DeakinCo. Future of work report

Enabling the future of workSkills and strategies for learning and development

deakinco.com

What got you here won’t get you there.

— Marshall Goldsmith

ContentsForeword 1

Executive summary 2

Introduction 4

Part 1: The future of work—Key trends and implications 5

Future of work 6

Part 2: The future of learning—Skills and strategies for learning and development (L&D) 11

L&D’s performance gap 13

Four strategies for L&D 14

L&D future skills 25

Closing comments 28

Appendix 1: What gets measured gets managed 29

About authors 33

Foreword

Enabling the future of workThe future of work is now. Or so it seems as we experience a more dynamic workplace—with the pace of change constantly accelerating, with more connectivity, greater adaptability, and new skills and ways of working required. Keep up or get left behind is the warning echoing behind the narrative of the future of work. And if you believe the reports, we haven’t seen anything yet as automation, the rise of digital, artificial intelligence, robotics and so on drive transformations of a scale significant enough to justify calling this the fourth industrial revolution.

This disruption has seen many commentators express concern about the impact on jobs, with predications that ‘40 per cent of current jobs won’t exist by 2025’1. Personally, I am an optimist and found myself nodding recently when I heard someone comment that each of the previous industrial revolutions has left the world in a better state socially and economically. Time will tell, but I can’t envisage a world or a workplace that won’t require human interaction and the associated soft skills—it’s the way we are wired.

DeakinCo.’s vision is to equip workforces with the skills they need in an ever-changing environment. The sweeping changes to the way we work are creating opportunities for organisations, and their learning and development (L&D) professionals, to fundamentally adapt their approach to skill development.

In this report, Enabling the future of work: Skills and strategies for learning and development, we consider the question: How can L&D professionals prepare themselves, and the people and organisations they work with, for a state of rapid and perpetual change?

This report identifies four key areas that assist with transforming L&D professionals from order-takers to impactful and valued business partners. We have drawn on our own experience and researched examples and case studies of how various organisations are approaching the new paradigm of developing skills in our rapidly changing environment. Our intention is to provide practical insights and actionable takeaways for L&D professionals. We are passionate about this topic and welcome any additional insights, experiences or, indeed, challenges to our current thinking.

On behalf of DeakinCo. I hope you find value from our insights that will help with your thinking and L&D practice. I would particularly like to thank Arun, Kelly and Michelle, our primary authors for this report, along with the many others at DeakinCo. and Deakin University more widely that contribute to helping us work with organisations to equip their workforces to succeed both now and in the future.

Simon Hann—CEO

1 CEDA, 2015, Australia’s future workforce, page 8 http://www.ceda.com.au/Research-and-policy/All-CEDA-research/Research-catalogue/Australia-s-future-workforce

Enabling the future of work | 1

We started this process with the following question in mind:

How can learning and development (L&D) professionals prepare themselves and the people and organisations they work with for a state of rapid and perpetual change?

Executive summary

To understand this backdrop of accelerated change, the report summarises and prioritises the most relevant trends stemming from the future of work. These include:

• the rise of digital—particularly the development of the ‘augmented worker’, who is supported and supplemented by high-tech tools and systems

• the rise of human experience—particularly the rise of customer experience as a key competitive focus across all industries, linked to the parallel focus on employee experience

• the rise of human and higher-order skills—particularly the demand for empathy, communication and creative problem-solving skills, which might be described as ‘soft’, complex and tacit

• the rise of agility—particularly because of the rapidly changing and unpredictable external circumstances that demand unprecedented speed and adaptability.

2 | Enabling the future of work

These strategies will in turn demand a range of new skills from L&D professionals, which are listed in the report. We also identify two priority skills that we believe represent the largest opportunity for impact in the coming period, shown in Figure 1.

We see tremendous opportunities in the intersection between design thinking, which takes an empathetic view to designing ecosystems and campaigns and therefore enables employees’ experiences, and data analytics, which leverages an increasingly networked ecosystem to provide constant feedback on performance and business outcomes.

The report ultimately represents an optimistic view of our industry and the potential in the future of work. In our opinion, L&D professionals have an incredible opportunity to step into a much-needed role to enable people at a time when the ability to learn and innovate is the new currency of success.

We hope that this report contributes to this important process.

Thank you Arun Pradhan, Kelly Kajewski and Michelle Ryan

Figure 1: Two priority skills for impactful L&D professionalsSource: DeakinCo. 2017

To enable work and workers in this era of change and disruption, the report goes on to identify four key areas for L&D professionals wanting to make the much‑needed transformation from order‑takers to impactful business partners:

1 Solving performance challenges

Developing performance‑consulting skills and reframing business expectations through deep partnerships based on a consultative model

2 Creating experiences and campaigns

Moving beyond a training‑event model by developing an ecosystem of people, systems and resources to empower performance; and using marketing‑style campaigns to promote key mental models, prime mindsets and shift behaviours

3 Enabling a culture of continuous learning

Supporting a psychologically safe environment that involves experimentation, sharing and learning from failure; and supporting campaigns and systems to highlight the how and why of continuous learning, from growth mindsets to reflective practices

4 Measuring, identifying and recognising

Underpinning L&D with data‑driven metrics that matter, taking advantage of technology to capture data on employee activities and developing analytical skills that can inform decision‑making; and using individual diagnostic tools such as micro‑credentialing to assess and recognise capability, providing robust feedback and road maps for improvement.

Designthinking

Inspired by empathyCrea�ng ecosystems

that enable performance and a

culture of con�nuous learning

Data analytics Guided by numbersMeasuring what ma�ers, delivering insights and personalised feedback loops

Impactful L&D


Introduction

Amid the rise of artificial intelligence and technology more broadly, the future of work is a topic of continued debate. While the exact elements are yet to play out, there is general agreement that, as we progress through the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we will continue to be challenged by accelerated change and disruption.

For L&D professionals, this presents both an opportunity and a call to action: an opportunity because the need to support organisations and the people in them to learn, innovate and perform at greater speeds has never been so apparent; and a call to action because many of L&D’s current practices and approaches are being shown to be inadequate, particularly in the face of contemporary challenges.

This contradiction serves as the primary motivation for the creation of this report.

While much has been and will be written about the future of work, we were driven to make sense of and identify relevant trends that will shape the

future of learning and, in turn, the future of L&D as a profession and practice.

In addition to drawing on many industry white papers, and on our experience as leading providers of learning and performance solutions working with a range of major companies, this report features and has been inspired by a number of qualitative interviews with L&D practitioners who are already organising for the future of work. It should be noted that at the request of the companies concerned, we have shared only some of our interviews in this report.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our interviewees; whether

they were featured or named in this report or not, they contributed to our thinking, findings and work. Similarly, we would like to thank our clients, whose partnerships drive our practice and learning. Finally, we must thank our wonderful colleagues at DeakinCo.—particularly our CEO, Simon Hann, who was the instigator behind this report.

For now, we thank you for viewing this report. We hope that it will contribute to your thinking and practice, and therefore to the organisations and people that you work with.

Please contact DeakinCo. to continue the discussion as we explore, learn and adapt to the future together.

A note about the Demystifying 70:20:10 white paperThis report is in a sense a sequel to a white paper that DeakinCo. (then DeakinPrime) published in 2012, entitled Demystifying 70:20:10.2 In that respect, the present report might have been called Demystifying the Future of Work, Learning and L&D.

As L&D practitioners, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our practice and share our knowledge with others, creating our own L&D peer-learning environments. This was the premise of our 2012 white paper.

The aim of that paper was to offer examples and advice from people who were already ‘walking the talk’ for others to learn from. Although released in 2012, it continues to be used as a reference guide by organisations around the world.

At that time, people were hungry for knowledge about 70:20:10, which

champions the use of experiential, on-the-job and social learning along with formal learning events. 70:20:10 was still a relatively new concept, and although it was increasingly being accepted as a comprehensive approach to L&D, there were very few resources available. In addition, some practitioners were grappling with how they could embed 70:20:10 within their own organisations, and they were cautious of the changes it would mean for their own practice.

As Charles Jennings, an inspiration for us and champion of 70:20:10, recently shared, ‘It’s a challenge for many L&D

people who, understandably, have been designing, developing and delivering away-from-work training for years’.3

Our practice, in line with industry, has advanced since this time. While 70:20:10 remains important, it is now largely an implicit framework we use when considering all elements of a learning and performance ecosystem.

Our language has also evolved, moving towards terminology such as ‘workflow learning’4, ‘performance support’ and ‘learning ecosystems’ as we engage with a variety of people from L&D and business backgrounds.

