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Enabling the future of work Skills and strategies for learning and development deakinco.com
What got you
here won’t
get you there.
— Marshall Goldsmith
Contents Foreword1 Executive summary 2 Introduction4 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 work
The 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 In this report, Enabling the future of On behalf of DeakinCo. I hope you find
commentators express concern about work: Skills and strategies for learning value from our insights that will help
the impact on jobs, with predications and development, we consider the with your thinking and L&D practice.
that ‘40 per cent of current jobs won’t question: How can L&D professionals I would particularly like to thank
exist by 2025’1. Personally, I am an prepare themselves, and the people and Arun, Kelly and Michelle, our primary
optimist and found myself nodding organisations they work with, for a state authors for this report, along with the
recently when I heard someone of rapid and perpetual change? many others at DeakinCo. and Deakin
comment that each of the previous University more widely that contribute
This report identifies four key areas
industrial revolutions has left the to helping us work with organisations to
that assist with transforming L&D
world in a better state socially and equip their workforces to succeed both
professionals from order-takers to
economically. Time will tell, but I can’t now and in the future.
impactful and valued business partners.
envisage a world or a workplace that
We have drawn on our own experience
won’t require human interaction and the Simon Hann—CEO
and researched examples and case
associated soft skills—it’s the way we
studies of how various organisations
are wired.
are approaching the new paradigm of
DeakinCo.’s vision is to equip workforces developing skills in our rapidly changing
with the skills they need in an ever- environment. Our intention is to
changing environment. The sweeping provide practical insights and actionable
changes to the way we work are creating takeaways for L&D professionals.
opportunities for organisations, and We are passionate about this topic
their learning and development (L&D) and welcome any additional insights,
professionals, to fundamentally adapt experiences or, indeed, challenges to
their approach to skill development. our current thinking.
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
Executive summary
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?
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 • the rise of human and higher-order skills—particularly the
‘augmented worker’, who is supported and supplemented demand for empathy, communication and creative problem-
by high-tech tools and systems solving skills, which might be described as ‘soft’, complex
• the rise of human experience—particularly the rise and tacit
of customer experience as a key competitive focus • the rise of agility—particularly because of the rapidly
across all industries, linked to the parallel focus on changing and unpredictable external circumstances that
employee experience demand unprecedented speed and adaptability.
2 | Enabling the future of work
To enable work and workers in this era of change These strategies will in turn demand a range of new skills
and disruption, the report goes on to identify four from L&D professionals, which are listed in the report. We also
key areas for L&D professionals wanting to make the identify two priority skills that we believe represent the largest
much‑needed transformation from order-takers to opportunity for impact in the coming period, shown in Figure 1.
impactful business partners:
1 Solving performance
challenges
Developing performance- Design Data
consulting skills and reframing thinking Impactful analytics
business expectations through Inspired by empathy
L&D Guided by numbers
deep partnerships based on Crea�ng ecosystems Measuring what
a consultative model that enable ma�ers, delivering
performance and a insights and
culture of con�nuous personalised
learning feedback loops
2 Creating experiences
and campaigns Figure 1: Two priority skills for impactful L&D professionals
Moving beyond a training-event Source: DeakinCo. 2017
model by developing an ecosystem
of people, systems and resources
to empower performance; and We see tremendous opportunities in the intersection
using marketing-style campaigns to between design thinking, which takes an empathetic view to
promote key mental models, prime designing ecosystems and campaigns and therefore enables
mindsets and shift behaviours 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
3 Enabling a culture of industry and the potential in the future of work. In our
continuous learning opinion, L&D professionals have an incredible opportunity to
Supporting a psychologically step into a much-needed role to enable people at a time when
safe environment that involves the ability to learn and innovate is the new currency of success.
experimentation, sharing and We hope that this report contributes to this important process.
learning from failure; and supporting
campaigns and systems to highlight Thank you
the how and why of continuous Arun Pradhan, Kelly Kajewski and Michelle Ryan
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.
