Leadership development has always been about the future. It has always been an attempt to help leaders prepare for a future that was always shrouded in uncertainty. Today, though, we are in the midst of a change in the ways we live and work and do business that make it even harder to determine what’s needed. Here are four perspectives on that change and what it means.
From Harold Jarche: becoming collectively smarter
“We are in the midst of a nano-bio-info-techno-cogno revolution. We are entering the network era and change is coming fast, which may sound like a cliché, but consider the last major shift we went through. We had lots of time for our institutions to adapt.”
From Max Nisen: The future of management training is simulations
“Abbott, now mostly a nutrition, diagnostic, and medical technology business, had to transform the way it nurtures talent and identifies potential leaders. What resulted was a system of management training and evaluation that may look more and more familiar in the future. Managers are developed, not in the classroom, but on the job, online, and through advanced digital simulations.”
From Charles Jennings: Embedding Learning in Work: The Benefits and Challenges
“A common finding that has emerged from study after study over the past few years is that learning which is embedded in work seems to be more effective than learning away from work. If people learn as part of the workflow then this learning is more likely to impact performance in a positive way.”
From Nick Petrie: Future Trends in Leadership Development (PDF)
“This is no longer just a leadership challenge (what good leadership looks like); it is a development challenge (the process of how to grow ‘bigger’ minds). Managers have become experts on the ‘what’ of leadership, but novices in the ‘how’ of their own development.”