2 Kajewski, K & Madsen, V 2012, Demystifying 70:20:10, DeakinCo., https://www.deakinco.com/media-centre/article/demystifying-70-20-10.3 Jennings, C 2018, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.4 Pradhan, A 2017, ‘Reframing 70:20:10: The anatomy of workflow learning’, DeakinCo., 19 April, accessed January 2018, https://www.deakinco.com/media-centre/article/70-20-10.


Part 1

The future of work

Key trends and implications


Future of work

Change is coming at us with the greatest velocity in human history.

In the single second it took you to read that sentence, an algorithm executed 1,000 stock trades. Computers at the credit card network Visa processed over 3 million transactions, no doubt a few of them providing payment for the 17 packages that robots helped pack and ship from Amazon warehouses.5

— Heather E. McGowan, ‘Future of work: Learning to manage uncertainty’

Our world lies at the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution6, a period of rapidly developing technology that will continue to transform our work and lives. The word ‘continue’ is an important inclusion, as it is a reminder that the trends we commonly associate with the future are already making an impact today.

One indicator of this change is that half of the world’s Fortune 500 companies have disappeared since 20007, and the threat to established businesses by start-ups and new models is now a constant part of the business landscape.

In the meantime, we’ve already seen a number of examples of the expanding impact of robotics:

• In a working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo identified a seeming correlation between the arrival of a new industrial robot and an employment drop of 5.6 workers.8

• Foxconn, which supplies Apple and Samsung, replaced 60 000 factory workers with robots in 2016.9

• In an indication that job losses will not be limited to blue-collar workers, Goldman Sachs replaced 600 equity traders with software supported by 200 computer engineers.10

• The Associated Press used automated systems to generate more than 3000 stories about United States corporate earnings each quarter—though according to their self-reporting, this has only displaced jobs rather than replacing them.11 Similar initiatives have occurred with sports reporting.

There is little debate that artificial intelligence and robotics will continue to fulfil many tactical, repetitive roles—the real debate lies in how pervasive this trend will become and how many new jobs will or will not be created as a result.12

A recent meta-survey of predictions around job loss and creation by Erin Winick from the MIT Technology Review confirmed that there is no consensus about the net impact of technology on jobs.13

5 McGowan, HE & Shipley, S 2017, ‘Future of work: Learning to manage uncertainty’, LinkedIn, 28 August, accessed January 2018, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ learning-uncertainty-imperative-heather-mcgowan/.

6 Rafael Reif, L 2018, ‘A survival guide for The Fourth Industrial Revolution’, World Economic Forum, 18 January, accessed January 2018, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-a-survival-guide.

7 Nanterme, P 2016, ‘Digital disruption has only just begun’, World Economic Forum, 17 January, accessed January 2018, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/ digital-disruption-has-only-just-begun/.

8 Fitzgerald, J n.d., ‘Robots and jobs in the U.S. labor market’, National Bureau of Economic Research, accessed January 2018, http://www.nber.org/digest/may17/w23285.shtml.9 Wakefield, J 2016, ‘Foxconn replaces “60,000 factory workers with robots”’, BBC News, 25 May, accessed January 2018, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966.10 Byrnes, N 2017, ‘As Goldman embraces automation, even the masters of the universe are threatened’, MIT Technology Review, 7 February, accessed January 2018,

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603431/as-goldman-embraces-automation-even-the-masters-of-the-universe-are-threatened/.11 Madigan White, E 2015, ‘Automated earnings stories multiply’, Associated Press, 29 January, accessed January 2018, https://blog.ap.org/announcements/

automated-earnings-stories-multiply.12 The Economist 2016, ‘Automation and anxiety’, 25 June, accessed January 2018, https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21700758-will-smarter-machines-cause-

mass-unemployment-automation-and-anxiety.13 Winick, E 2018, ‘Every study we could find on what automation will do to jobs, in one chart’, MIT Technology Review, 25 January, accessed January 2018,

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610005/every-study-we-could-find-on-what-automation-will-do-to-jobs-in-one-chart/.

In a second

1000stock trades are executed by an algorithm

3Mcredit card transactions are processed

17packages are packed and shipped with the aid of robots


L&D takeaways

Upskill to work with augmented workers and data.

The rise of digital and data transformation has a multitude of implications for L&D. Two of the most pressing are:

• How can L&D practitioners embrace, encourage and support the next wave of augmented workers? This means developing a creative mindset and approach to performance support. The traditional approach involving checklists and quick reference guides still applies but it might also include collaborating with relevant parts of the business to introduce technology‑based systems, platforms and tools to support and enhance performance.

• How can L&D professionals quickly gather actionable insights from data? The rise of data represents an opportunity for L&D professionals. Rather than internal metrics around completion and attendance, our more connected technological ecosystems provide many sources of useful performance and business data that must be exploited as part of any learning and performance solution.

This should not obscure the fact that rapid change is occurring now. From an L&D perspective, we have identified four main trends that will define learning and our industry in this new period of transformation:

1. the rise of digital2. the rise of human experience3. the rise of ‘human’ skills4. the rise of agility.

The rise of digital A recent white paper by the World Economic Forum outlining key technology trends identified five main disruptive technologies:

1. the internet of things—in which technologies evolve and blend

2. artificial intelligence—which is allowing analysis to catch up with and truly leverage the immense amount of data we have begun to capture

3. advanced robotics—including a shift from isolated, cumbersome machines to machines that work alongside humans

4. enterprise wearables—which can involve virtual or augmented reality and are becoming accepted performance support devices

5. 3D printing—which has revolutionised traditional production processes, particularly with the advent of metal 3D printing.14

Each of these technologies is potentially transformative in its own right, and all are already coming to bear in complex combinations. The exact impact of this technological cocktail is a matter of much speculation but we are able to identify some growing implications.

14 World Economic Forum 2017, Technology and Innovation for the Future of Production: Accelerating Value Creation, accessed January 2018, http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_White_Paper_Technology_Innovation_Future_of_Production_2017.pdf.

15 Wuest, T, Romero, D & Stahre, J 2017, ‘Introducing “Operator 4.0”, a tech-augmented human worker’, The Conversation, 19 April, accessed January 2018, http://theconversation.com/introducing-operator-4-0-a-tech-augmented-human-worker-74117.

16 The Economist 2017, ‘Data is giving rise to a new economy’, 6 May, accessed January 2018, https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21721634-how-it-shaping-up-data-giving-rise-new-economy.

The first is that the continued development of technology, in addition to its positive or negative impact on the numbers of jobs available, will continue to change the way we work. The Associated Press example cited previously has, according to the organisation, led to staff being freed up for more high-value tasks.

In other contexts, the rise of more developed tools and systems means that workers are required to radically change the way they work as they are increasingly augmented by robotics and technology.

Writing in The Conversation, three academics in the field of manufacturing and engineering recently outlined their optimistic vision for ‘tech-augmented human workers’:

Human work will become more versatile and creative. Robots and people will work more closely together than ever before. People will use their unique abilities to innovate, collaborate and adapt to new situations.15

Another key implication of the rise of digital is the rise of data. More pervasive underpinning technologies will continue to provide a multitude of data points, enabling the rise of data-driven decision-making. A compelling briefing by The Economist entitled ‘Data is giving rise to a new economy’ made the following point:

Data are to this century what oil was to the last one: a driver of growth and change. Flows of data have created new infrastructure, new businesses, new monopolies, new politics and—crucially—new economics.16


L&D takeaways

Consider end-to-end employee experiences.

Effective customer‑centric solutions can only be delivered via a parallel focus on employee experience.18 Workers, like consumers, have increasingly high expectations that they are more than willing to share and act on.

Similar to the customer‑centric conversation, supporting a positive employee experience must consider the full end‑to‑end process, from attraction through recruitment, onboarding, development and offboarding.

The high‑level logical flow is simple: to remain relevant in an age of technology, businesses must focus on delivering end‑to‑end, customer‑centric experiences. To achieve customer‑centric solutions, businesses must enable powerful end‑to‑end employee experiences—and to achieve this, traditional divisions between L&D and other human resources (HR) and business functions will become greyer.

This ultimately means that L&D practitioners will have to break out of traditional silos and areas of demarcation and be part of broad teams that take a holistic view of the employee experience. This will likely involve embracing design thinking and human‑centred principles for more effective experiential design.

17 Grothaus, M 2017, ‘United Airlines has a social media nightmare on its hands’, Fast Company, 11 April, accessed January 2018, https://www.fastcompany.com/4034462/ united-airlines-has-a-social-media-nightmare-on-its-hands.

