Is Learning and Development approaching an Uber moment?

The head of emerging leader development for one of the oldest, largest and most reputable companies on the planet made a really interesting comment to me earlier this week. 
I was interviewing her at one of our roundtable breakfast events in London and had asked how an organisation like hers, steeped in a long history of innovation, approaches L&D.
“We've got to use a 'start-up' mentality for L&D” she replied. “Otherwise things move too slowly. We test a minimum viable product and then, with buy in and a great product, scale up. We learnt that from the book The Lean Startup…”
An interesting response for an organisation that is clearly not a start-up. At 120 years old, 300k staff and revenues of more than USD $100 billion it’s fair to say they’ve hit maturity.
“… And to do that, because we’re so big and sometimes slow to change, we’ve had to set lots of teams around the world ‘free’ so they can act like start-ups … we’ve made them smaller, more agile and with more autonomy to try things out, measure them, fail, and try something else until they have something that really works and then go for it” she added.
Act like a start up. Set your team free. Try stuff. Measure it. Let it fail. Learn. Try something else. 
What a brilliant mentality for corporate L&D teams and providers alike. It flies in the face of a corporate L&D industry otherwise dictated by more traditional annual planning, budget cycles and pressure to ‘get it right’ to protect budget for next year. But is this just a thing only relevant to an organisation of that size, scale and stability? What about the rest of the industry?
Fast forward to last night.
Some of our team and I attended The 20th Annual Learning Awards Dinner hosted by the Learning and Performance Institute - a swanky affair at the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, London, with 500 other learning professionals and excited finalists.
Many of the award categories, and many of the organisations who were finalists and winners, reflect an industry where people and teams succeed when they are prepared to think and act like start-ups. The evening reflected an industry not only very different to when the awards were first held 20 years ago – but also an industry that is changing. Rapidly. Changing. 
The Learning Technologies Award, the Innovation in Learning Award, the Start-Up Learning Provider of the Year as well as more niche awards reflecting a shift in the corporate L&D landscape in the UK such as Apprenticeship Programme of the Year all point in this direction.
While we were grateful bronze winners for ‘Learning Provider of The Year’ the feedback we received for why we did well was key. Our innovative thinking and scalable approach to L&D programmes with Engagement Dynamics – or gaming principles – mixed with smart technology to create measurable, data-driven on-the-job learning got us there. 
After 11 years in the game, we launched this less than 12 months ago. It feels great to win such an award after all this time – feeling like you’ve just had your first year, feeling like you’ve just run your first programme.
When the dinner concluded I stood on the street, pulled out my iPhone and opened up Uber.
Within 3 minutes, I was in the back of private car being whisked through the quiet streets of London towards home. In my hand I could follow my journey in real time, see the driver’s name, car registration, average passenger rating and his full contact details should I leave my black tie in the back of the car. As the very respectful and friendly driver pulled up outside my address (which he somehow already knew) the charge automatically hit my credit card, I said thank you, and got out. In the time it took me to walk from the street to my front door I had a receipt I my email inbox outlining all the above details for future reference. 
Uber, and other companies fast becoming part of our day-to-day lives, has created a disruptive moment in their industry. They’re impacting peoples lives in ways we never thought possible not long ago. Like many of the winners last night they’re changing the very game their industry plays. And they're doing so using the start up approach and mentality my interviewee referred to. They're creating new ways of solving old problems. 
So is learning and development approaching an Uber moment?
I think yes, learning and development is definitely approaching an Uber moment.
Like so many other industries it is being, and will be disrupted with new ways of solving old problems no one thought was possible not too long ago. And I really believe it's happening sooner than we realise. Learning and development will change and it won't look anything like the way the vast majority of the industry approaches it today.  
How? More on that in a future post. For now there is work to do to impact people’s lives in ways we didn’t know were possible. There are more old problems to solve with start-up thinking to change the game in learning and development.

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