Building a Learning Culture - Step 5: Making the Case for Change
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It’s not uncommon for learning teams to feel paralyzed by their organizations. This can take many forms. Here are just a few examples:
Senior leadership doesn’t provide the funding needed to make real change.
The current learning technology needs an overhaul but the project keeps getting delayed.
The pace of the business doesn’t allow time to take a breather and reset the learning strategy.
The need for innovation is recognized, but different ideas about the future have resulted in a stalemate.
The business has many priorities and updating the learning strategy is not high on the list.
It’s likely that you have many ideas for taking learning to the next level at your organization — you just need the support of your leadership or funding to make it happen. Here are some ideas to help you further your cause by thinking differently about making the case for change.
1. Surface the less impressive data.
Raise your hand if you have less favorable data that you tend to keep under wraps. It’s tempting to focus on impressive participation and off-the-charts ratings as opposed to lower numbers in other areas. But, when it comes to making the case for change, a more transparent view into the data that’s driving your decision-making — actually showing the poor scores in some areas or the negative comments about user experience — can go a long way toward convincing your leadership that the change you’re advocating for is needed. It may also be helpful to find an industry benchmark that you aspire to and use those numbers to build your case.
2. Figure out what your audience cares about.
What keeps your leadership up at night? So often we are stuck in our own world of L&D and we don’t step fully into the shoes of our leaders. There may be ways that you can step in and shoulder some of the burden. Perhaps you can develop a new leadership program that will help the organization develop their pipeline, but you need some more headcount or a new platform on which to deliver an innovative cohort-based learning experience. Get curious and really seek to understand your leaders’ concerns and the needs of the business.
3. Create a rough prototype or arrange a pilot.
You’ve made your case until you’re blue in the face. How can you show them instead of telling? Create a low-tech rapid prototype to approximate the experience and get your leaders excited about the possibilities. You can also show the prototype to your prospective audience or other stakeholders in the organization to get their feedback and support. If you’re eyeing something from a third-party provider, arrange a short pilot with the vendor so you and other members of your organization can experience it firsthand and provide feedback. As learning professionals, we know the power of showing and experiencing something versus just hearing about it.
We’d love to hear from you about the things you’re doing in your organizations to make learning a priority. Please reach out if you need support or have any questions — we’re here to help!