Working and Training in a VUCA Environment 

If you’re struggling to keep learning and development relevant during a time of unprecedented change, you’re not alone. This was a major theme of my interview with Nafiza Akter, Director, Training Development Lead at Pfizer. Check out her thoughts on living in a VUCA environment and what she’ll address in her DevLearn 2025 session: 

Q: How did you get your start in learning and development? 

A: It all started with an internship. So, one of my very first work experiences was with creating Machinima, which is the art of creating video and film inside of a gaming environment. We were creating Machinima specifically to raise awareness about global issues.  

I loved it so much that I went on to help facilitate a virtual online summer camp for youth. In that summer camp, I taught youth how to create machinima and create narratives around the Convention on the Rights of the Child, one specific thing they felt passionate about. And that’s really where it all started. I really love being in this field, and I love being able to creatively leverage technology to educate others and to bring awareness to the things that we feel most passionate about. 

Q: What’s your favorite part of working in training? 

A: My favorite part of working in learning and development and training is the fact that there is just endless exploration of so many things. There’s a lot of novelty. So if you’re a person who really enjoys exploring new things and not having a day that’s just a repeat of yesterday L&D is a great space to be in because you will always be surprised. You will always have to take on a topic that you know nothing about and master it so that you can articulate and communicate it in a way that others can easily understand. I love that it inspires me to learn so that I can inspire others to learn.  

Q: In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges currently facing L&D professionals? 

A: I think one of the biggest challenges is that for a very long time, we’ve had a VUCA environment where there is a lot of volatility and change. But at present, in most organizations, people are experiencing a level of change that they’ve never experienced before. And when we’re in this constant churn of change, it’s really hard to be in a learning mindset because you’re just trying to learn what today will look like and how that differs from yesterday. So the hardest part for me is to get people excited and engaged in learning because people feel like maybe it’s not worth the investment because tomorrow, maybe we won’t do this anymore, right?  

I think AI presents yet another factor: it’s an opportunity, but it’s also a creator of chaos in some way or another. I imagine that many organizations are having a really difficult time getting a lot of AI tools approved through the organization. Because in order to use AI, especially generative AI, it has to be able to take your information and store it so it can learn from it. That’s the foundation of machine learning. Unfortunately, that creates a lot of legal barriers because folks who work in industries where they’re working on proprietary data find it really hard to use the super innovative technology that everyone’s interested in. I think it’s just one part of the rainbow of change that we have, and it’s quite difficult to navigate and really get into that growth and learning mindset. 

Q: You touched on AI, what else do you think is bringing this volatility and change to the industry? 

A: We’re just in a time of lots of uncertainty. In the global atmosphere and in the US economy, there are a lot of changes. So, I think it becomes difficult to know what the right space to invest in is, whether that investment is your time or your money. 

Q: Without giving too much of a spoiler, what will you cover in your DevLearn session? 

A: I’m really looking forward to my DevLearn session because I’m looking at AI in the instructional design space in a way that I’m hoping people will find meaningful to them. What I really want to do is think about how we can look at AI and think about how we as individuals meaningfully use AI throughout the instructional design cycle. So it’s not about the tool and how you do this faster and better. There’s going to be a tool to do that throughout the design cycle. But it’s really a reflection of how you, as an individual, use it effectively so that you can still do the things that you really love and the things that you humanly do really, really well. 

There are times when AI can actually slow us down because it’s working off a generic. So when you use it to do the thing that you do really well and really quickly, it’s going to give you something that’s not so great. But there are things where… if you really struggle with script writing or starting a script—that blank canvas is really hard for you to work with—that might be a good time to use AI to draft something for you. So it’s really a reflection of where your strengths are and how you best leverage them to keep doing what you do best while fortifying your areas of growth by leveraging and augmenting them with AI.