Learning Strategy Pitfalls

An organizational learning strategy is an overarching blueprint for learning in an organization. It clarifies how learning supports achievement of the business strategy.

It is different from the strategy for a specific learning solution. Your organizational learning will inform the design of specific solutions or programs. It is also not a catalog or inventory. It doesn’t list specific capabilities, programs, or courses. These belong in your operational plans. Your strategy should be relatively enduring so that it can be applied to developing any set of capabilities or achieving a range of different business goals.

A learning strategy is similar in function to a house plan. Without a plan, your house may not meet your needs or support your vision for your lifestyle. It can also lack structural integrity. Similarly, a well-crafted learning strategy helps you contribute to your organization’s goals and strategy and coherently and consistently create business value over an extended period.

Pitfalls

There are some pitfalls or traps that people fall into when developing a learning strategy.

Copying. Strategy must fit your context. Look at examples from elsewhere with curiosity. Seek inspiration and ideas. Ask how other strategies fit the context of the organization they were created for. However, do not copy someone else’s strategy. It won’t fit your organization’s environment, circumstances, and people.

Apple Pie. Broad motherhood statements about learning will fail to move people to action. Move beyond theory to provide clear, concrete details in plain language about what learning looks like in your organization. Spell out benefits to different stakeholders, and what they can do to achieve them. Make it actionable for all.

Ivory Tower. Have you ever been to a one-day strategy workshop stacked with people from learning and development? Perhaps some other human resources people have joined you. However, functions such as operations, production, customer service, technology, and marketing were not invited—or are under-represented. It’s risky to create strategy in an ivory tower, in isolation of the people you serve. Your strategy will only represent your views and opinions. You run the risk of not addressing stakeholder needs or creating a deeply attractive and compelling strategy.

Blindfolded. We all have biases and assumptions, no matter how long we have been in an organization. Like others with domain expertise, as learning professionals we are also prone to entrained thinking shaped by our experience of past successes. Conducting internal research improves your chances of seeing things as they really are in your organization. Additionally, looking at industry trends, benchmarks, and case studies helps you to identify new possibilities and take a more informed approach.

Outsourcing. Handing over strategy development to an external consultant may be expedient, but it is also risky. Developing an effective strategy requires deep thinking done in conjunction with your stakeholders. You want to hear first-hand, with empathy, about their needs and expectations. You want the opportunity to deepen relationships and generate buy-in with the strategy. Doing this work yourself, underpinned by a sound process, allows you to achieve these shifts—and enhances your credibility. Worst case, you may not understand the rationale for the strategy that the consultant hands over to you.

Beware of your bias to action.

Underlying these pitfalls is our natural human orientation to act which leads to:

• Moving too quickly

• Thinking too shallowly

• Failing to engage widely and deeply enough with your stakeholders

Our brains are wired for fast, efficient thinking. It brings us relief to makes decisions rather than sit uncomfortably with ambiguity and open questions. On top of this, in many organizations, there is pressure to be seen taking action. Yet, this can lead us to work on solutions before we have a solid lay of the land.

Avoid these pitfalls.

Resist the pressure and temptation to move too quickly.

Reframe what action looks like. Investigation is action. Gathering and examining evidence is action. Doing some solid, structured thinking to overcome cognitive biases and assumptions is action.

Take these steps with key stakeholders involved and they will see and feel that you are in motion.

To learn more, join me on May 19 at the ATD25 International Conference & EXPO for my session, Learning Strategy in Action: Designing for Implementation.

Editor's note: This post was previously published on the author's website.