Harrison Withers – Principal In the late 90’s I attended my first professional learning conference. SCORM standards hadn’t come out yet, but the concept of “knowledge objects” was in full swing. The popular sentiment was that if Learning & Development could modularize learning into knowledge objects, L&D leaders would finally be taken seriously enough to be given a seat at the decision-making table, or at least be told about a change before it was ready to be rolled out.
Dozens of trends have come and gone since then. Many have been impactful, others not as much.
But almost 30 years later, many L&D departments still find themselves on the outside looking in at their organizations. Sometimes they are the first to be cut in times of trouble and disconnected from praise in times of success. There has never been a greater focus on the needs of the learner and the learner experience, yet L&D budgets and resources continue to be funneled away. While cost has gone down, quality has gone up, and learner satisfaction scores have held steady or even increased. Yet there is little love for the plight of L&D.
Organizations have spent plenty of time and money thinking and refining what it is that L&D departments deliver and even a fair bit innovating how and when learning is delivered. However, little has changed in the paradigm of how L&D functions, the strategy, the org design, or the processes—all influences to how the function is viewed throughout the organization. Still, L&D departments have been successful in delivering on their promises to be a better service provider. Yet, it’s not enough.
The problem with being a service provider is that those services come at a cost, with L&D often viewed as a cost center. It’s a necessary expense that needs to be monitored and controlled. For those outside the L&D sphere, there is a healthy skepticism when that cost center asks for money or wants more of a say in the decision making that may result in them getting more budget. Those outside of L&D want proof that more dollars means an investment with a probable return. Cost-containment compared to what other L&D departments are spending, quality, completion and user acceptance do not speak to business returns. If that’s the only evidence that L&D presents, then it will continue to be marginalized.
That’s not to say that all L&D departments are the same or that all have focused purely on service delivery improvements. There are plenty of innovators: L&D departments partnering with business to deliver business results measured in business outcomes and case studies of proactive L&D initiatives that enable and empower business growth.
You can maximize what your L&D team can do by evolving strategically. Discover how to systemize key initiatives for consistent growth and impactful results by exploring 7 key areas that make these transformations work.
Let’s say that you’re sold on the concept of business partnership and you want to shift your value proposition to accommodate business-driven priorities. But the sign on your door says: “come in for the best compliance training possible.” It’s not enough to say you’re a thing, you have to have a strategy to be what you want to become. We can help you define the value that L&D can create for your business and the metrics that show impact. Further, how learning enables your talent strategies, strategic initiatives, employee experience, and overall culture. We can also help you identify what capabilities you’ll need and how to develop the new skills and competencies needed to achieve your vision. In short, help you develop a strategy that showcases the critical role of L&D in driving business success.
To unlock the full potential of L&D, you need to optimize every facet of its structure, systems, talent, and culture to align with your strategy. New capabilities defined in your strategy rarely map exactly to the roles that you already have defined on your team. Starting with your strategy in mind, we can help you define and optimize the roles you have and then align them to your new service offerings. An organization that is purpose built to live and breathe your L&D strategy.
New capabilities and new teams need processes to ensure an effective and consistent customer experience. Evolved L&D needs a plan for how work will get done and how tasks are completed through a consultative approach. We can help optimize your organizational efficiency through:
Like it or not, your L&D and Learning technology strategies are hopelessly intertwined. Learning platforms are no longer only for managing assignments and completions. Modern organizations require systems that are personalized, collaborative, data-driven, skill-aware, and integrated into the flow of work. We can help you evaluate, enhance, and redefine your Learning Technology strategy, implementation, and integration and adoption initiatives.
The shift from a service provider focus to a business impact driver means changing the way you measure and demonstrate outcomes of L&D lead initiatives. Yes, program assessment is still part of that, but it needs to be linked beyond satisfaction and retention and also tied to business metrics such as time-to-market and even ROI. Beyond programmatic measurements, the Evolved L&D function will need to aggregate data from disparate systems and understand the meaning of data on a deeper level and be able to visualize and use that data to tell a story.
Just because you’ve decided to change your strategy doesn’t mean the rest of your organization will take your word for it. Bringing that strategy to life requires clear articulation and communication – so you can effectively market the value proposition of your team and the experiences you create and evolve your team to deliver it. Internal marketing, culture change, skill development, systems adoptions, and program and project management are critical to putting your best foot forward and make a great first and last impression of your transformation efforts. (If you’re thinking “I don’t have time for that,” just give us a call.)
Does evolving your L&D organization guarantee you a spot at the decision-making table? Of course not, but the results of a transformation done right speak for themselves. We can always get better at being a service provider, and it’s a noble pursuit. However, fundamentally changing the strategy, organizational design, and process of L&D speaks volumes about L&D’s true potential value in an organization. If you haven’t gotten a seat at the table yet, or you’re in a position to try to make some big changes, let’s talk. We can help you formulate a growth strategy for L&D that makes your executive team take notice of the value of L&D at your organization.
Looking for a seat at the table? Let’s talk. Complete this form or give us a call at 859-415-1000.