L & D practitioners are regularly asked to be ‘more strategic’ but little time is spent supporting them to do this or even visioning what it should look like. Here are six practical actions to get you started.
One of my clients has recently been told by her manager that she needs to be ‘more strategic’, and that her business plan for this year needs to be ‘less tactical’. She was clearly concerned and confessed to struggling with how to set about making this adjustment.
We spent time talking though ideas and actions which would help. It made me realise that although L & D practitioners are increasingly being asked to be ‘more strategic’, very little time is actually invested in supporting them to do this or even visioning what it should look like in practice.
So, what can you do to make this shift? Here are six practical actions…
1. Ensure you understand and are aligned to the business strategy
It sounds obvious but we can easily get wrapped up in the day-to-day and forget our need to align with and support the big picture. Spend time reviewing the overall business strategy and consider how you can practically support it. How do your department’s objectives align strategically? Is there a clear line of sight and do all of your team, if you have one, understand it?
2. Define what strategic L & D means in your organisation
Connect with your key stakeholders, including the managers of each business area. Show interest and understanding in their business and what matters to them. Find out what keeps them awake at night and define with them where you could add value in supporting them? Talk with passion about their business rather than focussing on the content of courses.
3. Be pro-active
L & D practitioners are often ‘asked in’ when decisions about what to do have already been made. We all know this is frustrating and involvement earlier in the process may have enables a more valuable, coherent solution to be put in place.
So spend time on a regular basis engaging with the business leaders – keep on their radar. Find out what’s happening – invite yourself to the table on a regular basis. Move from responsive to pro-active and help to shape the agenda. This is really about business partnering.
4. Go beyond the happy sheets
When talking about the impact of learning talk limit this to the happy sheets and results. Most business leaders are not really interested in whether the trainer was friendly or the food was good. They want to know ‘what difference will this make in my business area?’
For this reason, design learning with the results that you are trying to drive clearly in mind and then report on these on a regular basis.
Just how will you know the learning has made a difference? Ideally this means working with your stakeholders to define measures and expected results up front – it is this clarity which enables us to deliver learning which has impact and value beyond the classroom.
5. Make learning everyone’s business
We all know that learning works best when interventions are ‘sponsored’ and actively supported by the managers within the business. So consider just how you can involve all stakeholders in the design, delivery and sustainability of learning solutions. Make learning everyone’s business.
6. Build your business relationships
Supporting all of this is the need to be fully networked into your business and to know what matters to each of your stakeholders. This is primarily about the building of partnerships and relationships. Talk about what’s important to them and provide insight and share ideas. Think about what your competitors are doing, think about what other business units are doing and share this to support and challenge them.
What else have you done that’s worked?
Karen Hulme is JSB’s Director, Learning and Development. She shares her opinions on current issues relating to the learning and development arena.