4 Strategies for Enhancing Global Learning Implementation
Clarke Ricks School of Business,
Liberty University
BUSI 690: Policy and Strategy in Global Competition
Dr. Hicks
May 7, 2022
Global Training Initiatives
4 Strategies for Enhancing Global Learning Implementation
Organizations today, ranging from global leaders like IBM, GE, and Walmart to relatively
small companies, are generating increasingly higher revenues outside the U.S. and conducting
this business through employees located worldwide. If you are in Learning and Development,
you need to have a global approach to developing your people.
For years, organizations have been investing in globalization with varying degrees of
success. A study conducted in the late ’90s predicted that the amount of investment in
globalization would increase 12 times during the 30-year period ending in 2027. However, such
investment has actually increased by more than nine times in less than 15 years. As we are
trending at a much faster rate, if you are not already globalizing, you soon will be! When
implementing training on a global scale, the path to success must factor in many beliefs, norms,
and cultural expectations.
“”To really make 'global' work, you need to ensure that you have globally effective people
who have a global mindset and skill set.
Building a Foundation for Global Effectiveness
What makes a learning project global and successful? From the start, it’s important to set
a context of global awareness and effectiveness. Many companies operate on a multinational,
instead of global, basis. They launch projects in countries and regions without taking into
account local cultures, customs, and procedures. To really make “global” work, you need to
ensure you have globally effective people who have a global mindset and skill set. When such
people take on a project, they approach it as many local projects aligned globally, versus a
global project implemented locally.
In addition to being aware of the differences among people of different cultures, the
globally effective person is versatile in communications and interactions. Simply defined,
versatility is the ability of an individual to modify his or her behavior so that others are more
comfortable.
For example, a large global pharmaceutical company wanted to drive performance at the
manager level to encourage higher employee engagement worldwide. Concepts such as
“engagement” are understood and demonstrated differently by different cultures, so we spent
time interviewing managers, employees, and businesses across multiple countries and regions.
We wanted to know how the company’s employees operated. Once we found out, we used
that information to help the company define how to implement the learning project in a
culturally appropriate way. A clear but flexible set of best practices was developed and followed
successfully at the local level. The company met its overall objectives of driving engagement
and saw an increase in its overall efficiency and revenue.
4 Strategies for Successful Global Learning Implementation
Getting culturally aware people involved in the project is really just the start.
“”Four strategies—Alignment, Inclusion, Sustainability, and Integration—can provide a
flexible framework around which to build a successful global learning initiative.
1. Alignment
A natural place to begin is with alignment. It is important to have a “Guiding Coalition” in
place that takes accountability for the success of the overall project. This coalition should be
staffed with people senior enough to make things happen, who are also culturally aware
enough to be sensitive to the intent of the project. The Guiding Coalition focuses on setting the
boundaries for success and identifies the “non-negotiables.” However, it is not their job to
dictate the exact details of the project implementation.
There needs to be alignment throughout the organization to strategically focus on local
markets. During this stage, the strategy, people, and systems come together to support the
local needs and the local critical success factors.
We worked with one software security company to implement a global service training
initiative. Before launching, executives gathered the directors and managers from the four
worldwide regions (Americas, Europe, Asia, and Japan) and together they decided on their
vision for service. Each region agreed on the overall strategy and critical success factors, but did
so while keeping their local staff, systems, and procedures in mind.
Recognizing that consistent does not always mean the same provides the flexibility and
clarity to determine what to do locally and what to do globally.
2. Inclusion
While alignment is about the project’s direction, inclusion is all about people—the people
necessary to accomplish the project, and your plan to engage the rest of the organization.
Based on work by Dr. Steve Buchholz, author and strategic business partner with Wilson
Learning, the Choice model illustrates that people fall into one of three categories when faced
with a choice: Proactive (embracing the change wholeheartedly), Reactive (grudgingly dragging
their feet), or Inactive (taking a “wait and see” attitude, being disengaged and undetected, just
going through the motions).
Typically, 5–15% fall into the Proactive category and another 5–15% fall into Reactive, but
a full 80–90% of the people fall into Inactive. Recognizing this large group becomes significantly
more difficult when dealing with multiple cultures, especially because the primary use of energy
in Inactive is to remain undetected.
Regarding the pharmaceutical company identified earlier, we worked very closely with
each of the countries in discovering their needs, priorities, and interests. We also spent time
understanding the attitudes toward past global projects and ensured that we created an
environment of collaboration.
In order to bring everyone along when developing a global learning initiative, your
systems of communication need to ensure a two-way dialogue, and the Guiding Coalition needs
to really listen. Inclusion focuses on engaging employees in the change, rather than simply
telling them what to do. People do not resist change; they resist being changed.
3. Sustainability
Once the project begins, most project managers spend a significant amount of time trying
to stay the course. This is labor intensive and stressful. What we have learned from our years of
global implementations is that most projects are off course more than they are on course—
things change, learning happens, markets never stay still.
For one global organization where we were delivering classroom training, we conducted a
five-day train-the-trainer program. We spent half the time ensuring the facilitators understood
the custom content and discussed how the content applied across the different cultures. We
spent the rest of the time developing their understanding of the client company strategy and
initiatives. Then the facilitation team met virtually every month to talk about what they learned
while delivering the content and to get additional briefing on strategy in the client organization.
Most organizations have difficulty implementing a shared vision because they have failed
to identify and deal with the current reality. Understanding your current reality and where you
are gives you the foundation for the adjustments you need to make to hit the target you have
established.
Recognize that most of the time you are off course—embrace it, plan for it. Focus more on
the outcome; the objective is to hit the target, even if that means going off course to get there.
4. Integration
Of course you need to integrate your systems, processes, and procedures, but the unit of
analysis in this strategy is performance rather than the learning initiative per se. The reason
anyone implements a learning project, whether in one country or across the globe, is to affect
some performance metric. The effort here is to ensure that learning moves out of the
classroom and into the workday.
For a global manufacturing organization, we worked from the alignment strategy to
identify how we could include and engage the learners’ managers in the process. Not only did
we provide follow-up learning to participants through application, review, and even peer-to-
peer support, we also made sure that the managers were active participants. The managers
learned the same content, learned how to coach, and actively participated in creating a culture
that supported the performance. Through an impact analysis, we measured the impact the
learning had on participants’ performance goals.
Fitting the Pieces Together
The intersection of global awareness and project management forms the basis for our
success in working with companies all over the world. As globalization increases, so does the
need to train your people to work cohesively in a global organization. Assigning globally aware
people, managing the project well, and employing the four strategies will equip your
organization to implement global learning initiatives successfully.