18 Temkin, B 2016, ‘Report: Employee Engagement Benchmark Study, 2016’, 16 February, accessed January 2018, Customer Experience Matters, https://experiencematters.blog/2016/02/16/report-employee-engagement-benchmark-study-2016/.

The rise of human experiencesIt is slightly ironic that in parallel with, and in part because of, the rapid development of technology, the world has seen a greater emphasis on the ‘human experience’.

Technology has enabled greater networks with unprecedented access to communication, information and data—all of which enable empowered customers who are willing to change loyalties, share peer reviews and exercise their consumer power. The impact of this was discovered to the horror of United Airlines during its media disasters of 2017.17

The flip side of social media scandals is the business trend towards customer-centricity. It is no longer enough to deliver a strong product. Now, consumers expect, and even demand, high-quality and seamless end-to-end experiences.

To achieve this, businesses are investing in developing and recognising the nuanced skills of empathy and communication required to uncover stated and unstated customer needs, particularly using processes such as design thinking.

The internet of things

3Dprinting

Advanced robotics

Enterprise wearables

Artificial intelligence

Top five disruptive technologies

Figure 2: Top five disruptive technologiesSource: Based on data from World Economic Forum (2017)


The rise of human and higher-order skillsThe extent and impact of the augmented worker is yet to be seen, but it is clear that lower-order thinking and repetitive tasks will be the first to be automated. In this light, workers looking to futureproof themselves are being pushed to higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, being required to apply higher-order thinking and emotional intelligence to greater and more diverse problems.

Concretely, the increased emphasis on human experience requires a greater focus on the complex skills required to uncover, understand and creatively meet needs. Currently, organisations committed to customer experience are struggling to recruit and develop employees with greater levels of empathy, communication and emotional intelligence capabilities. This trend was well documented in the 2017 Deloitte Access Economics report Soft Skills for Business Success19, which was commissioned by DeakinCo.

Among other statistics, the report found that soft skill intensive jobs will grow 2.5 times faster than other jobs and will make up 63 per cent of all jobs by 2030.

L&D takeaways

Enable stretch experiences and collaboration to help develop higher-order thinking and tacit skills.

Today, L&D practitioners are often most concerned with formal training opportunities that lend themselves to explicit knowledge transfer.

With the continued rise of automation, artificial intelligence and augmented workers, such knowledge is increasingly likely to be accessed just in time via performance support systems, if at all. At the same time, the emergence of customer experience as a central business focus will demand a greater emphasis on complex, higher‑order thinking and soft skills.

Such skills inherently tend to be more tacit—that is, they cannot be easily or explicitly explained, nor easily transferred through formal training. Instead, tacit and complex skills are more effectively developed through a cycle of mentoring, collaboration, experience and reflection.20

In that context, rather than just investing in traditional training, L&D professionals will be charged with supporting collaborative learning teams; enabling knowledge sharing; and encouraging opportunities for stretch experiences.

19 Deloitte Access Economics 2017, Soft Skills for Business Success, accessed February 2018, https://www.deakinco.com/soft-skills-for-business-success.20 Smith, MK 2008, ‘Informal learning: Theory, practice and experience’, infed, accessed February 2018, http://infed.org/mobi/informal-learning-theory-practice-and-experience.


The rise of agilityAlong with the realignment of skills has come an increase in the volatility and pace with which such skills need to be adopted and applied.

As Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, noted, ‘If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near’.21

This warning is relevant for organisations, teams and individuals, all of whom must contend with the increased speed of change around them. In this context, the need to quickly learn to learn and unlearn has never been so apparent.

People and organisations are increasingly being thrown into challenging and unfamiliar contexts and expected to experiment, innovate and adapt their way to success. Further, they are required to achieve this at speed to ensure they are not being left behind in a highly competitive marketplace.

L&D takeaways

Rapid change demands a user-centered culture of continuous learning.

The speed of technology‑led transformation in the external environment means that organisations must prepare for ongoing and unpredictable change. Rather than being viewed as an event, or even a series of events, learning must be embraced as a dynamic and continuous process of learning, experimenting, sense‑making, reflecting and unlearning.

In that respect, set curriculums will have a shorter and shorter half‑life as L&D professions focus on helping to enable a user‑led culture of continuous learning.

21 Welch, J 2000, 2000 GE Annual Report, https://www.ge.com/annual00/download/images/GEannual00.pdf.22 Madsen, V 2017, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.

Example in action

St Barbara: Building an agile and human-centred workforce

It’s not enough to simply talk about innovation. We must support our workforce to develop the skills and reward it.22

— Val Madsen, General Manager Human Resources, St Barbara

At St Barbara, an Asia-Pacific gold producer and explorer, leaders are concurrently preparing their company for ongoing changes in the external environment and taking a human-centred approach to development.

Trucks, loaders and drills can now be operated remotely or automatically, and as computers and robotics continue to progress, it is expected that more roles will be replaced or disappear completely. While automation is in some cases replacing human mining operators, it is also creating new, previously unknown roles. To prepare for these ongoing changes, St Barbara are focusing on building an agile workforce. The company’s leadership program now focuses on innovating, adapting and problem-solving.

St Barbara have deliberately repositioned their leadership programs to provide hands-on, practical development opportunities. An example of this is the development of learning simulations that feature real work problems. Leaders are encouraged to experiment with problems they are genuinely encountering on the job and provided with coaching support to encourage reflection and the ability to learn from experiences.

Formal learning activities now use a leader-as-teacher approach, and leaders take an active role in encouraging their teams to apply learning on the job. An example of this is the annual Innovation Award presented by the CEO. One recently awarded innovation is estimated to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of one mine by 5000 tonnes and save $2.7 million in energy costs per year.


Part 2

The future of learning

Skills and strategies learning and

development (L&D)



L&D’s performance gap

The previous section outlined the rapid change in our world that is transforming the way we work and live, and pointed to key considerations facing L&D professionals. Before we deep-dive into those implications, let’s take a moment to consider the current state of our industry and learning as a practice in organisations.

The LinkedIn 2017 Workplace Learning Report confirmed, not surprisingly, that business impact is the measure most desired by CEOs from their L&D departments.23 Alarmingly, according to the same report only 8 per cent of CEOs currently see the business impact of L&D.

Towards Maturity’s latest benchmark research report, L&D: Where Are We Now?, uncovered similar issues.24 This comprehensive survey revealed that the top four priorities for L&D in companies in 2017 were:

1. ‘improve organisational performance’2. ‘increase productivity’3. ‘increase learning access

and flexibility’4. ‘increase self-directed learning’.25

While 46 per cent of those surveyed believe that they were successful in improving efficiency, only 24 per cent surveyed believed that they successfully cultivated greater agility in their organisations and only 19 per cent successfully shifted organisational culture.

Such concerning statistics were mirrored in Donald H Taylor’s L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2017.26 Taylor’s popular survey identified the need for L&D professionals to show value and consult more deeply within the business as a rising priority. However, the report suggested that the skills to do this are often absent from L&D teams.

Another significant L&D report in 2017 was Bersin’s The High-Impact Learning Organization Maturity Model.27 Bersin’s survey of 1200 global organisations showed that 74 per cent of organisations focus on the first two levels of their model—delivering episodic and responsive training.

A further 20 per cent focus on incorporating talent development as a core competency of management and measurement performance indicators. And only 6 per cent are what Bersin calls ‘anticipatory’, where business executives and employees are committed to continuous learning (formal and informal).

All of these reports reflect the long-term problem of L&D practitioners being positioned as ‘order-takers for training’. In our interviews and experience, narrow requests and expectations by business stakeholders for formal training (both elearning and face-to-face) represent a key frustration for L&D professionals wanting to partner and deepen their impact in the business.

Now, with the rate of accelerated change and associated demands, L&D professionals are increasingly feeling the limits of being cast as order-takers. In other words, the gap between business and individual needs and what L&D can deliver through formal event-based training has never been so stark, and it is only going to become more apparent as the trends we have outlined continue to develop.

L&D takeaways

The shift from order-takers to business partners remains a central challenge.

That issues of demonstrating value were highlighted, albeit in different forms, in four of the most significant L&D‑themed surveys of 2017 is a fact that cannot be ignored. It points to a growing gap between the need for L&D to support performance in a high-pressure and volatile business environment, and what is often a limited actual impact on the business.

There are many aspects that must be considered in addressing this challenge, but one of the key takeaways that forms the basis of this report is the importance of shifting L&D teams from order-takers, who build and deliver event-based training, to business partners, who pursue a variety of strategies to add value and help realise organisational goals.

