Chief Learning Officer - December 2007 - (Page 40) productivity Transforming Surveys into Leadership Tools Jeffrey Berk If you need business intelligence right now, do you have unlimited money, time and personnel to get it? If you answered “no,” then this article can help you as a learning and development or talent management practitioner. If you answered “yes,” then let me know where I can send you my resume! Studies conducted in the past indicate users of business intelligence want data for information decision making in a timely manner in order to validate a gut instinct. The value of business intelligence diminishes as time lags, so the need for timely information is critical. As a learning and development professional, you likely get asked questions after a key program or right before the budget cycle. Data is an objective way to state your business case or validate a program or forecast a future investment. Not surprisingly, many managers make decisions based on anecdotal data that may be harmful in the long run. The key is to have “roughly reasonable” data at your fingertips to make timely decisions. This doesn’t need to be statistically precise nor have a 100 percent response rate, but provided it is based on reasonable assumptions representing a sample portion of the population, it can be a very good indicator to help make decisions. This is where surveys come into play. A welldesigned survey that is part of a measurement process can yield excellent sources of quantifiable data to aid in decision making. It can save the day as well. For example, a professional services firm held a leadership program last year. The senior partner called the CLO and stated he was talking to another senior partner who had a negative experience at the last program. He requested that it be revamped. The CLO went to his learning analytics tool and queried his evaluations from that program and all versions of it in the past year. He bench- December 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 40 http://www.clomedia.com
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