Google Ad #1 - desktop - 728x90

Google Ad #3 - desktop - 728x90

Google Ad #1 - mobile - 300x200

Google Ad #3 - mobile - 300x200

ATD_Half_Page

Googel Ad #1 - Side Bar - Content pages

ATD Footer Logo

Karen L. West

Effective training for a revolving door

As a talent development leader, you might be looking for a more curated experience at ATD’s largest annual conference. You are now in a role where instead of designing, training, and facilitating, you are leading a team of L&D professionals. When you plan your ATD25 experience in a few weeks, the sessions that will be best for you are the ones that incorporate the expectations of your leadership role.~Look no further than the Talent Development Leader (TDL) track~The TDL experience is now in its third year of helping TD leaders stay ahead of the curve with curated content, meaningful networking, and solutions tailored to your role. The comprehensive track includes interactive Forum programming, a dedicated networking room, and 10 exclusive concurrent sessions built for leaders just like you. Whether you’re looking to connect with peers, exchange ideas, or explore emerging trends and tools, this is the place to be! For a quick glance at the schedule and offerings, check out the official TDL programming page. Otherwise, here is a breakdown of what to expect at this year’s conference in Washington, DC.Forum Sessions: A Hot TicketATD25 features five exclusive Forum sessions hosted by the ATD Forum, a membership community for senior TD professionals. These interactive sessions use practical tools to ensure attendees can apply insights directly in their organizations. This is where peer insight meets innovation, as you will hear directly from established TD leaders who will provide immediate feedback, tools, and resources to elevate your own leadership and organizational learning function. Insider tip: Because of their hands-on format, demand for these sessions is high (one of the sessions is even being offered twice!). Although we wish everyone could sit in on these sessions, seating is limited. Make sure to arrive early!Sessions:Fueling Growth and Success Through Talent Investments Monday, May 19, at 11:30 a.m.Want Solutions That Work? Do a Deep Dive Monday, May 19, at 1 p.m. & Tuesday, May 20, at 1 p.m.Connect, Collaborate, Share: Unleash Innovative Performance Opportunities With Peer Benchmarking Tuesday, May 20, at 2 p.m.Unlock Your Organization’s Potential Using the Wow Factor Wednesday, May 21, at 9:30 a.m.In the Room Where It Happens (Room 102)The Talent Development Leader Networking Room is your conference home base. Open from Monday to Wednesday, Room 102 offers refreshments, a quiet space to reflect or recharge, and opportunities to engage in both facilitated networking sessions and casual conversations. Personally, the TDL networking room changed my life. It’s where I connected with another professional who held the key to solving a problem in one of my projects. You can read all about that story here, or you can take my word for it: The TDL networking room is the place to be. Room Hours:Monday–Tuesday: 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.Wednesday: 8–11 a.m.Facilitated Sessions You Don’t Want to MissThese sessions spotlight real-world case studies, hot topics, and tools for today’s TD challenges. (Again, seating is limited, so make sure you plan accordingly.) Session Schedule:The Power of Compassion-Driven Leadership: Insights From Japan with Tadahiro Wakasugi from GLOBIS Corporation, sponsored by GLOBIS Monday, May 19, at 1 p.m.Crafting a Dynamic Onboarding Journey for Executive Leaders with Alissa Weiher and Mackenzie Friday, UCHealth Monday, May 19, at 4:30 p.m.The Science of Great Teams: How to Create a Culture of Psychological Safety with Britt Andreatta Tuesday, May 20, at 11:30 a.m.AI in Action: Real-World Insights From TD Leaders with Markus Bernhardt Tuesday, May 20, at 2 p.m.Improve Your Storytelling – and L&D Results – With “Garlic Press” Questions with Deb Arnold Tuesday, May 20, at 4 p.m.What’s Your Organization’s Conflict Cocktail? A Guided Conversation for L&D Leaders with Karin B. Hurt and David M. Dye Wednesday, May 21, at 8 a.m.*All sessions will occur in Room 102 on Level 1 of the conference center*Invite-Only Experiences for Senior LeadersThe remainder of the TDL programming sessions are invite-only for those participating in ATD’s senior leader communities: ATD Forum, CTDO, and the ATD-Penn GSE Talent Development Executive Certificate. Learn more about ATD’s TD leader communities here.Stay Engaged All Year With ATD Talent Development Leader While the conference is only a few days long, Talent Development Leader is more than just a conference track! As ATD’s professional development brand for people leading learning in their organization, TDL provides you with cutting-edge industry insight, advice from leaders doing the work, budding research, and more. Subscribe to the Talent Development Leader newsletter and get the tools you need to lead the future of learning. Don’t miss out on monthly articles, podcasts, webinars, and special events—such as our current collaboration with Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2025!See You at ATD25!Personally, I am counting the days until the conference starts on May 18. Make the most of your time at ATD25 by fully immersing yourself in the Talent Development Leader Experience. From exclusive sessions to invaluable connections, it’s your launchpad to greater impact and innovation in talent development.

