Howdy and welcome to my web log.

Firstly this post is dedicated to my beautiful family unit who have shown me the ability to strive through arduousness and to maintain my smile and sense of belief – no matter what hurdles and obstacles are placed earlier me !

So hither we are – my first book review on my blog and boy what a book I selected.

Revolutionize Learning and Evolution by Clark N. Quinn *

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Firstly permit'south clear the air – yes the championship of the book is mis-spelt (depending which continent you live in) afterward repeated attempts in Word to rectify the spelling error I gave up and thus nosotros are stuck with Revolutionize 😉

Phew glad I got that 1 of my breast…

Now on to the book…

Well let me beginning with how I got this book. I ordered this book along with three others from Amazon around late June and when the shipment arrived I had a choice of which one to read, but as I had heard alot almost Clark and had the fortune to interact with him via twitter and had sometimes seen him tweet some things about a chat he joins on a Friday mornings, I thought I would go with him.

So I picked it upwardly and glanced at this book with this big RED mitt holding what looks like a book (manifesto?) – I gave information technology the once over and then I put it down.

Then i day, while I was travelling to town via our reliable and beautiful Victorian Public Transport organization, I decided to kickoff reading it and that'south when it hit me – equally my mate Jackie Gleeson would say "Pow right in the Kisser". By the time I had reached my terminate at the bottom of Kings St and Lonsdale St, I was furious, I was angry. I was striking by nonetheless another Manifesto (by this stage I had read and dismissed the eLearning Manifesto) which is all I really needed !

I thought who is this guy – he is accusing me of not doing my  task properly. Who is this guy sitting all the way in his cushy office in the Usa somewhere who is telling me that the terminal 15 years of my L&D life accept been to no avail. I was non going to let this guy get away with having a get at me and my mates in the L&D profession.

So get-go point of warning – exist prepared to be confronted, to be challenged.  In hindsight, this ends upwards working well, but to accept this thrust upon you in the commencement few chapters of the book does knock you about.

And so what did I do – I tweeted Clark and expressed my view. I won't bore you with a copy of the commutation only the upshot is that Clark responded in a positive and constructive mode and challenged me to go on on reading and to give the book a go.

It was then that I realised what a not bad invitee Clark would be for my #ozlearn tweet chat – I thought likewise every bit the book had just been released information technology would also benefit Clark in promoting his book in this region – then I organised to interview Clark (due to timezone differences he could not join us alive).  After overcoming my issues with Google Hangouts I succumb and reverted to  Skype and recorded an interview with Clark (which you can see here) and this was used for our September #ozleaarn tweet conversation.

So I kept on reading – The get-go half dozen chapters are a reflection on what Clark classifies as the "Status Quo" and "To Hand" respectively – practiced chapters that embrace the current situation of our 50&D world – from our industry to neuroscience and the state of our organisations and technology.

At present you can read these if y'all wish, but if you wish to skip and come back to these later you can without major loss of continuity.

Merely if like me, you really want to know what to do and exercise now, jump directly to Section three – this is where the book really starts to "kicks goals". The framework presented is well structured and articulated reflecting on the demand for L&D to play the strategic role required and to exist measured against valid and primal business outcomes.

Chapter eight demonstrates how this may look like via some real life example studies. Clark "leans" on his friends in the industry to provide him some very skillful and detailed case studies – Mark Britz, Allison Anderson , Charles Jennings and Clark also refers u.s.a. to a few cess tools that will aid us to determine where nosotros may be at – I liked the eLearning Maturity Model from Towards Maturity the nearly.

Clark concludes with a statement which I believe is worth repeating, equally it resonated with me and I am sure it too will with all of you lot:

L&D's role will shift to facilitation and curation, with a much macerated function of cosmos and presentation.

It was at this point that I finally appreciated the purpose and role of this book – I realised that Clark not only challenged and confronted me simply he was willing to help me – he had offered me a way frontward and he was at present going to evidence me how to implement.

