Trends in learning and development and the not-for-profit sector

The world's yours in 2015

Reflections 2014

The holidays are always a good time to reflect on the year’s highs, lows and learning.

Here at CDA we agree that this has been a truly satisfying and rewarding year, working with organisations and individuals of immense talent and integrity.

As always working with great people provides a natural environment for mutual learning and we have been paying attention….. sometimes we have more questions than answers, they are usually great questions!!! I ‘ll explore some of these great questions in a future article.

Learning and development trends

We are already excited about the year ahead. Bill Kernoczy has been designing bespoke programmes for organisations in Australia and overseas. He is noticing a trend happening. CEO’s are requesting programmes be designed very specifically, addressing current needs to help employees develop skill and competence ready to deliver their vision of the future. When you are working across borders an ability to calibrate cultures adds enormous value to delivering successful outcomes.  By respectfully appreciating and recognising  cultural differences  and including appropriate communication and relevant references we are building strong relationships that will keep our partnerships on track for years to come.

I am also becoming aware of a shift in the approach to learning and development across a number of the industries we work with. Clients are very clear on  ROI and expect this to be reflected in programmes being prepared and delivered for their executives and their teams and directly linked to their  short, medium and long term strategies. They expect meaningful skill and experience transfer to take place and we are enjoying partnering with them to achieve great outcomes for everyone involved.

 Not-for-profit sector

Many of our clients in for profit organisations are developing an interest in the not-for-profit sector. There is a great deal of positive change in this area with highly skilled executives giving freely of their time and talent to build stronger skills in emerging organisations in this sector. This is not all one way giving as skilled commercial executives are learning the power of sophisticated influencing skills. People who volunteer make a double contribution.

Many of our for profit executives are very interested in this positive effect of influence versus authority and benefits, and are considering alternative approaches back at their workplaces. This seems like a very fair exchange to us!!

We continue to work in the not for profit sector and as mentioned  our contribution is more than compensated for by what we learn from the talented individuals we work with  thinking through complex issues and finding solutions and clear pathways forward  for their organisations.

Have a great 2015!

Catherine

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