Your Ultimate Guide to the Talent Development Leader Experience at ATD25

As the founder of Velocity, LLC, The Conversation Company™, which emphasizes the art of strategic conversation using 4SConversations, Jill has spearheaded innovative programs for employees from corporations such as American Express, The Walt Disney Company, Elizabeth Arden, L’Oreal, Mary Kay, Donna Karan, Reebok International and Turner Broadcasting. Her approach to employee motivation and wellness has been highlighted at change management best–practices conferences worldwide. Contact her at jill@4Sconversations.net

Jill Miller

For years, corporate training platforms were built to deliver content. Upload the course, assign it to learners, mark completion, and move on. But in 2025, that approach won’t cut it anymore.Learning leaders are expected to do far more than distribute information. You’re being asked to prove business impact, keep pace with skills disruption, and engage busier and more discerning learners than ever. Your role has shifted from administrator to strategist, and the tools you use need to keep up.That’s why the learning management system (LMS) you choose matters. The right platform doesn’t just host courses; it helps you shape a skilled, agile, and future-ready workforce. Here are five features to look for in an LMS to help you deliver on that promise.1. Role-Based Learning PathsOne-size-fits-all training wastes everyone’s time. New hires don’t need the same content as senior leaders. Contractors shouldn’t wade through courses designed for permanent staff. An LMS that supports role-based learning paths lets you design targeted, relevant, and consistent journeys without tripling your workload.For L&D professionals, this means you can stop reinventing the wheel for every team or department. Instead, you’re free to focus on aligning learning to business goals, confident that the system will handle the logistics of assigning the right content to the right people.2. AI-Powered InsightsExecutives aren’t impressed by completion rates. They want to know whether learning programs are helping people ramp faster, perform better, or stay longer. An LMS with AI-driven insights transforms data into a clear picture of how learning drives performance.This is what allows you to walk into the boardroom with confidence. Instead of defending your budget, you’re demonstrating workforce readiness, surfacing skills gaps before they become problems, and showing how learning directly drives performance.3. Mobile and Flexible Learning ExperiencesYour learners are juggling packed calendars and competing priorities. If training doesn’t fit into their reality, it won’t get done. That’s why flexibility matters. An LMS designed for today’s workforce supports learning anytime, anywhere, whether that’s mobile-first modules during a commute, asynchronous courses for distributed teams, or blended options for complex topics.For you, this isn’t just about convenience. It’s about engagement. When learning feels accessible and relevant, learners stick with it. And when they stick with it, your programs deliver the outcomes you’ve promised.4. Seamless Integrations With HR and Business SystemsYou didn’t get into L&D to spend your days managing spreadsheets. Yet for too many teams, manual enrollment and disconnected systems waste time and energy that should be spent on strategy. A modern LMS changes that.When your platform integrates directly with HRIS and CRM systems, enrollment happens automatically, data flows where it needs to, and reporting is streamlined. The result is less administrative overhead, more consistency across the organization, and more space for you to focus on designing programs that actually move the needle.5. Credentialing and Skills Validation“Completed” doesn’t mean “capable.” In an environment where skills gaps can slow productivity and derail growth, leaders need clear visibility into what their workforce can actually do. An LMS that supports credentialing—through digital badges, certificates, or role-specific pathways—gives you that clarity.For learners, these credentials act as milestones that motivate progress and prove value. For organizations, they provide a reliable signal of workforce readiness. For you, they’re evidence that the programs you’ve designed build real, transferable skills that matter in the workplace.The Bottom LineAs an L&D leader, every course you design is an investment in your organization’s future. To do that, you need tools that help you prove impact, scale programs efficiently, and meet learners where they are.The right LMS makes that possible. The right platform becomes the backbone of workforce growth, helping you build skills, demonstrate impact, and position learning as a growth engine.

