I have had the opportunity to reflect on a very successful and interesting experience during my time at the recent #ATD23 conference in San Diego, California.
A few of my observations include:
In-person meetings and conferences are back – There were over 9,000 attendees at #ATD23 and you
could feel the energy and appreciation for the freedom to explore and learn about leadership and talent development.
There is a lot of pent-up demand – Between the pandemic and the uncertain economic environment, many organizations have been treading water in terms of bold, new innovative ways of building capabilities. Now, many key decision makers are actively and aggressively looking for new solutions.
There are many new players in the leadership space – The ATD exhibit halls were filled with new players all trying to pitch content and learning approaches to fit today’s learners and work-life-learning balance.
Immersive and simulation-centric learning has (finally) become mainstream – We broke a record for the number of visitors to our booth seeking more information about innovative ways to build capabilities through tools that help learners learn-by-doing.
There is a new seriousness about the skills needed for people and organizations to exceed expectations – In almost every conversation I had during the week it was noticeable that something has changed. Talent Development leaders understand they can’t rely on what worked in 1989 and need new ways and approaches to teach the skills that are needed by leaders to exceed expectations, not just meet them.
New Skills and Learning Approaches to Exceed Expectations
There are many great quotes about leadership from Steve Jobs that have as much relevance as they did 15 years ago. One of them supports what I observed at the conference, “Be a yardstick for quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
It was very clear to me listening to the voices at ATD there is a new desire to develop the skills and culture to exceed expectations. But how? What does it take to lead teams and companies to greatness in 2023 and beyond?
I believe the secret and the answer to the question are well-designed learning journeys that are targeted to the right audiences and include immersive, interactive, and experiential learning and core leadership topics that build the skills needed for exceeding expectations.
In addition to foundations drivers of success such as having the right attitude, motivation, and commitment, the capabilities that are needed include:
- Strategic awareness
- Business acumen including aligning goals to financial performance metrics
- Leading through:
- Situational Leadership
- Coaching
- Leading execution
- Leading change
- Resolving business conflicts
- Creating an environment of psychological safety
It’s Time to Execute
Many of the 200+ people that stopped by the Advantexe booth have been planning, assessing, designing, and thinking about implementing the new skills needed to help leaders lead to exceeding expectations for several years. They are now ready to execute. The pent-up demand has a significant sense of urgency and talent development leaders are ready to try new ideas like extended virtual learning journeys, business simulations, pod-based learning work groups, action learning projects, and much more. The challenge of course is to find ways to do this without burning people out and taking them away from the important work.
Many of the new methods of learning are able to satisfy all needs. For example, Advantexe in partnership with Blanchard launched the new SLII simulation to tremendous reviews at the ATD conference and many existing and new clients have already started to lay the simulation into their learning designs to cover one of the most critical capabilities needed to help people exceed expectations.
