Reflections from Learning Live 2015

I’m presenting a session at Learning Live tomorrow, with a chance to explore the sessions today. Some short reflections on key topics and language that I’m hearing: mention of millennials, broad swathes of change and a continuation of interest in social approaches to learning.

The question of Millennials keeps coming up, but it feel like a distraction: my sense is that behaviours are not especially or meaningfully age related, but rather that Millennials act as a barometer for wider swathes of change. We see young people acting differently and assume that it’s them who are unique, when in fact it may be the whole ecosystem that has changed and, like the canary in the mine, it’s the Millennials who react first. My sense is that focussing on Millennials alone is a fiction: we should instead seek to understand the wider change.

There’s a lot of conversation about change: the role of HR, the types of training we need, the future state. Currently it’s a restlessness: people feel that the storm is coming, and they’re right to fear the rumbles. Change, in the Social Age, is both broad and constant, and it’s just starting to bite. We will see fundamental shifts in working and learning and more big players will fall before the survivors adapt.

Social remains on the agenda: initial interest in systems will disappoint though. It’s engagement that counts, and no technology will guarantee engagement. Sociology and technology in tandem are the key.

Brief thoughts: as ever these days can be long, but the discipline of writing helps collate a legacy.