Editorial

Citation

Gimson, A. (2012), "Editorial", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 26 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo.2012.08126caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 26, Issue 3

There has been a strong mantra over many years that people need to identify and develop their “transferable skills” – capabilities that they can apply to any new role or organization – but does this assumption always work? In our Viewpoint, Harry Gray argues not. He highlights a number of examples where success in a senior role in one sector has not meant success in another – in some cases the exact opposite. He calls for two key things: a greater recognition of the importance of the context surrounding any role and the need for managers and leaders to improve their own reflective practice.

Our next article provides a gritty example of the absence of “collective” reflective practice. The board of a voluntary organization in the US failed to recognize the importance of succession planning – twice. They were caught out when their long-term executive director left without warning. Rather than learn from that experience, they were back in exactly the same position three years later. Joseph Santora and James Sarros draw out five useful lessons from their description of what happened.

The need for reflection crops up again in Tom Short’s article. He describes some fascinating research conducted with managers in the Australian rail industry, which concludes that leaders in this sector are more self-aware than previously thought and makes a solid case for self-evaluation (and self-efficacy) as the starting point for any leadership learning activity.

If you were asked to share your most powerful learning experience – something that shaped or challenged you and that has stood the test of time – what would come to mind? In an interesting case study, Ruth Moody updates us on how some organizations are incorporating experiential learning into their development programmes and seeing business results. Once you’ve read the article, you might ask yourself which of your interventions would stick in the minds and hearts of the learners you support?

Keith Denton completes our authored section with some useful hints and tips on how managers can create and maintain high levels of trust within an organization. How many conversations in your own organization resemble the talk by Dr Myron L. Fox (you’ll need to read the article) rather than genuine attempts to create understanding?

An issue faced by many developed Western economies is that of a fast-reducing workforce. In our first review article “Italy’s aging workforce”, we have a stark reminder of just how bad the problem might get – but also, how companies such as ENI, Ferrero and BMW are tackling the problem.

“What is the essence of leadership” invites us to look at how labels such as “transformational”, “spiritual” and “environmental” leadership are being used and shares three sets of activities that any organization might want to consider when developing their “high potential” leaders of the future. You might also take a look at the Book Review which gives a great summary of “Driven to Lead – good, bad and misguided leadership”, by Paul Lawrence.

If you are looking for ways of increasing the levels of innovation in your organization, you may find some useful ideas in “Nurturing creativity”. The three key suggestions are: greater diversity on the board (ethnic minorities and women), opportunities for all employees to get involved in assessing and scrutinizing novel ideas and more effectively recognizing and utilizing your “innovation connectors” in the business.

Finally, we are going to put the subject of innovation under the “DLO spotlight” in our special issue (SI) at the end of this year. “CAL4INO” is a European project that aims (amongst other strands on learning) to encourage creativity in business. We will be sharing the best of the papers from a conference in Finland in May. For those eagerly awaiting our SI on Organizational Development, this will now appear early in 2013.

Anne GimsonStrategic Developments International, UK. E-mail: anne@stratdevint.com