The business landscape has been shifting at a rate much faster than the past. Given the pace and challenges confronting us, many organizations have chosen to narrow their L&D focus to shorter-term programs and results. This creates questions, such as:
What value do these programs provide?
Will these programs create the critical results needed for the long-term?
Most experts we’ve spoken with would agree that the value tends to be short-lived and not aligned with the longer-term vision. The problem with many short-term initiatives is that they are not integrated into a bigger picture. Instead, they tend to tackle smaller and partial needs of the whole company. These types of “training” solutions can invoke a short-term buzz and there’s nothing to say they don’t offer value. They may get some positive feedback on program feedback sheets. But what about true long-term value?
At the same time, there has been a lot of talk in recent years about transformation in business. This is driven, in large part, by our obsession with “digital transformation.” Yes, digitization is impacting business in speeds and manners unseen since the industrial revolution. However, digital transformation isn’t the only transformation taking place. Businesses are changing some of the fundamental ways they operate, how they treat employees, and how the innovate and approach growth. But without dynamic learning and development (L&D) supporting these efforts, the transformations will seldom be complete or effective. There is a difference between training and transformative L&D.
Transformative L&D is built on three critical aspects:
Infrastructure – Is your organization built on a foundation that moves past a focus on the job responsibilities toward a focus on creating real value?
Processes – How do you determine what to create, eliminate, and innovate in order to attain the results your organization needs – now and in the future – in terms of quality and efficiencies?
Talent – What are key steps you can take to build a high performing L&D team that is focused on generating value for the organization today, as well as continuously improving their growth and impact to evolve with the organization’s needs?
It’s learning leaders’ responsibility to unlock the blueprint to peak performance in each staff member. But it’s not about job descriptions or personality profiles. It’s about the key attributes the business is looking for – what each person filling those roles brings to the table.
For employees, work needs to be more than just, “What do I do?” Instead, they their primary attention should be on “What value do I bring?” This value applies to teams, business units, departments, and finally, the company as a whole. Ultimately, to generate the results needed, employees should be focused on the value they create and the solutions they must deliver.
For leaders to cultivate the best from their employees, they must understand what drives their people. They must provide a vision that fosters synergy, improvement, and execution. This vision cannot come from memorandums or annual meetings. Instead, they must create a culture of ownership that can measure, and better yet, create movement from the insights gleaned from that measurement. This goes beyond standard KPIs and metrics. It’s about both what employees do above ground (i.e., the deliverables we provide) and below ground (i.e., what we’re building in trust, alignment and capabilities to be effective).
At the end of the day, all this must always connect back to the main focus and priority of the business. We must strive for and reach Aligned Accountability™. This is the point where everyone in your company has complete buy-in and trust, so that when your people walk in the front door, their first thoughts are not about what tasks they’ll be performing, but rather about how they’ll generate the results your organization really needs.
Then, the company can expand upon its capabilities by working within a culture and standards that empowers its people and eliminates obstacles that get in the way of how they best generate results and fulfill their potential.
Additional Tools & Support
If you’d like to learn more about how your business reaches Aligned Accountability™, join Total Solutions Group for a free 30-minute webinar in which we’ll dive deeper into the difference between an L&D team that just does good work versus one that achieves a true lasting impact. Register by click here.
If you are ready to begin your L&D transformation, explore the TAP L&D Transformation Experience to help you to rethink, reimagine, and reengineer your learning organization and achieve real transformation.
To contact us: email answers@tsgresults.com.
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