Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2020 - 22

Has there ever been a more vital
time for training material than 2020?
Between shifting working environments,
new workflows and rapidly evolving
diversity initiatives, 2020 is a year of
change, meaning 2020 is also a year
for training. The premise for this article
was first inspired by Harvard Business
Review's October 2019 article, "Where
Companies Go Wrong with Learning
and Development." A few statistics
cited in the article underline major
concerns in corporate training:
"Organizations spent $359 billion
globally on training in 2016, but was it
worth it?
Not when you consider the following:
*	 75% of 1,500 managers surveyed
from across 50 organizations were
dissatisfied with their company's
Learning & Development (L&D)
function;
*	 70% of employees report that they
don't have mastery of the skills
needed to do their jobs;
*	 Only 12% of employees apply new
skills learned in L&D programs to their
jobs; and

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*	 Only 25% of respondents to a recent
McKinsey survey believe that training
measurably improved performance."
It begs the question whether the 75%
of dissatisfied managers work for
organizations that treat L&D teams as
thought leaders or production houses?
If those L&D teams are only producing
what's asked of them without the ability
to validate and evaluate training needs,
then low utilization of and satisfaction
with training should be a shared
accountability with the business. As more
budgetary scrutiny is placed on teams
during these economically uncertain
times, L&D teams need to showcase the
value they bring. This article highlights
valid concerns for L&D's training efforts
and showcases why discovering your
organization's L&D bottleneck is
so essential.

THE BOTTLENECK
When manufacturing is discussed in every
basics-of-business class, the business
principle of "the bottleneck" inevitably
arises. In business, a bottleneck is often
described as one process in a long chain
of processes that limits the chain's capacity
to generate value. When bottlenecks
are present in the supply chain, halts in

production, customer dissatisfaction and
low employee morale are likely to occur.
In modern L&D, the bottleneck isn't
suppressing available content, learning
management system (LMS) capabilities,
budget or leadership buy-in. Rather, the
bottleneck exists in the limited utilization
and misuse of training materials. Let's
evaluate why this is the case.

DO YOU CREATE
NICE OR NECESSARY
TRAINING? 
A friend of mine, Emily, told me about an
experience she had in the early 2010s
when she was newly hired into her role
and received a sales training request.

DURING THESE
ECONOMICALLY
UNCERTAIN TIMES,
L&D TEAMS NEED
TO SHOWCASE THE
VALUE THEY BRING.

https://learning.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/learning/resources/pdfs/LinkedIn-Learning-2020-Workplace-Learning-Report.pdf https://www.hbr.org/2019/10/where-companies-go-wrong-with-learning-and-development https://www.hbr.org/2019/10/where-companies-go-wrong-with-learning-and-development https://www.hbr.org/2019/10/where-companies-go-wrong-with-learning-and-development

Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2020

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