Most discussion about the future of learning, training, and instructional design is the tail wagging the dog. Learning is a lagging indicator, not a leading one. The nature of learning is changing because the world is changing, not because we’ve identified some great new innovations in learning that are going to help improve the status quo. Learning is taking a greater role because the economics of a knowledge era value knowledge.
Discussions of ROI minutiae, how far to open the corporate kimono, making the case to one’s boss, and hand-wringing over loss of control are merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. World culture is in the midst of a phase change. Ice is turning into water. Nothing will remain the same.
In phases transitions, you’re either ice or water: there’s no in-between. It’s like being born again; you are or you aren’t. Yes or no.
People still in the ice age believe in certainty, control, planning for the future, causality, and scarcity, and some day we’ll figure it all out. Ice-agers think of workers as spectators and rule-followers. Icy business practices are competition, secrecy, and measurement by quarterly financials.
Water people believe nothing is certain, control is an illusion, just do it — the future is now, complex adaptive systems, abundance, and we’ll never figure it out. Aquarians consider everyone a participant in a perpetual improv performance. Watery businesspeople believe in collaboration, transparency, and the value of intangibles.
It doesn’t work to take one from column A and one from column B, e.g. secrecy and transparency are opposites. Competition and collaboration are the same deal.
Most people shape their world view in childhood and adolescence. First we make our habits, and then our habits make us. Change is hard but change is inevitable.
People who were in the primary grades when the web became popular are teenagers today. Most of them are water people. They value relationships more than facts. They make their own determinations of what’s good enough. They work collaboratively. They don’t obsess over pleasing their elders. They are direct and transparent. They will not put up with the rigidity of ice after they’ve experienced the power of flowing water.
What should a person do if they find themselves in a non-believing, ice-age organization? One alternative is to try to help the organization to get religion, to thaw. But phase change isn’t incremental; it’s all or nothing. Incrementalism simply delays the day of reckoning.
Another approach is to cherry pick the aquarian toolset for things that resonate for both ice and water and apply them to keep ice organizations on life support. In this, we’re back to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
What’s the most enlightened thing to do here? I’ll post this issue to the Internet Time Community in case the discussion grows lengthy.
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“It doesn’t work to take one from column A and one from column B, e.g. secrecy and transparency are opposites. Competition and collaboration are the same deal.”
Ah ha! I remember saying something like this on this very blog, not so long ago.
“What should a person do if they find themselves in a non-believing, ice-age organization?”
Make your own rules, make your own job. Work not just in your organization but in your sector, your community. Carve out the appropriate niche for yourself no matter where you are employed. Move on if your employers don’t recognize your value.
Look at anybody who is a leader is this space, or any space. It is not a person who did their job. It is a person who *changed* their job by either redefining their existing responsibilities or creating a new position (or company) entirely.
“What’s the most enlightened thing to do here? I’ll post this issue to the Internet Time Community in case the discussion grows lengthy.”
Again – understand that while you may work for a company, your work environment isn’t defined by – or limited by – the company. You work in a community, not a company. You may be paid by the company but your job is defined by the community and, if you’re doing it well, you’re serving the community.
Remember that you don’t work for the company, you work for yourself. The company is merely your largest (and perhaps only) client. Keep in mind that the company will not hesitate to terminate your position, redefine your role, or do any number of things that will not be in your best interest. You have to watch out for yourself.
In the meantime, the company will watch out for itself. It doesn’t need a whole lot from you, beyond what you’ve promised to deliver to it. What the company does is up to the company. You aren’t going to change the company – it will have to change itself (that is, the owners or executives will have to reach their own change of heart and attitude on their own).
The best you can do is to show what your (newly defined) work and (personally defined) attitude can bring to the company. As publicly as possible, document and record, should you ever need it for a promotion case (or job interview).
When writing Informal Learning, I had a view similar to Stephen’s. Then reality entered in.
I work for myself. I make my own rules. I change my job description at will. I do what I feel is right. And I’m not going to fire myself for doing so.
Many other people work for organizations. Some organizations are abusive, but moving on is not always an option.
Alternative work is not always available. If you act in the belief that “you don’t work for the company, you work for yourself,” the company may choose to disagree. In many a company, you can be terminated for sending personal email on company time or running a personal blog or mouthing off about a lousy political situation. Now if you’re 55 years old, live in a depressed area, and have obsolete skills, your options are limited. Be your own person; you may lose your house. This isn’t ideal or fair; this is reality.
I don’t understand “the company will watch out for itself. It doesn’t need a whole lot from you, beyond what you’ve promised to deliver to it. What the company does is up to the company. You aren’t going to change the company….” Last time I looked, companies were made up of people. As talent gets scarce, many companies bend over backwards to hold on to their people. Best management practice these days is to rely on the workers to help improve the company. I submit that Marx’s view that owners=bad and workers=exploited was formed 150 years ago and does not map to today’s reality.