Generic vs. Specific
Reactive vs. Strategic
Unmeasured vs. Measured
Order-Taker vs. Business Partner
Where do you land on the scale of learning team efficacy and maturity? That’s a question that learning professionals confront daily. Does the business view your team as order takers? Or do they see you as valuable business partners? Is your team invited to strategy meetings? Or are you asked to react to situations only when needed? Can you measure learning program ROI? Or do your learning programs go unmeasured? Do you receive requests to create generic training? Or do department leaders come to you with specific business problems caused by learning gaps knowing your team can create programs to resolve them?
The answers to those questions reveal a lot about how your learning team is viewed. This is a good time of the year to strategically think about the status of your learning team within your company. Now is the time to assess plans for the coming year to improve the value of learning in your organization.
Gauging Your Place on the Learning Team Efficacy and Maturity Scale
Learning teams experience a push and pull between polar opposites. This short quiz will help answer where your team lands on the scale of learning team efficacy and maturity.
Generic vs. Specific
- Are training requests often made for general subjects such as “I need a communications course” or “I need a sales course”?
- Does educating colleagues about how the learning function operates seem like an uphill battle?
- Do you struggle to design effective learning programs to match specific business needs?
- Do you feel your team should know more about instructional design?
- Does it seem as if your learning team and business leaders speak two different languages?
Add one point for every “yes” response.
Reactive vs. Strategic
- Do you create learning programs only in response to urgent or short-term business needs?
- Do you have to keep room in your team’s schedule for short-fuse training requests?
- Is there always a sense of urgency when business leaders approach your team about a program?
- Do you sometimes suspect an urgent needs is tied to a management issue rather than a learning issue?
- Do you often wish your company set aside time to plan for upcoming learning needs?
Add one point for every “yes” response.
Unmeasured vs. Measured
- Are smiley sheets your primary means of measuring the effectiveness of your learning programs?
- Does measuring learning seem complex or confusing?
- Do you use an LMS to measure how many people attended your learning programs?
- Do you present to business leaders LMS statistics as proof of training program success?
- Does it seem your learning team is looked down on for not providing more specific data about learning program ROI?
Add one point for every “yes” response.
Order-Taker vs. Business Partner
- Do business leaders feel the learning function is a “nice-to-have” rather than an “essential-to-have” business function?
- Do business leaders fail to invite the CLO or other learning leaders to strategy planning sessions?
- At budget time, do you have to fight for every dollar allotted to your learning programs?
- Do business and department leaders tell you the training they want, rather than seek your input and guidance about what training is needed?
- When the company budget is tight, do you know that learning team resources will be among the first cuts made?
Add one point for every “yes” response. Tally your points from each section for your total.
Results and Next Steps to Gain Learning Team Efficacy
If your point total was 16-20, your team rates low for efficacy and maturity. In the new year, make plans to improve your standing on this scale. If your point total was 9-15, you’re making progress. Keep going! If your total was 1-8, your team rates pretty high for efficacy and maturity. Congratulations!
If you’re not happy with your total, there are concrete steps you can take to improve your learning team efficacy and maturity. Much of the answer lies in learning how to create measurable instructional design. Measurable learning, designed using repeatable, reproducible methods is essential to strengthening your learning team’s ability to address business needs. You can gain these needed ID skills from eParamus, which offers Measurable Instructional Design® Certification. We teach learning teams how to construct measurable, repeatable, and effective learning programs. This knowledge improves your team’s professionalism. The business will see you in a new light, and your team will feel more confident in their skills.
How confident are you in your learning team efficacy? Were you happy with your place on the maturity scale? If you need to strengthen your team’s professional skills, please contact us here at eParamus. Every day we teach L&D professionals how to use the tools that help them design, measure, and improve their learning programs and teams.
Please follow eParamus on LinkedIn and feel free to connect with me, Laura Paramoure, PhD to discuss your specific learning challenges.
Photo copyright: julief514 / 123RF Stock Photo
Enter your information information below to subscribe to our blog
[gravityform id=”14″ title=”true” description=”false” ajax=”false”]