Part 1 - Setting a Strategy for Learning and Development

Tools

Towards Maturity

Do we want to achieve measurable business results from our learning interventions? As we move “towards maturity” those tanglible results are more likely to be acheived if your organisation has a proper Learning and Development Strategy aligned to the needs of the organisation

So what is a proper strategy? 

Well I believe that, first of all, your strategy needs to be grounded in the overall business strategy of your organisation, be it in the commercial or public sector and be it a large or small organisation.  Most organisations have well defined gaols and aspirations, often including their vision and values.  Yet, can you honestly say that your L&D and Learning Technology strategy (if you even have one!) is actually based on your organisation’s goals?

In my 30 years of experience, in both the public and private sector, the answer is often in the negative!  Many HR and L&D strategies I have seen have not been visibly linked to the overall business strategy and, whilst being aspirational in terms of talent management, Investors in People, employer of choice etc., they often lack the business outcome rigor needed. 

Getting started

A useful starting place is to map you organisation’s goals in a table alongside the HR strategy (and indeed other key strategies in your business, such as the IT strategy) and then your L&D strategy.  Can you see direct alignment from left to right?  If not, then you have some work to do!

Figure 1 - alignment table:

 

Your L&D and Learning technology strategies must hang on key strategic “hooks” contained within the organisations overall strategy and goals.  A key role of the L&D Manager is to interpret the organisational goals into key learning strategies and solutions. 

So what might this look like? 

Imagine the transformation the IT industry went through when it moved from selling boxes and moved into IT services and solutions.  Selling went from basic order taking to complex sales solutions of equipment, software, maintenance and support.  The skill levels of sales staff has to be transformed.  The support staff had to deal with more complex issues surrounding hardware, software and integrated systems. 

Look at where your organisation is going and think about all the people skill issues that will be needed to enable a successful outcome for both the now and in the future.  The old IT example above is happening today in the mobile telecommunications industry as it moves from a 2G to a 3G world with complex

integrated voice and data services for both the consumer and the business markets.  This new era is a world away from simple voice and text services and needs new skills in selling, retailing, technology and customer support. 

At the heart of change:

Look inside your organisation and see what others strategies or major projects have been approved.  Perhaps it’s to install a new ERP system such as SAP or Oracle.  Think about the enormous impact such projects have on the people within an organisation and the need for change management programmes, process alignment, system end-user training and so much more.  Are you at the heart of these changes?  Are you helping the business reach its defined goals?

Another example might be that your organisation is expanding overseas.  What might the skill requirements be?  Language skills, cultural issues, system integration issues, induction requirements, new roles and competencies, virtual working capabilities, remote team management skills, and so it goes on.  Your job is to interpret the skill needs of the business strategy and present back the solutions that will enable the business to deliver effectively and on time.

Be aware, think ahead:

You will also need to look beyond the current business plan and think about what is happening generally in the marketplace, to the technology, demographics and so on.  Talk to your R&D Manager and Strategy Manager is you have one.  Find out what the trends are and what the future might look like in 3 to 5+ years time.  Make those interpretations as to the long-term skills and capabilities that your organisation will need. 

Not all top down.  Try bottom up: 

Talk to those staff at the sharp end.  What do they need to be able to do a better job?  I once worked in an organisation that needed to change their products and services all the time to keep pace in what was a very competitive global marketplace.  When I went and sat in the call centres, I discovered that on average the staff had to assimilate an average of ten changes per day, some minor but some major, such as a new product.  In an average year this meant that they had to deal with 2,500 changes and, of course, where expected to get it right.  Their training was all classroom-based and could not cope with the volume and speed of change and so the staff also got updates daily in team briefings and by emails.  Overload or what?  If, by any chance, they actually managed to remember all the changes, by the time they needed to recall that information to serve a customer, it had probably already changed again! 

So we set about designing a strategy to focus the training on search and retrieval skills, customer service and selling skills and enabled staff, through the call centre management system linked to a Knowledge Management system, to find the right facts and figures at the time of need. 