5 LMS Features Every L&D Leader Needs in 2025

“Next learning challenge.” That’s how many organizations are approaching today’s pace of change. AI, automation, skill gaps, and evolving roles—these forces are transforming how work gets done. They’re also reshaping expectations on how people learn, grow, and deliver results. Training isn’t just about checking the box anymore. It’s about building the right skills at the right time and making sure learning fits into the flow of modern work.Traditional corporate learning models weren’t built for this. They assume time, predictability, and static roles. But today’s workforce needs something different: scalable programs that can flex across departments, keep up with job changes, and prove their value.Here’s how teams are making it happen.1. Start with skills that matterThe volume of training isn’t the problem. Misalignment is.Forward-thinking L&D teams are moving away from generic content libraries and toward skill-based learning pathways that reflect real roles and business outcomes. These aren’t static curricula; they’re responsive frameworks that evolve as workforce needs shift. They’re also using AI-powered insights to identify skills gaps and personalize learning for each role. That means learners aren’t just getting access to content—they’re getting the right content, aligned to their role, their pace, and their path forward.By defining clear role expectations and aligning learning to real outcomes, organizations are closing capability gaps faster, with less guesswork. Employees know what good looks like. Teams track what’s working. And leadership sees a direct line between training and performance.This shift doesn't just benefit learners. It aligns the entire organization around measurable growth.2. Design for the way people actually workThe average learner doesn’t have an hour. Sometimes, they don’t even have ten minutes. They’re juggling meetings, deadlines, and often caregiving or side gigs—wearing multiple hats across work and life.That’s why successful programs are modular, mobile, and adaptive. Think short bursts of targeted content, surfaced when they’re needed most. Think mobile access that works as well on a shop floor as it does in an office.Cohort-based models bring accountability. Self-paced tools offer flexibility. Personalized learning plans support growth at the right speed. And embedded support, like job aids and nudges, ensures training translates into action.This isn’t about attention spans. It’s about fitting into a learner’s reality.3. Make progress measurable and meaningfulThere’s growing pressure to prove the value of learning, not just through activity, but through outcomes.That’s why many teams are turning to platforms and processes that show skill development in motion. Real-time dashboards track proficiency. Hierarchical data structures connect performance back to business goals. Leaders get clarity on where to invest and why it’s working.This visibility isn’t just about optics. It empowers smarter decisions, faster pivots, and long-term alignment between talent strategy and company performance. Teams can track learning outcomes and engagement in real time, using those insights to guide future investments and improve program effectiveness.When outcomes are clearly linked to learning, it becomes a powerful lever for growth.4. Streamline the delivery, not just the contentScaling effective learning across teams, departments, and geographies takes more than good intentions. It takes infrastructure.Disconnected systems, manual tracking, siloed LMS tools, and duplicative processes waste time and erode consistency. Many teams are replacing them with unified ecosystems that connect learning, HR, and performance tools. This cuts down on friction and frees up capacity for strategy.With smart integrations and automation, it becomes easier to launch, track, and optimize programs without getting buried in logistics.The result? Less admin. More impact.Redefine what workforce learning looks likeThis isn’t about tweaking old programs. It’s about building systems that grow with your organization, designing learning that adapts to how people work today, and tying development directly to results that matter.The stakes are high. But so is the opportunity.Right now, teams across industries are helping define what modern workforce learning can be. And they’re setting the pace for what’s next.

