Sometimes Learning and Development doesn't fit.

It's time for a rant.

I know that I am an L&D professional and this post may seem counter intuitive, but L&D needs to step up and claim its place in the business.

Why do most businesses completely miss the opportunities Learning & Development bring in the modern age?

It's probably because L&D in most small to medium sized businesses and some less enlightened large businesses and major corporations is still the little backwater to provide training when managers deem it the right solution.

We all hear that learning professionals need to adapt to business, talk in business terms, curate content and so on. Isn't L&D supposed to help the business to resolve its issues? So why, oh why does business, and to a degree L&D itself always fall back to "What TRAINING do you need?"

We are surely, or at least we should be, way past this by now. We all know tL&D professionals are supposed to ask lots of questions as to the whys and wherefore when they are approached to help with an issue, but in reality how many just give in and say "Okay, here's a good training course for you."

I believe that there is a lot more emphasis put on the Learning (training) aspect of the title, and Development is only seen as a people element of the learning process.

If we are to be taken seriously, then we need to spend more of our time viewing the Development side of our role more holistically.

What do I mean? We all hear the term Performance Consultant which is starting to replace L&D consultant. Exactly what is the difference? I don't think there is much, it's just a new name for the same function: to provide employees with the tools, support and content to have a positive effect on the way they perform their job.

But what if the problem is not the person? What does L&D do then? In my experience it is not normally involved. Have you ever turned round and told management that it not an L&D solution that is needed for the issue and that the process, application, software or environment is wrong? For example here is a typical diagnostic.

L&D normally concerns itself only with the people element. However, it clearly has an effect on all the other elements and must be included in the decision making when change happens.

We need to be braver so that we can close the gap between issue and right solution: offer support to managers and provide evidence that other elements could work better first, followed by any associated learning.

Learning & Development is not just about training programmes: it is there to develop the company and not just the people.

Les Heath

Learning & Development Strategy Implementation Specialist

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