Chief Learning Officer- September 2008

items called “miscellaneous.” It assembled its best estimate as the ﬁrst step toward demonstrating value. The consolidation yielded added beneﬁts, including: • Agreement by training teams on consistent approaches to tracking training costs. • Clear ideas for targeted cost reductions. • Priorities for efﬁciency improvements. • Ideas of which ﬁxed costs to shift to variable. The L&D team at a major oil company faced a similar consolidation challenge after making a commitment to trim several million dollars off its total training investment. Because many costs remained elusive, it “decided not to chase every needle in the haystack” and focused on big buckets such as L&D salaries, major vendors and travel expenses. Alignment Textron found itself in the alignment stage when senior leaders asked the question all L&D teams expect to hear sooner or later: “What’s our payback on our investment in learning?” In the alignment stage, L&D teams hone their ability to capture and illustrate results that show an undeniable connection between learning programs and performance improvements. Upon hearing the question from executives, Nancy Brennock, director of operations at Textron University, had no problem describing new product designs that emerged during leadership training, improved success in meeting project deadlines after attending project management courses and better contracts negotiated by purchasing teams who attended training. She said she was even able to claim a sliver of credit for the efﬁciencies and cost savings derived from Lean Six Sigma programs that would not have happened without training. But senior executives often want more. “They want a better business case. But how can you prove that leaders are becoming more effective communicators and better decision makers?” Brennock said. Insights to this ongoing problem may lay deep inside our minds. In the book, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World, writer Kevin Kelly reports that research on memory indicates people easily can recognize concrete nouns such as “elbow.” The brain can classify and store the image and description of the elbow for rapid retrieval. Say “elbow” and most people can point to it immediately. But ask these same mere mortals to talk about abstract nouns such as “liberty” and “aptitude,” and they are lost. In this same vein, learning professionals are asked to prove how their efforts make people better “systems thinkers” and “relationship builders.” In a similar way, hours of training and investment FIGURE 1: MANAGEMENT’S VIEW ON THE ABILITY TO MEASURE THE VALUE OF L&D 4% 14% 8% 5% 27% 28% 14% Ask for business impact in dollars but don’t really believe numbers Believe our measures are not valuable because it’s impossible to isolate other factors Think the act of measuring to prove value is not worth the time and effort Accept estimates of value if conservative estimates and a degree of confidence are used Are satisfied with value if most people give high course evaluations Believe L&D programs add value and do not ask for quantifiable measures Are satisfied with anecdotal evidence of value and do not press for hard numbers Source: Corporate University Xchange eighth annual benchmarking study FIGURE 2: MEASUREMENT MATURITY MODEL Visibility to enterprise talent potential Decision-quality data Casual relationship of learning to business value Optimized Metrics Proven hypothesis Control vs. test group results Correlation of learning to business results Optimized Metrics Source: Corporate University Xchange Consolidated Cost Tracking FTEs, vendors, major programs Enterprise agreement on line items Balanced fixed vs. variable costs Aligned Results Agreement on performance outcomes Investment portfolio analysis Estimated ROIs Optimization Consolidation Validation Alignment Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • September 2008 • www.clomedia.com 39 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

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.