At a strategic level, L&D professionals who are true business partners use performance consulting skills to identify root causes and leverage a diverse toolkit to develop solutions. At a more basic level, it might involve having consistent formal and informal meetings with key business stakeholders; putting an end to self‑referential terminology and measurements; and collaborating with appropriate teams to access, analyse and act on organisational data.

23 LinkedIn 2017, 2017 Workplace Learning Report, accessed February 2018, https://learning.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/learning/en-us/pdfs/lil-workplace-learning-report.pdf.24 Towards Maturity 2017, L&D: Where Are We Now?, accessed February 2018, http://www.towardsmaturity.org/learningtoday2017.25 Towards Maturity 2017, L&D: Where Are We Now?, accessed February 2018, http://www.towardsmaturity.org/learningtoday2017.26 Taylor, DH 2017, L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2017, accessed February 2018, http://donaldhtaylor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/GSS-2017-V6-print-optimized.pdf.27 Bersin by Deloitte 2017, The High-Impact Learning Organization Maturity Model, Oakland, USA.


In action at DeakinCo.

Developing ‘workplace scientists’ to draw actionable insights from data

In a performance-centric environment, data is the key to supporting reflection, personalisation and measurement, and a well-defined data strategy (along with the right people to execute it) is the cornerstone to success.

— Cameron Hodkinson, Product Manager and UX Lead, DeakinCo.

Surprisingly, the first step in making effective use of data isn’t to talk about data. It’s to establish business value. As Hodkinson explains, ‘We take a business-first approach to data, working with key stakeholders to understand the most valuable outcomes to measure and in what context they occur’.

In some instances, this might involve drawing data from diverse sources such as customer relationship management or HR systems, or more commonly using xAPI, a universal data specification that is gaining uptake in the L&D industry.

This approach is highlighted by our work with CPA, where an xAPI implementation facilitates a number of individual and organisational measures and analytic activities. For employees, a rich set of outcome, capability and preference data supports reflective practice, competition and personalisation. For the organisation, this data is combined with data from real-world outcomes to measure the success and impact of programs and assets, as well as the potential/actual capability of various cohorts.

Interestingly, for us and many of our clients, the technical aspects of data gathering has not been the largest hurdle. Rather, the fundamental change is the required mindset shift of our consultants, designers and clients who must develop into ‘workplace scientists’ who constantly investigate ways to test assumptions and ‘measure what matters’ with relevant data sources.

This ultimately requires using design thinking and performance consulting skills with an underlying ‘data mindset’ to seek out and test possible causal relationships that enable performance.

We have identified four priority areas that will support L&D professionals to continue the transformation from order-takers to business partners.

These factors, outlined in Figure 3, will enable performance outcomes and therefore organisational goals. More than that, they will support the key themes, from the need for skills to the rise of experience, as identified in the ‘Future of work’ section.

These strategies cannot be implemented by L&D practitioners alone, and in some cases they might lead to friction with other parts of the business as new boundaries and habits of engagement are established.

Developing new, more flexible boundaries and definitions will be a necessary part of breaking L&D out of its training silo; promoting the attitude that learning is everyone’s business; and positioning L&D professionals as integrated business partners who

enable performance rather than simply delivering training.

Now, let’s look at each of the four aspects identified in Figure 3 in more detail.

1. Measuring, identifying and recognisingEnabling performance and a culture of continuous learning involves identifying current abilities and gaps, then providing specific and personalised recommendations and pathways for workers to develop using a myriad of resources both internal and external to the organisation.

Effective personalisation requires accurate metrics around an individual’s

current capability, which can be cross-checked against requirements for new roles. Such feedback is crucial for individuals, teams and organisations to develop a shared reality of the current state and be able to target areas for development as required.

Deakin University has been at the forefront of using artificial intelligence to support such personalised learning, having partnered with IBM to deliver a Watson-powered student experience.28 More recently, this has developed into an ambitious project called Genie, which combines chatbots, artificial intelligence, voice recognition and predictive analytics.29

While such initiatives show great promise, it is also clear that artificial intelligence and chatbots have not yet

28 Deakin University 2015, ‘IBM Watson helps Deakin drive the digital frontier’, media release, 25 November, accessed February 2018, http://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/media-releases/articles/ibm-watson-helps-deakin-drive-the-digital-frontier.

29 Coyne, A 2017, ‘Meet Genie, Deakin Uni’s virtual assistant for students’, iTnews, 3 March, accessed February 2018, https://www.itnews.com.au/news/meet-genie-deakin-unis-virtual-assistant-for-students-453230.

30 Waters, R 2016, ‘Overhyped bots not quite ready for service’, Financial Times, 16 September, accessed February 2018, https://www.ft.com/content/324013ce-7b57-11e6-ae24-f193b105145e.

Four strategies for L&D


31 Dunford, T 2018, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.

Figure 3: Four high-impact areas for L&D professionals to help enable the future of work

Source: DeakinCo. 2017

Measuring, identifying and recognising

Measuring, identifying and recognising

Solving performance

challenges

Enabling a culture of

continuous learning

Creating experiences

and campaigns

matured to the level required to be truly transformative in the learning space.30

A more practical and realisable application of emerging technology lies in access to more data points as digital platforms and interactions now underpin most activity. The data standard xAPI is becoming dominant in the learning and performance industry, although practical uptake is still in its early days.

The growing adoption of xAPI presents a standardised approach to expand measurement beyond traditional completion and reaction metrics. Instead, activities can be measured with the potential to identify experiences and resources that contribute to high performance in a particular role.

Incorporating a learning record store (LRS) to gather xAPI data from multiple sources represents the opportunity to design and measure end-to-end experiences. For example, data points could include traditional elearning consumption as well as the use of resources; contributions to social networks; activities in project work; manager

Example in action

Westpac: Curation, micro-credentials and continuous learning to develop skills for life

We’re making a bet on a number of skills that we believe will be meaningful in 2025, and that will be meaningful for both Westpac and individuals. It comes from an understanding that the world is changing, so we have to empower our people in and outside of Westpac. That means the conversation is about ‘skills for life’.31

— Tony Dunford, Head of Enterprise and Portfolio Learning, Westpac

Westpac continues to develop a range of required technical skills within their people, but their commitment to ‘skills for life’ has also seen an emphasis on portable skills such as resilience, social intelligence, virtual collaboration and adaptive thinking.

To achieve this, Dunford explains that Westpac aim to help people ‘learn at work the way they learn at home’. Specifically, Westpac has embraced the principle of ‘learn/teach/share’, which allows people to access the learning they need, when they need it, to the level they need it.

LearningBank, one of the platforms that helps enable this, supports user-generated content and accessing ‘playlists rather than fixed pathways’, allowing a flexible experience.

Westpac is also piloting Deakin University’s micro-credentialing model. Dunford points out that these micro-credentials ‘are portable, and we think it’s the most transparent recognition of your ability to apply those skills on the job that we’ve seen’.

Recognition of these skills for life is seen as a win-win, ‘helping staff to dissect skills they have and need, highlighting the universal skills behind any particular job role, and providing the organisation with a skills inventory that we can access more effectively’.


feedback; and articles and browsing content. Such inputs could be tracked against performance results to identify correlations and generate informed recommendations.

Another important development in the area of measurement and recognition is the advent of micro-credentials.

Micro-credentials represent the opportunity to apply a robust and benchmarked assessment to what a person is actually capable of, particularly when it comes to the soft skills that were previously identified in this report as in-demand skills.

This approach runs counter to most assessments, which examine what people know—or worse, what courses they have completed on a topic. For more background on this issue, refer to Appendix 1, ‘What gets measured gets managed’.

In her paper Better 21C Credentials: Evaluating the Promise, Perils and Disruptive Potential of Digital Credentials, Deakin University’s Beverly Oliver describes digital micro-credentials as being:

• ‘granular’—they focus on demonstrated skills rather than marks or course attendance

• ‘stackable’—they can be added to digital repositories and mapped to further qualifications

• ‘evidentiary’—they are able to point directly to the evidence as an ongoing reference

• ‘personalised’—they can provide individual feedback about skills

• ‘machine-readable’—if open technology standards are used, they can enable analytics and other data points.32

For workers, micro-credentials represent the opportunity to share a third-party-verified assessment of their actual capabilities with prospective employers. Micro-credentials also allow workers to gain a greater understanding of their own experiences, the learning that they have gained and potential areas for improvement.

For employers, micro-credentials provide the opportunity to adopt a data-driven approach to constructing appropriate teams with the required skills for a particular job. This will become particularly relevant with the move to agile organisational structures, where managers must draw together cross-functional, short-lived project teams.

L&D takeaways

The rise of technology and data externally is impacting L&D internally. L&D practitioners can take advantage of this trend by leveraging xAPI as the dominant standard within the industry to identify and provide actionable performance data.

