Reverse mentoring, the practice of pairing senior executives (mentees) with younger employees (mentors) to develop older, senior executives’ technology and digital acumen, is gaining steam. Companies such as the BBC, Microsoft, UnitedHealth, and Target are among those creating and implementing reverse mentoring programs for their employees. General Electric was one of the first to launch a program in 1999 to tap young employees to teach older executives how to use the Internet.[1] The programmatic goal for these companies is to harness millennials’ and Gen Z’s digital skills and knowledge to educate and develop Baby Boomers and Gen X employees’ technology and social media skills.[2]

Microsoft Austria launched their reverse mentoring program in 2014. Michael Jacobs, General Manager, was paired with mentor, Magnus Svorstøl Lie, Partner Sales Executive through the Microsoft Academy of College Hires (MACH) program. Michael gained first-hand knowledge of topics ranging from new digital communication tools to workplace trends. Magnus didn’t walk away empty-handed. Through his time with Michael, he had a front-row seat to view leadership at work and the larger business picture.

​Microsoft witnessed the results from this program: it creates a two-way street to share valuable information and skills that drive and positively impact business while growing new leaders. 

Is It Reverse Mentoring or Something Else?
At its core, the goals and concepts of reverse mentoring are a genius approach, but is it really mentoring?

Rene Petrin argues that it is not, and we’re inclined to agree. BusinessDictionary.com defines mentoring as an “Employee training system under which a senior or more experienced individual (the mentor) is assigned to act as an advisor, counselor, or guide to a junior or trainee. The mentor is responsible for providing support to, and feedback on, the individual in his or her charge.”[5] Petrin views reverse mentoring as coaching rather than true mentoring. “For a younger person to truly mentor an older person, that younger one has to have sufficient maturity to relate to the older worker in such a way that will create the mentoring relationship. I find this highly unlikely in most cases, particularly if the mentors are younger workers.”[6]

Coaching, as defined by Petrin, “doesn’t require an intimate, trusting relationship. Coaching requires the expert, who is the coach, to be able to convey his or her expertise to the coachee. The coach’s style of coaching may impact how successful s/he is as a coach, but the expertise can be passed on to the mentoree regardless.”[7]

Neither the commonly held definition of reverse mentoring or Petrin’s coaching definition hit the mark. Inherent in mentoring and coaching is a relationship based on trust. This is the foundation for change to occur. Without it, unearthing internal obstacles that may prevent behavior change is impossible.

​Reciprocal Learning
Instead, what seems to be happening between many of the dyads, or relationships, is what we refer to as reciprocal learning. The relationship goes beyond traditional mentoring by paving the way for an exchange of learning where a wealth of existing experience is present on both sides. It serves as a two-way street. If the program is developed and implemented with that goal in mind, it can go beyond technology and social media training and education to include operations, customer preferences, and diversity.

Reciprocal learning expands the current notion of reverse mentoring and opens the door for companies to leverage more than technology and social media training. Consider this: women comprise half of the college educated workforce, but represent only 29% of science and engineering jobs.[8] As the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) notes, this percentage drops in the leadership ranks in both these fields.[9] In 2017, women comprised only 5% of CEOs in S&P 500 companies while men still significantly outnumbered women in the boardroom.[10] There’s room for improvement, and reciprocal learning serves as one tool among many to promote gender-inclusive leadership development.

​Success Factors
If creating and implementing a reciprocal learning program sounds like a win for your organization, consider these success factors outlined by SHRM to help you begin to draft your program foundation:[11]

1. Create and maintain an attitude of openness to the experience.
2. Dissolve the barriers of status, power, and position.
3. Commit the necessary time.
4. Develop a game plan and identify goals.
5. Define rules of engagement.
6. Communicate clearly and actively listen.
7. Encourage patience.

