For some readers, the cover of ClarkQuinn’s latest book will be evocative of a time when a popular battle cryurged, “Question everything!” In RevolutionizeLearning & Development: Performance and Innovation Strategy for theInformation Age, Quinn certainly raises a lot of questions about the way inwhich instructional designers go about their work, and about the future ofLearning and Development (L&D) as a field of endeavor within organizations.
However, unlike the infamous “LittleRed Book” referenced on the cover, Quinn’s book is not a catechism, or acompilation of dogma. It is a serious, thoughtful examination of the challengesto our profession and the resources available to us for responding. Quinn shareshis thoughts and those of other leaders in L&D on the necessary changes indirection and the ways in which we can collaborate in order to realize a betteroutcome than the one to which we now seem to be headed.
“A Call to Arms”
Using a rather telegraphic style forthe section and chapter titles, and keeping the early chapters short, Quinncreates a distinct impression of his sense of urgency about his mission: to findan answer to the question, “How does learning and development (L&D) moveforward?” Why the sense of urgency? He is convinced (as are many practitioners)that the world is changing, business is changing, new opportunities areemerging, but L&D “isnot doing what it can and should be doing—and what it is doing it is doingbadly.”
Toput it bluntly, Quinn asserts that the L&D profession is out of touch andout of step with what business needs, and continuing to do what we are doing isnot an option that has prospects for long-term viability. Is this mere hyperbole,or are we really in trouble?
The evidence
Itmay be dramatic, even confrontational like a counseling intervention with afriend who needs professional help to deal with a serious problem, but don’tlet the style of the writing in the first section distract you from the substance.Quinn admits to being less than temperate there, as he provides in depth his observationsabout what L&D professionals (meaning “we”) are doing wrong, and why it iswrong.
“Readerbeware,” he warns. He wants your attention, and he will get it, as he looks atour world and the changes that are taking place, and as he lays out his pictureof the ways in which current L&D practices are not adequate to that world andfail to achieve what we think they do. Quinn does not rely on unsupportedclaims, but on the results of surveys and on hard data about the resultsachieved (or not) through current practice.
Taking stock
Evenin Section 1, Quinn provides a glimpse of what he believes the world of L&Dcould look like. But how do we get there?
In the second section of the book,Quinn moves on to review what we know about learning (knowledge that L&D isnot using). He provides specifics: what we know about the brain and learning,about organizations, business and culture, and about technology. These are theresources that we have in our inventory (or can add to it if we pay attention),and the resources on which we must capitalize in order to move forward, tobecome relevant, and to perform competently in the world as it is and as it isbecoming.
Visions
In the penultimate section of Revolutionize Learning & Development,Quinn provides two important helps to the reader. The first is a framework formoving forward. Now, this is not an action plan. Instead, it offers a strategicway to think about L&D activities as a performance ecosystem. Forpractitioners who are only accustomed to measuring the success of L&D interms of head counts, sessions delivered, and Level 1 evaluation, the frameworkmay be a stretch, but it is an exercise that will pay off.
The second assist in this section isa number of perspectives and case studies that help the reader relate theresources and the framework to the vision that Quinn began to articulate inChapter 1. I would particularly recommend Chapter 9 and the “LeaderReflections” from Allison Rossett and Marc Rosenberg, two of the most respectedauthorities in the learning and development field.
Where next?
The last section of the book dealswith process, at a high level, for implementing the shift in strategy describedin Chapter 9. There is no checklist of action items here. It is moreabout defining a process by which we in the L&D profession can makedecisions that are right. Quinn promises to support this process through anongoing conversation within an online network.
Closing: Criticism or critique?
Gettingthrough the first three chapters of RevolutionizeLearning & Development may be a challenge for readers who take it only asa criticism of their personal efforts, and not (as it is intended) as acritique of our profession. For those readers, it might be important toremember that criticism focuses only on deficiencies, while critique focuses ongetting us to what can be.
ClarkQuinn has provided us with a critique, notes on strategy and process, and an architecturefor moving forward. It seems to me that this is certainly a book that will bediscussed and argued over, and one that will help many chart the way to theirvision of what learning and development should be.
Bibliography
Quinn, Clark N. RevolutionizeLearning & Development: Performance and Innovation Strategy for theInformation Age. San Francisco: Wiley, 2014.