In addition, the growing trend towards robustly assessed micro‑credentials provides an opportunity for organisations and individuals to gain deeper insights into their capabilities and road maps for further development.

32 Oliver, B 2016, Better 21C Credentials: Evaluating the Promise, Perils and Disruptive Potential of Digital Credentials, accessed February 2018, http://www.acdict.edu.au/documents/Oliver-better_21c_credentials_final.pdf.

33 Hardy, Q 2016, ‘Gearing up for the cloud, AT&T tells its workers: adapt, or else’, New York Times, 13 February, accessed February 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/technology/gearing-up-for-the-cloud-att-tells-its-workers-adapt-or-else.html.

34 Donovan, J & Benko, C 2016, ‘AT&T’s talent overhaul’, Harvard Business Review, accessed February 2018, https://hbr.org/2016/10/atts-talent-overhaul.

Example in action

AT&T: Diagnostic tools, credentials and new career paths

There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop … [People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning] will obsolete themselves with the technology.33

— Randall Stephenson, Chairman and Chief Executive, AT&T

Randall Stephenson has become well known for taking AT&T into a diverse range of new businesses, including wireless technology and satellite television, in an attempt to stay ahead of disruption in the telecommunications industry. His demand that employees ‘retool’ themselves was followed through with a major talent program that, according to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, cost $250 million since 2013 and has resulted in 140 000 employees working to acquire skills for newly created roles.34

To support the massive and rapid change, AT&T is providing employees with:

• a career profile tool for assessing current competencies, business experience and credentials, including the ability to click on jobs available and compare skill sets required

• a career intelligence tool, which analyses hiring trends and expected salary ranges

• online content through partnerships with major content providers

• credentialing opportunities, including accredited pathways to master’s degree levels.


Mo�va�on

Incen�vesRecogni�on

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Skills

Capability

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Opportunity

Direc�on

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Organisa�on structureTeams and collabora�on

Environment

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Hardware/so�wareChecklists

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Learning

Performance

2. Solving performance challengesFuture performance challenges are likely to present in a range of familiar ways. For example, issues might arise in employee engagement, sales or customer feedback. A key shift at this moment is to reposition L&D teams as partners and problem-solvers rather than order-takers.

In practical terms, this means further developing performance-consulting skills to engage with the business and uncover root causes through a consultation or investigative process.

Performance consulting involves transcending the usual parameters of L&D, taking a broad view of performance and the factors that enable it.

This approach views learning as a means to an end—the end in this case being to empower people with new capabilities so they can help their organisation realise its goals. Further, it acknowledges that learning is only one of several possible factors that influence workplace performance, as captured in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Putting learning in perspective factors influencing performanceSource: Arun Pradhan 2017

Example in action

A Victorian government authority: L&D using data analysis to create targeted learning and performance

A Victorian government authority reimagined learning and development.

As the role of L&D in the organisation became to build learning capability aligned to strategy, the learning team took on a new people-centred approach, focusing on becoming ‘super-connectors’ who find and connect expertise to change the way knowledge management flows within the business.

This was achieved with a three-pronged approach. The L&D team’s first focus was on building trust and relationships across business areas to facilitate the sharing of insights and lessons learned. The second focus was the creation of an insights team who would use data analysis to align learning and performance interventions with identified insights and spikes. The third was implementing strong governance and rewards for sharing expertise within the business.


Identifying the root cause behind an issue requires performance consulting skills where L&D professionals consult and investigate into the business. A key process here is the use of design thinking, particular in its ability to help reframe problems from a place of empathy for the audience group.

Once the underlying issues behind the problem have been identified, the performance consultants would assemble a ‘SWAT team’, or cross-functional group.

This group would draw on the L&D team, the business and externals to pull together the required skills and experiences to address the problem. The team would be required to quickly collaborate and co-design as the problem was further explored, reframed and solved. This process is captured at a high level in Figure 5.

The example shown as Figure 5 describes a reactive model that begins with a problem. However, particularly when combined with improved data analytics, this approach could also be employed proactively. For example, a performance consultant or team could identify areas of potential improvement based on data and current business priorities before recommending areas of investigation and improvement.

L&D takeaways

Design thinking and access to cross-functional groups across the organisation can drive a performance-consulting model.

A performance‑consulting model is one of the most useful starting points for L&D to move towards a holistic and futureproof approach. While many organisations aspire to this, the skills required to achieve it successfully are often lacking.

For example, an ideal process will uncover (generally unstated) underlying needs, along with a variety of possible solutions that might include systems, incentive programs or other factors that are outside of traditional L&D. Even if a process is followed, without the required skills it’s likely to be reduced to a slightly more thorough discovery process that leads to a traditional training solution—even if that wasn’t the most high‑impact factor at play.

An effective performance‑consulting model requires high levels of empathy and communication, and a broad understanding of performance beyond learning. In particular, it demands many of the mindsets, skills and approaches found in design thinking and human‑centred design models.

Human centric and co-design approach

Technology enabled and data driven

Define the problem1 Assemble the

solution team2 Deploy and execute3

Figure 5: An example performance-consulting processSource: DeakinCo. 2017

Example in action

An FMCG: Performance consulting for the business

The Capability team at a prominent Australian FMCG are continuously connecting their activity to marketplace results. When the Capability team reviewed sales results, they found that successfully applying their recommended selling model did not always correlate to overall sales success. Further investigation revealed that high performers had additional business skills, like commercial acumen, and that these soft skills were equally important as predictors to success.

Taking a performance-consulting approach, the Capability team were able to identify the critical skills that best support the sales team’s success. They helped to move sales performance indicators from solely measuring tasks to measuring broader business KPIs that drive sales outcomes. This has put the customer at the heart of decision-making and enables more rounded coaching conversations from sales leaders.


35 Slingo, R 2018, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.

Example in action

Australia Post: Research, data and design thinking

We need to shift from the perception that learning is only created and delivered by the L&D team to one where it’s a shared responsibility for individuals, leaders and the L&D team, which combine to create an ethos of continuous learning.35

— Rebecca Slingo, Head of Learning and Development, Australia Post

Australia Post is using research and data as the foundation for learning strategy and testing results with a design thinking approach.

The Post Office Network is one of Australia Post’s core business units. Last year, the organisation employed a team of ethnographers to work with employees across the Post Office Network to better understand how they learn and communicate within the context of their roles.

The ethnographers found that Post Office Network employees wanted to be connected to relevant contextual information, and they

wanted to share that knowledge. In addition, the report gave a clearer view of the complex challenges this group experiences, which has helped to underpin the future learning strategy. These challenges include geographic disbursement; the range of business models in place (corporate-owned versus licensed post offices); and varying access to and capability with technology.

The L&D team validated the report results through user experience (UX) artefacts, including a cast of six authentic personas and three user stories illustrated in journey maps. Three key concepts emerged from the research:

• the need to be connected to information that enables excellent and effective customer service in the moment

• the need for contextual information and learning that suits overall requirements

• the desire to contribute to customer outcomes and outlet success.

Based on the validated results, the first stage of the L&D strategy is focusing on two outcomes:

• moving from ‘me to we’. The L&D team is seeking to encourage a mindset shift from ‘Give me the tools and tell me what to do’ to ‘What can I contribute to my colleagues or the business?’. They aim to create a collaborative mindset where leaders and individuals focus on what they can contribute to colleagues and the business.

• improving digital capability and culture. People will need to know how to interact with others, share information and understand relevance. Technology will be used to underpin this process.

The L&D team are taking it one step at a time. Their first priority is designing for participation by recognising people’s mindsets and capability. This has included starting with low-tech delivery methods, such as interactive PDFs, and emphasising the value of knowledge-sharing and micro-coaching as the foundation for building a learning ecosystem.


3. Creating experiences and campaignsBeyond addressing particular performance challenges, organisations will continue to face business-as-usual learning and training requirements, including—but not restricted to—induction, leadership and compliance.

When considering what this will look like moving forward, it’s important to take an evidence-based approach to effective learning. Evidence consistently points to the limits of isolated learning events—whether elearning modules or face-to-face sessions—which are susceptible to the well-established forgetting curve. By contrast, the practice of spacing out learning to embed memories is one of the most evidence-based methods available.36

Rather than focusing on explicit knowledge, employees embracing the future of work need to adopt higher-order thinking and complex skills. Such tacit skills are particularly developed through the process of collaborative experience, consistent feedback, deliberate practice and reflection.37

As such, the challenge lies in enabling learning experiences that provide opportunities to embed concepts, explore case studies, apply learning, receive on-the-job guidance and feedback, collaborate, reflect and work on stretch projects.


