.:Leading the Learning Revolution: A Manifesto for the Whole Community of Learning and Performance Professionals

The ability to learn, and those who know how to convert that learning into practice (performance), creates extraordinary value for individuals, teams, and organizations. Smart organizations recognize that a learning and performance plan is as much a strategic tool as a marketing or finance plan and that it should get the same kind of tough love from the top: insistence on results and full support if it can deliver.

The focus of our profession on developing people, in the light of the knowledge economy, is the key to competitive advantage. There is a new world of learning emerging - one that links people, learning, and performance - and a new community growing around it.

But change disrupts. It reinvents whole industries, ours included. It makes old business models obsolete, and turns old thinking upside down. While this is no surprise, it is still difficult to comprehend. When you are in the midst of a revolutionary change like the one that is transforming the training profession, it can be hard to see your way ahead.

We are daring to overturn our own paradigms. It's not how much you invest in learning and performance improvement, but how strategically you do it. It's not how pure the pedagogy, but how quickly you can move a workforce to demonstrated competence. It's not how well managed the change, but how much innovation you can inspire. It's not how flashy the technology, but how well it serves learning and performance needs. And for many, there's the tough paradox of wanting the best of both old and new.

At ASTD, we see the future form the perspective of our 56 years but with new eyes. We see the expanding size and scope of the community of learning and performance professionals. Entrepreneurs, technicians, venture capitalists, market analysts, and leaders across the board are part of the widening circle. We value the diversity of thought and experience and viewpoint that brings to the profession and to the community of ASTD. As every student of genetics knows, marrying outside the clan strengthens the gene pool.

The great strength of the ASTD global community, and the source of its unique value, is the vast body of knowledge it comprises. It is an idea factory, a trial-and-error lab, and an innovation testbed, and a repository of knowledge to be shared. It is a community that continually generates and shares new insights, best practices, and practical wisdom. And in this community, people freely inspire each other to excel.

As the professional association for the whole learning community at this time of change and promise, ASTD aspires to meet the requirements of all who would join the community at the local, national, or global level. We will lead, inform, connect, nurture growth, and prove the value of the learning professional to the unconvinced.

We will:

• Inspire you to join and lead the learning an performance revolution, to keep spirit alive in the workplace, to give back to your communities, and to renew your commitment to your profession.
• Lead the dialogue about the future of learning and performance. Continually advance knowledge and techniques for how to convert learning and capability into performance and practice. Honestly identify the leaders, the best or worst practices, the products that perform, the ideas that transform. We will be trusted, impartial voice in a world of confusing choice. On our Website, in our publications, wherever we convene, we will help you share your stories, find new solutions, and make informed choices.
• Be the essential link to the world you want to reach. We will connect you to each other and to the people you want to influence. We will start conversations, foster community, bring buyers and sellers together.
• Help you grow your career and your capability so that you can be your professional best. We will be the greenhouse for careers, providing the guidance and tools to get ahead.
• Prove the value of applying the best practices of the profession. We will make the case for the learning enterprise to business leaders, legislators, op9inion leaders, your bosses, your clients, your peers. We intend to set the standards of excellence for the learning enterprise.

Special thanks to Dana Gaines Robinson, Partners-in-Change, and Dennis Gay, Bank of America, for their work on the manifesto.