| Abstract | This critical commentary has a dual purpose. It is, at once, a reflection on four public works which track the arc of my activity and growth as a professional over the last ten years, and a contextual examination of what those works, and the narrative trajectory they trace, indicate to us about the wider context of learning and development (L&D) inside organisations.
The work involves an analysis of the wider intellectual arena from the last 50 years – how and why many of the underlying assumptions around learning and development emerged. It explores the gaps that exist between current practices and assumptions in corporate learning and development, and the wider challenges for organisational development, structure, and learning.
The commentary is, therefore, a two-way narrative. It tracks my own intellectual development as a step-by-step broadening of perspective, together with an account of the spiral of exploration, and discovery leading to insight, that is embedded but undisclosed in the public works themselves.
A framework is constructed of five different lenses, and these lenses are used to examine the intermeshing processes involved both in the works themselves and the unlocking of meaning that emerges from the examination of the relationships between the works.
The public works in question are my three most recent books – The Learning Challenge (2014); Building Leadership Development Programmes (2017); and my book on learning culture, Workplace Learning (2019)(2021) – together with my role in the Penn Chief Learning Officer (CLO) executive doctoral programme. This fourth public work traces my involvement with the University of Pennsylvania’s programme for Chief Learning Officers and other learning leaders, which I helped construct in 2006 and have been working on and teaching in ever since.
The Public Works
1. PennCLO executive doctoral programme: (2007-present) https://www.gse.upenn.edu/academics/programs/penn-chief-learning-off...
2. Nigel Paine (2014) The Learning Challenge: Dealing with technology, innovation and change in learning and development, London, Kogan Page
3. Nigel Paine (2017) Building Leadership Development Programmes: Zero-cost to highinvestment programmes that work, London, Kogan Page
4. Nigel Paine (2019) (2021) Workplace Learning: How to build a culture of continuous employee development, London, Kogan Page
The commentary explores the symbiotic connection between all four public works and unlocks the hidden tributaries of thought that link them, mediated by my own emerging practice. This analysis would not have been possible without the reservoirs of insight afforded by my role as both researcher and practitioner.
The conclusions will change my practice and help me develop a new agency with organisations, whilst challenging my assumptions by setting my work in a much broader intellectual frame. This research has been a process of transformation and consolidation. |
|---|