A (provocative) view on the current state of the L&D function and its readiness to become the strategic partner for the business

I sometimes wonder if L&D will still exist in 20 years from now and to be honest, I have my doubts. Don’t get me wrong, I am a true passionate L&D professional that believes in the power of people and their ability to grow the company. It’s just that, with all challenges coming our way, L&D should be able to change and act quickly and, although a lot has been said about the topic, there might still be some work to do.

There is no need to go into details when it comes to the ever rapidly changing world we live in: automation, digitization, new technology that takes over, … And we would probably never know the speed with which things can change if it weren’t for the pandemic. Many companies are rethinking their business strategy and therefore their business operating model. This will (almost) always have an impact on human capital of the business: restructuring the business will require to shuffle the current workforce and will ask for new capabilities for almost all of them. This brings us to the ongoing discussion of the skills gap, whether it is to reskill, upskill, out-skill or un-skill.  

Closing the skills gap should be the number one priority of us people in L&D (or at least one of…) and that asks for the L&D function to expand their horizon – and their own skills!

I sometimes wonder if L&D will still exist in 20 years from now…

The main goal of this article is to strengthen awareness and to highlight a few of the current pain points that I’ve come across, to then end with a few practical tips that can get us going in transforming our current L&D function. And, not leave you with only hypotheses or assumptions, I am also sharing the output of a survey, conducted amongst 80 participants, that gives insights on where we currently are in terms of turning the tide. An early version of this article was also challenged by a few of my magnificent colleagues of the international Masterclass in Learning & Development Leadership at the IE Business University and Nyenrode University.

Before we zoom in on these pain points, let me also emphasize the fact that, throughout my research and reflection process, I came across examples of companies that are transforming or have already transformed in becoming the strategic partner to the business. These success stories will be broken up in a few practical tips that I will share with you in this article.

In terms of structure, I would like to discuss 3 main questions that you can ask yourself and depending on the answer you give, it will tell you where you are in becoming the strategic partner to the business. Let’s go!

What is keeping companies awake at night and are you, as L&D department, responding to that?

If I would ask you to give a glimpse of the 3 most important priorities/challenges of the company you work for, what would they be? This is where it all starts. If we are all aware of what is keeping the business awake at night, then that gives you a context to think if and how L&D is able to support with any of the challenges. It’s probably safe to say that the skills gap will be on that list somewhere and here’s the important difference: it’s the skills gap that is high on the list, maybe not ‘learning’ as such.

There was a second part to this first question, namely: are you as L&D department responding to that?

If the skills gap is indeed on that list, then that would mean that we need to define the capabilities of the future, that we need to do an assessment of the current workforce, that we need to be able to translate the fit-gap into personalized skilling journeys and that we are able to create conditions for learning at scale at a fast pace to keep up with the rapidly changing world. And we will probably need to do this more than once. This of course also entails that we need to have a resilient workforce with a growth mindset that feels psychologically safe to learn fast.  

If we look at the above, then it’s safe to say that we are confronted with a massive challenge and that we will not have the perfect answer overnight.

I believe that in that previous sentence, an important word is already revealed: ‘Perfection’.

The CEO probably does not have learning high on his agenda, but he does worry about the skills gap each and every single day.

For me one of the very practical take-aways of this article is that it is no longer about ‘Perfection’. It’s about ‘Progression’. We need to move forward and, even though we take tiny steps each day, it’s better than to sit and wait for a miracle to happen (or the perfect learning tech to be invented).

Let’s bring in some data. If we look at the below output of the survey, it talks about what you guys think is most important in terms of capabilities to invest in:

Let’s reflect on this: is it really the Learning Experience that should take the lead in designing at speed and at scale? We all agree that UX is extremely important because if it’s not ‘fun’ to learn, then it will probably not improve knowledge or skills and most definitely not be reflected in business results.

But looking at the challenge as described above, I’m wondering if the ‘Data Specialists’ should not come first and/or the ‘Content Curators’ should not have made it to the stage? There is so much good out there, that gives us a firm baseline to start from which probably makes us able to deliver more rapidly. It will not be perfect, but it will be more in line with the speed in which society is currently changing.

Let’s zoom in on a few practical tips linked to this first chapter:

1. Plan at least one meeting per week with a specific department to talk about the current challenges and what they’re busy with. It’s interesting to proactively reach out and know what is on their minds. Who know, we might be able to reach out and create value.

2. To be able to innovate quickly, you need to know what is out there. You need to know who your internal and external stakeholders are, how they work, what their differentiators are and how they can supplement to what you have in store. Free up 1 hour in your day to do research on those important stakeholders and get to know them better. Activate a conversation and find alliances so that, if the time is right, you can plug them in more rapidly and more effectively. It will help you innovate, it will help you deliver at speed and it will help you be creative so that the business will see our true value.