Keep the Conversation Going
Stay tuned for our next blog where we delve deeper into reciprocal learning benefits, guidelines, and success measures. ​

Is your organization prepared?
Bill Valdez wants to know, Is the Federal Government in the Midst of a Leadership Crisis? Using data from a survey conducted by the Senior Executives Association (SEA) in collaboration with Deloitte, he argues that a government-wide strategy to nurture the next generation of leaders doesn't exist. They are ill-prepared to address what the report refers to as a retirement tsunami. 
Consider these statistics:[1]

• 22% of senior government executives surveyed indicate their agencies are prepared to retain top talent.
• 26% of senior executives report their agencies possess the infrastructure to identify skills gaps and develop existing and future leaders.

The federal government isn’t alone in struggling to fill the leadership pipeline. Other research paints a similar picture nationally and globally:

• 89% of business and HR leaders surveyed rated strengthening, re-engineering, and improving organizational leadership as an important priority.[2]
• 56% of surveyed executives report their companies aren’t prepared to meet leadership needs.[3]
• 86% of global experts indicated that a leadership crisis exists.[4]  
• 7% of respondents characterized their leadership development as best in class (align with strategy, receive executive support, built a strong talent pipeline, and demonstrate impact on success).[5]

​Warning Signs[6]
What are the potential warning signs that your organization might be facing a leadership crisis?

1. Emerging leaders lack critical thinking skills. Critical thinking, as defined by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul, “is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.”[7] An online study conducted in 2017 highlighted the lack of critical thinking skills millennials demonstrate, and millennials echo that finding. An article by Nick Kastner and Evie Somogyi lists critical thinking among those skills that employers seek, but millennials don’t possess. The business professionals interviewed for this study noted that “problem solving is important in a fairly complex world,” and went on to say that today’s employees need to “see an issue and adapt quickly.”​[8] We can vouch for this reality. When talking with business leaders, we repeatedly hear the same concern: the lack of critical thinking skills slows down the speed of business and can cost a company not only profit, but also its reputation. Choosing to invest in and implement a robust critical skills development program that links to demonstrated results may cost upfront, but the alternative is something leaders cannot afford.
2. Your organization devalues learning from failure. Do your employees and leaders alike hide mistakes rather than learning from them and sharing that learning across the organization? A simple, yet effective cultural shift begins to occur when leaders share lessons learned in public (e.g., all-hands meetings, monthly company meetings, staff meetings) and private spaces (e.g., coaching sessions, individual staff meetings) and include time for discussion and application across teams.
3. The search for talent is continuous. What’s turnover like? Is your talent pipeline constantly churning? How are you filling your talent pipeline? Are you looking for talent outside the organization only? This warning sign speaks to growing your own talent. Relying on sourcing from outside the organization keeps teams stuck in the learning curve rather than producing great results. Yes, there's value in gaining fresh, outside perspectives to enhance your teams. However, a lopsided approach drawing heavily upon outside sourcing negatively impacts business goals. A plethora of research exists on what retains employees: if they don’t feel that they’re learning and developing professionally or that they are not challenged, they’ll go looking for that elsewhere. Valuable business knowledge leaves with them.
4. Existing leadership lacks diversity. Whether it’s race, gender, perspectives, or ideas, diversity is your company’s calling card. Lacking diversity in any of these areas speaks volumes to the inclusivity of your culture and how the company will fare not only in the present, but also the future. A study conducted by sociologist, Cedric Herring demonstrates that diversity makes good business sense: "companies reporting the highest levels of racial diversity brought in nearly 15 times more sales revenue on average than those with the lowest levels of racial diversity. Gender diversity accounted for a difference of $599.1 million in average sales revenue: organizations with the lowest rates of gender diversity had average sales revenues of $45.2 million, compared with averages of $644.3 million for businesses with the most gender diversity."[9]
5. Rising stars begin to fail. We commonly hear, “She was our star salesperson so we promoted her, and it has been a disaster.” Set your stars up for success by providing opportunities to learn and develop new skills applicable to not only their current role, but roles in which they’re interested. Career pathing programs achieve this by outlining competencies and skills, guiding managers to support specific development, assigning stretch goals, and assessing readiness.

​Recommendations for Leadership Development
Consider the following when creating a leadership development program: 

​Leadership development may seem daunting and overwhelming, especially if an organization finds itself in the same predicament as the federal government. Ignoring the problem, relying on Talent Acquisition to continually feed the pipeline, or succumbing to paralysis is a choice that most organizations cannot afford. Invite partners across the organization to begin the discussion, create a call to action rooted in data, conduct analysis, sketch a framework and strategy, and identify actionable and achievable steps to get the ball rolling.