4 Ways to Rethink Workforce Learning for Agility and Impact

At the beginning of the past two years, I’ve written a post on important points I think you should know. In 2021 I mentioned the importance of context, emotion, and learning to learn. In 2022 I discussed some of the newer cognitive science models of cognition—including distributed, social, and embodied cognition—as well as the role of mental models. This year, I’d like to focus on a trend that we should extinguish: the belief that we are formal, logical, reasoning beings.The cognitive revolution transcended the view of behavioral psychology; we couldn’t talk about what went on in the brain. While many valuable insights were generated by that scientific paradigm, including the role of performance objectives, the move to thinking we could isolate necessary components provided further advances. Results that have stood the test of time—the recognition of sensory, working, and long-term memory as well as core cognitive processes like attention, elaboration, and retrieval—were identified.We tend to adopt existing models as frameworks for thinking about the brain, and the cognitive revolution was no exception. For example, consider the computer as a general-purpose information processing system. It made sense to adopt that model to reflect our abilities to process information and complete a variety of tasks. Thus, the dominant framework for thinking about thinking was to view our brains as formal, logical, reasoning machines.Such models, with some assumptions like mapping the world into formal representations, accomplished impressive tasks. Systems built upon that model could break down problems into components and solve them. They could even learn. Artificial intelligence (AI) advanced as a result. So-called “expert systems” were built upon interviews with the best practitioners. Sadly, these models failed in practical situations, leading to an AI winter. This was a disconcerting time, when behavior naturally observed in humans did not reflect these symbolic systems.The Postcognitive RevolutionOne of the most impressive capabilities of our thinking is the ability to organize the world into flexible frameworks. What David Rumelhart called schemas, Marvin Minsky called frames, and Roger Schank called scripts all reflect our ability to infer knowledge about the world. Thus, we had representations such as wheels that scaled up to vehicles but differently for automobiles versus bicycles. Symbolic logic struggles with this, however. Attempts were made to adapt, such as Lofti Zadeh’s Fuzzy Logic and Douglas Hofstedter’s Slipnets, but suffered in practice.An alternative framework emerged that could be characterized as “subsymbolic,” operating below the symbolic level. John Holland, Keith Holyoak, Richard Nisbett, and Paul Thagard created a genetic algorithm approach in Induction, which borrowed mutation from biology, but wasn’t aligned with neuroscience. Rumelhart, along with Jay McClelland, proposed connectionist models instead in their two-volume set Parallel Distributed Processing with a neuroscientific inspiration. These models were found to exhibit rational behavior similar to humans. They represented the same types of behaviors, including errors, that were empirically obtained from psychology research.These neural net models created not only a psychological revolution, capturing elements of cognition, but also a renewed basis for artificial intelligence, underpinning much of today’s work in machine learning.A Cognitive LegacyOne small legacy of the formal, logical, reasoning model of cognition, however, seems to linger. It appears that many of our practices in learning and development (and business in general), still seem to be based on this idea. This is a potential problem.If we’re formal logical beings, there are several things we should be able to assume. For one, if we give people new information, they’ll appropriately adjust their behavior. Moreover, the person with the greatest access to information should be the one to make a decision, and that decision will be the best one possible. We see this manifest in several ways.For one, our training frequently resembles the presentation of new information with an expectation of behavior change. Too often, we see bullet points of information extracted from (and even presented by) experts. After this, there’s an expectation that we’ll do something differently. Similarly with annual or quarterly reviews. People need feedback at the appropriate time and support for change. We don’t just change when we wish to; it takes time and practice.We also see decisions made by individuals without consultation. Folks will decree a new approach because it’s been determined by the person at the appropriate decision point. Yet the evidence suggests that we get better outcomes when we bring more people into the decision-making process, such as in Keith Sawyer’s Group Genius. When we follow practices that help us suitably explore a problem individually, and then collectively brainstorm solutions, test, and adapt, the outcomes are better.A Problematic LegacySadly, there is also evidence that this approach to work isn’t working. We see it in the outcomes of learning investments, and when we evaluate organizational success as an outcome of our approaches, we see that more informed ones work better.In the 2012 Harvard Business School working paper The Great Training Robbery, Michael Beer, Magnus Finnstrom, and Derek Schrader cite metanalyses that suggest only 10 percent of training investment has an impact. There may be multiple causes for this, but it does suggest that we’re wasting money with our approaches. The Serious eLearning Manifesto suggests that much of traditional learning is based on information presentation, so it’s safe to say that we’re not doing as well as we could.Similarly, efforts like Laura Overton’s Toward Maturity and Lauri Bassi’s Human Capital Capability Scorecard suggest that organizations do better when they’re better aligned with how people think, work, and learn. Organizational performance reliably improves with better employee approaches.Overall, the continued use of ineffective practices undermines our organizational success. We need to effectively achieve our organizational goals, which includes ensuring we can optimally execute what we know we need to do and continually innovate when we have to invent or adapt.Moving ForwardWhat should you do differently?Truly understand how your brain actually operates. Know the basics of the human information processing loop and extensions for learning and performance.Avoid the myths that continue to hinder our industry.Conduct deep needs analyses to find important performance gaps and their root causes. There are many causes of problems besides a lack of knowledge or skills. Stop thinking that if you give people knowledge, behavior will change.Leverage external resources. Decision making is best done collectively and iteratively. To do otherwise is to minimize your potential.Move from legacy practices to evidence-based practices. There are vested interests that continue to exist based on perpetuating approaches that aren’t effective. Many products that are quite lucrative—profiling instruments and development programs —aren’t effective.Start measuring impact. This doesn’t mean what people prefer (there’s no correlation with what people think of a program and its impact). Instead, assess the actual change in the organization. You can’t collect this yourself; you must partner with the business units that require change.Align programs to demonstrable gaps, and then measure until they’ve improved.Ultimately, L&D should be the folks that are responsible for not only optimal execution but also continual innovation. When you’re innovating (problem solving, designing, or researching), you don’t know the answer when you start, so inherently it is learning. It’s informal learning, and no one knows the answer (yet)! Still, it’s an opportunity for L&D to attain a more valuable role in the organization.To make this strategic move and start bringing evidence-based practices from formal to informal learning, take ownership of these practices within your teams. Make it safe to fail; share stories of what you tried; and learn together. Create and understand a learning microculture before taking it to the rest of the organization.Last, identify the organizational legacies that are holding you, and your organizations, back. Then, find alternatives, and implement them. When you’re free of your unexamined past, you can move forward to an evidence-based future that means better outcomes. That’s a trend I’d like to see and encourage you to undertake.

