It's just a sock...but better!

Over the last few weeks I've been chewing over a number of reports, blogs, papers and what feels like an untold number of articles about what the L & D function should and shouldn't be doing. My observation is that they are all a bit samey...we should be trying more "X", we need to be more "Y", everyone else does "Z" so we should do it!?! I'm sure you can all come up with your own versions of what the brackets should say...

So, following my own curious path and digging a bit below the surface of them I feel that with all the best intention most of these articles are looking to move the function forward. It's just that most of them don't really show or explain in any detail what they have actually done based on the latest recommendation of what should/could be happening...

I'm a disruptor at heart but always want to show what can be done (the art of the possible as my good friend Ali always put up with!). I'll dig around and see what else is going on outside of my organisation that might help with the current challenge, problem, opportunity and or question that I'm pondering.

I'm sure many of you have been consumed in some way by the latest football hub bub but it's there that I feel we have the basis of a real lesson and something that we can do that makes a difference. I noticed it, really noticed it, watching a game at the weekend.

It's all about the socks....

How was an age old game like football most recently disrupted and a new way of working born out ? They looked at one area and just made it a little bit better...technology played a part, along with some clever marketing but it was already in use and wasn't improved/changed/modified for the sake of being new and cool. No, not even close. They got into what will make a little big difference...change something they already have for the better. I'm laboring the point as it really hit me, they made the socks better.

Sounds odd, I'm not going into the whys but it worked. Watch any Premier League game this weekend and the players now cut the socks off at the foot and wear the other branded sock. They are then tapped up to look like "normal" football socks. It's sounds mad to me as I write this but it's spawned a totally new industry and changed football kits around the globe.

Bringing it back to the world L & D, it's cool to try new things and smart to push boundaries for growth and the greater good of the company. But sometimes, you can improve something just a little and it will make a massive difference. It's all about the socks.... go and see what you can do!