Putting L&D's Four Critical Themes into Motion

My April 2024 post "Making the Business Case for L&D: Four Critical Themes" outlined four key areas for building a strong business case for learning and development.

This companion post provides concrete examples of use cases or L&D content capabilities that fall within each of the four themes: 

• Elevate Organizational Agility / Future Proof Your Organization
• Maximize Employee Engagement, Productivity and Lifetime Value
• Improve Success Rates on Business / Digital Transformations
• Solidify ‘Employer Brand’ to Attract and Retain Top Talent

In my view, when organizations deliver on these types of L&D application scenarios, they gain a competitive advantage that is likely to be sustained longer than one achieved through standard skills-specific training. This is because many of today’s key skills won’t have a long shelf life. In an era where technology is evolving rapidly and organizations are frequently pivoting with plans and priorities, different skills will be made more—or less—vital.

To Elevate Organizational Agility / Future Proof the Organization, L&D can:

• Teach employees behavior modeling tips and strategies for coping better with stress and/or ambiguity during periods of organizational change.
• Train senior managers in how to effectively communicate during periods of organizational change.
• Equip line managers and team leaders with strategies and tactics for effectively managing interpersonal conflict within their team or business unit during periods of change.

To Maximize Employee Engagement, Productivity and Lifetime Value, L&D can:

• Provide training at all levels of management that develops leadership behaviors and practices known to have a positive effect on employee engagement and productivity vs. those that have the opposite effect. 
• Help people managers understand the importance of recognizing all sources of value an employee delivers or can potentially deliver, whether related to their job/role or using a much broader lens.
• Develop a “learning agility” mindset within the organization, especially in teams or departments subject to the most change. Ensure people know how learning agility is achieved and why it is so critical for both micro and macro level performance and growth.

To Improve Success Rates on Business / Digital Transformations L&D can:

• Educate those in management roles on the prominent reasons why many complex, strategic business initiatives under-perform or outright fail, particularly those labeled as business transformations. (Reasons typically relate to attitudes/support, skill gaps, lack of realistic timelines or too many competing initiatives.)
• Teach managers and leaders how to ensure employees who voice reservations about change feel heard, while keeping team and organizational communication focused on the potential net benefits of the change initiative.
• Train managers in asking the right questions to assess the level of support for transformational initiatives such as digital transformations. 

To Solidify ‘Employer Brand’ to Attract and Retain Top Talent L&D can:

• Offer training on the topic of employer branding, including what elements typically contribute to a great place to work and strategies for creating a compelling employer value proposition.
• Provide research stats within such training experiences that clearly demonstrate the impact that having a more attractive employer brand has on employee retention and productivity — the latter attributed to sourcing higher caliber talent.
• Train managers on the various things that go into having a best-in-class employer brand including those that have little connection to compensation, but which demonstrate a commitment to personal growth and an enhanced employee experience, such as inclusiveness, diversity, and fairness.

I hope these ideas enable you to build on the business case guidance provided in my previous post, and help you convey how a well-designed, modern, and comprehensive corporate learning experience can positively impact the entire organization.

I encourage you to peruse the wide range of articles and assets on Atana’s website for additional ideas on maximizing your investment in enterprise learning.