CRITICAL NEED FOR LEADERSHIP DEVLEOPMENT HIGHLIGHTED IN LATEST RESEARCH

Summary of presentation by Dr. Michael Leimbach at Wilson Learning’s Expert Forum Thursday, 13 November '08

Organisations must urgently address the need for Leadership Development, and must adopt faster, more cost effective learning transfer methods - these were the key messages delivered by visiting organisation & development expert, Dr. Michael Leimbach in Sydney in November.

Dr Leimbach, Wilson Learning’s VP Research & Design, is recognised within the learning and development industry globally as a leading researcher, designer and author.

Speaking at an Expert Forum hosted by Wilson Learning Australia, Dr. Leimbach was in Sydney as the US delegate to the ISO committee on Learning & Development Standards and key note speaker at the Institute of Learning & Development Professionals (ILDP) Global Learning Forum. 

An invited audience of HR and L&D practitioners heard Dr. Leimbach present a summary of his most recent research on Trends in Workplace Learning & Performance

(see below for slides and to order your copy of the whitepaper)

He identified four key trends in organisations globally that will engage organisations and the Learning & Development profession over the coming years.  These are:

• A critical need for more leadership development in organisations
• The need to link Human Resource Development (HRD) to organisational strategy
• The increased role of multiple learning-transfer methods
• The need to address broad talent management as part of learning and performance issues

Dr. Leimbach pointed out that these trends are all interconnected, with leadership development at their core.

Dr. Leimbach called for organisations to develop 'Learning Focused Managers' who can connect workplace learning initiatives to organisational strategy. 

Managers with these skills will ensure that learning results in increased performance.  This change requires managers to develop new skills to help their people prepare for, and participate in, new forms of learning transfer.

  He gave an example of research showing that post-training activities resulted in 35% to up to 60% increased use of skills 12 months after training!

For your copy of the whitepaper, "Trends in Workplace Learning & Performance", contact Wilson Learning today on (02) 9232-4124.

Some slides from Dr. Leimbach's session (CLICK HERE for PDF):