Enabling the future of work | 3
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 future of learning and, in turn, the future they were featured or named in this
both an opportunity and a call to action: of L&D as a profession and practice. report or not, they contributed to our
an opportunity because the need to thinking, findings and work. Similarly,
In addition to drawing on many industry
support organisations and the people we would like to thank our clients,
white papers, and on our experience
in them to learn, innovate and perform whose partnerships drive our practice
as leading providers of learning and
at greater speeds has never been so and learning. Finally, we must thank our
performance solutions working with a
apparent; and a call to action because wonderful colleagues at DeakinCo.—
range of major companies, this report
many of L&D’s current practices and particularly our CEO, Simon Hann, who
features and has been inspired by a
approaches are being shown to be was the instigator behind this report.
number of qualitative interviews with
inadequate, particularly in the face of
L&D practitioners who are already For now, we thank you for viewing this
contemporary challenges.
organising for the future of work. report. We hope that it will contribute to
This contradiction serves as the primary It should be noted that at the request your thinking and practice, and therefore
motivation for the creation of this report. of the companies concerned, we have to the organisations and people that you
shared only some of our interviews in work with.
While much has been and will be written
this report.
about the future of work, we were Please contact DeakinCo. to continue
driven to make sense of and identify We would like to take this opportunity the discussion as we explore, learn and
relevant trends that will shape the to thank our interviewees; whether adapt to the future together.
A note about the Demystifying 70:20:10 white paper
This 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 champions the use of experiential, on- people who, understandably, have been
looking for ways to improve our practice the-job and social learning along with designing, developing and delivering
and share our knowledge with others, formal learning events. 70:20:10 was still away-from-work training for years’.3
creating our own L&D peer-learning a relatively new concept, and although
Our practice, in line with industry, has
environments. This was the premise it was increasingly being accepted as a
advanced since this time. While 70:20:10
of our 2012 white paper. comprehensive approach to L&D, there
remains important, it is now largely
were very few resources available.
The aim of that paper was to offer an implicit framework we use when
In addition, some practitioners were
examples and advice from people who considering all elements of a learning
grappling with how they could embed
were already ‘walking the talk’ for and performance ecosystem.
70:20:10 within their own organisations,
others to learn from. Although released
and they were cautious of the changes it Our language has also evolved, moving
in 2012, it continues to be used as a
would mean for their own practice. towards terminology such as ‘workflow
reference guide by organisations around
learning’4, ‘performance support’ and
the world. As Charles Jennings, an inspiration for
‘learning ecosystems’ as we engage with
us and champion of 70:20:10, recently
At that time, people were hungry for a variety of people from L&D and business
shared, ‘It’s a challenge for many L&D
knowledge about 70:20:10, which 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.
4 | Enabling the future of work
Part 1
The future
of work
Key trends
and implications
Enabling the future of work | 5
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 • In an indication that job losses will
Fourth Industrial Revolution6, a period not be limited to blue-collar workers, In a second
of rapidly developing technology that Goldman Sachs replaced 600 equity
will continue to transform our work and traders with software supported by
lives. The word ‘continue’ is an important
inclusion, as it is a reminder that the trends
we commonly associate with the future
200 computer engineers.10
• The Associated Press used automated 1000
stock trades
systems to generate more than 3000
are already making an impact today. stories about United States corporate are executed by
earnings each quarter—though an algorithm
One indicator of this change is that half
of the world’s Fortune 500 companies according to their self-reporting, this
have disappeared since 20007, and has only displaced jobs rather than
3M
the threat to established businesses replacing them.11 Similar initiatives
by start-ups and new models is now a have occurred with sports reporting.
constant part of the business landscape. There is little debate that artificial credit card
intelligence and robotics will transactions
In the meantime, we’ve already seen a
continue to fulfil many tactical, are processed
number of examples of the expanding
repetitive roles—the real debate lies in
impact of robotics:
how pervasive this trend will become
• In a working paper for the National and how many new jobs will or will not
Bureau of Economic Research, Daron
Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo
be created as a result.12
A recent meta-survey of predictions
17
packages are
identified a seeming correlation
around job loss and creation by Erin packed and
between the arrival of a new
Winick from the MIT Technology Review shipped with
industrial robot and an employment
confirmed that there is no consensus the aid of robots
drop of 5.6 workers.8
about the net impact of technology
• Foxconn, which supplies Apple and on jobs.13
Samsung, replaced 60 000 factory
workers with robots in 2016.9
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/.
