“How many times have we (L&D) built awesome training solutions to solve symptoms…and miss the root cause(s) behind productivity restrainers in our process?” and ”How many times have we ignored the Ripple Effects influencing or being influenced by our solution decisions?”
If L&D cannot show impact at the bottom-line, L&D remains exposed as a cost center…and the bottom-line contribution can only be seen as an expense. Don’t be an expense when the budget belt gets pulled in a couple notches.
The diversity of optimizing an ecosystem with multiple, interdependent microsystems with training solutions will not sustain workforce performance at Point-of-Work. An initiative to evolve L&D strategy, tactics, and technology represents an entry point for optimizing the convergence already on the table. This “new information” represents different conversations within L&D, from leadership to individual contributor roles, as well as operational stakeholders.
We talk a lot about boosting employee engagement and making learning more engaging. Let’s shift our engagement focus to where the workforce works; enabling successful performance in the workflow lifts up employee satisfaction through job satisfaction…and accelerates productivity.
IT will do an outstanding job of testing, validating, fine-tuning, and deployment of the transitioned systems. My question is this, “Is L&D equipped to invest that kind of pre-launch rigor and…more importantly…to post-launch support to the knowledge worker’s in their respective workflows and moments of need?”
Our field of play has shifted closer to…if not converged directly into…Point-of-Work. This shift has disruption written all over it. Rules of engagement are being disrupted by increasing velocity of business demand and continuous change. If the rules change, so too must our game plan, and adoption of a Point-of-Work Solution Discipline represents a new game plan.
All organizations currently own a dynamic learning performance ecosystem. The inescapable question to ask is,
“HOW OPTIMIZED IS IT?”
A “Point-of-Work Assessment Methodology” is designed to provide the answer.
Unleash the Impact beast, but not before the workforce has a firm grip on their own leash to control the Impact that yields sustained performance and positive business outcomes. We all know how IT spends countless dollars to optimize systems before launch and then more dollars and support to maintain those same systems to keep them optimized. Do we apply the same level of diligence across the ecosystem when it comes to optimizing and maintaining our workforce?
My attempts in this post to clarify Point-of-Work are driven by the fact that L&D cannot simply pursue the Point-of-Work associated with the primary end-user…like we typically do when we target and launch a static training course. Even that statement gives away my main concern…target and launch a static training course…into a dynamic learning performance ecosystem?
The power we give up by taking an order for training only perpetuates the paradigm…the myth…in the minds of our stakeholders that training drives performance. The power we need to deploy should show up in our response to any training request with… “Sure, we can help you with that…but let us ask you a few questions first.” And then we dig for the roots and assess readiness for what may be indicated as a solution.