A Trend to Supersede

When you’re looking to maintain, protect, or grow the budget that powers your corporate LMS (not to mention the rest of your L&D ecosystem!), you need to be able to make your case to business-minded stakeholders. These C-suite executives want hard data that points to tangible business impact—and, when you know where to look, that’s exactly what you can give them.You’ve got a wealth of areas across your organization that benefit from L&D, and they all have a data-backed story to tell. When you know what kind of results you can expect your L&D investments to deliver, you can start planning ways to measure those results and couch them in terms your C-suite will appreciate. That means looking beyond the course usage and completion metrics that, while an essential part of your learning analytics, need to be combined with business impact data to make the most compelling case to the people holding the purse strings.Read on to discover the quantifiable outcomes your C-suite wants to see, including:Increased levels of engagementA strong reputation for learningPowerful internal mobility practicesEmployee Retention and AcquisitionYou’ll likely be aware, in broad terms, that good L&D can have a positive impact on employee retention and acquisition. These are fantastic factors to consider when you’re looking to demonstrate quantifiable returns on your L&D investments, provided you can guide stakeholders through the chain of linkages that connect learning to cost savings. So, what’s the evidence that L&D reduces turnover and increases an employer’s appeal for prospective applicants? And how can you leverage that information to impress your internal stakeholders? Read on.Articulating the Value of a Strong Reputation for LearningAccording to 2023 research, organizations that don’t offer development opportunities risk losing talent—in fact, that lack of development was respondents’ most commonly cited reason for quitting. The conclusion here is simple enough: when you’ve got a robust, tech-backed culture of learning, your organization is going to be more appealing to all those prospective hires looking for development-rich career opportunities. We’ve established that L&D can, in theory, have an impact on your reputation and on the talent acquisition that follows. But how might you turn this observation into a solid case for the business impact of your L&D investments?If you just wanted to show that your L&D efforts have left you with a good reputation for employee development, that’s fairly straightforward to achieve. You might, for example, incorporate a survey question into your application process, asking applicants why they’re interested in your organization. If applicants are citing your learning culture, you’ll know your reputation is growing in the right direction. But on its own, that information just isn’t enough. It might get across some positive sentiment directed toward your L&D function, but it doesn’t tell upper management how your learning-first reputation leads to business impact.Instead, you’ll want to identify some of the measurable benefits associated with your talent acquisition. If you’ve got a reputation for those sought-after employee development offerings, you can expect a wider pool of candidates—which means you’ll have more high-caliber hires to choose from. Demonstrate that high caliber to your CFO by taking note of factors like reduced time to competency or increased productivity in departments that receive new hires. You’re then just a step away from a set of highly tangible data that business leaders will find much more persuasive.Communicating the Links Between Engagement and Your Bottom LineGiven the popularity of employee development among workers, it’s no wonder that L&D is often linked to higher levels of employee engagement. According to research sponsored by Bridge, learning opportunities were the most commonly cited factor among respondents looking to nurture engagement. Gaining employee engagement data is straightforward enough with the right tools. In fact, Bridge itself offers employee engagement software that allows you to send out regular pulse surveys to check in on engagement levels. So, if you’re looking to establish how your L&D program leads to better business outcomes, you’d be wise to prove that your learning investments are affecting engagement. You might achieve this by conducting before-and-after snapshot surveys to see if your engagement levels improve following a new learning initiative.However, once