The highlights of this year's Learning and Development show in London

As the Learning and Innovation Manager at MOL, my role is to lead an innovative team to creative and practical solutions in order to enhance the experience of our learners. I’m expected to be a strong leader, but also to identify any current trends in the educational market.

Doing this ensures that any current trends feed into new ideas in my department and, although this can be a challenging role at times, I have to be prepared to be a constant agent of change, while also keeping my team energised and motivated.

Attending the annual CIPD Learning and Development (L&D) Show has provided me with a great opportunity to listen to respected and experienced speakers from the L&D world.

I’ve chosen the highlights of three sessions I attended at the show…

The art of motivating – what makes inspiring managers by Nicky Moffat

Nicky’s very engaging session was about effective methods of leadership. Nicky talked about how being able see things from the perspective of others and seeing the world through the eyes of those in your team will make you a better leader.

During the session I learned about leadership, motivation of others and being an effective leader. Nicky showed that the key points of effective leadership are as follows:

• Being a motivated leader
• Direction and clarity of leadership
• Nurturing trust within your team
• Empowering your team
• Getting the most out of your people by maximising the potential of individuals.

How to become an effective coach for business performance using five core questions by Jonathan Hill

It was interesting listening to Jonathan speak about his five core questions one should ask as a coach. He made the session very engaging and everyone was getting involved with his offering methods. We learned to apply this new way of coaching in practice thanks to these five key questions:

1. What’s on your mind?
2. What’s the real challenge?
3. A.W.E (And What Else)?
4. What do you want?
5. What was more useful for you?

I found the exercise really very useful and very reminiscent of the five ‘why’s exercise and root cause analysis. I also enjoyed the chance to get to discuss the challenges of other people and their organisations, and to appreciate that your organisation or department is not the only one to face such difficulties.

Artificial intelligence in learning – friend or foe? by Professor Rose Luckin

It seems that AI is finding its way into everything and education is no exception, during this session we explored the possible future impact of AI in the education sector and if it will be for better or worse. 

Rose discussed the potential and pitfalls of making use of new AI-based technology in education. She also outlined her view that the best approach will be based on identifying what humans are best at and AI is best at, then blending the two to get the best outcome.

In my view, this is technology with such far-reaching potential that it’s almost impossible to predict how it will work in the future. Most organisations may not be as familiar with the concept and may not pay much attention to what is happening in the AI world, but it is in our interests to at least try.