I’ve come to the conclusion that so many of the issues with L&D and training are caused by an overuse of “tinkering” and an underuse of “smashing it up”.

Tinkering is defined as: an attempt to repair or improve something in a casual or desultory way.

This rung a bell with me. Too often learning and development interventions are tinkering with the the engine. Too often they make slight upturns in performance.

Smashing it up is, well, smashing it up and starting again. Scary stuff. To achieve a genuine transformation you have to be prepared to break up the present and rebuild it.

I meet so many people who are trying to transform their approach, their skills and techniques only to be limited by the environment they return to. An environment that hasn’t really embraced the need to drop the existing attitudes and mindsets that will ultimately hold back those trying to change themselves.

To achieve genuine transformation and sustained change, organisations need to be brave, the need to show the strength to accept what’s holding them back and what needs to be smashed up.

Then they can embark on the process of rebuilding. Setting their vision as to where they want to be, adapt their mindsets accordingly. Practice the new skills needed, embed them into practical frameworks, continue to coach, support and develop and embed the new ways into routines and review.

The brilliant Brené Brown writes so well about this, she calls it the anatomy of transformation.

Einstein talked about the dangers of doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get different results. (He calls it the very definition of insanity). Tinkering is often not too far off this, messing about around the edges but not really making the fundamental, big picture changes needed to support and embed new learning.

Maybe smashing it all up is not completely necessary but I think the idea of going all in and really addressing the issues that are blocking real progress is vital.

Create a new “transformed” environment within which people can thrive and don’t go back to the “old ways”.