The results? 

less time off the floor for training improved staff satisfaction resulting in lower staff turnover more accurate customer service fewer repeat calls reduced call times induction training period cut from six weeks to three

All of which supported the businesses strategic goal of improving customer service and satisfaction.  Sounds expensive?  Not when you look at the investment in terms of the overall business.  Saving seconds on each call and reducing repeat calls on a global scale saves millions!

As L&D Manager your job is not about running courses, it’s about adding business value.

Part 2 Aligning learning to business needs - Before, During and After Model

June 20, 2008 Posted by: Gordon Bull  

In the last article Setting a Strategy for Learning and Development, we explored the benefits of your organisation having a proper Learning and Development Strategy.   The Before, During and After model provides a useful approach to analyse activites that influence how the business’s perception of learning. It is designed  to help  at both the strategic and tactical level.

Where’s your effort being expended?

Often, as Training Managers, we spend a great deal of time and effort in designing and delivering the learning intervention, ensuring the learners’ experience is inclusive and engaging.  If you were to plot your efforts on a graph, it might look a bit like this:

Figure 1

The Before part may consist of some TNA (Training Needs Analysis), the During element is the design and delivery (where most of the effort often tends to go) and the After… well, often there is no after, apart from the Happy Sheet evaluation.

Turning the effort curve upside down!

If training is to be perceived as a value-adding business partner, then you need to turn the effort curve upside down.  You still, of course, need to ensure the learning event well planned and engaging but you need to do much more before and after the learning intervention.

Figure 2

 

This model works at the strategic and the tactical level.

As explored in the previous article, we need to really investigate and align with the overall business goals and strategies.  This Business Situation Analysis is a key component, ensuring the training becomes aligned to the needs of the business.  The analysis takes a closer look at the complete picture including the business need , the learner context and the work context. Once this is completed, the training needs analysis becomes more focussed and effective.  A Business Situation Analysis  helps to  identify the metrics that really matter to the business and incorporate these into our training objectives and measurement systems. 

The Learner and their Manager

The Before stage is also the time to engage with the line manager of the learner.  Line managers may also be part of your strategic analysis and investigation into the key business issues but they are also key in supporting the learner through the learning intervention and, most importantly, afterwards.

Line managers should be engaged in supporting their staff and for providing the appropriate context for the planned learning.  Supporting the learner and reinforcing the expected learning outcomes and performance improvements is critical.  All learners should have the support and encouragement of their line manager.  The days when staff were sent on training, turning up not really knowing why they were there or what was expected of them, should be long gone.

To be truly effective at a tactical level, the Before stage needs to be a true partnership between the training manager, line manager and the learner.    During…it’s still important!

Nobody is suggesting that the actual training intervention is not any less important, it is not.  All your skills as a trainer are essential to ensure the design and deliver of the programme is highly effective.  With the help of the additional Before stage, the During part should be even more effective and focussed on what really matters both for the learner and the business.

After ….beyond the Happy Sheet

I believe this is most critical phase.  It is here where the learning can be put into practice, it is here that we see if the performance improvement is happening and it is here we can measure this against the previously identified metrics.

In the After phase, line managers should be coaching and supporting the learner to apply their learning.  As training manager, you should be following up in the weeks and months after the training intervention, to

ensure the learning is being applied in the workplace and, most importantly, if the identified performance improvement is being achieved.  You will also need to step back and look at the overall business performance and not only evaluate the improvement but also look for opportunities for the next phase of development.

Report the success

Investing your effort Before, During and After provides you with the tools and insights to look at the business and the individual’s performance improvements.  Measurement is so much more defined and provides a basis for effective reporting at level 3 and 4 and even 5.  Used correctly, it takes you closer to the business and involves the business leaders in the development and success of their people as well as aligning the training department with the achievement of the overall business goals.

 

Contact Gordon for more information via the Towards Maturity site

Part 3 - Aligning Learning to business, Balls in the Air!

Tools

Balls in the air!

In part 2 -  Before, During and After, we explored the need to increase your business analysis efforts before and after the learning intervention.  In this article, we explore some of the key things you need to manage or influence to ensure successful delivery of your learning or learning technology strategy.  You will get much greater value if you read part 1 and part 2 first.