Chapter ix was peachy – information technology brought all the pieces together into what Clark termed a "Re-Call up". Here he outlined the need for a performance strategy, influencing the civilisation of learning and the rebadging of Fifty&D to Performance and Development. Clark points to the LPI Capability Map equally a tool to allow staff to appraise against the skills required "for an aware approach to 50&D".

He ends Section 3 with two swell reflections from his mates:

– Allison Rossett who advocates for a push to become learning professionals more than into the field so as to "rivet their attention to the challenges and cultures of the system"

– Marc Rosenberg who challenges the Fifty&D profession to do more to develop "solid value propositions for L&D" . He also notes that although Fifty&D is embracing informal learning, functioning support and social learning, "nosotros don't accept whatever idea on how to sell and implement these beyond our organisations".

Both reflections are to the point and clear on their views on the state of L&D ! Allison and Marc have added enormously to Clark'southward book – keen initiative Clark to include these two "giants" of L&D.

Section four (the last section) is the icing on the cake. As a firm believer of the craft of Performance Consulting and one which I believe is non practiced widely, I was so glad to see Clark make this his platform for Section 4 and dedicating a whole affiliate to this skill and process. His Design Decisions flowchart captures the process in a nut shell and one wonders why exercise we sometimes make things so hard for ourselves and over engineer everything – Clark simplifies this for united states of america in eight easy to follow steps.

Another department that resonated with me was that of Evaluation and Measurement. I recall Clark stating on our #ozlearn video interview (see link above to video chat) that Kirkpatrick is not dead albeit what some may say. He asks the states to flip Kirkpatrick effectually and start with the end in mind.  I was so glad to hear this as this was a do I had already adopted in my previous extensive evaluation work and the core premises of the Evaluation of 50&D Framework I developed for a large public service organisation in Australia.

Ane thing that did stand up out for me from this affiliate (and the whole book) was that Clark did non reference at all Return on Investment (ROI) as a strategy or suggested approach to determine the value add of L&D.  Whether intentionally or not, this to me sends a clear message to the profession that such measurement techniques are either no longer valued or required by the C-Suite – merely rather Learning Impact Measurement as advocated at a recent seminar by Nigel Paine is more the way to become in reporting the value of learning and the impact on concern.

Clark concludes the book by taking u.s.a. dorsum to where he had us in Chapter 1 – challenging us to do things differently, "terminate doing what nosotros are doing in a vacuum"! He stresses to "stop being order takers" and beginning to be operation consultants, and he asks us to sign up to the Performance and Evolution Manifesto.

Yes I had reacted earlier in having another manifesto shoved in my face, but equally I reached the end of this volume I came to realise that this one was different, this ane was going to make a difference – it challenges us to practice things dramatically differently; it asks us to think of our roles in a more effective and efficient way; it pleads with us to not continue to develop for the sake of developing but to curate and facilitate; it implores us to chose performance support over training; it invites u.s. proceed to evaluate and mensurate ourselves and finally it encourages u.s.a. to proceed to explore and innovate.

Thanks Clark for an inspiring book.  On a personal note and upon reflection, I know our initial twitter exchange on the book may not take set the right tone just credit where credit is due – your book did resonate with me and had an impact on my thinking.

It also is very timely, as we encounter from the recent Towards Maturity Benchmark Study that L&D is seen has having an over reliance on eLearning and engineering science without much idea been given as to whether it is the right solution. Performance consulting and curation skills, two of the cardinal skills and approaches you have recommended, are still not axiomatic or underdeveloped in our L&D departments. I am hoping that books such as yours will assist us all to step upwardly and exist role of the "revolution".

I highly recommend this volume to all L&D/ OD professionals.

Follow:

Clark Quinn on twitter

his web log Learnlets

his Revolutionize L&D site

and his Revolutionize Fifty&D Linkedin group.

The book is available now on both Kindle and Paperback – click here.

* This reviews was based on the paperback version of the volume.

Till next time – take care…