Taking performance consulting to the next level with design thinking

We turned to co-design and design thinking to better empathise with and understand our audience, their context and workflow. After all, if we want to help performance and learning from and in their workflow, we really need to understand what we’re working with.

— Arun Pradhan, Learning and Performance Strategist, DeakinCo.

DeakinCo.’s beginnings in design thinking came years ago after a large 70:20:10-inspired solution was not as successful as we hoped. Despite being assured by project stakeholders that managers would engage in certain ways, and that workplace routines would allow for certain behaviours, it simply didn’t happen.

From that point we began to leverage design thinking to deeply understand our audience and their needs. The fundamental change in

our approach has been the level of audience participation via interviews and focus groups, and actually being in the room as we conduct an engaging co-design process.

Perhaps one of the most telling impacts came when a bank requested nine elearning modules for compliance training for financial brokers. The resultant co-design process led us to reframe the problem, asking how can we support our audience to sell more effectively, while embracing compliance requirements. The solution, which rolled out to over 5000 brokers, consisted of a sales platform that they used at point-of-sale.

Rather than telling them how to be compliant, using the tool helped them add value (providing calculators and other opportunities at appropriate moments), and was inherently compliant, by displaying required information at key decision points.

In other projects design thinking has helped us to better understand and reframe the

initial problem. We recently worked with an organisation that initially presented with a ‘skills’ issue for a systems rollout. Using design thinking, we helped the organisation to take a broader view of the problem and discovered there was also a need for a change program. This enabled us to focus on both learning how to use the new system as well as the mindset and motivation for organisational change.

Using design thinking with another large organisation revealed that the success of their development program would be greatly impacted by the support of the participants’ managers. Through focus groups and testing personas we developed a better understanding of the audience and the problem statement. The resulting program was a blended learning solution; but it was not just about the learning content—it also encouraged manager support through a targeted holistic learning campaign based on the insights we had gained into the partipant and manager needs.

36 Kang, SHK 2016, ‘Spaced repetition promotes efficient and effective learning: Policy implications for instruction’, Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 12–19, accessed February 2018, https://doi.org/www.1177/2372732215624708.

37 Smith, MK 2008, ‘Informal learning: Theory, practice and experience’, infed, accessed February 2018, http://infed.org/mobi/informal-learning-theory-practice-and-experience.


38 Pradhan, A 2016, ‘Design thinking for learning innovation: A practical guide’, LinkedIn, 23 October, accessed February 2018, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ design-thinking-learning-innovation-practical-guide-arun-pradhan.

39 Bersin, J 2018, ‘Prediction 1: Agile organization models will start to go mainstream’, Bersin by Deloitte, 16 January, accessed February 2018, http://blog.bersin.com/ prediction-1-agile-organization-models-will-start-to-go-mainstream/.

40 Buhagiar, K 2018, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.

This involves integrating L&D with the organisation and learning into the workflow.

We are not suggesting that L&D functions must decentralise (or centralise); rather, the integration we are referring to requires a deeper understanding and engagement with organisational stakeholders to understand their goals and challenges.

Similarly, integrating learning into the workflow rather than demanding that people attend a separate training event requires a deep understanding of the audience, their context and their needs. One of the most effective ways to explore this is by using a process of design thinking and co-design.38

Rather than defining fixed moments, in developing experiences a design thinking process generally considers ecosystems and potential journeys through them. Such ecosystems are multifaceted, as shown in Figure 6.

Some key elements of note include the importance of L&D professionals enabling:• collaborative opportunities with

diverse teams and team members, including coaches and mentors

• resources that can be pulled by workers into their workflow at the point of need; this often includes

L&D takeaways

Develop impactful ecosystems and campaigns that enable and encourage a high-performance workflow.

Designing for experiences means using design‑thinking and consulting skills to become architects of high‑performing ecosystems. Such ecosystems must aim to provide increased opportunities and decreased blocks for workers to perform, utilising people, systems and resources. This links into broader factors that might previously have been considered ‘out of scope’ for L&D.

Beyond this, marketing‑style campaigns will help shift mindsets and change the way people engage with these ecosystems.

‘micro-learning’, or the use of learning assets (both curated and created) that are chunked for convenient, flexible and targeted consumption

• job aids and performance support that does away with the need for learning, instead providing guidance in the workflow to get the job done

• systems and processes—though traditionally out of scope, this is particularly relevant with the rise of agile organisational models39

• the opportunity for stretch projects and experimentation in the workflow.

These experiences will be integrated into the workflow, and access to resources will compete with countless daily pressures. As a result, many experiences will require a campaign element to prime the audience, grab attention and help shift mindsets.

Some elements of campaigns include:• an alignment with overall project and

organisational goals• unique, attention-grabbing branding• the use of storytelling and narrative• the development of key WIIFM (what’s

in it for me) messaging targeted at different audience sectors

• a multi-channel approach that particularly leverages existing social media and collaborative platform habits.

Example in action

MinterEllison: Integrating learning and removing restrictions

Not everyone has the imagination to think beyond a training solution at the moment, so 70:20:10 is helping break down these barriers.40

— Kirstyn Buhagiar, Talent Development Manager, MinterEllison

At MinterEllison, the days of an annual calendar with multiple courses are long gone. As a leading professional services firm, MinterEllison recognises that people can easily access great resources online or through their own networks. The key to effective development and lifelong learning is understanding the relevant learning context and translating that learning to meet individual development needs.

The L&D team has refocused to create a learning culture through integrating learning into workflow and creating the conditions for continuous learning.

Some formal learning programs remain, but they are now sharply focused milestone programs aligned to strategy and career transition points. Employee expectations are high. The motivation to participate rests on L&D professionals’ ability to demonstrate value through alignment with critical business needs, creating peer connections and measurable outcomes.

A continuous learning culture has been facilitated by both integrating learning and removing restrictions on it:

• Performance development has moved from an annual review to regular check-ins, and it is focused on development goals and lessons learned using a series of reflective questions.

• The career framework is now supported by 70:20:10 guides that outline the range of learning and support tools available for employees’ self-directed development.

• The L&D team continues to set the learning framework and strategy but nurtures an organisation-wide learning culture where self-initiated and team-based learning activities are common.


Environment

Workflowexperience

Developingknow how

(tacit knowledge and skills)know who(collaborative networks)

Developing

Developing mindset and mental modelsReflecting and abstracting

Experimenting

Stretch and actionlearning projects

Taking action

Form

al

Info

rmal

Courses

Learning resources

Job aids

Pointof need

Pointof need

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Project focus

Concept focus

Project team

Coach

Mentor

Community of practice

Influencers

Continuous learning

Resources People

Systemsand processes

Talent management

Digitalinfrastructure

Culture

Figure 6: Learning in a high-performance ecosystem41

Source: Arun Pradhan 2017

41 Adapted from Pradhan, A 2017, ‘Learning in a high performance ecosystem’, LinkedIn, 3 May, accessed February 2018, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ learning-high-performance-ecosystem-arun-pradhan/.


4. Enabling a culture of continuous learningThe ‘Future of work’ section of this report described a world where workers and organisations must rapidly arm themselves for constant change in order to deliver experiences that better meet their customer needs, faster than their competition.

In addition, it’s a world that is increasingly underpinned by technology and data, which workers are expected to understand and leverage to better collaborate, problem-solve and innovate.

At its most fundamental, learning today and in the future must deliver value, fast. Rather than simply generating content and training, organisations must embrace techniques that empower and enable the conditions for learning.

These issues hark back to the same principles that Peter Senge raised in his seminal work The Fifth Discipline as far back as 1990.42 There are a surprising number of similarities with the issues that Senge and others came to terms with decades ago, and there are unfamiliar aspects—particularly the rate of change required.

The question remains:

How can we enable organisations and the people within them to learn continuously, at speed?

Part of this includes supporting learning in and from the workflow by developing a culture of continuous learning that values reflection; learning from failure; and continuous feedback and improvement such as coaching, mentoring and other social learning opportunities. It also includes arming people with the mindset, behaviours and techniques that they need to adequately learn to learn.

Importantly, it includes accepting that L&D professionals do not own learning but rather enable it, and in turn promoting user-generated content and peer-based knowledge-sharing and storytelling to support an autonomous culture of learning.

42 Senge, PM 1990, The Fifth Discipline, Currency, New York, USA.43 Stevens, L 2016, ‘How Amazon gets its holiday hires up to speed in two days’, 28 November, Wall Street Journal, accessed February 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/

amazon-leans-on-technology-to-speed-training-of-holiday-workers-1480329005.44 FMCG Capability Leader 2018, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.

