CrowdThinking at the L&D Conference 2020

Welcome to the first phase of the L&D Conference 2020 effort focused on Professionalization in the L&D field!

Our conference brings together practitioners from around the world in an unprecedented six-week learning event.

Here, in this CrowdThinking effort (a deeper, more personal form of crowdsourcing), we invite all L&D Professionals to share their thoughts on the strengths, weaknesses, and future aspirations on seven vital areas that affect our work and professionalism.

Our collective wisdom will better allow us to create a comprehensive map of our future landscape and opportunities for growth.

Everyone is invited to participate, whether you attend the conference or not.

Indeed, we want to cast as wide a net as possible in this first phase, so please share the link to these questions with your coworkers and colleagues in the L&D field.

The survey consists of a total of about 35 (multiple-choice and comment) questions divided into seven areas of interest. MOST of the questions are marked as optional, so that you can focus only on areas of interest for you--if you choose. What is most important is to provide more detail in areas in which you feel strongly.

For too long, our professionalization as L&D professionals has been a fragmented effort. Now you have an opportunity to provide input to guide the professionalization of our industry into the future!!

At the end of this set of questions, we will give you an opportunity to sign up to receive the report or reports that come out of the findings.

Thank you!

Fernando Senior (Project Leader, and IBSTPI Board Member)
Will Thalheimer (L&D Conference Co-Organizer)

Our Competencies (Skills and Abilities)
1.Think of your current work situation. Are formal external benchmarks used to define required CAPABILITIES/COMPETENCIES for the roles that are performed? SELECT ALL THAT ARE TRUE FOR YOU.(Required.)
2.What sets of benchmarks do you use, if any? They might be formally developed by an outside source, or they might be internally developed. If you know the name, please provide. Otherwise, describe them.
3.In general, do we as professionals in the workplace learning field have the right CAPABILITIES and/or COMPETENCIES to be fully professionalized--to be as effective as we can be?(Required.)
4.What competencies do we have? What are we strongly skilled at NOW?
5.What competencies do we need to develop to be fully effective NOW and/or in the NEAR FUTURE (3 to 5 years).
Entry Into the L&D Field
6.When people enter the Learning and Development field, is there a sufficient set of requirements for their knowledge and skills?

To put this question into context, nurses, doctors, lawyers, hair stylists, financial planners, actuaries, and others often have to pass an educational experience (earn a diploma), or pass a set of exams, or successfully complete an apprenticeship experience to enter their professions.(Required.)
7.Are our current entry requirements sufficient? Should they be more lenient or more rigorous? And why?
8.What about the future? As an industry, what would an ideal set of entry requirements look like?
9.[OPTIONAL] How would these requirements be established, measured, and monitored? This is a difficult question, but give us your perspective on how the industry might practically move to a new set of requirements? How would these requirements be policed, made free from bias, be accepted by hiring managers, etc.
Feedback on Our Effectiveness (Learning Evaluation)
10.How well do we know the following? In other words, how effective are our evaluation efforts in gathering meaningful feedback on each of these?
We know VERY LITTLE
We know SOMETHING
We know ENOUGH
Whether Learners Fully Comprehend What They've Learned
Whether Learners Are Motivated To Apply What They've Learned
Whether Learners Remember What They've Learned
Whether Learners Can Make Realistic Decisions Based On What They've Learned
Whether Learners Get Resources, Tools, and Equipment They Need
Whether Learners Get Support from Their Managers
Whether Learners Are Successful in Applying What They've Learned to Their Work
Whether Learning Programs Produce Benefits for the Organization
Whether Learning Programs Produce Benefits for Learners
Whether Learning Programs Produce Benefits for the Community, Society, or Environs
11.Feel free to provide any additional or clarifying information about how well our evaluations are gathering pertinent data.
12.In addition to formal evaluations that look at learning results, we can also get feedback from reviews/audits of our learning designs or learning programs. Who should provide these reviews?(Required.)
Internal Employees
External People/Organizations
Teams of Internal & External People
No One Should Do These Reviews
Yearly reviews of a select group of our normal learning programs.
Reviews of strategically important learning programs.
Reviews of new-course designs (before they are rolled out).
Reviews of learning-evaluation methods.
Review of a learning program compared to research-based best practices.
13.Feel free to provide any additional or clarifying information about choosing internal or external people in providing feedback on our work products.
14.Do we get sufficient feedback on the effectiveness of our learning programs—feedback that enables us to improve our learning designs and create virtuous cycles of continuous improvement?(Required.)
15.What learning-evaluation practices should we do LESS FREQUENTLY or stop doing altogether?
16.What learning-evaluation practices should we DO MORE OF or START DOING for the first time?
Support From Our Trade Organizations
17.How well are our industry trade organizations doing the following?
They do this POORLY or NOT ENOUGH
They do this OKAY
They do this VERY WELL
Sharing Validated Research- and Evidence-Based Information
Curating and Selling Important Relevant Books
Minimizing the Impact of Myths and Misconceptions
Providing Conferences That Provide High-Quality Information
Pushing Initiatives to Raise Industry-Wide Salaries
Lobbying Politicians and Power Brokers to Support the Industry
Advocating for Ethical Guidelines In Our Work
Creating a Meritocracy Where The Best Ideas and Solutions Win
Advocating for and Supporting Professionals More than Commercial Interests
Developing Rigorous Standards For Our Work
Supporting Scientific Research with Funding
Supporting Research-to-Practice Work with Funding and Visibility
18.Industry trade organizations can play a critical role in educating and guiding professionals in any field. How well are our Learning-and-Development trade organizations supporting us now?(Required.)
19.What are our trade organizations DOING WELL NOW?
20.What should trade organizations STOP doing that they are doing now?
21.What should trade organizations do in the NEAR FUTURE? What should they do that they are not doing now? What should they continue to do?
Graduate School Programs and Universities
22.How well are graduate programs and universities preparing their students for the L&D field? Ideally, we hope that our education institutions provide (a) validated, research-aligned information, (b) practical relevant skills, (c) inspiration for the importance of the work we do, (d) foundations and fundamental principles and values, and (e) an ability to think critically and creatively about the work they will be doing. How well are graduate programs and universities doing this now?(Required.)
23.What are our graduate programs and universities DOING WELL NOW?
24.What are our graduate programs and universities DOING POORLY NOW? What should they WORK TO IMPROVE in the near future?
Our Business/Organization Stakeholders
25.As learning professionals, we have a naturally co-dependent relationship with our business/organization stakeholders. Some of them are senior to us, others are rightfully thought of as customers, others are our peers.

