The Learning Awards 2022 Keynote Address – A Time for Leaders.

If the past 2 years have taught us anything, it is that we cannot predict the future. Our industry, like many others, can be obsessed with trends and hype:

· What’s the next learning revolution going to look like?

· Should I be investing in the metaverse?

· What’s this web3 everyone keeps talking about?

What we can be certain about, though, is that learning is changing and work is changing.

As workplace learning professionals, our purpose is to help companies and their people perform better using the tools and techniques at our disposal. How we do this in the future may be quite different to how we do it today.

Technology, of course, continues to play a major role. For example, we’re only just getting to grips with the idea that social media algorithms can promote human-created content to our learners.

Yet we’re already well into an age where AI can reliably design and create content, tuned specifically to a promotional algorithm, without any human input at all. What does this mean for L&D?

Well – as David Bowie once said, “I don’t know where I’m going from here but I promise you it won’t be boring”.

Then we have the changing face of work itself.

From the pandemic-driven shift towards hybrid working, to the growing adoption of automation and gig-work.

From Gen Z’s demands for corporate transparency and authenticity, to calls for the decentralization of traditional decision-making power structures.

Work and the ‘workplace’ are experiencing an existential crisis.

So –

· Will we find ourselves working asynchronously and remotely from our peers?

· Will we be represented only by avatars?

· Will our routine decisions be rewritten as open-sourced, automated computer code?

· Will our learning content be created by AI, and distributed as tradeable assets on the blockchain?

These are questions that may be answered sooner than we think.

But, if there’s one thing I can say about the people in this room – it’s that we are exceptional at adapting to change. Whatever happens, we all have one unique, human quality that will help us succeed and thrive in this brave new world. And that thing is leadership.

I don’t mean leadership in the hierarchical sense but leadership in the sense of guiding others (and ourselves) to better things.

· Leadership as guardians, as coaches, as mentors.

· Leadership that encourages creativity, cultivates curiosity, and galvanises confidence.

· Leadership that advocates that most essential skill – empathy.

· Leadership that lights the way ahead for individuals and organisations to navigate towards performance.

As John F. Kennedy said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

We can all be led, and we can all be leaders. We just need that wisdom to know the difference. Tonight, I believe everyone in this room has that wisdom. You have all demonstrated your ability, using the power of learning, to drive positive change and performance improvement on an individual and organisational level.

You are not merely the architects – you are the catalysts of performance.

Tonight, we celebrate your achievements – your success in seeing past the hype, staying true to your values, and motivating your people to become better versions of themselves. Believe me, this is no mean feat.

In a world with so much uncertainty, it’s easy to revert to short-term or reactive thinking. However, as I looked through the shortlisted entries of our finalists, I saw so much more:

· I saw beautiful creativity and boundless enthusiasm.

· I saw empathy, nurturing, and encouragement.

· I saw fearless long-term thinking and powerful strategic vision.

· In essence, I saw leadership – pure, authentic leadership.

So, let’s keep leading the way.

Let’s keep using our skills and our creativity.

Let’s keep inspiring others to perform better.

If learning is the lifelong process of adapting to change, then the most important job on the planet is empowering people how to learn. You have that job. You have that power.