What Is Net Promoter Score (NPS®)?
​
Fred Reichheld, a partner at Bain & Co consultants, is credited with creating a framework known as the Net Promoter Score, or NPS. Reichheld led Bain’s customer loyalty practice in early 2000, and he developed the concept based on decades of field experience in customer market research, advising senior executives on customer loyalty and growth, and publishing literature on the subject.[2]

Initially, NPS was used exclusively as a customer loyalty metric and based on one question, “How likely is it that you would recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?” As Reichheld and his team developed the metric into a robust management model, companies across industries benefitted from gaining not only customer loyalty data, but they also were able to tap into product and service gaps and overall company health.

At its core, NPS measures customer experience and predicts business growth. It anchors and details a business’s customer experience management (CEM). When used in conjunction with other metrics collected throughout the customer experience, leadership gains actionable data to improve customer experience performance.

​Among its greatest benefits, as noted by Net Promoter Network, is ease of use. It’s easily understood by employees across the organization, thereby engaging them in the customer experience.

Applicability to Learning and Development

In a previous Solutions Arts’ article, Overcoming Evaluation Obstacles, we outlined common barriers associated with Learning and Development (L&D) evaluation and how to overcome them. Among the obstacles we discussed were the limited staff time and required tools to effectively conduct learning transfer evaluation. If we substitute customers for employees, or learners, NPS becomes an effective, simple tool to gauge content value and learning transfer and integration.
 
NPS How-to for L&D

NPS is more commonly thought of and used in eLearning courses. Inserting an NPS survey at the end of an eLearning course (or via email following the course) is a great first step for many companies to test-drive the application. However, NPS can be applied effectively in other L&D and business initiatives. The following lists examples where companies have used NPS to analyze outcomes, measure integration and application, and improve iterations of future efforts:

• Talent Acquisition. When it comes to brand health, NPS can be used to measure candidate experience. Assess candidate experience pre- and post-selection process.
• Employee Engagement. The bottom line: engaged employees create return customers. Some companies are using NPS to evaluate and understand employee engagement levels and how to improve them.
• New Hire Onboarding. Is new hire onboarding hitting the mark? What can be learned from both new hires and managers to improve onboarding?
• Exit Surveys. Like Talent Acquisition, NPS exit surveys offer an insight into brand improvement as well as organizational gaps and leadership development opportunities.
• Leadership Effectiveness. Both leaders and their teams benefit from NPS surveys that gauge leadership effectiveness and link to performance management.
• L&D Effectiveness. Companies no longer rely on one or two learning modalities to develop employees. NPS may be used across modalities, including formal and informal learning.
• Competency Assessment. NPS competency assessment surveys complement individual development plan creation and implementation.

​Adam Ramshaw outlines five training evaluation questions to launch an initial NPS survey.[3]

1. He recommends including an outcome question in every NPS survey. For example, “How likely would you be to recommend this training course to a friend or colleague?”
2. Determine whether the course delivered on objectives by asking, “How well did the content that was delivered match what you were promised when you registered?”
3. A great follow-up question to the above digs a bit deeper, “How much new information did you receive in the training course?”
4. The next question seeks to uncover application by asking learners to rate, “How actionable was the information you received in the training?”
5. The final question is specific to ILT or webinar courses where facilitator feedback is essential: “How engaging was the main presenter?”

Calculate NPS

Let’s use an example from above to illustrate how to calculate an NPS and define the corresponding terminology.

Solutions Arts attended UCLA's Cannabis Research Initiative's, "The Future of Cannabis in LA" event on February 22nd. The event--held at the UCLA Neuroscience Research Building--hosted a sold out audience of 240 members of the larger Los Angeles community.

Panelists presented and discussed topics such as the effects of cannabis legalization on aspects of health, crime, tax revenue, jobs, and traffic accidents in states like Colorado and Washington and anticipating the kinds of effects Los Angeles might see as cannabis legalization rolls out.

