Here's How An Organization Loses Trust In Its Own L&D Team

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This article was supposed to be on the topic of case studies in L&D but I needed to change it. It's not that case studies aren't interesting but something even more interesting came up. 

I love scrolling through my LinkedIn feed over lunch. I'm not always active on LinkedIn. Sometimes I just lurk. A post caught my eye. One of my connections shared some questions. I also love a good thought provoking question. I get the best conversations out of posts like Eric's post.

Eric Rowland, a Learning Designer at Paychex, prompted his connections in a post with two questions. 

The first one, "How does an organization lose trust in its own L&D team?" 

And then, "For those who had to overcome this issue - how did you rebuild trust within the organization?"

I love these questions because they go hand in hand. The first question is making us admit to our flaws and failures. How do we prevent this from ever happening and if it seems like it's too late what can we do to resolve it?

Let's explore a few ways an L&D team may wind up losing trust, how to prevent it from occurring, and what to do if it's seemingly too late.

Scenario 1: You Leave Them Hanging

One of your favorite stakeholders has just come to you with a request to create training on their new social media policy. They let you know that no one in the company knows about the policy, so they'd like to create training in order to introduce everyone to it.

This is your favorite stakeholder and you don't want to let them down. However, you know that it's not really training that they need. You feel badly but you tell them this doesn't sound like a training need. You send them on their way.

Your stakeholder is stewing inside and they have no clue what to do next.

In this case, cutting the cord is not the best approach. Stakeholders may come to you with an impossible need or something where training is not the right answer. That doesn't mean you have to say, "See ya later." Part of our job is to consult and help people find their way.

What should you have done?

You do due diligence and conduct an analysis, even just a brief one. You share your findings. You find that what they really need is a communications plan. You help them find the right team, vendor, person, whoever to help them get to the next step.

You let them go. What can you do now?

It may have been awhile and since your last interaction with this stakeholder. Approach them and let them know that next time you'll help tie up the loose ends.

Scenario 2: You Say Yes Without Consulting

A company VP has asked your team to create 2, 4 hour, face to face classes on how to use their expense reporting tool. The VP knows that two classes is not scalable and they tell you to record the classes for any new hires that join the org. You reluctantly say yes because they are a VP and it's what they want.

Fast-forward 3 months down the line, 70% of users are not submitting their lodging accommodations taxes via the tool correctly. Everyone has forgotten about the training once it's time to submit expenses, and the recorded training is nearly impossible to navigate through. The VP refuses to work with your team again and decides to take things into their own team's hands.

Always saying yes or foregoing consulting may get you into a lot of trouble in the long run. It's not always apparent right away. It will catch up to you. When you always say yes, you may wind up taking on more work than you team is capable of and then decreasing your quality/effectiveness. Or perhaps you just agree to what the leader wants because you want them to be happy and they must know best, right? Then you're in a situation like this one, where it backfires. 

What should you have done?

Of course you want to please your VP and you can without jumping to yes. Ask more questions about the project. Start to think about how you'll measure success. Come up with a proposal and run it by them. What's the risk of doing it their way versus based on learning best practices? Let them know. Cover all of your bases and do all you can to get buy-in.

They won't come to you. What can you do now?

So, you've gone with your VPs solution without proposing your own. In order to earn back trust, you can admit where you went wrong and create an action plan to mitigate the risk in the future. Go to the VP with a new proposal for a learning solution that will meet your learner's needs.

Scenario 3: You Don't Show Up

A new Customer-Relationship Management (CRM) system is going live in your company in 2 weeks and your L&D team has just heard about it. However, the project has been in the mix for months. The product's implementation team has just looped you in because they'll need several training deliverables. Your whole team is flustered and responds, "Why didn't they loop us in sooner!? This always happens."

Your team realizes these materials are going to be a priority for the business and you'll have to put all of your other stakeholder's projects on hold. You dread telling them. You also let the CRM Product team know that their expectations for the learning deliverables will need to be low. The product team looks confused.

Everyone in this instance is pointing fingers. Your team is wondering why you were not included up front. The product implementation team is probably wondering why you didn't show up. Your other stakeholders are wondering how you got yourself into this mess. They are secretly glad it's not them in this mess. Then they immediately wonder how they are going to deliver on their learning initiatives now. Panic sets in all around. No one is winning. Everyone is losing, including your learners.

What should you have done?

Show up. Be the change you want to see in the world. Find out what the key meetings are and show up. Know your business's goals. Do what it takes to become a part of the business. Don't wait for someone to include you.

What if you don't have the capacity to do this? Find another way. Find a way to automate looping in learning in your businesses process. Get creative. Just find a way that works for you and get involved.

What can you do now?

Make a commitment to all of your stakeholders that you'll find a way to work with them to make a change going forward. Then just do it.

Scenario 4: You Don't Listen And You're Not Transparent

You're working a leadership materials for managers of people managers. Your stakeholders are really tough on you about your initial storyboards for a video you put together. They absolutely loathed the main character in the video because it looked too cartoony. They were afraid it wouldn't resonate with the learners. 

You completely disagree and continue on with your design. You believe it won't impact the learning experience. A week and a half pass. The project is supposed to go live in less than a week. You share the final design with your stakeholders. They are left in shock and not in a good way.

They want to know why you didn't change the design and how it go so far along without a review.

Your stakeholders are not angry because you didn't go with their design. They're angry because they were not heard. They're left feeling unappreciated and left in the dark on their own project.

What should you have done?

Every project needs to be a partnership. Each team has a role to play and needs to be heard. You may not agree with the stakeholder's design decisions but don't shut down. Let it be a conversation. Ask what it is that they don't like about the design, ask to get real user feedback, discuss meeting in the middle or alternate options. Most importantly find out what impact it really has on the project and come to terms together on it. Is it worth breaking trust over?

Once you make a decision, have scheduled follow-ups with your stakeholders on key milestone points. That doesn't even mean you need to ask for feedback each time. Just keep them in the loop. This will keep the trust going. Another important tip would be to explain the decisions you made along the way. Educate your stakeholders on your decisions.

They decide to hire a vendor from now on. What can you do now?

Your stakeholders want to be heard, so they decide to hire a vendor from now on. They know the vendor will listen to them. Create a game plan for how you can better work together in a partnership. Make sure you let them know they will be heard. Set expectations for both parties up front.

Illustrations are from unDraw.

-Mel

What are some other ways L&D may lose trust? How you would you prevent them from happening or how would you resolve them once they've happened?