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Features

Published April 2009

Strategy for Learning Leaders

  

  Allison Rossett, Ed.D.

Tough times require tough decisions about learning resources. Yet, many learning units lack a strategy. Without it, how do you decide what to do?

Most learning people do not do strategy. We do transactions. We schedule classes. We build programs. We track compliance. Order taking and delivery has been tolerated in good times, but these are not good times.

While the financial crisis adds urgency, strategy is nothing new to learning leaders. “Allison, they want me to sync my strategy to the larger organizational strategy. Can you help?” An old friend howled in voice mail: “My new senior VP said we must cut costs immediately. She wants me to use strategy to cope with hard decisions.”

A chief learning officer sent an e-mail: “I asked my learning managers to report about their strategy. One wants to make podcasts; another is eager to revamp the learning portal. I’m not against their ideas, but they aren’t strategy. Right?”

Right. Many otherwise savvy learning leaders stumble over strategy.

Strategy Defined
Strategy tells everybody who you are and what you intend to accomplish. Michael Porter, an expert on the topic, said strategy is a defining position that delivers competitive advantage.

Sun Tzu spoke about strategy in the fifth century B.C.: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu, who could be viewed as one of the first known learning executives, was challenged by the King of Wu to prove himself by training his 360 concubines. While Sun Tzu’s existence is questioned by historians, the importance of shared purpose is not — not for the development of concubines and not for us in our endeavors.

Here is a typical attempt at strategy: 50 percent of our training will move to the Web by the end of the year. While it has measurability, it is not a strategy. It is a tactic for achieving a strategy that probably involves delivering lessons closer to work or providing more accessible programs for an increasingly mobile workforce. Strategy and tactics are not the same.

Why Seek Strategy?
Should we add a person who specializes in evaluation? What about podcasts to enhance sales training? How do we respond to an executive seeking three increasingly unpleasant budget scenarios, at minus 8, 12 and 15 percent?

There is no way to decide without strategy. With a nod to Sun Tzu, how do you separate meaning from noise without articulated direction?

There are three reasons for establishing a strategy:

1. A great strategy synchronizes the learning organization with the enterprise. Ingersoll Rand’s Rita Smith invites leaders from across the organization into scheduled, purposeful and visible conversations. Terry Bickham, national leader for learning and development services at Deloitte, also welcomes executives into decisions about company strategies.