There are lots of research papers and reports on the periphery of our professional consciousness at this time of year, andmany of them tell a similar story: L&D needs to get closer to, and become an integral part of, business.
With a new year upon us we start to look back so that we can plan ahead, you might have found yourself thinking about how the landscape of L&D and the wider business has changed. Or stayed the same.
There are lots of research papers and reports on the periphery of our professional consciousness at this time of year, and
many of them tell a similar story: L&D needs to get closer to, and become an integral part of, business.
If you haven’t already seen Towards Maturity’s comprehensive research paper: ‘Unlocking Potential ‑ Releasing the potential of the business and its people through learning’, you can see an overview here. It discusses the state-of-play, analyses where L&D has been, along ith where it needs to be, and describes their view of the five outcomes needed:
Many L&D professionals will be wondering how we can retain a meaningful seat at the top table, particularly in a climate where ‘almost two-thirds of learning leaders…report that staff lack skills to manage their own learning’ and ‘line managers are reluctant to encourage news ways of learning’ (Jane Hart, Towards Maturity). Combine this with the demands in terms of time, focus and budget that other departments place on the business, and it’s hardly surprising that many L&D departments aren’t achieving the outcomes.
So, what strategies are available to L&D to help put them in the best place to achieve the outcomes?
1. Stop the orders
Traditionally, L&D professionals have taken orders from sponsors or 
stakeholders who’ve identified a learning need and have dictated that training is the answer to a multitude of ills. You probably already know that training isn’t always the answer, especially when we acknowledge that coaching, mentoring and training are all very different solutions, as are supporting performance and learning transfer.
Sponsors, or at least the business, have a responsibility that you’ll want them to sign up to: after the intervention, how will the they help learners to take their new knowledge and/or skills and translate them into specific behaviours when they’re back at work? Training and/or learning can never be a panacea.
After scoping a project, or obtaining a brief from a sponsor, go into the business and gather further information to either support the sponsor’s assertion or, and this is the bit that’ll take some assertiveness, prove them wrong.
Interviewing subject matter experts on the front line might show that, rather than training, the business needs to invest in new kit. Or a focus group with line managers might uncover recruitment issues, rather than training needs. Maybe observing people doing their job shows that performance support material or an app would be more appropriate than face‑to-face training.
2. Think about success
Sounds like an instruction from a self-help manual, doesn’t it? It’s nothing quite so ethereal; discuss with your sponsor, in concrete terms, what results or business outcomes will look like. In real, measurable language.
If two of the five outcomes that we need to achieve are to ‘improve efficiency’ and ‘boost performance’, the sponsor will be in an ideal place to describe what these outcomes look like in pounds (or any other currency), points and/or percentages or pure performance improvements. There’s more, though: as well as the measures and the accompanying timeframes, it’s also important for you to encourage the sponsor to describe what potential learners will do differently after an intervention. You’ll get a real idea about whether training really is the solution and whether you can respond to the business in a faster, more efficient way.
For instance, if a sponsor suggests that they want to see a 5% productivity increase in their contact centre, as staff complete transactions while customers are on the phone, you might start forming ideas connected to coaching or floorwalking, rather than investing time and energy into developing, say, a blended learning intervention. Or if a stakeholder claims that the admin staff will need to be trained to use the new photocopier, you might think of more effective methods…
Saving time and reducing costs? Sounds like we’re starting to talk the language of any business.
3. Get your juices flowing
Over half of learning is delivered in a face-to-face format. It’s expensive
both in terms of time and money. And it’s debatable whether it’s always effective and efficient.
There are many, many methods available to us: discussions, presentations, self-discovery, coaching, mentoring, behaviour
modelling to name just a few. Partner the learning method with an efficient media and you’re onto a winning combination.
Speaking of media, think about how you could step into the digital space with apps, online forums, webinars, flip books, freely available sources of open education, MOOCS. Take a step further and consider augmented or virtual reality or gamification. You might find that some line managers are the obstacle here (remember what Jane Hart said about line managers being reluctant to encourage new ways of learning?).
4. Measure it up
Delivering an intervention, whatever it might look like, isn’t the end of the story. It can’t be. To retain that seat at the top table, it’s important that we highlight the difference that the intervention made to the business. Blowing your own trumpet, if you like. Some L&D professionals measure the return on investment here, others the return on expectations. Whatever, measure something.
You could revisit the specified performance improvements, pounds, points and/or percentages that you considered with the sponsor when you thought about success. (Still sounds like a self-help manual, doesn’t it?)
It’s also time to check that learners are helped to transfer their learning back to work. Unless you’re the line manager, you possibly won’t be responsible for this step…but you’ll probably be perceived to be accountable. Remove or mitigate any barriers that you can. Report any that you can’t.
5. Let’s go round again
Agility doesn’t happen in a vacuum. One intervention doesn’t perfection 
make. Continue to work with sponsors to analyse further needs so that you become part of the cultural influence. In our world of L&D, we want learning to be part of the business’s DNA. That bit of the DNA that helps the organisation to develop and mature.
Rather than wait for requests to come to you, be proactive. Have discussions over coffee, in the lift, in the staff canteen, with your line manager.
You might already be taking these steps to have a voice on the Board. You might be doing other things. We’d love to hear your stories: what strategies have you used that have helped you to become an invaluable part of the business?
Please feel free to share and like if you think this might help others.