Organizations have linked their business success to many
factors including sales and marketing genius, unparalleled customer
satisfaction, talented and dedicated employees, strong 3rd party partnerships,
and stellar leadership! While each of these are certainly valuable assets to have
in any company, reaching these heights can rarely be done without what I
consider the key underlining commonality to each of the above: Learning.
Learning, Training, Education, Knowledge... Whatever you want to call it, is a fundamental must-have for the
success of a company that strives to achieve extraordinary business success! Through a systematic approach of connecting your
business objectives to learning opportunities, you can secure the people, processes,
and technology that will help you meet your stated goals!
As with all analysis of corporate goals, organizations need a thorough understanding of their business
objectives. Common themes tend to include Revenue
Generation, Cost Savings, Customer Satisfaction, and Workforce Retention and
Effectiveness.
These business objectives should be considered core for any successful organization!
To meet the business objectives set out
for your organization, you will consider several tactics to make them a
reality. You will likely devote extra resources toward research and development;
blanket your sales force with lavish incentives; and throw an inconceivable
amount of marketing dollars at you prospective customer base! But, please do NOT
forget about learning! Don't forget to dedicate at least some of your time and
money to training!
Focus areas for training opportunities could include Sales
Training, Customer Training, Employee Training, New Hire Training, and Partner
Training.
Achieving any sort of business success is irrelevant if you can't prove it. For
each Training opportunity that you decide
to deploy there must be accountability against your business objectives. Metrics
for measuring learning often come in the form of Revenue,
Savings, Satisfaction, Retention and Effectiveness.
The design, development, implementation and evaluation of these different training programs, if done well can make an
immediate and long lasting impact. To ensure their success, there are several
foundational technologies, programs and processes that can be implemented. Key
technology for learning includes components around Learning
Content Management, Training Delivery (Instructor-Led, Online and Synchronous),
Message Delivery, Content Development, and Learning Management.
Each is integral to having a well-conceived and cohesive training Foundation.
The people within a training organization should be selected based upon their skills, understanding, and fit
within the culture. Most education people will tell you that they can train on
any topic. As long as they are using a recognized learning principle (i.e., the
Adult Learning Theory), they can apply those skills to the different types of
training organizations described above. While this may be true, be sure that you
build your organization as a unit, and not as a one-off whimsical hiring of
individuals. Training is a team sport where all members of the unit have their
specific role. You can hire a Training Director who will then be responsible for
hiring the rest of their team to scale with their strategy. Or that Director
might choose the Service Desk Approach, where they remain on as the leader of
the organization for the strategy and analysis side, and then partner closely
with an agency or series of contractors to build and deliver the content.
Learning Organization roles can be described as Training
Manager / Director, Instructional Designer, Course Developer, Instructor, and
Training Service Desk.
Learning can be the foundational component of your
business success. By developing a strategy around learning, you can not only
achieve that success, but you can demonstrate its effectiveness through
valuable, defensible metrics. At a high level, that includes 1) understanding
your business; 2) identifying opportunities for training within your business;
3) recognizing the benefits of the learning through metrics; and 4) building out
the training program (technology, processes and people).
To learn more about how you can find someone to build a
learning organization for your business goals, contact Jay Kreshel (jay@kreshel.com).
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Jay Kreshel is an experienced Training and
Development Manager focused on the design, development and delivery of product,
sales and management training. He has ha track record of building learning
organizations in start-up companies that do not yet have a training department
as well as in global industry leaders who are moving into new markets or
expanding their departments internationally. He achieves his objectives by
working with the organization's leadership and key stakeholders to diagnose
learning requirements, then identify and implement technology, tools and
processes to fulfill those needs. Jay has a Masters Degree in Organizational Development and
has worked for companies such as eBay, Andersen Consulting, Deloitte Consulting,
SumTotal Systems (formerly Docent), and Oblix.