A Self-Evaluation Framework

In today’s cutthroat business climate, L&D needs to be visibly driving performance and collaborating to solve business problems. As your team is evaluating the impact of your learning solutions, here are three things to check.

1. Boost Check: Is every learning solution boosting performance?

For every learning intervention, you should see a corresponding lift in performance. For solutions that are currently connected to a performance metric, make sure the training owner has a routine of regularly reviewing that data and checking for areas that need further support.

If performance improvement is not currently being measured, consider ways you can evaluate the actual impact of the training. As a short-term solution, you can add a scored evaluation or send a follow-up survey; however, a boost in on-the-job performance and the ability to measure and impact that performance is the goal.

2. Solution Check: Is there another modality or approach that could further enhance performance outcomes?

For your critical performance-boosting training, it’s worth considering if there is another more innovative learning solution that could provide the lift the business needs. Meet with your business partners to understand the metrics you’re trying to improve and pinpoint the desired change in performance. Now it’s time to brainstorm interventions — and challenge yourselves to focus. Organizations are often used to revamping entire courses and curriculums when they need change, but a lightweight, targeted solution might be all you need.

Once you’ve identified some possible interventions, create a few rough prototypes and test them with individuals or small groups. Are you seeing the desired performance boost?

3. Trend Check: Are you identifying what’s working and leveraging those learnings?

If a particular type of learning solution is having a visible impact on performance, work as a team to identify why and how you can leverage those same techniques in other ways. When training is owned by different people or teams in the organization, we recommend a facilitated process to surface what’s working and what needs improvement. Let us know if we can support your team in this discovery effort. These critical conversations are worth having and will yield rewards quickly as the team breaks down silos and begins to collaborate for continuous improvement.

Finally, we have to ask: Are you telling your story? Even if you are having a modest impact on performance, that is something to celebrate and share widely. We love to see learning teams bragging about their successes and telling their story through data.