Creating a Highly Effective Learning Organisation - Which Way Up?

Submitted by Gary on 21 March, 2012 - 09:25

 

We are all familiar with the expression “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” which is typically applied to a situation where deciding what to put first is not always straightforward. Thus the situation arose for me when deciding the order of the 9 steps to becoming a Highly Effective Learning Organisation (HELO).
 

The order that I present is:-
 

Relentlessly…

  • maximise what can be done and delivered while spending less.
  • demonstrate Value for Money (VfM) and Return on Investment (RoI).
  • review execution, efficiency and effectiveness of processes and procedures.

Proactively…

  • rationalise priorities around why programmes are required by what they make possible.
  • reorganise what training programmes will be delivered and how this will be achieved.
  • review the results from training programmes for relevance, application and quality.

Synergistically…

  • recognise and understand corporate vision, mission and strategic business goals.
  • realign training activities to management, business and departmental needs.
  • commit to getting things done in the short, medium and long term.

 

This puts the emphasis on demonstrating value for money and achieving a return on investment through maximising what can be done while spending less of your learning and development budget. My reasoning for this was that in a tough economic climate your L&D / training budget will be under pressure. At a minimum it is likely to be frozen although more likely to be reduced so the challenge is to continue delivering all essential and important training programmes / interventions without impact from a reduced budget. I believe that this is highly achievable through sensible planning and reprioritising.

So it was with this in mind, knowing that it will be weighing upon your mind, that I put the resultant outcome first.
 

In reality these worthy goals will be the outcome of implementing other steps first, therefore the order may be more appropriate as:-

 

Synergistically…

  • recognise and understand corporate vision, mission and strategic business goals.
  • realign training activities to management, business and departmental needs.
  • commit to getting things done in the short, medium and long term.

Proactively…

  • rationalise priorities around why programmes are required by what they make possible.
  • reorganise what training programmes will be delivered and how this will be achieved.
  • review the results from training programmes for relevance, application and quality.

Relentlessly…

  • maximise what can be done and delivered while spending less.
  • demonstrate Value for Money (VfM) and Return on Investment (RoI).
  • review execution, efficiency and effectiveness of processes and procedures.

 

 

So while the “bottom line goal is to save or spend less budget to achieve the most important training programmes and interventions, you first need to understand Corporate vision, mission and strategic business goals in order to realign your training activities to the management, business and departmental needs.

 

In the following series of blogs I will be expanding upon each of these steps; explaining why they are important; citing best practice examples; all to help you to transform your Learning and Development department into a Highly Effective Learning Organisation or HELO.