Like it or not. Integrated learning systems are changing how we do business. Employee training programs, as well as learning and development departments, are being beefed up to withstand the roller coaster ride of change as the twists, turns, loops and speeds plow their way through the HR landscape.
In a survey of 200 Learning and Development leaders, 39% referred to the current jobs being altered or replaced by new technology like AI and automation. While 59% of those same 200 leaders surveyed had made note of the programs now in place to reskill, improve, or repurpose the performance of current employees to meet the technological advances that are being implemented on a seemingly weekly basis. And 64% of organizations have a formal or informal reskill or retrain project already in place. For example, at Booz Allen Hamilton they are retraining thousands of their internal employees on a seniority basis as data scientists thereby effectively transforming their company.
The American workplace seems to be at a place right now, where we will often be without an answer or solution to the changing face of our workplace training programs. That is all the more reason to be on a never-ending quest to ask the right questions for the benefit of these programs.
Automation, and AI along with robotics, are looming over the shoulder as it were, as humans fear to lose their jobs to computers and technology. "The digital disruptors in the form of big data and sensors are here." that according to a book by Dr. Lynda Gratton, It would also seem that we have come to mid-point of the "five shifts" that she describes in the book, "The Shift; The Future of Work Is Already Here." Her best advice?
Deal with it.
These shifts will only intensify and work will become interconnected on a day to day basis. The only way to survive as well as thrive in this roller coaster world is not to wait, but to catch the first wave of change that you encounter and adapt to it.
The human beings that we are, are built to adapt to change. This must be inherently true because without the ability of people to change and to accept change, we would not have survived as a species. The current changes that are taking place in the area of workplace training are by far out-pacing the and the organizational ability to adapt. This is causing some very deep cognitive and skill imbalances within the system.
It would be safe to assume the path integrated learning systems are on now will surpass the human ability to at least keep up in the foreseeable future. It will be the business that adapts and confidently fills those key positions that ultimately win this round of the never-ending battle to stay ahead of the integrated learning system curve. The future is either bright or brutal depending on how we use integrated learning systems in our workplace training.
