Learning Transformation Shift 3: From cost to business benefit

10:42:00 Learning Boffins 0 Comments


This is probably the hardest of the three shifts, but also the most valuable because business benefit directly counters cost. This shift is similar to the last one, in that it concerns one factor that we understand very well, and one which we hardly recognise at all.
Here, the cost of learning is well-understood and quite easily calculated: it appears in any plan or report concerning learning, and the numbers will be accorded a high level of validity. No learning professional would get a proposal for a learning programme agreed without a cost estimate, on the understanding that ‘costs may go down but not up’, and we expect to be held to that estimate.

In contrast, the business benefit of learning is rarely attempted: it is dismissed as being “too difficult” and when it is attempted, the values are considered rough estimates at best. Mostly we prefer to accept the vague assumption that learning does deliver business benefit, and don’t look too close in case we find that it doesn’t!  And that’s not healthy.

So how can we move towards being more convinced of the business benefit of learning? Four ways:


1.       Conduct a small number of specific studies to assess the business benefit from a variety of different learning programmes (different subject areas, different audiences, different delivery modes – don’t bother with mandated programmes where the decision to run them is not about business benefit). We find the best approach is to interview a sample of learners for half an hour each, 3-6 months after the programme and probe specifically for evidence of impact on the business. Over time you will build up a library of hard evidence of business benefit, together with an understanding of the mechanisms by which this comes about. This kind of investigation is only practical for a small cross-section of your training, however the techniques espoused by people like Donald Kirkpatrick, Jack Phillips, Robert Brinkerhoff and others will help.

2.       Use this evidence to estimate the expected business benefit of training interventions before they take place. Develop compelling stories using words and numbers to describe how and how much an intervention will deliver business benefit. Remember you must be credible: do not overstate the benefits; make sensible assumptions; be transparent; base everything on evidence and fact.

3.       Go for increased frequency of estimates, over increased accuracy. The more you talk about business benefit, the more people will get used to hearing it. And the more they hear it, the more likely they are to accept it.

4.       Be confident. That’s how marketing get their budget approved. If the board can approve the marketing budget based on expected payback of different promotional activity, then L&D can do the same for learning spend, based on expected business benefit of different types of learning activity.

What it looks like

The overall aim is for all learning investment decisions to be made in the light of expected cost and business benefit. No learning should therefore happen unless there is some understanding of the likely business benefit and how it will be realised. More specific steps along the way include:



·         Demand planning. The planning of learning is conducted on an organisation-wide basis. This has operational efficiencies quite apart from the articulation of business benefit. Demand planning invariably starts life as a budget-setting exercise, but as the business benefit of learning becomes better understood, the character of demand planning changes. Ultimately learning is prioritised according to its expected contribution to business benefit.

·         Management Information. Development of reporting that begins to roll up the contribution of learning to business benefit for the whole organisation. This includes numeric reporting of data, but also compilations of the narrative evidence which has to be a more manual process. This may evolve into some kind of dashboard equivalent which answers the question ‘what has learning done for the organisation this month/quarter?’

·         Learning Governance. Over time a governance structure can develop. The strategic decisions about learning priorities and learning investments tend to be made by a Board of senior business leaders, in line with strategic business goals. L&D or HR become responsible for executing the decisions made by the Board.

·         L&D resourcing. The size and shape of the L&D team is determined as much by their contribution to business benefit as their cost. The division between internal resources and external service providers will change as we understand where the value is greatest.

·         Talent Management. Finally we may even develop a view of talent management that includes the increased valuation of employee skills resulting from development activity.

Benefits

As a result of this shift, learning wins the support of senior management because it’s talking their language (and to be blunt, helping them get their bonuses).


·         Learning gets commissioned based on its expected contribution to business benefit, rather than its cost. And further cost-cutting proposals can be countered by a corresponding reduction in business benefit.

·         L&D has a yardstick against which to measure any incoming requests: how will it make our organisation better?

·         This shift gives L&D strategic direction that is linked tightly to business goals. Here the benefit is not that we do stuff differently, rather that we do different stuff. We only do the stuff that contributes to achieving strategic business goals, everything else gets left behind.

