A Case for Spreading Training Lingo among Business Leaders!

A Case for Spreading Training Lingo among Business Leaders!

Talk of the effectiveness of learning interventions, level-4 & ROI and you see workplace professionals scurrying for covers. With business leaders getting more demanding about the returns on every dollar spent, it’s getting tighter.

But, what’s the real issue? Most of the learning professionals will admit that training effectiveness for business leaders means business impact of any form of training on their business metrics. ‘They are interested in seeing impact on numbers only!’ would be the most common refrain. No wonder, long ago ‘Abraham Maslow said, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” Has ROI become that hammer?

I see this as more of a symptom than a well diagnosed root-cause. It doesn’t take the brain of a genius to trace back the origin of such a cause. We, as workplace learning professionals, keep the effectiveness measures and metrics too closely guarded.  Ask any learning professional and chances are that he assumes that the measures of effectiveness for any learning initiative for him and the business stakeholders are in the same currency. For you, it’s more to do with behavioral impact (read level-3) while for the stakeholders it’s all about higher orders- level-4 and 5 (read ROI according to Jack Phillips model). The topic of discussion here isn’t about various models of evaluations and their eternal debates of superiority but it is centered around the ‘disconnect’ between learning & development professionals and their business stakeholders.

So, where does lie the real disconnect?

Training professionals really live in a secluded world when it comes to training effectiveness. We have debates and discussions around various models- their pros and cons either as a community or even among professionals within an organization. If we poll such professionals regarding the awareness of such models and metrics among all stakeholders they cater to, the result will be abysmal.

The moot point here is- how knowledgeable are our stakeholders about the very yardsticks that we intend to apply for measuring training effectiveness? Various papers and authors have concluded that possibly ROI and stuff of that nature could even prove to be an exercise in vain and at times counterproductive.

Tony Bingham, President and CEO-ASTD, in his extensive interviews with prominent business leaders of the world found them expressing their clear expectations from learning interventions- these are more to do with sustained impact on behavioral front rather than an effort to showcase business improvement results. These leaders surmise that any sustained behavioral modification post training, will eventually lead to business improvement.

Question then needs to be asked is how do we bring our stakeholders on a common language for training effectiveness?

Several years of performance consulting with key stakeholders has made me believe that the following approaches might be of help

• §   Educating business stakeholders about various metrics of evaluating training effectiveness. They should make all levels of measure part of their vocabulary when it comes to learning intervention. Business has its lingo like MS%, Evolution Index, Growth, CAGR etc. which we are expected to be well versed with , hence, they must reciprocate adopting and adapting to the language of Level-1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 as well wherever required.
• §   Begin with the end in mind- Setting a clear expectation of training outcomes in terms of impact on behavioral parameters of desired performance. How does the success look like?
• §   Making leaders realize their contribution to the table when it comes to sustaining a certain behavioral modification from individuals. It’s a team game and immediate managers are the primary drivers of such change initiatives.
• §   Last but not the least, ask a lot of incisive and thought-provoking questions pertaining to the core business issues rather than settling with whatever symptomatically they infer. Ask enough, ask deeper.

The challenge and onus then, are with us as a community of workplace learning professionals. Appreciation of our worldview of training effectiveness will greatly be enhanced by making business adopt and align with this vocabulary.

Are you ready to rework your stakeholders’ vocabulary the next time you are consulting with them?