Rethinking Workplace Learning and Development Catalyzed by Complexity

Workplace learning models were historically developed in a relatively stable, predictable, somewhat compartmentalized world. But today we live in radical uncertainty and contingency. The world is a real-time, real-consequences, multiplayer, high stakes gaming table. No one living through the Global Reset (Schwab & Malleret, 2020) of COVID-19 would have any trouble agreeing that we are in an age of such complexity that it is likely to require a rethinking of all that we do. Complexity has changed the workplace learning playing field. Complexity derives from the Latin word complexus—meaning “surrounding, encompassing”; the past participle of complecti—meaning “to encircle, embrace”; and plectere—meaning “to weave, braid, twine, entwine”. The word complex is “a whole comprised of interconnected parts” (Online Etymology Dictionary) that are also interdependent. Scholars (e.g., Lee, 2003; Weick & Sutcliffe, 2001) began examining complexity’s impact on work and organizations decades ago. What brings it to the fore today? And how in particular is complexity changing workplace learning and development? What features of complexity are impacting their design and implementation? These are the questions we sought to answer in Rethinking Workplace Learning and Development (Watkins & Marsick, 2023). Our book features responses to these questions by a purposeful sample of L&D leaders, who joined us for remote coffee and conversations. We subsequently invited a purposeful sample of leading Workplace Learning & Development practitioners and Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) to discuss how they see Learning & Development adapting to support change in organizations and systems. In this article, we share some of their stories, views and predictions about learning in organizations of different sizes, purposes, and cultures.