Solutions Arts engages with a variety of diverse clients across industries including the commercial cannabis industry. From testing laboratories, distribution, and manufacturing to cultivation and retail, we partner with clients who rely on our learning and development expertise that comes from decades of working with clients in highly regulated environments. Our clients realize that highly skilled and trained staff result in owning market share and retaining valued employees. 

Click the link to learn more about UCLA's Cannabis Research Initiative. 

​Dan Cable’s article, Why People Lose Motivation – and What Managers Can Do to Help, gets to the heart of motivation in the workplace and reflects what we know to be true: people are hard-wired to seek learning opportunities and purpose, and embrace challenging, meaningful tasks. When employees encounter consistent roadblocks to satisfy these needs, they become less motivated and engaged. 

​An organizational shift such as this might seem overwhelming, but as Cable notes, there are three things leaders and managers can do with minimal effort to activate employees’ seeking systems and reap the benefits:

In our work with clients, we’ve seen the same thing. Employees who are encouraged to apply their skills and find purpose in their work are more motivated and engaged. And, the result often leads to more innovation in the workplace.
​
Check out Cable’s full article at the link above and feel free to share your thoughts here or on our Solutions Arts Facebook page.

Solutions Arts will be attending EIGHTeeN to Life's event this coming Sunday, March 18, 2018 in Hollywood, CA where we'll be meeting with cannabis business leaders to talk about how learning and development supports business success across the industry.

​We'll see you there!

About the Event
A networking opportunity for leaders in the cannabis industry hand-picked for the ultimate collision of common interest with uncommon people. EIGHTeeN to Life is a monthly professional networking opportunity for leaders in the cannabis industry. The events are on the 18th of each month, celebrating the year 2018 when cannabis legalization became a reality in California.

Learning and development (L&D) is in the midst of a transition, and that's good news for learners. The demand to create learning ecosystems where corporate learning frameworks host a diverse mix of on-demand learner-centric opportunities is challenging learning professionals and industry tools to flex and change. Some key industry leaders are sounding the rally cry to dismantle static learning management systems (LMSs). However, LMSs aren't going away anytime soon, and some LMS providers are responding to clients' demands for technology solutions that offer lower complexity and cost, mobility, and custom learning experiences.

This shift is evident in eLearning Industry’s newly published list of the 20 best LMSs based on user experience. Take a look below at their list and the methodology they used to rank each vendor.​​

Solutions Arts works with a variety of clients across industries including the legal adult-use and medicinal cannabis industry. People outside the cannabis industry consistently ask the same question: what about workplace drug testing?

It seems inevitable that current state--and eventually, federal--laws will shift and change. Meanwhile, much of the law and policy conflicts are being waged in various states with different case law applying in different jurisdictions. Some states are reaching similar conclusions while others differ.

Further Resources

• June D. Bell's February 16, 2018, article for SHRM highlights some of the challenges that exist for employees and businesses as states across the nation legalize cannabis. Check out her article, Navigate Workers’ Medical and Recreational Use of Marijuana.
• Eddie Miller and Boris Tsibelman's November 6, 2016 article, 5 Tips to Help Employers Deal With Legal Marijuana Use, outline tips that help companies create legal, fair, and compassionate policy. 
• Joseph A. McNelis III's November 14, 2017 article, Considerations for Employers as Medical Marijuana Approaches, digs deeper. He notes the states (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota) that passed ballot measures in the 2016 election cycle that either legalize or expand current existing cannabis programs.  He dedicates much of the article to reviewing Pennsylvania's medical marijuana law, which is among the most restrictive across the country. 
• A new bill introduced into the California Assembly may not only effect California workplaces, but could serve as a template for other states. Assemblymembers Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) and Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) have co-authored Assembly Bill 2069 to “prohibit an employer from engaging in employment discrimination against a person on the basis of his or her status as, or positive drug test for cannabis by, a qualified patient or person with an identification card.” Learn more by reading David Downs February 14, 2018 article, Workplace discrimination against California medical cannabis patients may end. 

