Podcast | Measure Learning’s Impact On Your Organisation

Impact means different things to different people in your business… and it’s a good thing!

Because if we know the commercial goals, the team’s aim and individual aspirations, we can build learning that ticks those boxes.

And that’s how we drive impact! Ajay Pangarkar - author of Learning Metrics - explains how we approach this in this episode of L&D Disrupt.

Get your copy of Learning Metrics here and use Discount Code KOGANPAGE20 for 20% off.

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Watch the episode

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Listen to the episode

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Timestamps

0:00 Intro to Ajay
2:50 How to build a commercial mindset
7:26 The problem with ROI in L&D
17:33 Impact for the individual
26:05 Retention and application of information
32:57 Behaviour and performance change
39:14 The Organisational Value Chain
49:36 Finding the data that shows impact
54:55 Ajay’s final thoughts

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Five takeaways on measuring learning’s impact and influence

1. Take a business-first lens in L&D

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“You're an internal business function, meant to support the business and expected to deliver business results.  

“And once you get that mindset, with anything we do, it's not about the journey, it's about the end result that your stakeholders want, the reason that the vehicle is about the learning, the end result is about the expectation that they want to achieve.”

Once we have that mindset and understand what matters to the business, we’re able to create learning that aligns with those expectations.

Ajay reminded us that although we’re hired to develop learning solutions, but that’s not what business leaders want to see.

Think about the expectations of a marketing team. They’re not judged on their about primarily, but the brand awareness, leads and revenue they generate.

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2.  What does impact mean to employees? And how can we connect it to business/operational goals

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“That's where your role comes in, your skill set  and your assessment of their requirements, their needs and their skills… Forget about impressing senior leaders or people or your bosses. We all want to do the best we can. That's human nature.”

Operationally, what do your employees want to improve? And, unsurprisingly, you can learn this by speaking with them.

“What are their pain points? What do they struggle with? There are things we can do that can be improved, but due to policies or processes, it can't be changed or this is the way it's always been done, so let's just continue with it.

“But find that out because you can be the instigator in L&D to help improve that process. And say, no, it doesn't have to be done that way anymore. Maybe you need a new skill set and we can improve that productivity.”

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3. The true value of learning lies in “the bridge between retention and real world application.”

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“When I teach my students in university, I don't care how well you're doing on a test. I want to know how well you can apply the concepts - the test shows me that you can remember stuff.

The goal, in L&D, is to convert retention into application, and make resources available to people in moments of application - and Ajay provided an example of training on machinery.“

So in the course, I'll create some type of simulated activity to help you do that. Whether it be role play or actually work on the machines or whatever it may be, you can be as creative as you want. But that retention you want to see, being applied.

“And then when it comes to real life and I sit Gary before the machine, I want to allow him to have access to those resources when and where he needs them.  So you're working in a machine and suddenly you forgot a step and you're like, Oh my God, what do I do? 

“If I can allow Gary to access something very quickly. A quick 30 second tutorial on this step or whatever it may be. And Gary looks at it and says, Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, I got it. Okay. Now remember the steps. Now we're creating the transition from retention to application to change of habit. 

If we take care of this, and application happens successfully, we will influence overall performance and success.

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4. Understand your Organisational Value Chain

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“If you're serious about measuring the impact of your learning efforts upon the organisation, then you must align with your organisation's performance metrics. 

But to align with these metrics, you must appreciate the value your organisation wants to deliver to the market. And to do this, you must understand how your organisation creates this value.”

This is a direct quote from the book, and offers a really simple way to work backwards from how your organisation delivers value - allowing you to align better.

“The value chain is simple. It's identifying what your customers want, creating the process to create that product or service and then delivering it to the customer. So the value chain is really what they want, creating it, deploying it, measuring the impact on the customer and that's it.

“If you have a value proposition, you will focus your efforts and organisation in those areas.”
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5. Building skills will make L&D extremely valuable in a business

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“I want all L&D people to be so exceptionally valued! One of the top five, maybe even top three preoccupations is ensuring that employees have the knowledge and skill set readily available to compete in the market.  

“And it means that L&D is at the top of their list as one of the most-valued contributors because change is now constant, right? Change implies learning. Companies have to act on a dime, whether it be a pandemic coming or something else to equip their people.

“And they know that L&D is important. So prove to them that they're right.”