Example in action

Empowering learning in the workflow

The aim of learning and development is to support relevant things that happen to people in their roles. Our job is to help them in the reality of their roles.44

— FMCG Capability Leader

An FMCG company is facing changes in their marketplace, which is changing how they approach learning. Salespeople are under time pressure and also need to constantly stay up to date with process changes and what is happening in the market.

The Capability team supports a 70:20:10 philosophy and recognises a need to make learning immediate, valuable and easy to apply when faced with the reality of

competing needs. As a result, they have focused on performance support and driven a culture of personal ownership of learning.

For sales teams, most formal learning now occurs within sales meetings and is focused on working within current market conditions. At each meeting, leaders include learning that is related to what is happening in the marketplace that month and discuss how the conditions will enable them and how to meet any challenges. The Capability team also support leaders to develop leader-as-teacher skills. They provide recommended session plans with key learning points while also empowering leaders to flex the plans to tackle learning in the most authentic way for their teams.

Example in action

Amazon: A high-tech performance ecosystem

What is the technology that can set an employee up as efficiently and as safely as possible?43

— John Olsen, Vice President of Human Resources, Amazon

With 26 new warehouses in 2016, Amazon plans to hire around 120 000 seasonal workers annually. By adopting robots, touch screens, scanners and other technologies, Amazon has reduced their six-week training program to two days.

They have achieved this by focusing on performance support and cutting down the amount of up-front learning that is required. The augmented environment includes a workflow where robots deliver items required to ship, and a touch screen providing just-in-time guidance about which box to use, how to pack it and even the right amount of tape to finish the job.


There are multiple contextual issues—many of them potentially out of scope for L&D—that contribute to a culture of continuous learning. Google’s in-depth two-year study of high-performing teams identifies psychological safety as the most important factor that enables high performance, particularly in terms of the attitude towards learning from failure.45

Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson raises three strategies to address this:

• ‘Frame the work as a learning problem, not an execution problem.’

• ‘Acknowledge your own fallibility.’• ‘Model curiosity: ask a lot

of questions.’46

This aligns with Bersin & Associates’ WhatWorks survey exploring the 40 best practices for creating an empowered enterprise, which includes the following top five practices:

1. Leaders are open to ‘bad news.’2. Asking questions is encouraged.3. Decision-making processes are clearly

defined throughout the company.4. Employees are frequently given tasks

or projects beyond their current knowledge or skill level in order to stretch them developmentally.

5. Employees have influence over which job tasks are assigned to them.47

Beyond building safety, trust and empowerment, L&D practitioners must concretely support knowledge-sharing and working out loud. This is in part a cultural challenge, but it can also be enabled through technology that allows curation, user-generated content and peer-based identification of experts who support expert network forums. The cultural aspect can start to be addressed by explaining the value of sharing in building networks and ‘know-who’.

Finally, a key factor that will support this much needed culture is ongoing feedback. This might occur through manager coaching, but must also be data driven with opportunities for instant feedback loops to recognise capability and direct learning.

L&D takeaways

Enabling a culture of continuous learning involves ongoing feedback; a psychologically safe environment; the skills and understanding to learn to learn; and learning leaders who champion these principles.

A culture of continuous learning must be supported by continuous feedback, both in terms of managers and from data (see the ‘Measuring, identifying and recognising’ section for how xAPI and micro‑credentials can contribute to this).

Another key factor is the development of a psychologically safe environment, free of blame and open to experimentation. A simple yet powerful step in this direction is supporting a culture of working out loud and knowledge‑sharing.

Supporting a learning culture also means developing learning‑to‑learn skills. L&D professionals need to champion evidence‑based learning techniques that empower people to learn faster, achieve more and futureproof their careers. This involves a range of approaches, including developing practices of metacognition and reflection to constantly embed and apply learning from multiple sources.48


Micro-credentials, the new currency for capabilities

We know that employability skills such as communication and problem-solving are important to employees and employers. We also know that measuring those skills will help individuals to develop themselves and, at the same time, help organisations to make data-driven decisions to leverage those skills.

In that context, micro-credentials supported by an independent verified process, meets a clear demand for forward thinking individuals and organisations who want to measure, recognise, develop and organise these skills for the biggest impact.

— Sophie Lanyon, Product Engagement Specialist, DeakinCo.

DeakinCo. with Deakin University has established a micro-credential model to provide organisations and professionals a new way to assess and recognise capabilities critical to business success today and in the future.

Our Professional Practice credentials are stand-alone micro-credentials based on capability, developed in consultation with industry to ensure they’re recognised in the

workforce. Credentials are benchmarked against industry skill frameworks and the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).

These credentials have proven attractive to companies looking for bespoke assessment and recognition of capabilities. This is highlighted by the organisations that have been early adopters of credentials, including a government agency that wanted to define its workforce capability and deliver a new operating model based on data. Other clients include a global health insurer who wanted to measure the customer experience capability of their people—a capability critical to the success of its business.

To achieve credentials, a robust assessment of an individual’s capabilities is ensured through rich evidence of achievement with a reflective and video testimony and are assessed by industry and academic leaders.

The recognition of skills developed using a micro-credential model will underpin a culture of empowered and motivated learning while increasing employee engagement.

Micro-credentials offer an effective mechanism to improve educational offerings, employee engagement, build workforce capabilities and increase competitiveness in this market place.

45 Rozovsky, J 2015, ‘The five keys to a successful Google team’, re:Work with Google, 17 November, accessed February 2018, https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/ five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/.

46 Edmondson, A 2014, ‘Building a psychologically safe workplace’, video recording, TEDxHGSE, accessed February 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8.47 Bersin & Associates 2010, 40 Best Practices for Creating an Empowered Enterprise, Oakland, USA.48 Pradhan, A 2017, ’9 techniques to achieve learning agility and future-proof yourself in an age of disruption’, eLearning Industry, accessed February 2018,

https://elearningindustry.com/achieve-learning-agility-future-proof-age-disruption-9-techniques.


The previous section made a case for four key strategies for L&D—but what skills are required to achieve them?

As with our target audience, our actual required skills will continue to evolve and change. However, we can begin to predict areas that will be most in demand. Although these skills inherently overlap and support one another, they essentially fall under four categories.

L&D future skills


1 Understanding and uncovering needs 3 Influencing systems to

maximise opportunities• performance consulting—the ability to use a range of consulting techniques and problem analysis models to identify root cause issues

• human-centred design and co-design—using design‑thinking mindsets, processes and tools to collaborate, reframe problems and ideate innovative and pragmatic solutions

• data and digital literacy—the ability to weave data considerations throughout digitally enabled solutions, and interpret and use data insights to inform practice

• systems and processes—using models such as Six Sigma, Lean and other techniques to address underlying workflow practices

• learning technology—beyond traditional considerations of learning management systems, this must extend to principles of UX, as well as a broad view of how learning can be empowered via other platforms including content management systems (CMSs), knowledge management systems (KMSs), enterprise social network platforms (ESNPs) and LRSs

• knowledge management—supporting and capturing knowledge in the form of just‑in‑time tools and CMS and KMS repositories, and through effectively connecting people

2 Leveraging high-impact performance strategies 4 Empowering people

to and through change• prioritised learning techniques—including understanding the science of learning, curation and enabling of learning experiences

• social learning—including coaching, assisting collaboration and community management and building

• performance support—using job aids or augmenting the environment to achieve performance goals, often negating the need for learning

• marketing and communications—in terms of both promoting learning opportunities and using behavioural economics and other traditional marketing mindsets to support mindset and behavioural change

• change management—identifying the fundamental link and recognising that ultimately learning is about change, so change management methodology should be embedded in all aspects of learning


49 Moss, K 2017, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.

Despite categorising required skills, the previous list might feel overwhelming, or at least lacking focus. As a result, we have identified two priority areas for skills development that we believe will provide the highest return on investment for L&D professionals. These were summarised in the introduction to this report using the following diagram (Figure 7; previously Figure 1).

Combining the empathy-driven innovation of design thinking to develop engaging and relevant experiences, with the fact-based decision-making of data analytics, provides tremendous power for L&D professionals.

While design thinking has had some impact on the industry, data analytical capabilities and confidence to consider these issues are still at an early stage in most organisations.

Finally, in the process of upskilling, L&D professionals have an opportunity to be champions and role models of agile and continuous learning. This involves taking informal learning opportunities—for example, forming cross-functional teams that incorporate specialist skills such as data analytics and marketing to address a problem. It also means, as individuals and as teams, taking opportunities to stretch, experiment and learn from failure.

