The Future of Learning

The Future of Learning

The Future of Learning Insights and Innovations from Executive Development Edited By Shirine Voller Research Manager, Ashridge Business School Eddie Blass Senior Lecturer in Professional Education, University of Hertfordshire Vicki Culpin Research Director, Ashridge Business School

Selection and editorial content Shirine Voller, Eddie Blass and Vicki Culpin 2011 Individual chapters the contributors 2011 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-24053-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN 978-1-349-31649-6 ISBN 978-0-230-30635-6 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230306356 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11

Contents List of Tables and Figures Notes on Contributors Preface vii viii xii Part I Future Context 1 Chapter 1 Future Context: Section Editorial 3 Vicki Culpin Chapter 2 Learning to Lead in Uncertain Times through 6 Storytelling and Improvisation Ellen Pruyne and Dave Bond Chapter 3 The Shifting Landscape of Global Challenges in the 17 21 st Century, What This Means for What Businesses Want From Tomorrow s Leaders, and the Implications for Management Learning Matthew Gitsham Chapter 4 The Future of HE: What Will the Sector Look Like in 33 25 Years Time and What Does This Mean for Executive Education? Eddie Blass, Anne Jasman and Steve Shelley Part II Future Learning 47 Chapter 5 Future Learning: Section Editorial 49 Shirine Voller Chapter 6 When the Classroom is No Longer a Room 53 Ronan Gruenbaum Chapter 7 Virtual Action Learning: A New Genre for Powerful 72 Learning Ghislaine Caulat Chapter 8 Virtual Action Learning A New Frontier? 88 Mollie Dickenson, Mike Pedler and John Burgoyne Chapter 9 Generation Y and Learning: A Changing World 106 Carina Paine Schofield and Sue Honoré v

vi Contents Part III Future Learner 125 Chapter 10 Future Learner: Section Editorial 127 Eddie Blass Chapter 11 Re-cognising Learning and Teaching: Opening the 131 Space of Possibility Chris Breen Chapter 12 Place-making: The Executive s Role in Aligning 150 Learning with Work Tom Short and Susan Coggan Chapter 13 An informed slowness Curiosity as an Enabler 165 of Learning in the Attention Economy Elaine Rumboll and Dave Duarte Chapter 14 Concluding Thoughts 178 Shirine Voller, Eddie Blass and Vicki Culpin Index 179

List of Tables and Figures Tables 3.1 Phases in the development of corporate sustainability 18 4.1 Summary of future changes likely in Executive Education 39 provision by HE 8.1 VAL: A six-form classification 94 8.2 VAL: Analysis of cases in an Expanded six-form 95 classification 9.1 Generational at a glance (including definitions) 108 Figures 7.1 An example of how Audio Action Learning is interwoven 73 into a traditional development programme and helps to ensure learning application and consolidation in the workplace 7.2 An example of how Audio Action Learning became the 74 platform to implement a new strategy 9.1 Generation Y strengths and weaknesses 114 9.2 Learning solutions and recommendations 117 11.1 Management and leadership 139 11.2 Scharmer s Theory U 139 12.1 Alignment and strategic drift 152 12.2 The place pentagon 156 12.3 Place positioning 159 vii

