Chief Learning Officer- September 2008

IN PRACTICE COMMUNICATING WITH THE BOSS ABOUT IMPACT ecause of the structure and mission of the learning organization, frequent and transparent communication up and down its ranks is vital to its overall effectiveness. Yet, for some people, conveying thoughts clearly and honestly can be problematic, especially when it comes to having a conversation with their superiors. For their own sake and for the beneﬁt of their employers, learning professionals must ﬁgure out how to overcome any trepidation they might have about frank and straightforward communication with their bosses. Richard Taylor, former head of learning for Reuters’ business divisions, noted the importance of brevity in these communications. In his role, he has to express his line of reasoning at speeds usually associated with racecar pit crews. “I’ve got about 30 seconds,” he said. “We do have longer one-to-ones, but in general, my bosses and the other business leaders I support want to know what the impact to the bottom line is, not just on the money side, but also with the balanced scorecard. ‘What are you doing to help my business? If nothing, then I don’t have time for you.’ It sounds harsh, but it really makes me focus.” Taylor must reﬁne his arguments in terms of duration and content because his direct managers are business leaders, not learning people. “They don’t know my vocabulary: They don’t know the B learning profession’s metrics, methods or documentation. They’re trying to run a business, and they need me to be support. They don’t want a bunch of details. My communication has to be extremely brief, right to the point and talk about the business impact, not some big strategy or methodology thing. That’s for me to talk about with the learning group.” Learning professionals at all levels have to be prepared to let their bosses in on everything, even the more negative aspects of a particular issue. When it comes to being the bearer of bad news, though, it’s important to handle the situation in just the right way. Be sure to meet with your boss face-to-face, and be prepared to discuss possible resolutions. “Usually, I’ll send a pre-emptive e-mail with the headsup that we should have a chat, but I tend to not put the bad news in that e-mail,” Taylor said. “First of all, I don’t want to leave a record of exactly what’s going on before I have a solution. I’m ﬁne with problems, but I want to make sure there’s a solution at hand before I begin documenting it. I wouldn’t approach a superior with bad news without saying, ‘Here’s what I think we can do about it.’ Otherwise, it looks like you’ve lost control, and if you’ve lost control, then you’re probably going to lose your job.” CLO – Brian Summerfield, bsummerfield@clomedia.com After innumerable conferences, classes and advances in technology, CLOs still have a long way to go. and how and when success will be measured. Armed with that, a CLO can enhance the curriculum accordingly — adding where needed, pruning courses that no longer ﬁt and planning learning strategies that make the most sense for key audiences. Individuals Make It Happen The CLO with insight sets the stage, but it is the individual learner who makes it happen. The key to the second part of the IOL process involves a celebration of how people create results. Instead of poring over tedious stacks of data or creating cumbersome ﬁnancial models to calculate training’s ROI, we prefer to listen to the anecdotes of the individuals we have trained. Are they creating the important outcomes we mapped earlier? If so, are they doing so by virtue of the concepts and skills we provided? The CFO of a major health care system articulated how she used what she had learned to create a balanced set of outcomes, including margins that were within ﬁnancial targets. This was achieved without sacriﬁcing the core mission of serving those who could not afford health care. The powerful story she told clearly demonstrated success in the context of the organization’s goals and fully acknowledged the value of what had been learned. This is the most compelling type of data describing the impact of learning. The individual perspective demonstrates the alignment of employee development with the goals of the business. If you can’t ﬁnd those individual examples in the organization, then you need to take a hard look at what you are teaching. Perhaps the curriculum failed to keep up with what really matters in the current environment. Business goals change and so should your training content. That’s important data, as well. Individuals also can tell you if you are not teaching them things that achieve results. They are a great source when it comes to showing the need to make important im- 34 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • September 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer- September 2008

Chief Learning Officer Editor’s Letter Contents Connections Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Lifestyle Learning: Improve the Bottom Line With Behavioral Education Tracom’s Social Style Model CLO Profile IOL: Determining the Impact of Learning Communicating With the Boss About Impact Mission Accomplished? Measuring Success of Corporate Universities Borrowing Measurement Practices From Investors Value Creation With Human Capital Investment Business Impact Analysis at Chrysler Learning or Performance Enhancement: Which Is It? Best Practices in Global Project Management Training Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

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