries?" Instead, we will ask the right questions and set clear objectives.
Commit to demanding clear goals and measurable results from the business, and we will focus not on what learning event is needed, but on which performance metrics require the most attention. We are not here to create a 100-slide presentation, but to make a real difference for the better.
Actively engage in learning needs analysis and make it our top priority. Needs assessment is your loyal, yet often forgotten, guardian of time, resources, money, and employee brainpower! We welcome you into our profession and eagerly invite you to every L&D project, asking the right questions to the business: “What should employees be doing in their roles?” and “Why aren’t they doing it now?”
Give the green light to simple solutions and quick answers. And if, during the learning needs analysis, we see that “this can’t be fixed with training,” but rather it’s an issue of insufficient information, culture, or an ineffective decision-making process, we speak up about it. We show how to address it quickly and effectively, without involving pointless, expensive presentations or the voice of an avatar trainer delivering them.
Don’t transfer knowledge because knowledge can’t be transferred. We can only convey information. We create a developmental environment for participants, allowing THEM to form THEIR OWN knowledge from the information we provide.
Are flexible in formats and learning solutions, and if the business finds it more convenient and effective to learn in short online iterations, we know how to create a high-quality program, whether it's for two full offline days or four two-hour Zoom sessions, because we are role models and agents of change in the new post-pandemic world.
Know that people have brains and the right to use them. We fiercely protect the time and money of our course participants from information overload, office politics, moralizing, "successful success," pseudo-motivational speakers, overemphasis on awareness, academicism, patronizing attitudes, and empty, pompous PR.
Never again! For we are the Warriors of Light and Enlightenment, standing guard over business and the bright future of all organizations.
Let the Post-Pandemic Age of Learning begin.
February 11, 2022.
13 days till the full scale invasion.