Notes on Contributors Eddie Blass started her academic career lecturing in HRM after a period of time training in industry. She completed her Doctorate at Durham on The Future University and combines her research interests in adult learning, HE and leadership development in her current job role at the University of Hertfordshire in the School of Education. Dave Bond specialises in personal leadership development, using coaching dialogues, presence and narrative in change processes. He has an MSocSci in politics (Cape Town), an MA in language ecology (Stellenbosch) and is completing his MSc in Executive Coaching (Ashridge). Dave is currently both a leadership faculty member at Ashridge (UK) and works privately out of Cape Town. Chris Breen took early retirement as Emeritus Associate Professor in mathematics education from the School of Education at the University of Cape Town in July 2008 after completing a three year term of office as President of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. He currently consults and teaches topics such as Complexity and Diversity, Personal Leadership, Becoming More Aware and Decision-Making in the Moment. John Burgoyne is Professor of Management Learning in the Department of Management Learning and Leadership at Lancaster University Management School. He is also an Associate at Ashridge and Henley Business School. In addition he is a Trustee of Brathay Trust, an outdoor development charity, and a fellow of the Leadership Foundation and the British Academy of Management. His interests are management, leadership and organisation development and the evaluation of initiatives in these areas. He has been interested in the Learning Organisation since the late 1980 s and is currently working on network theory as applied to all these areas. Ghislaine Caulat is Associate Business Director at Ashridge Consulting. She has been researching and working in the field of virtual working and virtual learning for the last seven years. She is currently finalising her Doctorate on Virtual Leadership (ADOC, the Ashridge Doctorate in Organisation Consulting in co-operation with Middlesex University). She also holds an MSc in Organisation Consulting from Ashridge and Middlesex University and an MA in English and Spanish Philology from the Johannesviii

Notes on Contributors ix Gutenberg University in Mainz (Germany). Ghislaine combines over fifteen years of consulting practice with global organisations with several years of business management practice working for companies such as Beiersdorf (FMCG) and Daimler (Automotive). Susan Coggan holds a Masters in Professional Education and Training from Deakin University. She has worked in primary and tertiary education; and was a learning and development consultant with CIPD, before becoming self employed as a L&D consultant. She previously worked in New Zealand at the Performance Improvement Centre. Vicki Culpin studied Psychology at Manchester University, followed by an MPhil and PhD in Psychology from Lancaster University and an MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology from Leicester University. She spent nine years working in academia before moving to Ashridge Business School where she is Research Director. Mollie Dickenson is an executive business coach and a research fellow at Henley Business School, University of Reading. Her research interests focus on: informal learning approaches, particularly action learning, coaching and mentoring; adapting such approaches to virtual environments; and embedding learning within an organisational culture. Dave Duarte is Managing Director of Huddlemind Labs, a company that manages online learning for various multinational corporations. He is the programme director of Nomadic Marketing at UCT s Graduate School of Business, and lectures collaborative technologies for the Executive MBA programme. Other appointments include: Director of the Ogilvy Digital Marketing Academy; Public Lead for Creative Commons South Africa; Dean of the Digital Dream Faculty at the Maharishi Institute of Management; Partner in the SA Blog Awards, and judge in The Bees Global Social Media Awards. Matthew Gitsham is Director of the Ashridge Centre for Business and Sustainability. The centre s research work is at the intersection of adult learning, leadership development, behavioural and organisational change, and the ways in which communities, societies and organisations innovate to adapt to major global trends such as sustainable development. Ronan Gruenbaum studied Computational Science and Economics at Leeds University, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Law from the University of Westminster and an MBA from Ashridge. He teaches Social Media, Web 2.0 and Business 2.0 on qualification and customised executive education programmes, has presented at a number of international management

x Notes on Contributors education conferences and is a member of the European Foundation for Management Development External Relations Committee. Sue Honoré has an MSc in Networked Learning from Lancaster University and a Bachelor s degree in Biological Sciences. She has worked in a variety of consultative roles in industry, more recently centred around learning. She was a Learning Consultant at Ashridge for six years and currently is a freelance Researcher and Consultant in business and learning. Anne Jasman currently works at the University of Southern Queensland. She has over 35 years experience working in initial and continuing teacher education as researcher, university lecturer and policy adviser in universities and regulatory authorities in Australia, UK and US. Her research interests include professional learning, leadership, collaborative work and teaching standards. Her most recent work focuses on quality provision in professional education from a futures perspective. Carina Paine Schofield has a first degree in Applied Psychology and Computing, a post graduate diploma in Psychology and a PhD in Psychology. She worked in academia for several years before moving to a market research company. She is currently a research fellow at Ashridge Business School. Mike Pedler works with leadership, action learning, the learning organisation and network organising. He is Emeritus Professor at Henley Business School, University of Reading and co-edits the Journal: Action Learning: Research and Practice. Ellen Pruyne has a Master s and Doctorate in Education from Harvard University and a Master s in Management from Northwestern University. She spent the early part of her career working to promote entrepreneurship and the development of micro and small businesses. In her current role as a Learning Consultant at Ashridge Business School, she supports faculty and clients in designing effective learning environments and experiences, optimising participant learning, and conducting learning assessments and impact evaluations. Elaine Rumboll holds an MA and an MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand. She was appointed Director of Executive Education, UCT Graduate School of Business in 2005 after being Dean for Damelin Management School. Elaine is involved in the teaching and design of their customised Leadership interventions. She is the winner of the 2010 Business Women s Association Regional Business Achievement Awards in the Professional category, was granted a meritorious award as a finalist in