again, engagement statistics alone aren’t necessarily enough to sell your learning investments internally. To the people holding the purse strings, the question’s going to be “so what?”, and—with the right preparation—that’s a question you can answer with hard figures.According to Bridge’s report, the area most commonly affected by employee engagement is retention. So, once you’ve established that your learning investments are engaging your people, you can start to examine your turnover figures. If your more engaged employees are sticking around for longer periods of time, you’ll be able to point to the substantial, dollars-and-cents cost savings that’ll likely justify any initial L&D expenditure.Connecting Mobility Metrics to Clear Cost ReductionsPromotions and other kinds of internal movement are made possible in part by learning—and, handily, this is something that your HR function will have plenty of data on. If your people are using your learning ecosystem to qualify for internal vacancies, you’ll be able to link the course usage data in your LMS to the talent mobility data held by your HR team. The result? A compelling business case for your learning function: one in which L&D is the lynchpin of talent mobility.That said, higher rates of internal movement aren’t necessarily going to impress your CFO without a little extra context. If you want buy-in for mobility-enabling software, you’ll have to contend with a key question: what’s the business impact of better internal mobility?Once again, turnover numbers are your friend here. Research shows that turnover is less likely when employees are able to move internally. And that’s especially true of workers born after 1996, who—according to LinkedIn—are much more likely than older generations to agree with the statement that “through learning, I can explore potential career paths at my company”.So, your challenge isn’t just to show that your learning ecosystem has led to a rise in internal mobility. It’s to show that these upward or lateral movers are sticking around for longer rather than seeking opportunities elsewhere, reducing the various costs associated with hiring new talent.Reskilling and UpskillingAccording to a survey from GP Strategies and Watershed, less than half of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their organization uses data to understand skills gaps. That’s a lot of room for improvement, especially when 69 percent of organizations reported having a skills gap in 2023—compared to 55 percent in 2021. This is an alarmingly large number that’s growing at an equally alarming rate, and there’s no question that when employees don’t have the skills they need to do their jobs effectively, you’re going to see lower productivity and decreased employee performance.Clearly, the ability to close those gaps through learning and skills development practices has huge implications for any business’ bottom line: It’s no wonder that Watershed names new skills qualifications as one of the more valuable L&D targets to measure. Regulatory ComplianceIn general terms, your discussions about L&D investments will center around how your learning resources make an impact. But there’s one exception. In the world of compliance, there’s a strong case to be made for the avoidance of impact—especially when it comes to the serious penalties that noncompliance can bring.If your learning technology can keep your people compliant—whether that’s by consistently training employees on the same standards, keeping everyone up to date, or providing that all-important compliance documentation—you’ll protect your organization from outcomes as serious as major fines or even being shut down. This is especially true of organizations in high-consequence industries, which often face additional compliance challenges around multilingual needs and data security.A little digging into the penalties your organization is exposed to can go some way toward justifying any L&D expenditure that puts compliance first. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2023 saw fines for financial noncompliance alone totaling around $5 billion. Against even a small slice of a figure like that, you’ll have no problem making the case that the cost of a compliance-first LMS (for example) is more than justified.And good compliance training doesn’t just help you avoid fines. It can also offer savings like lower insurance costs—a tangible figure that will go some way toward mitigating your initial learning tech expenditure.

