8/4/2019 Developing a Learning Strategy

1/6

Developing a Learning Strategy Learning Light LimitedMAY 2007 1

Developing a Creating Value Learning Strategy

By Jon Ingham, Director, Strategic Dynamics Consultancy Services Ltd.

1. Value from Learning

Learning can provide value to the business in three different ways. This is illustratedin the following model, called the value triangle:

1.1 Delivery of Learning

At the bottom of the triangle, the Learning & Development function provides value formoney when it increases the efficiency of learning activities or helps meetcompliance requirements. This may not improve customer satisfaction or helpdeliver business results, but it is still useful value to have. An example would beproviding money laundering training in financial services firms or diversity training inUS based businesses as a defence against legal claims.

Another example would be deciding whether to conduct development within business

units or to centralise this, for example in a corporate university or corporate learningcentre, or to outsource it.

Other important questions relate to:

The role of technology: for example whether to invest in a LMS and the roles of e-learning

A culture and environment that will support formal and particularly informallearning

Governance, which provides rules for allocating investments in learning.

Driving and accelerating business strategy Creating capability for the future Maximising the potential of people

Focusing HR on business strategy Creating the ability to perform now Ensuring effectiveness and alignment

Administering HR operations Ensuring efficiency e.g. through

outsourcing

Creatingvalue

Addingvalue

Value formoney

8/4/2019 Developing a Learning Strategy

2/6

Developing a Learning Strategy Learning Light LimitedMAY 2007 2

1.2 Learning and Business Strategy

The next level is adding value. This level is about helping the business to implementits strategies by translating business objectives into people development activities. Arelevant example would be deciding on how the organisation sees potential: whetherthe business strategy dictates that this should be seen as something which relates toleadership positions or is more general in nature. As a result of this decision, anadded value action might be to introduce a new high potential programme to ensurethe organisation develops enough people with a certain skill set it will need.

Business led training and development should be identified from the top of theorganisation down but also from the bottom up. This requires identifying thedevelopment needs of teams and individuals and then collating these across theorganisation to review whether any of these needs apply more broadly across theorganisation.

1.3 Learning and Human Capital

The top level in the triangle is creating value. Here, Learning and Developmentgenerates value for the business through its own activity, rather than by how itsactivities support the business as a whole. So, whereas adding value provides anorganisation with the ability to implement its business objectives, creating valuedevelops new capability that enables the organisation to set different or more

stretching business goals.

An example might be introducing a coaching programme to help leaders takeresponsibility for their own learning; to learn how to learn; and how to sponsorlearning initiatives within their own departments; with the aim of transforming andaccelerating the amount of learning that takes place across the organisation.

As shows on the value triangle, creating value has three important characteristics:

Driving and accelerating business strategy Creating capability for the future Maximising the potential of people.

Each of these is described in more detail below:

1.3.1 Driving and Accelerating Business Strategy

If organisational capability drives business strategy, this means that peopledevelopment strategy does not always have to be about supporting the businessstrategy. Sometimes, and at least on some occasions, the business strategy shouldbe informed by the people development strategy, rather than just the other way

around.

8/4/2019 Developing a Learning Strategy

3/6

Developing a Learning Strategy Learning Light LimitedMAY 2007 3

This requirement is shown strongly in IBM and ASTDs recent research (ODriscoll,2005) on the perceptions of C-level decision makers (CEO, CFO, COO and CLO

Chief Learning Officer) on the strategic value of learning Example comments withinthis research included: Learnings role is to build the platform to enable us to changethe business and The learning functions role is to help our company learn, adopt,adapt and grow. These comments show these business leaders understanding ofthe necessity for two-way integration between business strategy and peopledevelopment strategy.

1.3.2 Creating Capability for the Future

Creating value learning strategy focuses on the future, not the current state. Theconsequence of this focus on the future is that we are able to loose the blinkers, theconstraints of the current state, and start to develop more innovative approaches topeople management. And because we are also focused on developing the capabilitythat is right for a particular organisation at a particular point in time, we can also startto move beyond generic best practices that apply across most similar organisations,to develop unique, best fit approaches, that would probably not look right elsewhere,but which provide a great way to develop the particular organisational capabilityrequired by one particular organisation.

London Business School professor, Lynda Gratton, calls these innovative, best fitapproaches, signature processes, or more appropriately, signature experiences(2007), and emphasises the additional benefits they have in helping people figure out

what the organisation is about, and providing them with meaning in their work.

Gratton gives an example of three different types of orientation programme

A probationary period working with an assigned team, in which the team will voteas to whether the new joiner stays in the organisation

An opportunity to work on a series of fast-paced, creative projects, under closescrutiny of senior management, after which the new joiner can find a project thatmatches his or her skills

A period of intensive training to learn the organisations ways of working, followedby an apprenticeship with one of the firms strongest performers.

These three different programmes will appeal to different people depending upontheir own values and preferences. They also signal something about what theorganisation considers to be important which helps ensure that it employs peoplewho are aligned with these issues.

