In this inaugural post of the #L&DToolBox, we tackle one of the most critical challenges #Learning & Development professionals face: how to design business-aligned learning. According to research published in MIT Sloan Management Review in 2015, one in four Fortune 500 CEOs are concerned with the quality of learning for their talent: what talent is learning is not aligned to business needs. As a Learning & Development professional, you need to address and eliminate this concern. Here are three steps (plus 3 Tried & Tested Tips) to help you do so:
Step 1: Ask
Before you prescribe a learning solution you must ask a few critical questions, much like an investigative reporter: • Who are the beneficiaries? (incl. a description of their roles and years of experience) • What is the business need? • Where are the learners located? • When is this training needed? • How much time do the learners have and how much is the budget? These questions will help you clarify who the learners are, their managers’ business need(s), the location of the training, the urgency of the training, and the resources (time and budget) available. The answers to the first two questions will help you define what is the business need. The answers to the last three questions will help you define how you will address the business need with a learning solution including defining the location and hence the modality of the learning, whether it will be in-class, blended, on-demand or live-on-line, the urgency of the training, the duration of the training and the level of customization needed and afforded.
Tried & Tested Tip: Keep in mind that nowadays, most organizations prefer to deliver online training to junior talent, reserving the face-to-face training for hi-potentials, rising managers or senior talent.
Step 2: Define
Next, you must define the current state of learning of the learners on the particular business need, so you can design a learning solution that will be aligned and will address the particular business need. For example, is the business need is increasing customer satisfaction you will need to assess the degree in which the learners apply customer focused communication skills, how learners handle stressed customer demands, and what is the learners’ emotional intelligence quotient. While several organizations have built their own assessments, you want to use psychometrically robust assessments to evaluate the current level of learning and define the gap your learning solution will need to close.
Tried & Tested Tip: There are several third-party assessment providers in the market. You can offer an assessment as a recommended add-on to the learning solution. If the budget does not allow for a third-party assessment, you can design a basic one in-house. Learn how right here in the next post!
Step 3 : Design Now, you can design a meaningful and relevant learning solution. You have the answers to all the key questions about the learners and their business need, and you have defined the learning gap preventing the learners from meeting their business need. Congrats! You have arrived at the magical moment where you add value by actually aligning the learning with the business need. Now, you will need to identify the module or modules you will use to design the learning solution. Each of your selected modules should have several learning objectives. You will need to ensure that the learning objectives of the selected modules answer the business needs question you identified in Step 1. It is important that you do one for one match. For each business need you are addressing in the learning solution you are designing, you should have no more than three learning objectives.
Tried & Tested Tip: Typically, a business need can be addressed by one and up to three learning objectives. So if your learning solution needs to address three business needs, you will likely have a maximum of 9 learning objectives. Anything above that becomes unwieldy for you to manage, for your client to absorb and more importantly for the learners to learn. Of course, the amount of time available for learning also affects the number of learning objectives. In one hour of learning, you will likely be able to tackle no more than three learning objectives thoroughly.
These are the 3 Steps (plus 3 Tried & Tested Tips) to design business-aligned learning. of course, after design follows development, implementation, and evaluation. All of these are topics in upcoming #L&DToolBox blog posts so you can bust the myth that L&D Professionals don’t know how to align learning with business needs.
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The #L&DToolBox is a #Linkedinblog with tips and tools to help Learning & Development Professionals become indispensable to the businesses and the learners they serve. Reference: Ben-Hur, S., Jaworski, B., & Gray, D. (2015). Aligning corporate learning with strategy. MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(1), 53-59.
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