Notes on Contributors xi the 2010 Most Influential Women in Business and Government in the Educational and Training category, and received a nomination for Top Businesswoman 2010 in the annual Top Women in Business and Government. Steve Shelley is a Principal Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the Work and Employment Research Unit, University of Hertfordshire Business School. He teaches and researches on management strategies and development, work control, public sector management, skill, learning and training. Steve s earlier book Working in Universities: the realities from porter to professor, explores the way in which work is undertaken and managed in UK universities. From his studies of work in higher education he has previously published on the subjects of management decisionmaking, retirement, appraisal, performance-related pay and Investors in People in universities. His current research projects are an analysis of managerialism across public service organisations, and an examination of the outcomes of trade union learning and education. Tom Short holds a MA in Human Resource Management from the University of Huddersfield and a PhD in Education from the University of South Australia. Prior to becoming an academic he was Director of the Performance Improvement Centre at the University of Auckland, has worked as a management consultant and before moving overseas was a senior human resources manager in a UK multi-national manufacturing organisation. Shirine Voller holds an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a Masters by Research from Cranfield University. She was the lead organiser of the 2009 Future of Learning Conference at Ashridge. She has worked in primary education, organisation consulting and grant management and is currently Research Manager at Ashridge Business School.

Preface This book presents papers that originated from The Future of Learning conference held at Ashridge Business School in 2009. When the conference was conceived and the call for papers sent out, we didn t know what response we would get. We knew what we hoped to achieve a creative space for practitioners and academics to talk together about the future of learning, focusing on executive education but we were unsure about how our vision would land with potential contributors and attendees. As it happened, the conference worked out even better than we could have hoped for. The way this book has developed reflects the blend of intention and emergence that characterised the conference: We had not prescribed nor anticipated what the sections of the book would be, yet the contributions that made it through to final selection split naturally into three areas: the future context, the future of learning and the future learner. So this is how we have structured the book. On reflection, these areas make good sense: We need to understand the context and environment in which learning will take place in the future; this context will shape and be shaped by the processes by which learning occurs; and learners will respond to this environment and the means for learning available to them, and place demands on learning providers as they grow up in our future society and work in our future workplaces. Bringing variety to the book is the international mix of authors: There are contributions from Europe, Africa and Australasia. Yet geographical distances are diminished by the proximity of the authors informing experiences and visions of the future. It was also harmony that informed our choice of who to partner with for the conference: As lead organiser (Ashridge), we wanted to work with institutions that we felt were similarly forward-thinking and innovative and would be interested in addressing the future of learning in a non-traditional way. We approached the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business Executive Education Unit and Mt Eliza Executive Education, Melbourne. Whilst miles apart physically, these were two highly reputed institutions with whom we felt a congruence of philosophy and mutual respect. The partnership worked brilliantly, and the next iteration of the conference is scheduled to take place in Melbourne in March 2011. Clearly, what has been the future at some point transitions to the present and then merges with the wealth of experience and memories that is the past. In this book we present ideas and practice that are, at the time of writing, toward the leading edge in executive education and beyond. We recognise and embrace the fact that some of the themes will drift into the xii

Preface xiii mainstream, while others might never fully develop, because something else comes along in their place. Regardless, we are confident that the quality of thinking that informs each chapter will pique the reader s interest and stimulate ideas and action. Shirine Voller Eddie Blass Vicki Culpin