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This paper calls for a New Educational Paradigm in which young people are supported through an educational process that assists them to take charge of their own learning. A process in which they choose what they want to learn and how rather than the current system that requires them to regurgitate facts in order to pass tests/exams.

A viewpoint based on the author's experience of running the Self Managed Learning College in the UK for the past 20 years and his forthcoming book detailing the research evidence that highlights the need for change.

Businesses complain that the education system does not currently equip young people with the skills they need to thrive in the ever-changing world of work. The system needs to change and business leaders need to get involved. The College is one example of many around the world where people are deciding to get away from the rigidities, inappropriateness and waste of the current system.

The College is a unique environment which has been successfully operating for 20 years. The operating processes of the College match the outcomes needed in the working world and wider society. It provides an exemplar of how to help young people take responsibility for their own learning in order for them to lead a good life in the future.

This article discusses the evaluation process in organizations.

Provides a viewpoint based on experience.

Facing the hard facts and truths about what works and what does not, understanding the dangerous half‐truths that constitute so much conventional wisdom about management, and rejecting the total nonsense that too often passes for sound advice will help organizations perform better.

Provides a useful insight into the evaluation process.

This paper aims to consider the impact of the European Union procurement regulations. It assesses the impact of the re‐tendering of services on the terms and conditions of employment and sense of well being, and commitment of employees in the social care sub‐sector of the voluntary sector.

The study employs a qualitative study of three organisations utilising semi‐structured interviews with managers and employees.

The process of re‐tendering is creating intensified competition and the breakdown of co‐operation between voluntary sector organisations. Re‐tendering also has an impact on employee terms and conditions with related problems arising with regard to their morale and commitment.

This remains a relatively small‐scale piece of research and there is also scope to consider how these issues are played out in private, as well as voluntary sector organisations.

The research highlights the potential tensions between creating greater competition and a search for value for money in the tendering and re‐tendering of services on voluntary organisations' raison d'être and the sense of commitment of employees.

There is little research examining the human resource aspects of re‐tendering and this research provides an important step in surfacing a number of emergent issues for how voluntary organisations manage the people dimension of the re‐tendering process.

To explore ways in which organizations can take a systemic stance on talent management.

The article is based on work done in a variety of organizations plus research in HR functions.

The need is for a systemic approach to talent management. Just focusing on talent acquisition is misguided and unhelpful.

The article has real practical implications for leaders/managers and learning and development professionals in setting up a functional strategy for talent management.

The article will be of value to managers and learning specialists who are involved in talent management strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to expose the errors of existing common evaluation frameworks such as Kirkpatrick and to suggest superior approaches.

The paper is based on work done in a variety of organizations as well as existing research evidence.

The paper finds that evaluation of learning and development can be both more rigorous and simpler.

The paper has real practical implications for leaders/managers and learning and development professionals, as it shows how to overcome the limitations of existing approaches to evaluation. By proposing an alternative approach to Kirkpatrick's model it encourages practitioners to be clearer about evaluation activity.

The paper will be of value to managers and learning specialists as it raises important issues about how to evaluate learning and development activity.

Much of the literature on strategy focuses on the external environment of the organization; and an external orientation makes sense. Changing markets, for instance, are key drivers of strategic change. But this external focus needs balancing. If the organization is to respond to changing markets then the internal arrangements of the business need to be synchronized with external activities. The problem is that they do not always do this.

The book has generated a passionate dialogue-disagreement (mostly but not entirely) with the book. Dialogue-disagreement is based on challenges, disagreements and rebuttals between opponents, often belonging to different, even irreconcilable, paradigms. The goal of dialogue-disagreement is not so much to convince the opponent to change their mind but rather to critically examine and problematize the two involved paradigms: the authors’ and the reviewer’s. By taking the generated challenges and disagreements seriously, both irreconcilable paradigms can grow through their replies. Dialogue-disagreement gives the participants–opponents the gift of revealing their own paradigmatic blind spots, which are often invisible from within their paradigms. Dialogue-disagreement is exploratory and based on an agnostic relationship between frenemies, i.e. “friendly enemies.”

This is a critical book review essay of Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm (Cunningham, 2021).

The reviewer views Ian Cunningham’s Self Managed Learning educational paradigm as a hybrid of Progressive and Democratic Education, while the reviewer sees his/her Self-Education paradigm as entirely Democratic (and Dialogic). Elsewhere, the reviewer discussed and critically analyzed the Progressive Education paradigm, which generally involves channeling the student’s learning activism and subjectivity toward learning outcomes desired by an educator. It uses the educator’s manipulation of the student’s subjectivity to make them study what the educator wants them to study. In contrast, the paradigm of Democratic Education assumes that the educatee is the final authority of their own education. The educatee decides whether to study, when to study, what to study, how to study, with whom to study, where to study, for what purpose to study and so on. The educatee makes these decisions by themselves or with the help of other people at the educatee’s discretion and conditions. The reviewer charges that Ian’s Self Managed Learning paradigm is a hybrid of both paradigms, with the Progressive Education paradigm taking the lead and exploiting the Democratic Education paradigm.

The book presented a unique, innovative practice worth a critical analysis. The reviewer’s dialogue-disagreement with the book reveals a particular hybrid of Progressive and Democratic Education which is common to some innovative self-directed learning.

This chapter explores the nature of learning required for effective leaders. The case is made that learning is not all one process and the difference between Learning 1 and Learning 2, as proposed by Bateson, is favoured as a model. Put simply learning, for instance, lots of facts (Learning 1) does not necessarily help the leader become more courageous, more self-confidant and more driven by deep values and beliefs. A case study of a Self Managed Learning programme for school heads is used to show the importance of Learning 2 and a way to focus development at this level. There is also a case study of a company that was seen as the best in its field folding due to the emphasis on Learning 1 (particularly technical skill) and lack of attention to Learning 2 qualities.

Focuses on strategic leadership. Summarizes research on chief executives and others over a five‐year period, which aimed to use the analysis of language patterns as one way of understanding leaders. Raises issues around abstract concepts such as “centring” and “grounding” as they apply to leaders, and makes some final points about learning to lead.