Moving From Ideas to Implementation

As L&D practitioners, we must think like our senior leaders and what matters to them, said Michelle Ockers, chief learning strategist at Learning Uncut, during ATD25’s session, “Learning Strategy in Action: Designing for Implementation.” Doing so will help you gain greater traction for your learning goals.

First, to ensure attendees were on the same page vis-à-vis an organizational learning strategy, Ockers outlined what it is and isn’t: It’s not a strategy for a specific initiative or even an annual plan of programs and projects. Rather, it is the overall root system that supports business strategy. It makes all learning programs coherent.

The problem

Why don’t more organizations have learning strategies? There are many challenges to implementation—according to audience input, those include competing interests, changes in technology, other business priorities, and too much overall change. From her own experience and research, Ockers shared these challenges:

• Lack of cross-functional collaboration

• Cultural resistance and misalignment

• Insufficient budget and resources

• Pace of change

• Overcommitment to rigid plans

Potential solutions

So, how does an L&D team surmount those challenges?

There are four implementation success factors, continued Ockers:

• Co-designing and aligning strategy with the business

• Forming a governance structure and processes suited to the business context

• Starting small and scaling intelligently

• Partnering across the organization’s people functions

When L&D teams attempt to design a strategy, often they try to copy someone else’s strategic plan. Other pitfalls include bringing in a consultant to create the strategy who doesn’t have internal partnerships and the knowledge of the organization; and living in an ivory tower. Rather, it’s important to start the process with a clear understanding of the business organization and strategy. Co-create an action-oriented, achievable plan with stakeholders. Factor in your organization’s culture—as the old saying goes, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

An L&D team can build a strategy with the following elements:

• Make the case for change.

• Lay out a one-line vision.

• Outline the value proposition for stakeholders.

• State your decision principles.

• Prioritize action areas.

What to take home

Ockers continued her session by sharing two case studies of how L&D teams, including a team of one, began implementing their strategies.

For example, the Australian Public Service faced a challenge of each public agency working separately. While not imposing the L&D strategy on others, L&D took a top-down and bottom-up approach, working with senior leaders to embrace the strategy and business leaders to implement it every day.

Invest Blue, with its L&D team of one, was geographically disbursed and is in an industry that is heavily regulated. The company tapped its internal coaching, working cohesively to create learning and culture consistency; maximized its SharePoint tool; initiated a formal onboarding program; and piloted peer learning.

After describing each, Ockers gave attendees an opportunity to reflect and discuss in pairs how they could take lessons from the case studies home to their organizations.

Read more about ATD25 at conferencedaily.td.org.