In general, are these stakeholders supporting us--pushing us, nudging us, resourcing us, respecting us, allowing us to manage our work--in ways that help us do good work, that help us be effective professionals?(Required.)
26.How are our relationships with our organizational stakeholders working to enable us as learning professionals to be maximally effective? What is working now?
27.What about our relationships with our organizational stakeholders is NOT working now? What could be better? What must change to help us be fully effective professionals?
Our Own Professional Practices
28.There are many forces that influence our ability to act as professionals, but we should hold ourselves accountable too.

How are we doing as individual professionals and managers in L&D to support ourselves as professionals?
We do this VERY LITTLE
We do this a MODEST AMOUNT
We do this A LOT
Seeking University Educational Programs and Experiences
Staying Current with Research- and Evidence-Based Information
Having a Healthy Skepticism for Ideas, Solutions, Tools, and Marketing Messages
Hiring Research-to-Practice Experts to Audit/Review Your Current Practices
Regularly Learning from Areas of Knowledge Related to L&D
Providing Training on L&D-Relevant Topics to Ourselves as L&D Professionals
Using an Experimental, Rapid-Prototyping Approach to Design & Development
Utilizing A-B Testing to Determine the Best Versions of Our Learning Designs
Reading Important Books Related to L&D Practice
Regularly Comparing Our Current Competencies to Our Desired Competencies
Creating A Learning-Team Culture of Curiosity, Challenge, and Openness
Regularly Observing Our Target Learners In Their Real Work Situations
Seeking Out Alternative Ideas Before Deciding on a Course of Action
29.In terms of our self-initiated efforts to be professionalized, what are we doing NOW that is MOST USEFUL?
30.In terms of our self-initiated efforts to be professionalized, what are the most important efforts we are FAILING TO DO and what should WE AIM TO DO BETTER in the near future?
A Little About You
So that we can fully understand the data, it's helpful to know a little about those who have responded.
31.What do you spend the most time on in your work? Pick the selections that best define your work over the last six months. SELECT AS MANY AS ARE TRUE.(Required.)
32.In what type of setting do you work? SELECT ALL THAT APPLY.
(Required.)
33.How many YEARS have you been involved in doing learning & development work?(Required.)
34.What is your highest level of formal education COMPLETED?(Required.)
35.Your Location(Required.)
Final Thoughts
36.Anything else we should have asked about? Anything else you want to share?
Part of a Larger Effort

Remember, this survey is just one part of our efforts--at the L&D Conference 2020--to CrowdThink and deliberate on our professionalization as members of the L&D field. At the conference, starting June 22nd and going through July 31st, groups of people will focus in more depth on these topics, using a modified world-cafe methodology. They will focus from their own expertise and will inform their thinking with the results of this survey. You are, of course, welcome to join the conference. https://www.learningdevelopmentconference.com/.

You can register here: https://academy.worklearning.com/library/ld-conference-2020-playground-cf265895/126951/about/


Getting a Report of the Findings

A report will be developed as a result of this effort.

When you complete this survey (almost there!), we will send you to a separate webpage to sign up for the report. We send you to a separate survey to ensure the anonymity of your data. If you don't go there automatically, here is the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LDC2020--Report

Thank you!

From here, Fernando Senior will facilitate the CrowdThinking modified-world-cafe dialogue at the L&D Conference 2020, and Will Thalheimer will focus on the survey results, while also engaging as a participant in Fernando's brilliantly-designed set of interactions.

We are grateful for your time and energy in sharing your wisdom and perspectives!

Please complete the survey now so that it sends you to the sign up for the forthcoming report.

= Fernando Senior
= Will Thalheimer