L&D Doesn't Drive Learning. Leaders Do | Alice Meredith

First question I have for you, Alice, when you hear from leaders that their learning programs have stalled, what comes to mind? What, what are you actually hearing in that conversation?

Learning programs are exactly what it is, right? A learning platform, learning initiatives, that's a infrastructure, but the piece so often we miss is the humanness behind it, right?

Yeah.

So a stalled learning program may reflect an organization bought licenses.

They made an announcement about a new training init- initiative.

Maybe people have even jumped on and have started the work in completing the courses or the programs, but did they look deep inside, um, the culture of the organization, specifically their learning culture, right? Ask the questions to find out, does anyone know why this particular learning, this initiative, these assigned trainings matter to their work individually? We just forget to connect the reason why to the user.

Or ask the question, are the managers talking about development? Have the man-- Are the managers and leaders, specifically the direct leader of any user who we want to embrace the learnings, right?

Mm-hmm.

Is that leader passionate about learning? Are they walking the talk? Are they modeling it? Then another thought that comes to mind is when I think of culture, right, 'cause that's what stalls out learning-

Yeah, yeah

...

in my opinion, is, is a culture a place where vulnerability is prevalent, right? Where people can say, "Hey, I'm working through this.

It doesn't make sense.

I don't see how it connects to the work I do every day.

Why am I being asked to do this?" Or to express concerns about, "Hey, I really do need some help, but I need it more in this area versus this area that was assigned to me." Understanding the why these learnings, the, um, tools that are available on so many platforms that companies have embraced are relevant to the individual, the organization as a whole, and to their specific teams.

So-

Yeah

... to me, those are some of the key points that will best describe why a learning program has stalled out.

So what do you think of when a leader says, and I'm sure you've probably heard this when you're brought in to diagnose a stalled program, when a leader says something like, "We need to better utilize what we already have." That feels like a veiled statement or maybe something that's not really speaking to the heart of the issue, and that's just from my perspective, but what do you hear when somebody says something like that?

So kind of the same thing, right? They have infrastructure, they have tools, they have resources already available and accessible to them, but it doesn't speak to, are the teams ready? Are they motivated? Are they supported in embracing those learnings?

Yeah.

So for sure, we can use what we already have.

We can get value out of it.

Sometimes we have to clean those systems up.

Sometimes there's so many learnings available or initiatives from the past, right, that people have-