No “Certifications” and “Accreditations” for True Learning and Continuous Improvement

As TEH Kent Beck says - “who doesn’t love a rant?” so if you haven’t read his, please do so here or on Twitter (which has the added bonus of having some other awesome minds chime in including the one and only Gitte Klitgaard (@NativeWired) and then come back because we have to talk. It absolutely hit a chord. In fact, an hour before I read it I was going to “speak to you” about something else entirely today, team, but now this can’t wait, as usual, there’s burning urgency to my indignation.

The whole topic of certifications is a prime example of lip service and empty rhetoric on the part of the organisation that causes and perpetuates parts of the HumanDebt™ that most companies have amassed and that I keep deploring both in my book and week in and week out here, when I ask people to stop participating in anything that multiples it from wooden-language conferences to dishonest exercises in box-ticking, to cookie-cutter training and to endless workshops with no intention to translate anything into practice.

Early on in our journey at PeopleNotTech we were asked repeatedly by organisations to come in and “raise awareness” and by Agile coaches and other professionals who care about Psychological Safety to “organise a certification”. We staunchly refused to do both opting instead to walk away from the wads of cash this would have provided.

Why have we done that? Because we set out to change the lives of knowledge workers and better them by helping them change their own team dynamic and while yes, this needs some awareness as they need to understand why Psychological Safety is key, that has to happen at the same time as them starting to make a measurable change so that it sticks and makes the impact it needs to.

What good are the endless “Vulnerability Workshops” or “Leaders Modelling Openness” seminars or even the interminable “What is Psychological Safety” courses if everyone will then go back to doing nothing about it?