Your L&D Governance: Policing or Pleasing?

11:42:00 Learning Boffins 0 Comments


We need governance for our L&D. In large organisations it becomes essential to have a method of prioritisation for learning interventions. Is that true? Couldn’t we just let departments ‘spend to the end’ and then sit crying when the budget runs out just before the next ‘absolutely must have training’ crisis. That would be (somewhat) unfair to the business and we know that those charismatic people in your Sales department will spend faster than any other department, wouldn’t they!

So how is your governance structured? With your unique bird’s-eye view of the organisation you should be in prime position to help move the operations requests for learning  from concept to reality with speed and efficiency; but what is your reality? Are you still working on a first come first served basis or are you prioritising based on the capability of your internal delivery team? Are there ‘back doors’ to your process that allow certain teams or departments to fast track their requests for training?

There should be nothing subjective about the decisions for developing our people in the best way to equip them to support the strategic objectives. With tight budgets we have to make ‘tight’ decisions. These decisions should be transparent to the whole of your organisation and the process required should be easy to navigate.

What are the functions of the people who are part of the governance structure, if you have set up a Learning Council are they sure of what their purpose is? It can’t be effective if the strategy makers are not involved but if they are……do they make it like a policing exercise taking advantage of the privilege to peer into other departments thinking and reacting inappropriately?

What we know at KnowledgePool is it isn’t easy to establish the structure or process but with help and support it will become the backbone of your Learning and Development department.




Rachel Kuftinoff
Strategic Learning Consultant

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So Demanding!

15:53:00 Learning Boffins 0 Comments

October will soon be here and as scary as Halloween is, demand planning has much more of a fright factor! Screams echoing through the hallways of “I can’t plan I don’t know my budget” and the seasonal shout of “how can I possibly see that far ahead?”

It’s not funny, but it is scary how something so important to the business is bemoaned so much. The Learning and Development team are positively demonised for making people think ahead about one of the most critical activities a company can plan. The truth is…. Demand Planning has nothing to do with the budget. People need what people need. If you don’t put it down on paper how can the strategic decisions be made about what is a priority and what is not a priority to the business? Budget does play into it, of course it does but that is not what your business units need to think of in the beginning. There are two firsts, ‘what is the business direction and strategy and direction for the year’ and ‘what development do my people need to support the strategy’.  When that is settled then you overlay your budget, prioritise and become creative with solutions (not problems) for your business.
Demand Planning sounds like something the National Grid have to do with our electricity, it sounds functional, tactical and quite regimented. Perhaps it should be called Strategic Alignment of Development Needs perhaps that would give it the attention it deserves? That’s the other thing that happens in the business isn’t it. They ignore your demand planning process and then say they don’t have time to do it because they have to do their financial forecasting …… but this is equally important. Without the right skills in the business you won’t need to forecast let alone hit those targets. So where to start? KnowledgePool have helped large organisations on a Global and National basis and we have also helped small ones too. We know it starts with raising awareness of the importance of the process, dispelling myths and simplification of everything!
We can’t lie, it’s not always simple, it is generally quite a massive challenge but it’s essential, it is a fundamental function of learning and development and you can do it better and smarter and make it so much less scary.
 






Rachel Kuftinoff

Strategic Learning Consultant


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