6 | Enabling the future of workThis should not obscure the fact that The first is that the continued
rapid change is occurring now. From an development of technology, in addition
L&D perspective, we have identified four to its positive or negative impact on L&D takeaways
main trends that will define learning the numbers of jobs available, will
and our industry in this new period of continue to change the way we work. Upskill to work with
transformation: The Associated Press example cited augmented workers
previously has, according to the and data.
1. the rise of digital
organisation, led to staff being freed up
2. the rise of human experience for more high-value tasks. The rise of digital and data
3. the rise of ‘human’ skills transformation has a multitude
In other contexts, the rise of more
4. the rise of agility. developed tools and systems means of implications for L&D. Two of
that workers are required to radically the most pressing are:
change the way they work as they • How can L&D practitioners
The rise of digital are increasingly augmented by robotics embrace, encourage
and technology. and support the next
A recent white paper by the World wave of augmented
Writing in The Conversation, three
Economic Forum outlining key workers? This means
academics in the field of manufacturing
technology trends identified five main developing a creative
and engineering recently outlined their
disruptive technologies: mindset and approach
optimistic vision for ‘tech-augmented
1. the internet of things—in which human workers’: to performance support.
technologies evolve and blend The traditional approach
Human work will become more involving checklists and
2. artificial intelligence—which is versatile and creative. Robots and quick reference guides
allowing analysis to catch up with and people will work more closely still applies but it might
truly leverage the immense amount of together than ever before. People also include collaborating
data we have begun to capture will use their unique abilities to with relevant parts of
3. advanced robotics—including a innovate, collaborate and adapt to the business to introduce
shift from isolated, cumbersome new situations.15 technology-based systems,
machines to machines that work platforms and tools to
Another key implication of the rise
alongside humans support and enhance
of digital is the rise of data. More
4. enterprise wearables—which pervasive underpinning technologies will performance.
can involve virtual or augmented continue to provide a multitude of data • How can L&D professionals
reality and are becoming accepted points, enabling the rise of data-driven quickly gather actionable
performance support devices decision-making. A compelling briefing insights from data? The
5. 3D printing—which has revolutionised by The Economist entitled ‘Data is rise of data represents
traditional production processes, giving rise to a new economy’ made the an opportunity for L&D
particularly with the advent of metal following point: professionals. Rather
3D printing.14 than internal metrics
Data are to this century what oil was around completion and
Each of these technologies is potentially to the last one: a driver of growth and
transformative in its own right, and all attendance, our more
change. Flows of data have created connected technological
are already coming to bear in complex new infrastructure, new businesses,
combinations. The exact impact of this ecosystems provide
new monopolies, new politics and— many sources of useful
technological cocktail is a matter of crucially—new economics.16
much speculation but we are able to performance and business
identify some growing implications. data that must be exploited
as part of any learning and
performance solution.
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.
Enabling the future of work | 7The rise of human
experiences L&D takeaways
It is slightly ironic that in parallel with, Consider end-to-end employee experiences.
and in part because of, the rapid
development of technology, the world Effective customer-centric solutions can only be delivered via a parallel focus
has seen a greater emphasis on the on employee experience.18 Workers, like consumers, have increasingly high
‘human experience’. expectations that they are more than willing to share and act on.
Technology has enabled greater Similar to the customer-centric conversation, supporting a positive employee
networks with unprecedented access experience must consider the full end-to-end process, from attraction
to communication, information and through recruitment, onboarding, development and offboarding.
data—all of which enable empowered
customers who are willing to change The high-level logical flow is simple: to remain relevant in an age of
loyalties, share peer reviews and technology, businesses must focus on delivering end-to-end, customer-
exercise their consumer power. The centric experiences. To achieve customer-centric solutions, businesses must
impact of this was discovered to the enable powerful end-to-end employee experiences—and to achieve this,
horror of United Airlines during its traditional divisions between L&D and other human resources (HR) and
media disasters of 2017.17 business functions will become greyer.
The flip side of social media scandals This ultimately means that L&D practitioners will have to break out of
is the business trend towards traditional silos and areas of demarcation and be part of broad teams that
customer-centricity. It is no longer take a holistic view of the employee experience. This will likely involve
enough to deliver a strong product. embracing design thinking and human-centred principles for more effective
Now, consumers expect, and even experiential design.
