- Steal These Thoughts!
- Posts
- 5 ways to improve your L&D function for 2024
5 ways to improve your L&D function for 2024
Ross Stevenson
December 5th, 2023
Today’s Thoughts ☠️
Hey there 👋,
I wanted to explore how to leverage the power of connected skills to craft the best career opportunities today. But, alas, my mind has other ideas.
I’m currently on day 4 of being snowed in.
The cold will no doubt confine me to the writer’s room this week to finish that one final big piece of the year before I retire to enter a comatose state fuelled by chocolate log.
This time, we explore 5 simple ways you can level up your L&D function in 2024.
Get your tea 🍵 or beverage of choice ready. We've got lots to discuss!
In today’s chat 👇
5 ways to level up your L&D function in 2024
Megatrends reshaping the future of L&D
How to fix the social skills pandemic
Est reading time: 10 mins
THE BIG THOUGHT
5 Ways To Level Up Your L&D Function in 2024
Let’s talk about some things you can do to scale the level of your learning and performance function.
1/ Do your research
Explore the industry today to understand what the modern approaches across organisations of all sizes are.
It’s good to understand not only what’s working, but what’s not working too, and why. When you walk into any new role or are looking to take a new approach to your function, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
Too many of us make this mistake.
Not only should you do external research, but you also need to get a view of the land within the organisation. It’s vital to understand what infrastructure is already in place.
Get clear on the company strategy.
What is your organisation trying to achieve?
What do people need to know and do to help reach this?
At the end of the day, everyone who’s part of the company is here to perform to provide ROI.
That might sound awful but it’s true.
Getting clear on the company strategy will help make sure you’re focusing on the right things to affect performance and provide value.
Not just doing the same old because that’s what people expect.
The biggest blocker L&D teams face to being seen as strategic advisors is not connecting the efforts of an L&D strategy to the company’s goals. You’re smart enough not to fall for this one.
Win hearts and minds, friend.
2/ Talk to your people
I strongly recommend not to take the easy road of assumptions and siloed conversations behind closed doors with only the chosen few.
To get the real picture of what’s happening across your organisation today, you need to get out and speak to the people. Ya know, the ones who are doing the work day in and out. The view of just senior levels only plays a dangerous game of opinions.
And most opinions are biased and without data.
This is not helpful when trying to build a learning and performance function that wants to enable real value for its people.
A simple action you can take is just talking to people across the org.
Use questions to understand what they like about the culture of growth today. What do they like? Don’t like, and how do they approach growth in their time outside work?
Use a data-led approach to build a strategy that actually helps fellow humans get better every day. Not a function that acts more like a McDonald’s drive-thru and peddles the usual junk.
Now it’s key to note here, that this is not a TNA aka a training needs analysis exercise. Screw TNA’s! They’re a bunch of BS in my opinion. Asking people what they want generally turns out to be a wishlist of stuff that they don’t need.
Most of us don’t know what we need to know.
So yes, collect data but ask the right questions. What people want and what they need are often two very different things.
3/ Experiment
I love to experiment with new ideas and improve upon what’s already in place.
Now I recognise, that depending on the culture of your org and leadership team, it can be difficult to have the space to experiment and change things up.
If there’s one thing I’ve noted in my 16 years in this space thus far, it’s that orgs like the stability of the good old L&D function.
This stable framework in the corporate space is a spillover of the framework we’ve all experienced through educational institutions.
But, education and learning in the workplace are not the same thing.
Education has always been instructor-led, I speak, you listen format.
Whereas workplace learning is all about adult connections and conversations. Repeating what happens in the education world is not going to enable the same benefit in the world of work.
If anything, it’s going to damage it.
So look to try out new things, but also respect the things in place now and look to improve on these. We must not forget, that in our experimentation it can be incredibly useful to connect and learn from the world outside learning.
I’ve always found synergy and learnt a lot from fellow humans in the world of tech, product and marketing.
Taking approaches and skills from this world for your development is essential in building yourself into a highly-skilled modern learning professional.
4/ Be smart with technology
Now I know learning technology is all the rage, but it’s not going to be your saviour.
Tech (like all things in life) can be valuable if used with the right intent. And intention is the keyword here.
Likewise, we should not fear tech either. It’s not going to replace you or your team. Unless you want it to of course!
Instead of writing a bunch more, here’s something I wrote earlier covering a checklist on what to do before buying any learning technology.
The bottom line is to be intentional in anything you use in your tech stack.
It must have a purpose to fix a real-world situation. Not just we should do this because everyone else does this.
5/ Don’t forget the human
It’s easier than ever to create a digital learning tech ecosystem.
It’s really hard to connect with people on a human level and create meaningful experiences in the real world.
For me, that’s the real challenge today.
Again, I’m not proposing a silver bullet solution here.
Instead, this is all about continued exploration across the culture you find yourself in and striking the balance that works for your community. Never forget the qualities that make us who we are. Tech is an enhancer of what we do, it is not who we are.
Humans buy from humans, so why don’t we build spaces to learn from each other?
Enjoy the newsletter? Please forward to a friend. It only takes 10 seconds.
EVENT
Last Chance: Join The AI Accelerator This Thursday
ICYMI, I’m running an extra special event on Thursday, December 7th.