As such, L&D professionals must be willing to work out loud, share knowledge and consider their performance in the broadest terms, to role model and meet the challenges ahead.

Figure 7: Two priority skills for impactful L&D professionalsSource: DeakinCo. 2017

Example in action

Shopify: Constantly experimenting and learning

Shopify is a rapidly growing company in the technology space that has kept much of its start-up culture as it embraces the need to constantly develop its people. It has a large L&D ecosystem that incorporates coaching as well as other domain-specific learning teams, including a dedicated people analytics data team. The data insights from this team inform much of the practice and priorities for the L&D teams more broadly.

With the stated value of ‘getting shit done’, the priority at Shopify is achieving cut-through and results. To do this, the L&D team are currently upskilling in design thinking and preparing to launch a learn-to-learn campaign within the organisation.

We have learning experiences for every stage of the employee life cycle, whether they’ve just joined as a Guru [or are] a long-term employee who’s been promoted to a senior leadership role. These learning experiences might include a mix of infographics, videos and peer-based coaching circles to discuss challenges.49

— Katrina Moss, Learning Acceleration Lead, Shopify

One of the most interesting initiatives at Shopify is the inclusion of a three-person L&D Labs team. Team members have the job of focusing on technology and ‘sticky’ problems that, if solved, would make a massive positive impact on Shopify. Their role is one of continual experimentation, creating prototypes and pilots to discover what will work.

Designthinking

Inspired by empathyCrea�ng ecosystems

that enable performance and a

culture of con�nuous learning

Data analytics Guided by numbersMeasuring what ma�ers, delivering insights and personalised feedback loops

Impactful L&D


Closing comments

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.— Alan Kay

The exploration of the future of work predictably demonstrated that there is debate about the impact of robotics, the spread of the gig economy and what the future will hold. However, we do know that there is likely to be continued disruption and change.

This report represents both a high-level and a strategic positioning of L&D in this period of perpetual change. The four key areas we identify—performance consulting; designing experiences and campaigns; enabling a culture of continuous learning; and measuring, identifying and recognising—are currently occurring to different levels in our industry.

We hope that this report will contribute to the sharing of positive stories that are occurring. More than that, we hope that it will add to a growing call to action for L&D professionals to champion, develop and prioritise these areas, and the underlying skills that are required to achieve them, as we play our crucial role in enabling the future of work.


When we try to understand how L&D professionals arrived to the point where so many are considered to be training order-takers, the famous warning that comes to mind is that ‘what gets measured gets managed’.

Our interviews focused on high-performing and innovative L&D functions, yet a common issue that arose in almost all of our conversations was the lack of business-relevant measurements for L&D activity.

In the absence of these ‘metrics that matter’, L&D professionals have traditionally fallen back on limited and self-referential criteria for success. This has been embedded culturally within L&D, with a historical focus on the first two levels of the Kirkpatrick Model.47

The first level, ‘reaction’, has been demonstrated to be particularly problematic based on recent understanding of how people learn. The University of California’s Elizabeth and Robert Bjork have spearheaded work in memory, developing the evidence-based theory of ‘desirable difficulties’ in learning.48 In simple terms, their work demonstrates that a certain amount of difficulty and even uncomfortableness will enhance retention.

In their powerful book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool demonstrated that similar principles exist with complex skills.49 Deliberate practice and the process of receiving expert feedback to focus on areas of weakness and stretch inherently create a level of discomfort.

Combined with illusions of competence, where unconscious biases mislead people about the level of their learning, this leaves reaction as an extremely unreliable measure when assessing impact.

The second level of the Kirkpatrick Model, ‘learning’, is also highly problematic. It ultimately tests knowledge retention rather than examining real transfer of skills and behaviour. This is particularly alarming given that, as outlined earlier, there is a growing preference for complex and often tacit skills over knowledge.

Our interviews showed that the lack of business commitment to investing in the third and fourth levels of the Kirkpatrick Model or equivalent metrics remains an ongoing challenge. This is mirrored by our own experience: at the beginning of our engagement, many clients will explore options for measurement, but measurement is one of the first victims to the realities of budget and time as the project progresses.

To be clear, we are not blaming the Kirkpatrick Model for all L&D problems. Rather, the broad acceptance and use of the Kirkpatrick Model’s first two levels of measurement and equivalent approaches both reflect and have reinforced the dominant paradigm, whether stated or implicit, that L&D’s main function is to deliver event-based training that impacts on knowledge.

The focus on event-based training has always been an issue—but, given the backdrop of accelerated change driven by digital disruption, it has come to the fore.

Appendix 1: What gets measured gets managed

47 Kirkpatrick Partners 2018, ‘The Kirkpatrick Model’, accessed February 2018, https://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/Our-Philosophy/The-Kirkpatrick-Model.48 Bjork, EL & Bjork, R 2011, ‘Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning’, in MA Gernsbacher, RW Pew, LM Hough & JR

Pomerantz (eds), Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society, Worth, New York, USA.49 Ericsson, A & Pool, R 2016, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, USA.


About authors

Arun Pradhan Learning and Performance Strategist, DeakinCo.

Arun is an experienced blended learning and performance specialist who has taken the creative lead on performance-based projects for some of Australia’s largest companies.

As the winner of the Australian Institute of Training and Development’s Dr Alastair Rylatt Award for Learning and Development Professional of the Year 2017 and the Australian eLearning Industry Association Award for Individual Excellence 2015, Arun has been internationally recognised for his ongoing contribution to the learning industry.

In particular, Arun has been acknowledged for his work combining design thinking with performance consulting techniques to help foster change in projects that collectively span hundreds of thousands of people.

He is constantly researching evidence-based techniques that are inspired by cognitive psychology, behavioural economics, marketing and other domains. He is adept at translating these findings into practical and contextualised performance solutions.

In addition, Arun specialises in strategies to develop learning agility in individuals and organisations, and recently launched his own app on this topic called Learn2Learn.

Kelly KajewskiLearning and Performance Manager, DeakinCo.

Kelly is an L&D professional with extensive experience in developing strategic learning solutions for a range of national and international clients, and authored the internationally recognised white paper, Demystifying 70:20:10.

Recognised as a specialist in leadership capability, Kelly advises on leadership and management best practice, including design and development of learning offerings.

In her role at DeakinCo., Kelly is responsible for leading the team of learning designers with a focus on building a strong culture of performance and delivering high-quality learning solutions to clients.

In addition, her interests include exploring emerging learning and performance practices, in particular how learning can be embedded into workflow.

Michelle RyanHead of Learning Design, DeakinCo.

Michelle is an experienced and creative L&D specialist who has developed projects for some of Australia’s largest companies.

With extensive experience in HR and organisational development projects, and my elearning and L&D management roles, Michelle has expertise in business needs analysis, concept development, creative writing and relationship management.

In her role at DeakinCo., Michelle defines the strategy, and leads and controls the key activities of the Learning Design team. She is responsible for the successful end-to-end delivery of projects for a broad range of learning teams.

She is constantly researching ideas to apply the knowledge inventively and conceptualising different approaches to learning solutions that challenge the status quo.

In addition, Michelle provides thought leadership, within DeakinCo. and the wider learning community, on learning technology, learning trends and the future of learning. She is also a council member for the Australian Institute of Training and Development.


About DeakinCo.DeakinCo., created by the merge of longstanding workforce capability development business, DeakinPrime, with innovative new credentialing business, DeakinDigital. The merge brings together DeakinPrime’s track record as a trusted partner in corporate education and training for leading organisations across Australia for more than 25 years, with DeakinDigital’s disruptive offering in Professional Practice Credentials.

Our approach to how we ‘do’ learning is to create an immersive learning experience based around developing talent and then measuring its impact. DeakinCo.’s bespoke learning and consultancy services begin with what happens in your workplace, and are based on tailored insights—designed with you—to provide the training and development you need to gain a competitive advantage.

We believe in micro‑credentialing—recognising the expertise, skills and capabilities developed by individuals who make up your organisation. Micro‑credentialing increases the engagement and confidence of your workforce. DeakinCo. credentialing allows you to measure skills such as critical thinking, research and cross‑disciplinary capability against recognised, international standards.

Together, DeakinCo. will deliver purpose‑built learning, development and measurement solutions to help organisations prepare for the future of work.

• Insights into how new thinking and approaches might be able to advance your business and people strategy

• Co‑development of solutions to ensure that they have real impact for your organisation

• Implementation and delivery that works with your organisation’s tempo and minimises disruption to daily operations

DeakinCo. is powered by Deakin University’s reputation as an innovative, world‑class education institution.

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DeakinCo. Future of work report