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 3D
stated and unstated customer needs, printing
particularly using processes such
as design thinking.
The internet
of things
Top five disruptive
Advanced technologies
robotics
Enterprise
wearables
Artificial
intelligence
Figure 2: Top five disruptive technologies
Source: Based on data from World Economic Forum (2017)
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/.
8 | Enabling the future of workThe rise of human
and higher-order skills L&D takeaways
The extent and impact of the augmented Enable stretch experiences and collaboration to help develop
worker is yet to be seen, but it is clear higher-order thinking and tacit skills.
that lower-order thinking and repetitive
tasks will be the first to be automated. In Today, L&D practitioners are often most concerned with formal training
this light, workers looking to futureproof opportunities that lend themselves to explicit knowledge transfer.
themselves are being pushed to higher
levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, being With the continued rise of automation, artificial intelligence and augmented
required to apply higher-order thinking workers, such knowledge is increasingly likely to be accessed just in time via
and emotional intelligence to greater performance support systems, if at all. At the same time, the emergence
and more diverse problems. of customer experience as a central business focus will demand a greater
emphasis on complex, higher-order thinking and soft skills.
Concretely, the increased emphasis on
human experience requires a greater Such skills inherently tend to be more tacit—that is, they cannot be easily or
focus on the complex skills required explicitly explained, nor easily transferred through formal training. Instead,
to uncover, understand and creatively tacit and complex skills are more effectively developed through a cycle of
meet needs. Currently, organisations mentoring, collaboration, experience and reflection.20
committed to customer experience
In that context, rather than just investing in traditional training, L&D
are struggling to recruit and develop
professionals will be charged with supporting collaborative learning
employees with greater levels of
teams; enabling knowledge sharing; and encouraging opportunities for
empathy, communication and emotional
stretch experiences.
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.
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.
Enabling the future of work | 9The rise of agility
Along with the realignment of skills has
Example in action
come an increase in the volatility and
pace with which such skills need to be L&D takeaways
St Barbara: Building an agile
adopted and applied.
Rapid change demands and human-centred workforce
As Jack Welch, former CEO of General a user-centered culture
Electric, noted, ‘If the rate of change on of continuous learning. It’s not enough to simply talk about
the outside exceeds the rate of change
innovation. We must support our
on the inside, the end is near’.21
The speed of technology-led workforce to develop the skills and
This warning is relevant for transformation in the external reward it.22
organisations, teams and individuals, environment means that — Val Madsen, General Manager
all of whom must contend with the organisations must prepare Human Resources, St Barbara
increased speed of change around for ongoing and unpredictable
them. In this context, the need to At St Barbara, an Asia-Pacific gold producer
change. Rather than being
quickly learn to learn and unlearn has and explorer, leaders are concurrently
viewed as an event, or even a
never been so apparent. preparing their company for ongoing changes
series of events, learning must in the external environment and taking a
People and organisations are be embraced as a dynamic and human-centred approach to development.
increasingly being thrown into continuous process of learning,
experimenting, sense-making, Trucks, loaders and drills can now be
challenging and unfamiliar contexts and operated remotely or automatically, and
expected to experiment, innovate and reflecting and unlearning.
as computers and robotics continue to
adapt their way to success. Further, they In that respect, set curriculums progress, it is expected that more roles
are required to achieve this at speed to will have a shorter and shorter will be replaced or disappear completely.
ensure they are not being left behind in half-life as L&D professions focus While automation is in some cases replacing
a highly competitive marketplace. on helping to enable a user-led human mining operators, it is also creating
culture of continuous learning. 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.
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.
10 | Enabling the future of workPart 2
The future
of learning
Skills and strategies
learning and
development (L&D)
Enabling the future of work | 1112 | Enabling the future of work
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
L&D takeaways
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 The shift from order‑takers
learning as a practice in organisations. to business partners
remains a central challenge.
