Shaping a Strategic Approach to Learning and Development

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Strategy   Talent Management  

Whether you provide in-house training or contract out for educating and growing project managers and teams, developing a reliable model can pay big dividends. Many organizations provide training without a cohesive strategy as to the final outcomes they hope to achieve. They fail to consider how the training provided will deliver value to the organization or how those who are trained will grow and continue to add value to the areas they support. In short, they provide training without any guarantee of retained learning or continuous staff development.

Indeed, most organizations don’t even ponder how their education and training efforts stack up in terms of established learning & development (L&D) models. Sadly, most training yields little as those attending workshops and seminars retain no more than 10% of the materials presented. Without a cohesive training plan--one that integrates formal training with OJR (on the job reinforcement) and targeted coaching and mentoring--it isn’t likely that any training will stick for very long.

So what factors should be considered when developing an L&D model within an organization? How do you ensure that the approach adopted is aligned to the organization’s long-term growth and prosperity goals?

Developing a set of measurable criteria can go a long way toward helping you to shape a L&D program …

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