Chief Learning Officer - August 2007 - (Page 34)

tactics Growing aViable LMS Governance Model Heidi Spirgi and Andrew Gebavi Few organizations of any size have successfully centralized all learning and development under one corporate, enterprisewide learning department. Much of learning is a direct function of the business and is therefore managed in a decentralized learning model. What is governance? It is a way to structure decision making through the diverse insights and talents of the organization’s most experienced professionals to think, decide and respond. In the most common model, some learning is developed and delivered at an enterprisewide corporate level (e.g., leadership development and new-hire training), and individual business units and departments develop other learning. This decentralized model creates a unique challenge for the selection, deployment and management of an enterprisewide learning management system (LMS). As a result of the decentralized nature of the learning function, LMS decision making is either distributed across far-flung learning managers with little to no communication, or it falls to the corporate learning department alone. Either model can be disastrous. Two trends are driving organizations to implement an enterprisewide LMS: • The desire to integrate learning and development with other talent management processes such as performance and succession management. • The increased focus on the measurement of learning to understand enterprise spending and, more important, learning’s impact on business results. One of the critical success factors in the journey toward an enterprise LMS is the creation of an explicit structure for LMS governance. So, what is governance? It is a way to structure decision making through the diverse insights and talents of the organization’s most experienced professionals to think, decide and respond. With each decision, a purposeful council prioritizes initiatives and balances both strategic and operational needs and communicates priorities to the organization. Why LMS Governance? The first question to ask: Does the learning organization really need a governance model? Decision making is a key element of corporate management, as it is with most aspects of running an organization. Just as the application of effective corporate governance can provide a framework for making thoughtful and consistent corporate decisions, the same relationship exists between an LMS governance framework and making thoughtful and consistent learning and development decisions. Decision making can be difficult without formal structures in place to support the complexity of an LMS project. A major source of complexity in these projects is the number of choices that must be made because of highly decentralized business processes, disparate learning stakeholders, complex vendor relationships and redundant technologies that might be in use. With a growing number of companies implementing enterprise LMSs and other learning technologies, organizations often come to the realization that remaining completely decentralized is counterproductive to the return they sought from their technology investment. The implementation of an enterprise LMS often drives increased centralization of the entire organizational learning function. The question for many organizations then becomes, August 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 34 Heidi Spirgi is the president of Knowledge Infusion. Andrew Gebavi is a principal consultant with Knowledge Infusion. They can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. http://www.clomedia.com

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