The LinkedIn 2017 Workplace Learning Another significant L&D report in 2017 That issues of demonstrating
Report confirmed, not surprisingly, was Bersin’s The High-Impact Learning value were highlighted, albeit
that business impact is the measure Organization Maturity Model.27 Bersin’s in different forms, in four of the
most desired by CEOs from their L&D survey of 1200 global organisations most significant L&D-themed
departments.23 Alarmingly, according showed that 74 per cent of organisations surveys of 2017 is a fact that
to the same report only 8 per cent of focus on the first two levels of their cannot be ignored. It points to a
CEOs currently see the business impact model—delivering episodic and growing gap between the need
of L&D. responsive training. for L&D to support performance
in a high-pressure and volatile
Towards Maturity’s latest benchmark A further 20 per cent focus on
business environment, and
research report, L&D: Where Are We incorporating talent development as a
what is often a limited actual
Now?, uncovered similar issues.24 This core competency of management and
impact on the business.
comprehensive survey revealed that the measurement performance indicators.
top four priorities for L&D in companies And only 6 per cent are what Bersin calls There are many aspects
in 2017 were: ‘anticipatory’, where business executives that must be considered in
and employees are committed to addressing this challenge, but
1. ‘improve organisational performance’
continuous learning (formal and informal). one of the key takeaways that
2. ‘increase productivity’ forms the basis of this report is
All of these reports reflect the long-term
3. ‘increase learning access the importance of shifting L&D
problem of L&D practitioners being
and flexibility’ teams from order-takers, who
positioned as ‘order-takers for training’.
4. ‘increase self-directed learning’.25 build and deliver event-based
In our interviews and experience,
training, to business partners,
While 46 per cent of those surveyed narrow requests and expectations
who pursue a variety of
believe that they were successful in by business stakeholders for formal
strategies to add value and help
improving efficiency, only 24 per cent training (both elearning and face-to-
realise organisational goals.
surveyed believed that they successfully face) represent a key frustration for L&D
cultivated greater agility in their professionals wanting to partner and At a strategic level, L&D
organisations and only 19 per cent deepen their impact in the business. professionals who are
successfully shifted organisational culture. true business partners use
Now, with the rate of accelerated
performance consulting skills to
Such concerning statistics were change and associated demands, L&D
identify root causes and leverage
mirrored in Donald H Taylor’s L&D professionals are increasingly feeling the
a diverse toolkit to develop
Global Sentiment Survey 2017.26 Taylor’s limits of being cast as order-takers. In
solutions. At a more basic
popular survey identified the need for other words, the gap between business
level, it might involve having
L&D professionals to show value and and individual needs and what L&D can
consistent formal and informal
consult more deeply within the business deliver through formal event-based
meetings with key business
as a rising priority. However, the report training has never been so stark, and it
stakeholders; putting an end
suggested that the skills to do this are is only going to become more apparent
to self-referential terminology
often absent from L&D teams. as the trends we have outlined continue
and measurements; and
to develop.
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.
Enabling the future of work | 13Four strategies for L&D
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 rather than simply current capability, which can be cross-
enable performance outcomes and delivering training. checked against requirements for
therefore organisational goals. More new roles. Such feedback is crucial for
Now, let’s look at each of the four
than that, they will support the key individuals, teams and organisations to
aspects identified in Figure 3 in
themes, from the need for skills to the develop a shared reality of the current
more detail.
rise of experience, as identified in the state and be able to target areas for
‘Future of work’ section. development as required.
These strategies cannot be implemented 1. Measuring, identifying Deakin University has been at the
by L&D practitioners alone, and in some
cases they might lead to friction with
and recognising forefront of using artificial intelligence
to support such personalised learning,
other parts of the business as new Enabling performance and a culture having partnered with IBM to deliver a
boundaries and habits of engagement of continuous learning involves Watson-powered student experience.28
are established. identifying current abilities and gaps, More recently, this has developed into
then providing specific and personalised an ambitious project called Genie,
Developing new, more flexible
recommendations and pathways for which combines chatbots, artificial
boundaries and definitions will be a
workers to develop using a myriad of intelligence, voice recognition and
necessary part of breaking L&D out of
resources both internal and external to predictive analytics.29
its training silo; promoting the attitude
that learning is everyone’s business; the organisation. While such initiatives show great
and positioning L&D professionals Effective personalisation requires promise, it is also clear that artificial
as integrated business partners who accurate metrics around an individual’s intelligence and chatbots have not yet
In action at DeakinCo.