Do you feel your learning interventions contribute to business outcomes and business value?

If we know what is high on the agenda and we feel that we at least started thinking about how L&D can contribute to these challenges, do we then embrace the fact that it’s not only about learning value but also about creating business value?

This topic is highly linked to the relationship L&D has with the business. If we look at data coming from the survey, we see that a lot of you out there have already been able to build strong relationships with the business:

This is already a big accomplishment!

I will not go into the detail in this article on 1) the importance of this partnership and 2) how to get there as I want to zoom in on whether or not our learning interventions create business outcomes.

I would like to share with you a concrete example:  

A few weeks back, I had a discussion with a CLO that has been able to turn things around. One of the concrete projects that she is currently leading is the one on ‘New ways of working – Moving towards hybrid models’.

One can argue, does that fit the scope of L&D? There is a big part on real estate and a big part on processes but yes: also a big part on people. Why am I using this example? Because it is THE way to show value to the business. It shows that this CLO is able to burst the L&D bubble. A big part of L&D is of course related to implementing the right learning interventions at the right time for the right people but looking at the current challenges: learning interventions are not always the (only) solution. Should we, as L&D start thinking more outside the box? Should we expand our horizon and use our people focus in more various ways? And most of all, should we step away from the ‘happy sheets’ to measure our effectiveness?

If we expand our horizon, it will give us the opportunity to co-create even more with the business, to be present at strategic meetings, to be part of decision-making teams and to add value to the business by defining KPI’s and measure impact. All of that with a focus on supporting the way to a future-proof workforce.

To keep the structure of this article, I would again like to share some output of the survey talking about how participants describe their current learning governance. Only 1/3rd of the participants indicate that they have a strategic learning governance with senior business leaders involved. 1/3rd indicates that they currently have an operational governance with only L&D representatives and the other 3rd talks about having a tactical learning governance with business and SME input. Should we all move towards that strategic learning governance to be able to pull off the above?

1. Establishing a good relationship with the business is important. And this is already the case for most of us. We do need to keep nurturing these relationships, even outside of projects. Try to have at least one (virtual) coffee with one of your colleagues in the business this week. Catch up, talk about what they are currently doing, ask feedback, get the conversation going on continuous improvements.

2. Look at the last learning intervention that you have implemented: do you know if it had an impact on performance? If not, how would you have been able to know? Is it possible to take that with you in the next design phase?

3. Think outside of the box: participate in just one ongoing activity in your company that might not have anything to do with learning at first but that makes you connect with people, that makes you share your opinion and that makes you involved!

4. Oh, and maybe to most important one: dare to say ‘no’ and question the requests

Are you the storyteller with a big personality that can sell your story to the business (if you have a solid business case and learning data ready)?

As a final topic for this article, I would like to zoom in on the importance of assertiveness in L&D. When you know what you stand for, what your purpose and true ambition is, then we should share that more!

If you know what is keeping the company awake at night and you try to show true business value in implementing learning interventions, then the 3rd ingredient to the best cocktail in town is storytelling!

In this section, I would like to start with probably a bit of a provocative question: ‘Does the CEO have learning high on the agenda? And if not, what is the reason for that?’.

To be able to get your story out there, it’s of course not only about being able to bring it in an inspiring way, it’s also about daring to get yourself out there. It’s about having a voice and believing in the value of sharing that voice with the company – even if it is not completely in line with their current thinking.

If we look at the data coming from the survey, then we see that not a lot of companies already have a CLO reporting directly to the CEO. That’s unfortunate, because it should.

It of course helps to already have that seat at the table and if it’s not the case then let’s not wait until it is. We can take control by showing the true value L&D brings. One way of doing that is integrating a proactive and systemic way of conducting a learning needs analysis.  

Looking at the survey, some of us never conduct a learning needs analysis and only a few of us do is proactively and systemic. Knowing that our voice should represent the voice of our employees, this might be a good place to start.

If we then have the results of a thorough LNA, then you can start building your story.

And again, if we build our story, let’s try to think outside of the box, be creative, focus on what good it might bring to the business and sell it!

Ending again with a few practical tips to share:

1. Follow a sales course or ‘Storytelling from data’! I know it sounds strange but selling skills might become inevitable for us to be able to sell our story and show impact

2. If you are hiring: make sure to also hire for personality rather than only for the deep technical expertise. We need both!

Let us all think about where we are on the above topics and by implementing one or two things, it will bring us closer to becoming the strategic partner to the business.

Again, progress rather than perfect! We’re all just trying our very best…

Do not strive for perfection but make sure that you make progress, continuously, daily and creatively!

Source: Survey was conduct as part of the author`s master class.

About the author

Stephanie is a psychologist with a passion for human interaction and behavioral change. She has find her way to learning and development and is currently helping companies in optimizing and supporting the workforce for them to be ready for any future challenges.

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