Great points Stephanie. You could summarise all of these as "L&D need to spend more time on themselves" when you consider time to digest research, think of innovation thats right for your organisation etc.

6...Don't panic - don't worry if your culture is behind the "topdeck", or you don't have LMS, e-learning etc. Keep working on your organisation, moving it forward in the right direction, allowing time for real change in culture.

In my experience, the best L&D professionals are those who do network with their peers, and not just at the conference and exhibitions.

For example, with their peers in companies within their sectors.

Don't let the fact they are competition stop you from benefiting from shared knowledge.

I couldn't agree more with this sentiment.

L&D teams who are successful do challenge the business - in a positive way

My advice is to be confident in your ability and skills as a L&D professional, market them internally and don't just take orders from the business - its about what is needed, not what they want.

It can take time to see success when you change like this but if you keep on message then it will come.

Good article Robin.

I'm a big fan of using the right tool at our disposal. As long as classroom training is good and impactful it has a place in learning. We can use technology to improve the experience.

Love this article Graham.

We are what we tell ourselves we are. During stressful moment the internal voice of self-doubt can often shout louder than the voice of reasonable thought.

For L&D this is a constant challenge when faced with such overwhelming times of change. I'm always speaking to L&D managers about this and providing advice and reassurance to help them respect that overwhelm and stress prevents them showing their true expertise.

So focus on doing less things well than lots of things poorly. This then improves your mental well being and ensures you can achieve more.

Westworld is one of those programmes that is mind blowing as it raises so many questions.

I'm all for the use of AI in the right way. There are many moral questions to face for those at the forefront of this technology. I suspect we are only seeing a glimpse of what is truly possible.

Great article Matthew. 

For me point 3 - that personal touch is so important.   If you are taking the time to press connect then take the time to write something personal or different.  You'll immediately stand out and it can begin a conversation. 

Whenever I receive a reply without a personal message I reply asking that person what makes them want to connect and what they'd like to get out of connecting with me.   Then I can decide if its worth connecting or not.  

Remember LinkedIn is effective if you engage with the people you are connected to, otherwise you just have a virtual business card holder.   

Thanks Chris, and for the heads up of an incorrect link....school boy error by myself! 

http://www.optimussourcing.com/training-news/learning-awards-review-2103 

Hi Chris

My summary was put on our blog on Monday, you can have a read here:

http://www.optimussourcing.com/training-news/learning-skills-learning-te...

Let me know your thoughts. 

Thanks

Blake

Chris

I wrote up a summary myself and have made very similar points. 

The seminars that were full of info are so worth going to but I hate the sales promotion approach.  I walked out of two seminars which had fantastic titles and summaries but then turned into blatant promotion within 2 minutes.    

Maybe see you at the next one. 

Blake