Developing ‘workplace scientists’ to draw actionable insights from data
In a performance-centric In some instances, this might involve Interestingly, for us and many of our clients,
environment, data is the key drawing data from diverse sources such as the technical aspects of data gathering has
to supporting reflection, customer relationship management or HR not been the largest hurdle. Rather, the
personalisation and systems, or more commonly using xAPI, a fundamental change is the required mindset
measurement, and a well-defined universal data specification that is gaining shift of our consultants, designers and
uptake in the L&D industry. clients who must develop into ‘workplace
data strategy (along with the
scientists’ who constantly investigate ways
right people to execute it) is the This approach is highlighted by our work
to test assumptions and ‘measure what
cornerstone to success. with CPA, where an xAPI implementation
matters’ with relevant data sources.
facilitates a number of individual and
— Cameron Hodkinson, Product Manager
and UX Lead, DeakinCo. organisational measures and analytic This ultimately requires using design
activities. For employees, a rich set of thinking and performance consulting skills
Surprisingly, the first step in making outcome, capability and preference data with an underlying ‘data mindset’ to seek
effective use of data isn’t to talk about supports reflective practice, competition out and test possible causal relationships
data. It’s to establish business value. As and personalisation. For the organisation, that enable performance.
Hodkinson explains, ‘We take a business- this data is combined with data from real-
first approach to data, working with key world outcomes to measure the success and
stakeholders to understand the most impact of programs and assets, as well as the
valuable outcomes to measure and in potential/actual capability of various cohorts.
what context they occur’.
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.
14 | Enabling the future of workmatured to the level required to be truly
transformative in the learning space.30
id e n t i f y i n g a n d re c o
ri ng, gni
A more practical and realisable application e asu sin
g
M
of emerging technology lies in access to
more data points as digital platforms Solving
and interactions now underpin most performance
activity. The data standard xAPI is becoming challenges
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 Creating Enabling a
and reaction metrics. Instead, activities can experiences culture of
be measured with the potential to identify and continuous
experiences and resources that contribute campaigns learning
to high performance in a particular role.
Incorporating a learning record store (LRS)
to gather xAPI data from multiple sources M
ea ng
represents the opportunity to design sur isi
ing gn
and measure end-to-end experiences. , id e n
tifying and reco
For example, data points could include
traditional elearning consumption as well as
the use of resources; contributions to social
Figure 3: Four high-impact areas for L&D professionals to help enable the
networks; activities in project work; manager future of work
Source: DeakinCo. 2017
Example in action
Westpac: Curation, micro-credentials and continuous learning to develop skills for life
We’re making a bet on a number Westpac continues to develop a range of LearningBank, one of the platforms that helps
of skills that we believe will be required technical skills within their people, enable this, supports user-generated content
meaningful in 2025, and that will but their commitment to ‘skills for life’ and accessing ‘playlists rather than fixed
be meaningful for both Westpac has also seen an emphasis on portable pathways’, allowing a flexible experience.
skills such as resilience, social intelligence,
and individuals. It comes from an Westpac is also piloting Deakin University’s
virtual collaboration and adaptive thinking.
understanding that the world is micro-credentialing model. Dunford points
changing, so we have to empower our To achieve this, Dunford explains that out that these micro-credentials ‘are portable,
people in and outside of Westpac. Westpac aim to help people ‘learn at work and we think it’s the most transparent
That means the conversation is about the way they learn at home’. Specifically, recognition of your ability to apply those
‘skills for life’.31 Westpac has embraced the principle of skills on the job that we’ve seen’.
‘learn/teach/share’, which allows people to
— Tony Dunford, Head of Enterprise and Recognition of these skills for life is seen as
access the learning they need, when they
Portfolio Learning, Westpac a win-win, ‘helping staff to dissect skills they
need it, to the level they need it.
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’.
