Fall 2015 Symposium, Day 2: Want to Create Value? Be Open to Change

If there were a list somewhere of all the things learning leaders should care about, it would probably be long enough to wrap one of said learning leaders like a mummy.

Day 2 of the Fall 2015 Symposium covered most of what would occupy top slots on such a list: meeting business goals, accommodating learners, working with line of business peers, managing technology and preparing for the future. But with the future continually and rapidly changing the ability to deal with these things is increasingly tough — particularly using traditional learning and development strategies.

Worse, humans may soon have to compete with machines to do the work. Fortune Editor-at-Large and author Geoff Colvin scared the audience with his morning keynote featuring some rather startling ideas on the rise of computers in the work world. Apparently, there's a day coming in the not-distant-enough future where people may actually become unemployable. He mentioned something called the universal benefits movement, where these formerly employed people, for no reason other than their skill sets, have been taken over by computers, will have to be subsidized in order to live.

Ouch.

If you're thinking, no way, it'll never happen, Colvin said to think again. Apparently there are few things people can do that computers cannot, in fact, do better. But we do have one keen advantage over the machines: deep human interaction. These skills, if cultivated will ensure humans retain value in the work world.

.@geoffcolvin: Employers today want cultural sensitivity, co-creativity, relationship building – deep human interaction skills. #CLOsym

— Kellye Whitney (@kellyewhit) October 13, 2015

It's frightening to think that a machine might be able to eliminate a human, but consider how important data and analytics are to most facets of the business. I sat at more than one table during the event with learning leaders who openly confessed they didn't have a good grasp of what data to gather, let alone how to use it. Yet, technology is quickly making itself an indispensable asset not just for learning but also for the business world in general — technology that produces tons of data that leaders need to use to make decisions.

Christian Rudder, co-founder of OkCupid, gave the afternoon keynote on data, relating just how useful it's been to the success of his business — in between sharing some ridiculous/hilarious tidbits about humans and love and the behind-the-curtain wizardry of running a popular dating site. He's a strong advocate for data collection and analysis, but was quick to caution attendees about relying on it without the proper context or transparency.

.@christianrudder: Numbers have a certain authority, but without context, without asking, does this make sense, they won't work. #CLOsym

— Kellye Whitney (@kellyewhit) October 13, 2015

Now, think about change, and data, and then consider how socially inept people have gotten. Over breakfast I learned via this years’ Norman B. Kamikow Learning Leadership Award winner Allison Rossett, that thanks to technology, younger generations are actually losing the ability to process eye and mouth facial expressions. This gels perfectly with Colvin’s address on how brain activity synchronizes when two people communicate face to face. During those seconds, we are literally bonding and those connections are often lost — especially among younger generations.

So, we rely more and more heavily on technology, but we’re struggling to leverage it effectively, and even more slowly learning how to master the data we increasingly depend on to grow, develop and operate our businesses. And that same technology is retarding our ability to interact with one another and potentially threatening our value as humans.

I say again, ouch.

Of course, all was not gloom and doom, and watch out the cyborgs are coming. The Power Hour presentations and interviews I conducted with learning leaders like Kristi Stepp, vice president of organizational effectiveness for Kelly Services, reiterated that all is not lost — if learning leaders are willing and open to change in its myriad applications and forms.

.@krististepp: #Learning leaders, 1985 called, and they want their #leadership #development model back. Command and control is over. #CLOsym

— Kellye Whitney (@kellyewhit) October 13, 2015

So, learning leaders? Be open. You’ll need to be in order to survive.