 
 
 


Kevin Lovell
Learning Strategy Director


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Learning Transformation Shift 2: From learning content to performance improvement

11:01:00 Learning Boffins 0 Comments


 
L&D professionals get passionate about 'content' -after all it's at the heart of our professional expertise. But we rarely talk about the performance improvement that should result from that content. Here's why:  

 
1. Currently, because the people asking for training are cost-conscious, the question “What can I get for that cost?” is never far away. So we think in terms of what the money will ‘get’ you: courses, e-learning content and so on.
2. The people asking for training assume that training is 'A Good Thing' and that training is followed by performance improvement like day follows night.
Both these assumptions are flawed. But bcause we know lots about content andmuch less about performance, we gravitate towards our area of expertise and start crafting some top quality content.
In our exprience there is very little poor qualty training going on - certanly not where L&D professionals are involved. However, our own investigation concluded that a quarter of all training fails to yeild any significant performance improvement. Ancedotally, learning professionals say the actual figure is much higher. The problem is not with the learning content, rather what happens before and after.
This shift is about L&D expanding its horizons: not just to be responsible for good content, but to hold the business to account for turning learning into performance improvement. Performance is L&D’s business.

What it looks like

Here are the key changes to L&D in this shift:

Developing learning business partner skills. Not accepting requests for learning (or needs analysis) until the stakeholder can:
1. Clearly state he performance shortfall
2. Describe how they expect any learning will transfer into the desired performance improvement.
L&D must develop the questioning and support techniques to help stakeholders do this. 
Providing Performance Consulting, not TNA. Performance consulting looks at business problems from a whole business perspective, not just a learning perspective. Hence the solution may include changes to job roles, organisational structures, business processes, remuneration and incentives, and so on.      
Curriculum transformation. Reviewing the existing content with a view to optimising the delivery mode: increasing the use of technology to deliver learning; challenging any default use of instructor-led learning; ensuring self-learners will receive appropriate support and ensuring learning is capable of being embedded.




Embedding learning into everyday work. Working to ensure that embedding is seen as an inevitable corollary to learning. Before formal learning occurs, learners and their managers should understand how and where the learning is expected to be used. L&D are to foster mechanisms whereby embedding of learning is encouraged or even mandated.
Developing competency frameworks and role profiles. These are the building blocks of talent management, against which learning content can be mapped. This allows employees to assess their competencies and build their own development plans in line with their career aspirations. It also facilitates alignment of development with performance improvement goals.
Review the academy / catalogue of learning content. Once mapped to competencies, L&D can better assess any gaps in the curriculum, and rate the content in terms of its expected impact on performance improvement.

Benefits

As a result of this shift, L&D becomes more commercially aware. Not that we aren’t already aware, but now that awareness translates into more than just content. We start to call those who request training to account:
  • That when they ask for development, their request is part of a thought-through plan to fix a business issue, and not just short-term sticking plaster over a problem
  • That they accept their role to ensure that learning is embedded and translates into performance improvement
We are unlikely to be thanked for this, but eventually it will earn us respect from business leaders, as learning moves away from order-taking towards the delivery of higher business performance.

Picturing the shift to performance improvement

The diagram below positions learning within the wider context of achieving business goals.  We have developed it into a chain because the process is only as good as the weakest link. The core L&D activities (links 3 to 5) are sandwiched between 5 links which the wider business is responsible for.

The Learning Chain:

 

When learning fails to deliver its expectations, there is nearly always a problem in these wider business links:

1. The business goals are badly interpreted (so either we don't know what business benefits to look for after learning, or we look for it in the wrong place).
2. We don't understand the performance shortfall inenough detail (and similarly, afterwards we can't evaluate any improvement in performance).
3. Learning is not transferred (embedded) into everyday working life

L&D cannot be expected to do the work of other parts of the business, however it can hold them accountable for their share of the learning chain, because if one of their links fail, the learning investment is lost.
 







Kevin Lovell


Learning Strategy Director
 


 

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