How to Prove the ROI of Learning & Development: Unlocking the Metrics That Matter 

 Whether you are a Mom-and-Pop operation or one of the larger talent development firms, you probably have some sort of strategy guiding you. Hopefully, this strategy has been documented and is the outgrowth of input from key people in the organization. But even if the strategy is only in your head, it is still waiting for action.Unfortunately, many strategic plans, which are key to the future of our businesses, are rarely executed fully—if at all. In the previous blog on strategic growth planning, I mentioned that some 80 percent of strategic plans fail to get executed. (I know I have read or heard this stat enough times to think it is true. But if truth be known, I don’t have a source to share with you to validate this alleged finding. Nonetheless, there is good reason to believe that most strategic plans are not fully executed as designed.)There are myriad reasons why this is the case, not the least of which are the normal changes to a business model or that leadership demands a different direction than originally proposed, deeming the original strategy moot. More importantly, in the ever-evolving talent development industry, one could even argue that sticking to a growth strategy could be counter-productive.  But what about strategic plans that are not subject to major interferences in the business model or competitive landscape? Why aren’t they  implemented? Execution Best PracticesA March 2015 Harvard Business Review article, “Why Strategy Execution Unravels—and What to Do About It,”  by Sull, Homkes, and Sull spells out several likely culprits, highlighting the myths many business leaders adhere to about strategy execution. Their research found that several practices actually get in the way of effective execution, including:inadequate alignment across business unitsundying commitment·one-way communicationstoo much of a performance cultureexecutive-only leadership.While the authors studied very large multinational organizations across many industries, these strategy execution lessons that apply to any organization.  Let’s take a closer look at each practice. Alignment:  To execute a strategic plan in a typical three- to five-year time span, senior leadership must be in total agreement about the direction the business is driving toward. Without this sort of alignment, major departments  and functions will continue to do their own “thing”—working at cross-purposes of the overall business.Interestingly, the research pointed out that while 40 percent of managers note alignment (or lack thereof) as the main cause of poor execution, the second major reason was failure to coordinate across units, noted by 30 percent of participants. Apparently, alignment alone doesn’t necessarily equate to execution—albeit it is a significant influencer.  So, while one of the primary goals of any strategic planning process is to achieve senior leader alignment, it also is important to align across all business units.Commitment: Most business leaders believe that alignment requires commitment to the strategic direction. But in my experience, alignment can exist (on the surface) without total commitment to the strategy. In this case, leaders agree with the overarching direction and some elements of the strategy, but not with all of it. In fact, unswervingly sticking to a strategic plan may impede its execution, given that many intervening factors and changes will surface over time. While commitment to the plan is initially necessary, ignoring the environmental changes taking place will undoubtedly result in leaders executing the wrong plan.Communications: The most likely reasons organizations fail to execute strategic plans:Leaders don’t provide communication to the rest of the business.Leaders provide communications that are unclear, foggy, and lack any inspiration for moving forward.Simply communicating the strategy from “on high” is too little to achieve a well-executed strategy. Instead, communications must create a dialogue that enables employees to offer input and questions so they can truly understand their role in the execution process. If a rational business case for the strategic direction isn’t offered to—and accepted at—the individual level, it will be difficult for employees to internalize the plan and their role in its execution.Performance Culture: Possessing a culture that is committed to performance is critical to execution. Organizations must establish a culture that recognizes and rewards practices like teamwork, experimentation, and flexibility, which may appear at times to slow down performance.  Although a high-performance culture values and demonstrates continual accountability, this head-down and all-hands-on-deck approach doesn’t allow organizations to slow down in the short term so they can move faster in the long term.  Indeed, the right delays—yielding the right results—should be perfectly acceptable.Executive Leadership: We often hear that true change must start at the top. But top-down involvement can impede the achievement of sustainable results. Certainly, the CEO and C-level team must lead the initial charge for execution, and even monitor its progress. However, the sooner frontline employees can internalize a strategy, the sooner they can rightfully execute it. Once the organization feels it must wait for executive approval, the process slows, engagement wanes, and innovation falters. In other words, it takes a village to effectively execute, not just a team of senior leaders who decide when and how execution should take place.Bottom LineThese execution practices are logical enough and, at some level, seem relatively simple to enact. Regrettably, they become more complicated in their actual operation. Perhaps, though, this is just the nature of most businesses that are growing—with growth comes frequent change and even alterations to the corporate strategic direction.Maintaining flexibility around strategy is a dual-edged sword, because sometimes flexibility can become an easy excuse for not following the original, well-thought out plan. Other times, flexibility makes complete sense and is, in fact,  necessary for the business to move forward. In either case, executing a strategic plan is a critical element of both the short- and long-term success of any business, including those in the talent development space. What’s more, minding these best practices can help any organization execute their strategy with success.How have you experienced poor to no execution of a strategic plan? Whether you were the leader or the follower, what were the reasons for this in your business? What were the real business consequences of the failed execution? How could the execution have been specifically improved? Share your experiences in the Comments below.  To learn more, check out my book The Complete Guide to Building and Growing a Talent Development Firm.