Ask Different Questions
It's time to shift from "what about drug testing," to the more relevant questions:

1. When were company policies last reviewed and updated?
2. What do our existing policies state with regard to drug and alcohol use and testing? What positions, if any require a separate, zero-tolerance policy?
3. What are the current state laws? How might legal guidance benefit our policy updates and decisions?
4. How might we better inform and educate ourselves? What steps can we take to implement legal, fair, compliant, and compassionate policies that support business goals, customers, and employees?

Schedule a Working Session
Off-site or full-day meetings are often unpopular and take key contributors and decision-makers out of the field and limit their availability to their teams. Not every company change needs to result in an off-site or full-day meeting. However, some issues do require key leaders, decision-makers, and functional area support to protect uninterrupted time to dive deep into an issue and emerge with an action plan. This is one of those situations. 

What might a working session look like? ​

• Set goals for the working session.
  • What do you want to walk away with?
  • What does success look like?
  • What do you need at the end of the session?
• Distribute existing policy information and require attendees to read it ahead of the meeting.
• Retain external support to develop and facilitate the program.
  • Engage a reputable external strategic partner with experience in strategic alignment, human resources and compliance, and learning and development.
  • Include legal representation to vet discussions and outcomes.
• Extend invitation to all functional areas within the organization. Otherwise, you run the risk of overlooking key segments of the business.
• Create messaging about the working session that sets tone, expectations, and goals including ownership of the final draft changes. This helps attendees come prepared and develops champions for roll-out and adoption. 

If appropriate, seize the opportunity to make this particular working session fun. Policy updates, although important, are historically boring snooze-fests. If the company culture is progressive, fun, and open, talk with your external partner about ways to infuse humor and education into the working session. For example, kick off the working session with a game that uncovers myths and stereotypes about cannabis use. Images or short clips from, Reefer Madness, not only remind attendees how far we've come, but they're also good for a laugh. Follow up the game with images of and stories about cannabis use in the mainstream (e.g., treatment protocols and successes with veterans, childhood epilepsy, adults with MS, and cannabis use in geriatric medicine) to provide a broad snapshot of changing times and when and how attendees might need tools and policies to discuss cannabis use with employees. 

As some form of legal cannabis policy sweeps the nation, it makes sense for companies to proactively review and update policies now rather than waiting to pay court and attorney fees later. 

Our clients rely on us as their secret weapon. When they engage us to analyze and resolve their performance improvement challenges, we tap our collective of highly specialized industry professionals. We leverage our set of advanced tools—both human and technological—and assemble the right set of skills to hit our clients’ mark. Every need is unique, and so should be each solution.

This ongoing series highlights the unique roles and skills that set Solutions Arts’ teams apart from our competition. No matter the project size, one thing remains constant: mission-critical business initiatives are safe in our professionals’ capable hands.

Interview with Solutions Arts’ team member, Kymberly Garrett

Question: What do you call what you do?
Kymberly Garrett (KG): My work has taken on a really interesting path over the last 30 years. I began my career in the hospitality industry in Learning & Development. This was a wonderful way to really understand the key components needed to support high-performing teams through creation and facilitating “just-in-time” learning applications.
My career then segued into the practice of Human Resources (HR) within the public, private, and start-up environments. This was a watershed next step in my career trajectory and really allowed me to build a sustainable toolkit in all facets of people matters.

The world of Talent Management and Talent Acquisition was a perfect finish to my career. The challenge, privilege, and pure joy of matching talent with opportunity proved to be a “true calling” for me!
Now, I am at my happiest in a consultancy role that encompasses all that I have been fortunate to attain PLUS new areas such as executive coaching and relationship building to business development for this amazing organization, Solutions Arts.
 
Question: What drew you to this kind of work? How long have you been in the industry?
KG: Great question! I tell my students and others all the time that HR chooses you or you choose HR! I think in my case, it’s a little of both! I was in college and met my mentor, who was the HR leader (then referred to as, Personnel) at the largest beer distribution company in the world. It started off as a summer job that my aunt arranged for me, but it really was the impetus for this fantastic vocation to “woo me and marry me”!

