Current Trends in Learning and Development

Current Trends In Learning and Development
Copyright 2007 - Jennifer Britton. All Rights Reserved

Attending the 2007 ASTD Conference last week was positively stimulating and I wanted to share a bit of the "energy" created during the five days in Atlanta.

Overall, some of the main messages were that Learning and Development will continue to play an increased role in organizational success to meet the current opportunities and challenges in the business world. Whether you are a coach, trainer or facilitator, indicators say that our professions will continue to be in demand as employers grapple with the following trends:

1. The Need for Just in Time Learning
As employees become more mobile and are asked to take on more responsibilities with information flows increasing, employers are looking at opportunities to create Just in Time Learning. Whether it's mobile learning options through podcasting, or mentoring programs, just in time learning is one of the latest trends in the T and D field.

Question: How are you offering just in time learning solutions through your work?
What possible solutions could you create for just in time learning?

2. Inter-generational Management Issues
How do you support organizations on inter-generational management and leadership issues? There was a lot of discussion around techniques to harness the unique capabilities of the Gen Y, Gen X, and Baby Boomer generations. What challenges and opportunities are showing up in organizations that you work in?

3. Talent Shortage
With the imminent retirement of the baby boomer generation in the next five years, professionals in HR and the learning field continue to shine light on possible talent shortage and skills gaps that may occur.

Question: How do your coaching services address the talent shortage?

4. Globalization opportunities and challenges - Globalization of business continues to be a very real trend. Organizations are continuing to place a focus on building global leadership skills, looking at how global can be local as well as at hard skill development in the areas of cross-cultural communication, global leadership competencies and team building.

5. Leveraging Strengths:
Strengths Based management and development continues to demonstrate very important results. I attended a number of sessions presented by Gallup on their research around employee engagement and their work on the StrengthsFinder 2.0.

Another very interesting resource which I discovered at the conference is the work by Sara Orem, Jacqueline Binkert and Ann Clancy - Appreciative Coaching. Their model is grounded in Appreciative Inquiry and coaches individuals from a strengths perspective. Fascinating work and model! I'll definitely blog more on their work in the future!

6. The importance of building relationships:
Keith Ferrazzi of Ferrazi Greeenlight and the author of Never Eat Alone gave a stirring keynote on the importance of relationships in business. I would invite you to check out his website: http://www.nevereatalone.com, and also to ask yourself, how are you building relationships with others? With clients? With possible collaborators?

I would welcome your thoughts in terms of what you see as trends in the field of learning and development -- please feel free to comment below. One of the main messages I took away is that it continues to be an exciting time to work within the sphere of learning and development, with indicators that the demand and needs will continue to grow.

Have a wonderful week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Group Coaching Essentials
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized.com
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

The Workshop and Retreat Essentials teleseminar program starts on next Monday, June 18th at 7 pm (ET). Are you looking for tools, templates, resources and exercises to add to your toolkit for your own workshops and retreats? Space is limited to 8 and a few spots still remain. More information and a registration link can be found here. Calls will be held on June 18, 25, July 8 and 15/07.