Chief Learning Officer - January 2009 - (Page 39) learning governance structures. These decentralized structures typically are comprised of autonomous learning organizations that are funded and controlled by a specific business unit or function. From these separate organizations, a coalition can be formed to optimize the impact of these independent learning organizations by supporting company-wide learning initiatives, making joint decisions and sharing resources. While these examples focus on broader, companywide utilization of learning resources, there also is an opportunity to employ a learning coalition on a less global and more project-oriented basis. Typically, these projects fall into one of two categories. The first category is projects whose goal is to produce a learning deliverable. Examples might be Sun Microsystems’ Sales University, a leadership development initiative, on-boarding of new employees or compliance training. In these examples, a coalition might be formed to solicit input and support from business functions that are stakeholders in the learning initiative. As learning initiatives, these projects impact multiple areas of an organization and may require changes in organizational roles, responsibilities and resources. Committed representation and participation by affected organizations is critical to the success of such a learning initiative. A second category is projects that provide a learning deliverable as a component of a larger project or initiative. For example, a sales-force automation project’s ultimate goal is not a learning deliverable. However, it might be organized as a coalition that includes participation by the learning organization to ensure an effective learning strategy is in place to support the project’s success. While not defined specifically as a learning coalition, a learning strategy is fundamental to the appropriate and effective application of a solution in support of the sales-force automation project’s overall business objectives. In project support, a challenge for the learning coalition is matching the right option out of a wide range of learning solutions available with a variety of possible business situations. An appropriate and effective learning solution will not necessarily be a predefined solution but rather one that is highly dependent on the specific business situation. In most situations, designing the appropriate and effective learning solution will require input and resources from a number of individuals and functional groups. While this analysis identifies the characteristics of learning coalitions, it begs the questions of how to effectively build one and who should be responsible for it. In today’s business environment, a major challenge with any initiative is attracting and allocating limited financial and human resources. Budgets seem to be getting tighter and workloads larger. To many individuals and organizations, the idea of participating in a coalition appears to be just one more thing on the to-do list. In the face of dwindling time and resources, how do you build a learning coalition? What are some of ways to attract people to participate when it seems their participation may not have a direct impact on their organizations, businesses goals or bottom lines? One key to building a successful learning coalition is to demonstrate and provide value to its members. It is certainly easier to get support when participation increases members’ knowledge, visibility or effectiveness. In CH2M HILL’s case, the ELSC provides value to its participants by soliciting input on the prioritization In today’s business environment, a major challenge is attracting and allocating limited financial and human resources. In the face of dwindling time and resources, how do you build a learning coalition? and allocation of company-wide learning resources that ensure these resources are equitably distributed and devoted to overall organizational business objectives. Another effective strategy in developing learning coalitions is to gain the endorsement and support of a top executive. While participation in a coalition may not provide specifically identified business benefits to members, being part of a successful company-wide initiative that has high visibility and top executive support can increase the personal visibility and status of an individual or organization. The learning coalition is an effective vehicle to support company-wide business and learning goals, as well as to allocate and deploy learning resources. Not surprisingly, many companies already have a learning coalition in place, although it’s often defined in other terms. Perhaps it is time to introduce and build learning coalitions as a means to achieve a wide range of important learning objectives. CLO Mark Bower is the president and founder of Edge Interactive and is a consultant, speaker and author. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • January 2009 • www.clomedia.com 39 http://www.clomedia.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.