 I realized two critical attributes that I organically possessed. One, was my innate ability to make darned precise diagnosis of organizational challenges and then transform them into people solutions. The second was that I have a naturally strong intellectual curiosity. This has allowed me to get completely immersed within the cultures that I have been fortunate enough to be invited into. I am always on the lookout for opportunities to align the business with its people, and that is why I thrive in all of the spaces that exist when speaking about the practice of HR. I am at my core a business person with an HR thought leader sensibility.
 
 
Question: What are your strengths? What sets you apart from the competition?
KG: I have an inordinate amount of energy that gets fueled only by more work! Someone once told me I was a blend of a work horse and a show horse; I rather like this visual. I have that balance of a strong work ethic and hold onto the fantasy that perfect exists, and most importantly, the hunt for excellence and perfection that takes hold of me as I chase it!
 
Question: What’s your sweet spot? What’s your passion?
KG: Connecting and aligning people is the BEST part of everything that I do! I love lessening the “six degrees to one or two degrees,” and creation of community really is where I thrive. I think of myself in terms of a “modern day Pied Piper,” and I am leading everyone to more great people and experiences!
 
Question: What challenges do clients typically seek your help to resolve? What are some common obstacles you see clients struggle with?
KG: After having spent time, resources, and energy managing the organizations within the confines of their blueprinted playbook, I get called in when it’s time to explore – “NEW.” A refresh on the status quo is where I live and bring value to my clients. Whether it’s narrowing operational or execution gaps to reassessing its human capital, organizations are all looking for what’s next...that’s my sweet spot!
 
Question: Would you share an example of the above?
KG: Sure…I was called into a very large security firm to better understand how they managed their “talent staffing problem.” In their view, they couldn’t staff enough people for the work that they had. After completing a pretty comprehensive organizational assessment, I realized that they didn’t have a staffing problem; they had a “jobs challenge.” The current state of the way their jobs were designed would always create a deficit. We moved more toward a “disruption model” that would allow for a flexible workforce similar to what the shared ride companies have done. We literally changed their staffing to more of a “gig” environment. This gave the staff more control to meet the demands the business dictated. It has been not only fluid in its approach, but also a money maker for the company! We created job levels for the independent teams to strive for that were incentive rich, and now they have talent literally begging to be a part of it!
 
Question: What best practices do you implement consistently?
KG:

1. Ideation through listening to what clients are really telling me vs. what they “say” to me. There is a difference.
2. Employing an almost child-like intellectual curiosity—I ask a lot of questions.
3. Transparency—I have met many consultants that like to be pretty cloistered about how they complete their work. The idea for them is if they show their clients how to do it, they’ll no longer need the consultant. I find that consulting model flawed. I WANT to show my clients how I get to solutions. I call that “brain buying” vs. “brain leasing.” If I deliver well enough, they will still need to call me again or refer me to others that will need me.
4. Fun—If I can’t bring FUN to the table, then I have either the wrong client or they have the wrong consultant!

 
Question: What would you like clients to know?
KG: The prescription for any challenge is a shared partnership. When they work with Solutions Arts, they should know they are accessing the most professional, talented crew assembled! We have worked in cubicles, offices, companies, just like our clients do every day, and we intimately understand the internal pressures that our clients face daily. Solutions Arts is there to align, partner, and support our clients’ needs with a rare sensitivity rooted in insight having been working corporate professionals vs. academic theory-based consultants who lack that awareness. Talent, passion, excellence, and professionalism are what set us apart.
 
About Solutions Arts
Solutions Arts is a performance improvement, custom learning and development organization rooted in proven organizational development and learning standards and practices. Our collective of freelance industry professionals possesses over 50 years of combined experience and a wealth of learning and development theory, practice, and technology at our clients’ disposal. SA delivers results on time, on budget, and with flair, offering clients creative and proven solutions to address business challenges.

Ask nearly any Learning and Development (L&D) professional about his/her efforts to evaluate training and the responses can be described as dismal, at best. L&D and organizational leaders alike recognize the value in collecting data to determine whether learning supports business results. Who hasn’t heard a leader ask for the business impact of learning? Yet organizations’ L&D often faces barriers that prevent them from delivering data-driven results.
​
Association for Talent Development’s (ATD’s) 2016 research report, Evaluating Learning: Getting to Measurements, surveyed 199 talent development professionals and found that only:

There’s room for improvement. So, what gets in the way? The same report asked participants a similar question.