You'll go from beginner to AI confident with a journey through:
Demystifying Generative AI
Why, when and how to use AI tools in your workflow
The importance of human skills with AI experiences
The simple L&D AI toolkit
Live walkthrough of L&D workflows with ChatGPT
Q&A
🎁 All participants will receive a free AI for L&D toolkit and a discount on The Complete ChatGPT Course For L&D Pros.
(Are you a member of The Cult of Thoughts premium subscription? This event is free as part of your membership. Reach out to me to reserve your place)
DATA THOUGHT
Megatrends Reshaping The Future of L&D: 3️⃣ Key Takeaways
Here’s a breakdown of the MindTools For Business The Crucial Role of L&D in Business Transformation report. You can download a copy here. These are my personal takeaways.
Quick note: This is the 3rd report, and my 3rd breakdown, in this excellent report series for MindTools For Business. You can find the previous two parts here and here.
1️⃣ You don't need to be at the top of the tree to succeed
In an earlier report, MTFB introduced a 4 stage maturity framework for L&D teams.
1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest performing L&D functions.
51% of L&D teams surveyed sit at stage 1 with transactional interventions. They seem to be doing a lot in the business but in reality, they’re achieving very little.
23% of L&D teams surveyed sit at stage 2 - implementing L&D programs. These teams are a little smarter in what they focus on but lack enough connection across the business to deliver meaningful impact.
Only 15% of L&D teams surveyed sit at stage 3 with a proactive talent and performance strategy. These teams are found to make more purposeful decisions with an increased clarity of thought.
11% of L&D teams surveyed sit at stage 4 with a high-impact learning culture. These are the highest-performing L&D orgs in the world. They do everything at all 4 levels and link it all back to business alignment.
Now you might think that aiming for stage 4 is the obvious path.
Yet, many of us will never reach that stage despite our best efforts. The highest level involved many factors outside of you and your team. I’m not saying don’t aim high, of course.
Being realistic about what your business needs is far more important than striving for an unrealistic level in your context.
As one of the featured quotes shares, moving from level 1 to 2 is a huge advancement for many teams, and it’s exactly what they need to succeed.
See pages: 10 - 13
2️⃣ Digital Intelligence reigns supreme
Yes, I keep banging on about this!
It’s too important not to. The bottom line is we live in a vastly integrated digital world and you and me are now digital natives.
As the report rightly highlights, tech is not the silver-bullet solution but it is an enhancer in work and life.
Our industry is often slow to adopt and adapt to the best tech. Don’t get left behind in your career. Invest in your technical understanding, it will accelerate and future-proof your career.
See pages: 15 - 21
3️⃣ Adapting to a fast-changing audience
Every company navigates different generations of society.
For L&D folks like you and me, this means working through the different wants and aspirations of people of all ages. The rise of digital technology these last 20 years has had a huge impact on this.
People now live and work longer (I’m sure I’ll die on my keyboard) so building tools, and resources and designing learning environments to meet these people has never been more important.
The takeaway for us is to continuously adapt our approach. Let’s not be afraid to experiment and iterate. Sticking with one model or methodology is not good for anyone.
See pages: 27 - 32
The only cult you want to join 😉
Get access to exclusive deep dives, events and perks with our premium membership - The Cult of Thoughts 🏴☠️.
Your investment gets you more great content and helps me keep doing this for you until the world’s tea supply runs out.
Get access to:
→ Exclusive subscriber-only Monthly newsletter
→ Private catalogue of toolkits and insights
→ Workshops, events and perks
My Brand Manager
SMART THOUGHTS
Content that will make you smarter.
🤔 How could we fix learning and education
Best-selling author, Nick Shackleton-Jones has some thoughts on how we can transform both the education and learning industries for the better.
💡 How To Build an AI Upskilling Strategy For Your Company
The latest monthly deep-dive for the Cult of Thoughts members (premium subscribers).
It’s a captain-obvious statement for me to say as L&D operators, teams and leaders that upskilling with AI is a top priority for those 24/25 strategies.
This toolkit will position you for success in the year ahead.
AI surprised us in 23. Now we each have the chance to get ahead and maximise this technology for work.
🔥 What about our social skills?
Everyone is so blindsided with AI that we’re forgetting the basics.
Our most human social skills are in decline. What are we going to do to change that?
How I can help you👇
1/ My L&D toolkit stack with 20 zero-cost tools.
2/ Work smarter with AI in HR and L&D in my ChatGPT Crash Course.
3/ Work with me on your projects and L&D challenges.
Please share your thoughts with me on these pieces or anything I share on LinkedIn or hit 'reply'. Chat to you soon.
📌 My Favourite Tools
✂️ Descript: This tool has revolutionised the speed and quality of creating all the videos I share with you. Its new AI features make me look smarter than I am.
📼 Pictory: A useful and creative text-to-video partner.
🦾 ElevenLabs: I use this to create AI voiceovers and translate my content into any language in minutes. Check out my Spanish here. Great pricing options too.
🤖 ChatGPT: No surprise here, right? I do pay the $20 a month for Plus, and IMO, it’s worth every penny.
Reply