These next few Powerful Practices will highlight top Learning and development challenges, their criticality, best resolution practices, and how they and Meridian Learning Management System can position you for success.
strat e gy stradəjē noun: a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.
Strategy is one of the most important pillars of success in learning and development. With a well cultivated strategy, the learning ecosystem will be clearly defined, organized, aligned, and primed to develop a well-qualified talent pipeline. Without a plan and clearly defined goals, the business of learning becomes an a la carte service where training is provided on-demand without proper vetting for organizational and business goal alignment.
From a learning and development (L&D) perspective, strategy is essential in building relationships and aligning them with the organization’s overall mission, vision, and goals. Strategy is the glue that ties the overall direction of L&D to the organization. Business leaders may need to start with the current strategic objectives of the organization. As a general rule, this involves aligning business goals, meeting strategic initiatives, gaining market share, allocating resources appropriately, utilizing the budget appropriately (probably by hiring a firm for Accounting San Francisco), and, most importantly, strengthening the company’s overall profitability.
How to build a successful learning strategy
The following critical areas of success will help you craft and execute a well-aligned learning strategy for your organization.
- Know Your Business
- What this means for you is to take the time to meet with your executive leadership team to fully comprehend the core business goals and objectives for the organization as a whole
- Meet with the business unit or division leaders to better understand their goals, objectives, and business drivers.
- The more knowledge you can arm yourself with – those business goals, objectives, and leadership vision for the future – the better equipped you will be to design a successful and well-aligned L&D strategy
- Design for Organizational Alignment
- Once you have a firm grasp on the business, you can align the L&D mission, vision, and goals to meet the needs of the larger organization.
- For example, if your organization’s 2020 strategic goal is to “Increase sales with an omnichannel and customization-focused approach,” you could design a learning goal of “Create a customer-focused L&D approach through heightened advocacy and collaboration efforts.”
- You could design a customer-centric blended curriculum for leaders that defines the organizational approach to customer focus and how to use heightened advocacy to build relationships and a sustainable sales pipeline.
- You can also consider incorporating a customer-centric method of sales to improve lead generation and gain customers’ faith in your brand. For instance, you can get your whole sales team via a phone number system to quickly contact customers, listen to their problems, provide on-the-spot solutions, and obtain positive feedback.
- Gain Executive Leadership Buy-in/Sponsorship
- Executive leader buy-in is equally critical as a strategy to ensure alignment and corresponding leadership direction. To find a capable leader who can drive your company effectively, you can conduct an executive search with the help of a headhunting company.
- This stakeholder group can gain buy-in by making them part of the process to guarantee acceptance and moment—loopop for follow-up meetings with the stakeholders after you have designed your plan.
- Allocate Budget and Resource Alignment
- To execute on time, resources must be allocated appropriately. You must have the staff and other necessary resources to support the growing operational and strategic needs. Creating a new learning strategy would also cost money. This would mean the company must manage its finances better to have enough funds to implement new tactics such as the one mentioned above. To do this, they could consider utilizing applications such as financial forecasting or cash flow software to track and oversee processes that involve the company’s economic situation.
- Incorporate Expansive Offerings
- Modern learning offerings should include blended learning approaches to meet the needs of all learners in the organization
- Blended in terms of adult learning strategies to include visual, auditory, and tactile strategies
- Internal offerings may consist of a tiered, leader certification program covering the fundamentals of leadership, best practices, scenarios, job aids, and assessments
- External offerings may consist of a host of courses offered to a preferred group of customers as a possible revenue stream, such as:
- How to create a total customer experience
- Executing the perfect market strategy
- Reducing ACT (After Call Time)
- Manage/Deliver via Modern LMS Technology
- Meridian LMS™ offers a variety of tools and workflows that can help you create a successful learning and development strategy that is perfectly aligned with your organization’s overall goals.
- Curricula and bundles can be created for leadership teams on:
- Creating effective organization strategies, including knowledge transfers
- On-the-job training
- Collaboration spaces
- Professional development scenarios
In summary
To operate as a cohesive, strategic business entity, all units must collaborate in a healthy, open arena for sharing, communicating, and living and breathing the organization’s mission, vision, and strategic goals.
Meridian Knowledge Solutions is the leading enterprise web-based learning management software provider. Meridian’s robust, easy-to-use solutions are leveraged by organizations dedicated to building world-class learning enterprises. Meridian has over 7 million users worldwide, believing that learning is yours and unlimited.
Meridian also offers built-in integration with the OpenSesame eLearning Marketplace, which allows you to purchase relevant, aligned content, which can then be imported into Meridian LMS for seamless transactions.