Identifying and Overcoming Barriers

Participants reported challenges isolating the impact of learning on results and a lack of:

• Access to critical data (e.g., financials, performance records)
• Learning management system (LMS) functionality
• Resources (e.g., staff time and required tools to conduct evaluations)1

These barriers may be of no surprise. Still, what simple steps can an organization take to overcome them?

Let’s look at each barrier and lay out some tips to address them.

Access Critical Data

• Know C-level suite and leader language. Identify:
  • How do they speak?
  • What terminology do they use?
  • What are their individual communication styles?
  • What steps can you take to communicate more effectively with them?
• Develop financial and business acumen. Assess your skill level, and ask yourself:
  • What are my knowledge gaps? Am I well-versed in basic financial skills such as cash and accrual accounting? What about reading and understanding basic financial statements, preparing budgets, analyzing variances, and financial analysis to support initiatives?
  • What data do I need?
  • What information exists?
  • How is it collected, and where is it located?
• Build a business case to access information across the organization and secure a seat at the table. Or, better yet, just do it! Being proactive communicates a strong measure to leadership and those with whom you want to collaborate.

LMS Functionality

Make your product work for you! Once you identify what you want to measure, connect with your provider to discuss solutions. If the LMS has limited capabilities, what technology and systems exist in-house to help you achieve your goal? For example, is there an existing dashboard that could capture required information? Rethink current analytic processes and brainstorm on expanding functionality.

Resources

Evaluation is as much of a mindset as it is a strategy. Develop a two-pronged approach that aligns with the Kirkpatrick-Phillips model and apply that strategy at the onset of every project discovery discussion and beyond.

Yes, data collection often poses challenges, but don’t overthink it. Look for ways to simplify it. You don’t want or need ROI for every course or effort.

Consider some of the examples below, or use them to spark ideas for other methods to evaluate learning opportunities:

1. Create an evaluation plan that sets standards and expectations, and then share it with stakeholders and internal clients. Encourage feedback, revise as needed periodically, and build buy-in. This communicates a convincing, unified purpose, and that evaluation is part of the company culture.
2. Establish role responsibility and gain commitment from your team and project members. Everyone has a stake in implementing evaluation as part of the company culture. What does that look like? How is it executed?
3. Seek evaluation capacity-building opportunities. When L&D is entrenched throughout the organization, conversations organically arise for input and collaboration. For example, the Sales Department is discussing and vetting new technology to support sales analytics. This is a perfect opportunity to identify and lead with a proactive evaluation mindset.
4. Design course objectives that support business needs and quantify outcomes.
5. Distribute pulse surveys to learners, their managers, and other relevant stakeholders. Pulse surveys can inform you about the training content value and applicability. They may also reveal additional areas of improvement for the learner or unpredicted outcomes.
6. Gauge application on the job. Develop and implement an observation component that evaluates application in 30, 60, or 90 days to assess learning integration.
7. Assess learning by implementing tests and assessments during and after the training.
8. Invite stakeholders and learners to participate in focus groups to assess skill application of the program.
9. Require learners to create action plans during training while the learning experience is still fresh. This drives skill application and integration, identifies learning metrics on the job, and holds learners accountable for action.
10. Monitor business performance and operational data and performance records to determine improvement and assess any unpredicted impacts.

Achieving Results

Maximizing resources, improving business impact, and creating value for learners are some of the outcomes an organization can achieve when evaluation obstacles are removed. It starts by creating an evaluation mindset, commitment, and culture. An organization’s efforts don’t have to be costly or time-consuming to accomplish evaluation goals that link to business outcomes. Developing an evaluation strategy can guide and automate efforts and set an organization on the right path.
 
Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post where we introduce Net Promoter Scores (NPSs) as an evaluation tool.

[1] Ho, M. (2016, April 07). Evaluating the Business Impact of Learning: Why Aren't More Organizations Doing It? Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2016/04/Evaluating-the-Business-Impact-of-Learning