Growing Talent Management Firms: Strategy and Execution

As a sales trainer or enablement professional, you’ve likely faced this scenario: You’ve designed what you believe is an excellent sales training program, but when it comes time to justify the investment or secure budget for expansion, you’re met with skeptical questions about ROI. How do you prove your training actually moves the needle on business results?The challenge isn’t just about having good training content—it’s about designing programs with measurement in mind from day one and connecting your efforts to tangible business outcomes that leadership cares about.Aligning Sales Leadership and L&DHere’s a truth that might surprise you: Sales leaders and learning professionals actually want the exact same thing. Both groups are focused on developing more productive sales professionals who can drive revenue, shorten sales cycles, and improve win rates.The disconnect often happens in how each side approaches these goals. Sales leaders tend to focus on lagging indicators—the results they can see in their dashboards at the end of each quarter. Learning professionals often focus on training activities, completion rates, and feedback.The key to success lies in bridging this gap through a strategic, measurement-focused approach that supports both objectives.A Strategic Framework for Measurable TrainingThe most successful training programs follow a six-step strategic approach that begins with the end in mind:1. Understand Sales Goals. Start with the business outcomes your organization needs to achieve. This might be a specific revenue target, market expansion goals, or customer retention objectives. These goals become the foundation for everything else you’ll design.2. Assess Skill Gaps Objectively. This is where many training programs fail: They rely on subjective feedback or assumptions about what the team needs. Instead, use objective assessments to understand your team’s current capabilities. Look for tools that can measure both inherent traits (like motivational drivers) and learnable skills (like questioning techniques or objection handling).3. Align With Strategic Priorities. Understand not just what your organization wants to achieve, but how it wants to get there. Is leadership focused on winning new accounts, expanding existing relationships, or improving margins? Each priority requires different skill sets and training approaches.4. Design and Deploy Targeted Training. With clear data on gaps and priorities, you can create training that targets specific deficiencies rather than training that takes a one-size-fits-all approach. This precision dramatically improves your chances of measurable impact.5. Measure Multiple Levels of Outcomes. Track both leading indicators (behavior changes) and lagging indicators (business results). This gives you real-time insights into what’s working while also building the case for long-term ROI.6. Learn and Refine. Use your measurement data to continuously improve your approach and inform future training initiatives.Building Your Measurement StrategyThe key to gaining support from senior leadership is understanding what their priorities are and designing your training to address those specific issues. There are several ways to present objective results rather than subjective opinions about team needs.Pre- and Post-Training Assessments: Use the same assessment tool before and after training to demonstrate skill improvement with objective data.Performance Dashboards: Leverage CRM data to track before-and-after performance on key business metrics. Compare trained groups with untrained groups when possible.Application Surveys: Gather feedback on how often participants use new skills and which concepts have the biggest perceived impact on their performance.Attribution Analysis: Ask participants to estimate what percentage of their improved results they attribute to the training. This helps qualify the connection between training and outcomes.A Measurement-Focused Approach to Sales TrainingThe most successful sales training programs aren’t just about great content—they’re about creating measurable behavior change that drives business results. Remember: What gets measured gets managed. When you can show clear connections between your training investments and improved business performance, you’ll find that budget conversations become much easier—and your programs become much more effective.Ready to transform your approach to sales training measurement? Start by identifying the top three business outcomes your organization needs to achieve this year, then work backward to determine what skills and behaviors need to change to make those outcomes possible.

Search results for 'Karen L. West'

Categories

Refine By