#eLAPC ?? | Ep. 20 | #SundayRant | What Should Business Leaders Expect from L&D?

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Enhanced Transcript

Welcome to this edition of the #SundayRant on the eLearning Alchemist Podcast. Today I want to talk a bit about expectations because business leaders often don't have a clear understanding of what they should expect from the learning and development team. They know what they want: changes to employee behaviours that drive business results; but, it would seem there is a lack of clarity on the things that really should be expected of L&D. So today, we're going to look at three expectations that every business leader should have of their learning and development team.

EXPECTATION 1: The learning team should understand your business.

Learning professionals from all industries and all sizes of business have long been fans of the idea that you don't need to know the job to design training for it. I agree with that sentiment, insofar as, it is possible to build training using existing content and through working with subject matter experts. But, that doesn't exclude the learning team from spending time in the business to better understand the:

1. day-to-day challenges;
2. unique procedural requirements;
3. system capabilities and limitations; or
4. workload facing your boots on the ground employees.

Self-Righteous Trainers

Too often trainees find themselves with a self-righteous trainer at the front of the room, exposing them to how the job ought to be done.

Too often trainees find themselves with a self-righteous trainer at the front of the room, exposing them to how the job ought to be done. Without any real knowledge of how the job actually gets done. This situation:

• quickly deflates any credibility the trainer has;
• causes the learners to tune out; and
• ultimately turns the training into a waste of time.

In other words, it's just a fancy way to burn money.

If the training is a waste of time than the time spent building, it was a waste of time, and ultimately, the people who built it aren't important to the business.

So, business leaders should absolutely expect that L&D team members spend time learning about and becoming competent in the operations of their business. This isn't to say that they must do the job or be able to do the job. But, the number of L&D professionals who outright avoid going anywhere near the operation is shameful.

The number of L&D professionals who outright avoid going anywhere near the operation is shameful.

The next thing business leaders should expect of their learning team is:

EXPECTATION 2: Learning team should never start a project until measurement criteria has been established.

In many organizations, this expectation depends on senior leaders making it clear to the rest of the business that the learning team will not start a project until success measures have been defined. We need to be careful with this expectation though, because this can be over-complicated in a hurry.

It's great if a learning project targets a specific metric for improvement; but, rarely is this an option. For data to be understandable it needs to be reduced to very specific measurements, and gaming these numbers is often too easy.

Does This Make Any Sense?

Success measures for learning teams, on the other hand, can come in the form of observations, interviews, survey data and lead measures (in the form of behaviours). I'm not saying all of these are appropriate for all projects, but in situations where we can't get the measure that we need/want, these are the next best alternative.

Regardless of how success will be measured, it must absolutely must be defined before the start of a project. How on earth can a learning team create content to improve the business in a particular way if they:

1. Don't understand the business (see Expectation 1 above); and
2. Aren't clear on what exactly it is they're trying to improve?

Yet learning teams everywhere are conducting themselves in exactly that way, because the project management and evaluation of learning programs is the less sexy part of our jobs. It is the less fun part... but it's also the most critical.

And, finally...

EXPECTATION 3: Learning teams should start from the minimum viable product.

Almost every time a learning team gets asked for help. they propose one of two solutions:

• in-class training; or
• eLearning.

These two solutions have their place. They are valuable at certain times, but they are hardly the only options available. Sometimes a job aid is more than sufficient. Sometimes group discussions led by the functional leaders are a far better option than having the learning team that knows very little or nothing about the business trying to build a workshop.

Mentoring is an extremely valuable tool for leadership development, among other things. But if you ask the learning department to build something for leadership development, they'll likely propose a series of eLearning courses and in-class training sessions. That is not how leaders are developed.

So, business leaders need to start asking their learning teams what other types of solutions could be used. This could make the turnaround time of a project significantly less and produce better results. More with less. Every business likes that.

But there's also another level to this expectation. When in-class training and/or eLearning are used, we ought to be asking the learning team what the minimum viable product would look like. There are times when video is the best solution. There are times when virtual reality is an excellent option. And, there are also times when a series of multiple choice questions with remedial feedback are the absolute best way to go.

Left to their own devices, the learning team will almost always build something more complicated than it needs to be. In other words, the learning team will get excited about their new project and then waste all kinds of money on it.

If you're a senior leader in your organization, or if you are a learning professional listening to this, you should be following these three expectations with every project in every organization you work.

• EXPECTATION 1: Understand the business. You can't serve a customer if you don't understand their needs.
• EXPECTATION 2. Never start a project until measurement criteria has been established. You cannot run a successful project, if you don't know what success looks like.
• EXPECTATION 3: Start from the minimum viable product. Yes, it's exciting to use new tech and new tools and create projects that are fun for you to build. But ultimately, you have a customer and you're spending their money.

That's the end of the rant. Click the link and leave your thoughts on this podcast. 

Take care,

CC

Clint Clarkson, CTDP is just another victim who accidentally stumbled down the rabbit hole of corporate learning and development. He is the Founder & Managing Partner of eLearning Alchemy, a custom eLearning development firm. While he’s known for being upbeat, positive, and enthusiastic, Clint is still easily offended by comic-sans, bullet points, and the excessive use of buzzwords. Connect with Clint on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.