Corporate L&D: The Flea and The Whale

The Flea and The Whale - Resourcing, Agility and the need to Prove the Value of Learning


When considering the strategic direction of a central L&D function in a large organisation, I find it helpful to think in terms of two key characteristics:
 1.       resourcing levels and
2.       agility (the capacity to innovate)

Resourcing is obvious – it’s the L&D headcount plus any third party resource used.  Agility is the ability to adapt to fast-changing circumstances: changing processes to be more efficient; adoption of new technologies; meeting the ever-changing development needs of the workforce, and the way they want to learn.
By plotting these two factors on axes (see below), you could describe a wide variety of conditions.  Each of the four corners of the graph represents an extreme situation, which I'll describe using animal metaphors:
  1. The Flea (high agility and low resource levels).  Highly adaptable, but not enough resource to carry anything through.
  2.  The Cheetah (high agility and high resourcing).  The ideal situation: very agile, with the resourcing to carry change through to fruition.
  3. The Beached Whale (high resourcing levels but low agility).  Lots of resource but unable to change, stranded.
  4. The Dodo (low resourcing and low agility).  Where a learning function is low on both counts, it performs no useful function, so is headed for extinction.




What I find instructive is tracking the journey of learning departments around this graph over time.  For a mid-performing L&D department, I'd say the ideal intention is to grow resource levels whilst also increasing agility (dotted line below).  However what I typically see is that resourcing growth outstrips agility and the trajectory heads to the top of the graph.  I'd characterise this as solving problems by throwing resource at them, rather than changing the way we address the problem.


Worse still, when L&D departments get big, they risk losing agility - their sheer mass makes it harder to achieve change, as ways of working become entrenched and changing them requires altering the behaviour of too many people.  Such situations are at risk of drifting towards Beached Whale corner.

At the board level, when the C-suite look at an L&D department in this state, they are liable to see a large cost with very little benefit associated with it (except maybe compliance).  What happens next is L&D gets its budget cut.  And next year when the board realises the wheels haven't fallen off, they cut some more.  And so on...




Now the trajectory becomes downward, as cuts lead to resourcing reductions.  Instinctively, L&D maintains frontline learning delivery to the business, but what gets sacrificed is longer term investment - L&D becomes less agile still.  We are, in fact, on the slippery slope to extinction.  I have seen more than one central L&D department become so small it no longer provides any meaningful support to the business beyond some leadership training and maybe a graduate programme.  Meanwhile the business units sort out their own training and the central L&D model with all its benefits breaks down completely.

As training budgets get cut, smart Heads of L&D anticipate the future and are trying to pull their department out of that decline before it’s too late.  They are concluding that a vital part of turning their department round includes recognising the value of the learning they provide.  Put another way: where does learning make a difference to organisational performance?  All of L&D seems to know that learning is ‘A Good Thing’ but very few are able to be more specific than that. In the face of a challenge from the CEO, we need something more convincing.
 
 




Here at KnowledgePool Capita, we're helping our clients to do just that.  We are talking to learners after key investment programmes, and gathering evidence of the business benefit of learning.  It's not big sample sizes but the evidence is compelling.  Not only does it show clear evidence of significant business benefit from learning, but it informs L&D about what components of their programmes add value (and those that don't), it also highlights the key role line managers have in releasing that benefit.
Armed with this information, L&D can challenge proposed cuts and show where additional learning investment will give performance uplift.  L&D starts talking to business leaders in business terms.
Halting budget cuts is only half the answer.  The other half involves creating greater agility, we'll come to that another time...




Kevin Lovell

Learning Strategy Director

Your L&D Governance: Policing or Pleasing?


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

So Demanding!

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


Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)