1.3.3 Maximising the Potential of People

If we are serious about the potential of our people, we need to start treating them asindividuals, not as some sort of generic human resource. Organisations need tofocus carefully on their peoples skills, capabilities, experiences and learning stylesand what this means in terms of how people learn best and what they can provide forthe organisation. For example, Gratton (2007) lists six different ways in which workcan meet peoples needs:

8/4/2019 Developing a Learning Strategy

4/6

Developing a Learning Strategy Learning Light LimitedMAY 2007 4

Expressive Legacy Secure Progress Individual expertise and team success Risk and reward Flexible support Low obligation and easy income.

People who seek low obligation and easy income are going to see learning in a verydifferent way to those whose priorities include developing individual expertise. So weneed to focus activity on, and to personalise activity to, individual employees.

2. Developing Learning Strategy

The greatest value comes from the top of the value triangle. So, while the learningstrategy needs to deal with compliance requirements and the development of thecompetencies required to support the business strategy, its main emphasis should bethe acquisition and development of skills and abilities which support the developmentof an organisations human capital.

This learning strategy needs to be part of an organisations human capital strategy asboth of these are focused on the same future state output that the organisation wantsto create: human capital or organisational capability. This output is typically

described within a people vision, which sits alongside the business strategy.

The following diagramme illustrates the main stages involved in developing an HCMstrategy and learning strategy from this people vision:

Within this process, diagnosis focuses on the potential capability of the peopleworking in the organisation and the gap between this and their current capability.

The learning strategy then defines the learning that will build the required capabilityand measures can be defined for the level of capability as well as the learning

People Vision

Diagnosis

Learning Strategy Learning Measures

Evaluating andReporting

Implementation

Business Strategy

HCM Strategy

8/4/2019 Developing a Learning Strategy

5/6

Developing a Learning Strategy Learning Light LimitedMAY 2007 5

activities designed to develop it.

However, it is important to note that the development of a creating value learningstrategy requires the use of creative thinking as much as it requires the use ofmeasures and analysis. Creative thinking can supply ideas and insights that linear,logical thinking cannot provide and it opens up new opportunities that lie outsideexisting mindsets. After all, when people think like they have always thought, theytend to get what they have always got.

3 Measurement in Learning Strategy

Measures should be selected to support the implementation of the learning strategy.These measures should refer to the nature and level of human capital within theorganisation, but also to the other elements of what I call the HCM value chain: theinitial inputs and investments the organisation is making in HCM; the processes oractivities which the organisation is implementing to develop its human capital; andthe impacts of this development on an organisations business processes, itscustomers and financial results

A relevant example that is included in my book (Ingham, 2006) is the BBCsevaluation of its five year, 5,000 per head leadership development programmewhich is a compulsory requirement for the BBCs 7000 managers. The programmeaims to develop an intangible capability: creative leadership, which will support the

BBCs ongoing effectiveness during a period of dramatic change.

The programme blends a rich mix of development activities including 360 degreefeedback, group sessions, real-life assignments, coaching, action learning and e-learning, including an online leadership wiki.

The BBC evaluates the programme at each level in the HCM value chain:

Input: What is the programme delivering, when is being delivered, who is it beingdelivered to, how much is it costing?

Activity: What is the reaction to the programme? Is it relevant to peoples roles?Can people use it in their jobs?

Output (human capital): Have skills and knowledge improved? Has there beenobservable behaviour change / performance improvement? What is the businessclimate for supporting transfer?

Business impact: What is the change to business performance? What is thechange to organisation culture?

4. Monitoring and Evaluation

The final stage of the HCM strategy implementation is reporting. This activity reviewsprogress against measures set within the HCM strategy and helps the organisation

make any required adjustments to its HCM strategy or the implementation of thisstrategy. It also informs the strategy development process next time around.

8/4/2019 Developing a Learning Strategy

6/6

Developing a Learning Strategy Learning Light LimitedMAY 2007 6

5. Conclusion

Creating value learning strategy deals with bigger and more strategic questions thana value for money, or even an adding value, oriented strategy. Creating valuerequires innovative, unique, best fit approaches that go beyond current best practicesto ensure human capital is developed is a way that is right for a particularorganisation at a particular point in time.

References

Gratton, L. and Erickson, T. J. (2007). What It Means to Work Here. HarvardBusiness Review. March.

Ingham, J. (2006). Strategic Human Capital Management: Creating Value throughPeople. Butterworth Heinemann.

ODriscoll, T., Sugrue, B. and Vona, M.K. (2005). The c-level and the value oflearning. T+D. Vol. 59, No.10, pp70-77.7

About the Author

Jon Ingham leads the Strategic Dynamics consultancy (www.strategic-hcm.com) andis a Research Associate of Learning Light. He is the author of Strategic HumanCapital Management: Creating Value through People, Butterworth Heinemann, 2006.Price 24.99. http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/Bookshop/books.htm

Contact: Learning Light, Sheffield Technology Park, Cooper Buildings, ArundelStreet, Sheffield, S1 2NSTel: +44 114 201 5703Web: www.learninglight.com