How does learning and Development help an organization?
How does learning and Development help an organization?
Managing learning and development is like playing rock-balancing. It is both tricky and needs tactics. We are not
dealing with just systems and processes but also with people who have emotions. When designing learning
programs, we cannot just expect employees to always at their peak of interest and carrying high spirits. Instead, they
come with a mix of complicated emotions that include confusion, insecurities, disinterest, and fears at times.
The first roadblock to a learning program is hit when you have to invite people to attend a training program or
consume content in case of a learning management system. Why should I learn more? Can I not finish my work
instead and get some me time? What difference will it make to my life if I take/not take the training?
With each roadblock are raised questions. In his book QBQ (Question Behind the Question), Author, John Miller,
suggests that people make choices in life based on the questions they ask. If only we could help them find the
answers, their decisions would be aligned with our expectations. SCQA (Situation, Complication, Question, and
Answer), a tool commonly used in learning design, thus, identifies a key question that a learner has followed by the
answers that a learning solution must give.
Many organizational development programs start with one question – How does learning and development help an
organization?
Learning is essential for our growth. We all know that and yet, when an L&D manager suggests a program to be
implemented, one has to go through many impediments and face many No’s. Justifying investment becomes difficult
because tangible results are not easy to show unlike a marketing or sales plan that work well with numbers. An L&D
program creates no direct impact on profits of an organization but they create impacts on people who in turn bring
results.
Measuring learning effectiveness is tricky although, the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model does give us a direction –
Measure reaction - How do learners respond to a training?
Assess Learning - What knowledge and skills are gained from a training?
Understand behaviour change – How has the training impacted attitude and performance of learners?
Measure results – What business results have we got – cost reduction, quality enhancement, increased sales,
improved productivity, better leads, more retention, etc.
It again boils down to answering some questions about the program and its impact on the learners.
We begin with asking questions that help us learn what learners want and need.
Then we move to asking questions that let us know what problems employees face that are required to be solved.
Next, we ask what outcomes and behaviour changes we want to see in employees.
Further, find what topics to discuss, skills to impact, interventions to add to support learning.
And at last, what impacts did the program create on employees and the organization.
And this is where, we can track back to our primary question and answer it – L&D helps an organization by
eliminating barriers to productivity by assessing performance, knowledge, and skill gaps of employees and design
interventions to fill them.
