Don’t Just Follow the Buzzwords, Do What Has Impact

Prioritising Core Foundations for Effective Learning

I remember a friend who worked for a sport brand and he had seen the newest running shoe in AR. He could twirl it, move it around and look at it from all angles while the shoe wasn’t even in production yet. We spoke and he said: You should do something with this! This is sooo needed for learning in organisations, think about the applications! I remember his look like it was yesterday, he was surprised I didn’t share his excitement. I answered: Let’s see what it can do first and what problem it is actually solving…

In the last two years AI is the buzzword at conferences, but we have had more over time. Think about e-learning, AR, VR, Google glass, LMS, LXP. When something becomes hot in L&D, it is all we can talk about. And it is not just within the L&D community, stakeholders put requests in with L&D teams for the new shiny thing too. But if you look more closely at the programs of L&D conferences over the years, it is not all shiny and new, some themes keep coming back. There are topics that continue to be an issue for L&D, despite all the new things that come along. Think about the difficulty of aligning with the business, marketing your L&D, change management, stakeholder management, to name a few.

As a global community we have been struggling with some of these challenges for years. And in that we find ourselves distracted by the new shiny thing. Now don’t get me wrong, we need to innovate, we need to use new technology to improve learning, we need to continuously change. But we must not forget to pay attention to the foundation of the work we do. We need to add value to the organization, be a strategic partner, we need to have an offering that has an impact on the organizational goals. We need to focus on that foundation first and then we can look at the shiny things and see which ones will support our objectives. I’d like to talk a bit more about this, as it explains how our session at OEB came into place.

How it All Began

After years of being part of L&D in different organizations and later helping clients, talking to the thought leaders of our industry we (my business partner Evitha and myself) realized there was one recurring issue L&D departments struggle with and need help on: How to deliver real business value to the organization with learning interventions that are aligned with the strategic goals. What we have seen with our clients is beautifully created learning programs that were not needed within the organization. Programs that are not aligned with the organizational goals or even contribute to them.

We have seen managers and leadership hire external vendors for learning solutions without consulting L&D and wasting money in the process. We have seen desperate teams not knowing exactly what the organization wants from them or being kept in the dark about the actual organizational issues. We have seen learning professionals wanting to align with KPIs, but being told off because it is “none of their business”. We believe this needs to change. But we know it is easier said than done. We know it is a complex issue as we have seen it first-hand.

L&D is forced to think more about the short-term actions and deliver asap. L&D has an enormous workload, because there is always a stakeholder that can create work for them, and therefor are often in operational mode. The stakeholder field in bigger organisations is often very complex too. And let me be clear here: L&D is very often capable to do the right thing, they are often aware of the situation. That doesn’t mean it is easy to change it. They needed something. Something tangible. Something they can use to stop, pause and reflect on their learning strategy. Something to take to their stakeholders to explain how L&D works and why some things aren’t working right now.

That is how the World of L&D was born. This is a fictional landscape that visualizes the journey from learning to performance. The journey’s narrative talks about how to go from being an order taker to a business partner. The World of L&D has been introduced at OEB in the last two years of the conference. It is specifically designed for L&D professionals, it speaks their language and talks about the challenges of becoming a business partner. It is not a 10 step plan on a slide that you can follow. It is a journey, with all its hurdles and issues along the way. The responses have been overwhelming. In those two years there has been not one learning professional that didn’t recognize the narrative and the issue it represents. Those responses, I have to be honest, are supported by the fact that we do our workshops on a floormat of 2 by 3 metre or virtually on a big screen on which they can place markers to locate themselves. It gives L&D teams reflections, direction and actions to make sure they strengthen their position in the organization.

Making a Change: The World of Impact

In working with the World of L&D we soon saw that how recognizable it was for L&D professionals, how hard it was to get their stakeholders on board. How is that like real life!

So to be able to have that actual conversation within your organization you need the organisation represented on the map. And that is how The World of Impact was born. The World of Impact has a whole new area introduced at the bottom. It doesn’t focus on skills and traits of L&D professionals and it doesn’t only speak L&D jargon. It focuses on the aspects of learning within the context of the organization.

This is the map we will be using for the ‘How To Sesion’ at OEB 2024. We will take our participants on an expedition in the World of Impact. They will reflect on where they stand in the journey from learning to strategic partner and see what they can do to drive organizational development. To become a strategic business partner, to add value, to really be part of organisational change. This session at OEB will not be a presentation or a session where you sit down and consume. You will be travelling across the landscape, on the floormat and reflect on your experience in that moment. It will be a highly interactive session after which you will walk out with a concrete action plan. Are you ready to go on an expedition? Are you as excited as we are? We can’t wait to see you there!

Written by Henriette Kloots & Evitha Scharloo