31 Dunford, T 2018, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.
Enabling the future of work | 15feedback; and articles and browsing • ‘stackable’—they can be added to
content. Such inputs could be tracked digital repositories and mapped to
against performance results to identify further qualifications L&D takeaways
correlations and generate informed • ‘evidentiary’—they are able to
recommendations. point directly to the evidence as an The rise of technology and data
ongoing reference externally is impacting L&D
Another important development in the internally. L&D practitioners can
area of measurement and recognition is • ‘personalised’—they can provide take advantage of this trend by
the advent of micro-credentials. individual feedback about skills leveraging xAPI as the dominant
Micro-credentials represent the • ‘machine-readable’—if open standard within the industry to
opportunity to apply a robust and technology standards are used, identify and provide actionable
benchmarked assessment to what a they can enable analytics and other performance data.
person is actually capable of, particularly data points.32
In addition, the growing trend
when it comes to the soft skills that For workers, micro-credentials
towards robustly assessed
were previously identified in this report represent the opportunity to share a
micro-credentials provides an
as in-demand skills. third-party-verified assessment of their
opportunity for organisations
actual capabilities with prospective
This approach runs counter to most and individuals to gain deeper
employers. Micro-credentials also allow
assessments, which examine what insights into their capabilities
workers to gain a greater understanding
people know—or worse, what courses and road maps for further
of their own experiences, the learning
they have completed on a topic. For development.
that they have gained and potential
more background on this issue, refer
areas for improvement.
to Appendix 1, ‘What gets measured
gets managed’. For employers, micro-credentials provide
the opportunity to adopt a data-driven
In her paper Better 21C Credentials:
approach to constructing appropriate
Evaluating the Promise, Perils
teams with the required skills for
and Disruptive Potential of Digital
a particular job. This will become
Credentials, Deakin University’s Beverly
particularly relevant with the move to
Oliver describes digital micro-credentials
agile organisational structures, where
as being:
managers must draw together cross-
• ‘granular’—they focus on functional, short-lived project teams.
demonstrated skills rather than marks
or course attendance
Example in action
AT&T: Diagnostic tools, credentials and new career paths
There is a need to retool yourself, Randall Stephenson has become well To support the massive and rapid change,
and you should not expect to stop known for taking AT&T into a diverse range AT&T is providing employees with:
… [People who do not spend five to of new businesses, including wireless
• a career profile tool for assessing
10 hours a week in online learning] technology and satellite television, in an
current competencies, business
attempt to stay ahead of disruption in the
will obsolete themselves with the experience and credentials, including
telecommunications industry. His demand
technology.33 the ability to click on jobs available and
that employees ‘retool’ themselves was
— Randall Stephenson, Chairman and compare skill sets required
followed through with a major talent
Chief Executive, AT&T program that, according to a recent article • a career intelligence tool, which analyses
in the Harvard Business Review, cost hiring trends and expected salary ranges
$250 million since 2013 and has resulted • online content through partnerships
in 140 000 employees working to acquire with major content providers
skills for newly created roles.34
• credentialing opportunities, including
accredited pathways to master’s
degree levels.
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.
16 | Enabling the future of work2. Solving performance
challenges
Future 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.
Example in action Learn ing
A Victorian government Knowledge
Mental models
authority: L&D using data
Skills
analysis to create targeted
t
en
M
learning and performance
em
et
r ic
ag
Capability
Eng
s
Incen�ves Feedback
Recogni�on Data
A Victorian government authority reimagined
learning and development. Mo�va�on Awareness
As the role of L&D in the organisation became
Performance
to build learning capability aligned to strategy,
the learning team took on a new people- Tools
Direc�on
centred approach, focusing on becoming Tech
‘super-connectors’ who find and connect Vision infrastructure
ort
Management Hardware/
upp
expertise to change the way knowledge Opportunity
Lea
Shared goals so�ware
management flows within the business.
es
de
Checklists
nc
rs
ma
hi
This was achieved with a three-pronged
p
or
approach. The L&D team’s first focus Organisa�on structure
rf
Pe
was on building trust and relationships Teams and collabora�on
Environment
across business areas to facilitate the sharing of
insights and lessons learned. The second Systems
focus was the creation of an insights team
who would use data analysis to align learning
and performance interventions with Figure 4: Putting learning in perspective factors influencing performance
identified insights and spikes. The third was Source: Arun Pradhan 2017
implementing strong governance and rewards
for sharing expertise within the business.