From A to ZDelivering your strategy is often a journey and one that can take several years.  Rarely will you be able to jump from your point of departure (PoD) to your point of arrival (PoA) in one step.  The journey involves managing many critical elements or processes, ensuring they compliment and support the execution of your strategy.

So what might be critical?This varies from organisation to organisation and very much depend on where you start (PoD) and where you want to go (PoA).  Commonly recurring issues include the IT Strategy and how this supports, or not, the learning strategy.  If you have any element of online learning, the IT strategy will be a key enabler or inhibitor to you.  What’s more you, as the L&D Manager, do not even own or manage the IT infrastructure.  You therefore need to inform and influence the IT Director and ensure they embrace your aspirations and also ensure the IT infrastructure is developed to support the delivery of your strategy.  This could cover numerous requirements from bandwidth, desktop functionality, software such as browsers and plug-in, firewall settings, VPN remote access requirements and so on.  You might have the best eContent but if it cannot be delivered to the end user in a seamless and engaging manner, then you will not be perceived as being successful.

Identify the elements, define where you are today and where you need to be:Other examples of directly managed issues are:  The skills and capabilities of the L&D team, your eContent strategy, Learning Technology strategy, Learning Governance.  Other indirect ones might include the IT helpdesk, culture, legal and company policies.

Let’s say for example that you strategy calls for the development of a blended learning solution which includes eLearning and performance support tools (e.g. information or knowledge management support, tied into a process or other system such as a call centre management system).  Does the L&D team have the appropriate skills to procure and/or author content, can they successfully mange the delivery of this content?  Do they understand the technology?  Set out what skills and capabilities will be necessary at your point of arrival – that is the ideal end state you seek to achieve.  What is the gap?  How are you going to fill it and how long will this take and what will it cost?  You will soon see that you cannot jump overnight from where you are to where you want to be.

eContent strategy:  If you need to be able to delivery content on demand within a performance support system then the content itself needs to be authored and created in an appropriate way, often in small bite size pieces rather than longer course structures.  Have you got the LMS technology that can deliver these “nuggets” of learning?  Can the LMS also serve them up as “courses” or curricula?  Can the user search for them easily, perhaps from the Intranet Homepage or within another application?  Can other systems link into the LMS and extract the learning and track and report activity?  Essential elements here include the LMS functionality, single sign-on, deep linking into the LMS and so on.    Again, assess where you are today and where you need to get to:  Set out the eContent and Learning Technology roadmap to undertake this journey.

Legal and other Policies:  What internal policies exist which might support or inhibit your strategy?  Blogging and Wikis are often looked upon with a great deal of nervousness, especially in regulated industries.  If your strategy includes collaborative learning, do your company policies support this?  Can

they be influenced and changed?  Some policies may directly impact on your desire to offer remote access to the learning system and resources.  It may not just be a technical issue that restrains you.

Company Culture:  This again could be an area you need to influence and change in order that your strategy can be delivered appropriately.  Do line managers’ support there staff learning at their desks, or do they constantly interrupt them because they are there and not in a classroom?  Is independent learning and informal learning supported, valued and recognised?  Once again, define the ideal end point and evaluate where you are today.  Define the steps necessary that will be needed to move forward.

Manage all of these issues either directly or indirectly:When working with companies in my consulting business, having developed the strategy, we identify all the relevant issues that need managing or influencing to ensure the successful delivery of the strategy.  Then we define our PoD and PoA and create defined and achievable steps for each one and assign a cost or value to this.  This helps to build the business case and clarifies the investment needed.  Having done this, we can plot where we are on a spider diagram and re-evaluate and report progress often on a 6 or 12 month cycle.  This is a great tool for reporting or the progress on sub-sections of the business, countries, departments etc. as well as an overall view of progress. 

 

The spider chart shows only the main heading that you have determined to be relevant.  Behind each one, could be several contributing factors, all of which need to be evaluated, managed and scored.  Your defined PoA (point of arrival) is scored at a 5.

Good luck with your journey!

 

This article is produced with Permission by Gordon Bull