Serendipity and Learning

This is a question I often ask in my interviews and expect to be asked whenever either I go for an interview (or equally first time meeting with a potential client). What I answer you will know when we meet, but on the other side, very often there is no answer to this question - what's new in the OD space or tell me something new. For me this question is important because it means you as a practitioner are thinking about new things. Second, it means, you are not content with status quo and you are trying to push the envelope. The trick here is to not fall into the usual trap of 'what is supposed to be cool'. So, pushing jargons here is a sure disaster - like digital detox, micro learning or the so called problem of millennials and attention span (guess why this is wrong). One of the issues with 'new' is also that the learning and OD space still has a lot of old research - most of which is quite relevant and pertinent and that has become a comfort zone of sorts ...

When it comes to creating learning experiences creating the context is very important. That might sound obvious, but it is often not. This is perhaps one of my oldest thoughts but I had not quite figured out two things. One, that creating context, especially when you are a consultant is tough - because it goes beyond knowing the jargon - and goes into knowing the industry and requires a significant of contextual knowledge while at the same time have the humility of knowing that you are not the domain expert. This we were able to do successfully in a couple of projects to good effect. The second part of building context is the time and energy it takes to do so. And most companies either do not have the time or the money or both to do so. There is a neglected third element that many learning consultants wrongly believe that their work is beyond context - it is not - not by a long shot. But think about it - if you can build in greater context, your learning experiences are that...