Features

Published December 2004

Governance: The Next Learning Gap

Grant Ricketts

CEOs lose sleep at night worrying if their companies are "hitting on all cylinders" with regard to employee competencies across the extended enterprise. The problem for most CEOs is that they don't have a strategy, a system or a clearly established set of processes to address this issue. Although the promise of an enterprise-wide learning and performance strategy, with its broad emphasis on people development and performance outcomes, can certainly be considered strategic, many learning practitioners don't feel this connection with the overall business. This is ironic, given that virtually every company's annual report states, "Our people are our most important asset."

In recent years, many organizations have invested in systems and tools to better manage their learning requirements. While these systems help connect and automate many key learning resources and processes, the learning function generally remains fragmented. Most learning groups are only beginning to address the organizational barriers and change management challenges that stand between the current state of their companies and a complete realization of the enterprise's value and vision.

Managing these issues at a higher level and creating the mechanisms and protocols for systematic planning and decision-making is the next opportunity for many. Call it the "governance challenge." Enterprise learning governance represents the next "learning gap" that has to be closed. It isn't about understanding learning programs better, but about understanding people processes and leveraging organizational disciplines better.

Governance is a discipline that comes out of change management strategy. In essence, it's about how organizations get things done-systematically and completely across the organization. Governance is a system of decision-making structures, processes, practices and values that enable an organization to make good and actionable decisions: preparing plans and managing implementations, obtaining sponsorship, overseeing continuing operations, surfacing and resolving problems and conflicts, assigning responsibility and ensuring accountable actions. Ultimately, it crosses boundaries, touches every business unit and links tightly with the overall management of the organization.

Learning practitioners typically haven't engaged in major change management initiatives, but the demands and scope of supporting enterprise-wide learning programs require that they do so quickly. It's hard to align learning programs with strategic business units if one doesn't speak the language of business and incorporate key business outcomes into learning objectives. Furthermore, it's difficult to expand the learning footprint across broader parts of the enterprise without aligning the many teams that will help with issues around content, technology, administration and management of the program. However, doing it well takes thought, design and superb execution. Given that every organization is unique, each of us approaches this challenge with a different perspective.

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