Enabling the future of work | 17Human centric and co-design approach
1 Define the
problem 2 Assemble the
solution team 3 Deploy
and execute
Technology enabled and data driven
Figure 5: An example performance-consulting process
Source: DeakinCo. 2017
Identifying the root cause behind an Example in action
issue requires performance consulting L&D takeaways
skills where L&D professionals consult An FMCG: Performance
and investigate into the business. A Design thinking and access consulting for the business
key process here is the use of design to cross-functional groups
thinking, particular in its ability to help across the organisation
reframe problems from a place of can drive a performance- The Capability team at a prominent
empathy for the audience group. Australian FMCG are continuously connecting
consulting model. their activity to marketplace results. When
Once the underlying issues behind the Capability team reviewed sales results,
the problem have been identified, A performance-consulting model they found that successfully applying their
the performance consultants would is one of the most useful starting recommended selling model did not always
assemble a ‘SWAT team’, or cross- points for L&D to move towards a correlate to overall sales success. Further
functional group. holistic and futureproof approach. investigation revealed that high performers
had additional business skills, like commercial
This group would draw on the L&D While many organisations aspire to
acumen, and that these soft skills were
team, the business and externals to this, the skills required to achieve it equally important as predictors to success.
pull together the required skills and successfully are often lacking.
Taking a performance-consulting approach,
experiences to address the problem. For example, an ideal process the Capability team were able to identify
The team would be required to quickly will uncover (generally unstated) the critical skills that best support the
collaborate and co-design as the underlying needs, along with a sales team’s success. They helped to move
problem was further explored, reframed variety of possible solutions that sales performance indicators from solely
and solved. This process is captured at a might include systems, incentive measuring tasks to measuring broader
high level in Figure 5. programs or other factors that business KPIs that drive sales outcomes.
are outside of traditional L&D. This has put the customer at the heart of
The example shown as Figure 5
Even if a process is followed, decision-making and enables more rounded
describes a reactive model that begins coaching conversations from sales leaders.
with a problem. However, particularly without the required skills it’s
when combined with improved data likely to be reduced to a slightly
analytics, this approach could also be more thorough discovery process
employed proactively. For example, a that leads to a traditional training
performance consultant or team could solution—even if that wasn’t the
identify areas of potential improvement most high-impact factor at play.
based on data and current business An effective performance-consulting
priorities before recommending areas of model requires high levels of
investigation and improvement. 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.
18 | Enabling the future of workExample in action
Australia Post: Research, data and design thinking
We need to shift from the wanted to share that knowledge. In addition, Based on the validated results, the first
perception that learning is only the report gave a clearer view of the stage of the L&D strategy is focusing on
created and delivered by the L&D complex challenges this group experiences, two outcomes:
team to one where it’s a shared which has helped to underpin the future
• moving from ‘me to we’. The L&D team is
responsibility for individuals, learning strategy. These challenges include
seeking to encourage a mindset shift from
geographic disbursement; the range of
leaders and the L&D team, which ‘Give me the tools and tell me what to do’
business models in place (corporate-owned
combine to create an ethos of versus licensed post offices); and varying
to ‘What can I contribute to my colleagues
continuous learning.35 access to and capability with technology.
or the business?’. They aim to create a
collaborative mindset where leaders
— Rebecca Slingo, Head of Learning and
Development, Australia Post The L&D team validated the report results and individuals focus on what they can
through user experience (UX) artefacts, contribute to colleagues and the business.
Australia Post is using research and including a cast of six authentic personas • improving digital capability and culture.
data as the foundation for learning and three user stories illustrated in journey People will need to know how to interact
strategy and testing results with a design maps. Three key concepts emerged from with others, share information and
thinking approach. the research: understand relevance. Technology will be
• the need to be connected to information used to underpin this process.
The Post Office Network is one of Australia
Post’s core business units. Last year, that enables excellent and effective The L&D team are taking it one step at
the organisation employed a team of customer service in the moment a time. Their first priority is designing
ethnographers to work with employees • the need for contextual information and for participation by recognising people’s
across the Post Office Network to better learning that suits overall requirements mindsets and capability. This has included
understand how they learn and communicate starting with low-tech delivery methods,
• the desire to contribute to customer
within the context of their roles. such as interactive PDFs, and emphasising
outcomes and outlet success.
the value of knowledge-sharing and micro-
The ethnographers found that Post Office coaching as the foundation for building a
Network employees wanted to be connected learning ecosystem.
to relevant contextual information, and they
35 Slingo, R 2018, interview with DeakinCo., Melbourne.
Enabling the future of work | 19You can also read
