What is strategic L&D, and why is it important
The rise of AI, scarcity of human resources, growing competition and social complexity, is forcing every organisation to think about their learning and development strategy or strategic L&D. But what exactly is strategic L&D, and what does it lead to?
Strategic learning & development (L&D) connects an organisation’s strategic objectives with a clear vision of leadership and what professionals need in terms of competencies, now and in the future. To turn organisations into learning organisations with an evident lifelong development management culture. That in itself is a transformative process.
Learning Community
Strategic L&D thus goes beyond simply training employees. It requires a change in organisational culture and type of leadership. Different forms of learning and development and knowledge sharing must become an integrated part of the core task of employees and organisations. Management must provide space for this by turning an organisation into a learning community. Hence, leadership development is an integral part of strategic L&D.
An example
A medium-sized municipality in the country’s east has an important strategic objective: the urban ecosystem should respond sustainably to social and economic changes. Government digitisation, diversity, reception of asylum seekers, socio-economic development, climate change and sustainable housing are some challenges facing this municipality.
Needs analysis
The first step is a needs analysis: what are your strategic goals, and what knowledge and skills do you need to achieve them? Digitalisation, for instance, requires technical knowledge of AI and information managers. Reception of refugees involves insight into the complexity of refugee flows and laws and regulations besides housing, education and extra mental health care. Climate change, for instance, requires specialist knowledge in water, flora and fauna management. In any case, the sustainability transition requires an expert understanding of transition and project management.
Knowledge gap
This phase also analyses the knowledge gap: what knowledge is already present in the organisation and where it should be supplemented. This needs not only to take the form of learning and development programmes; it can also be done by hiring new expertise. And you could first further refine and deepen the learning need per target group and core task via, for instance, value-proposition canvases. An unimaginable amount of time, money and effort is wasted because there is insufficient understanding of the systemic influences on functions and tasks.
Culture gap
Equally important is whether the organisational culture is ready to transition to a learning organisation: is there a culture gap? Management and leadership are crucial in creating a learning and developing corporate culture. In the foretold example, the city government would like employees to share knowledge widely. But what kind of knowledge are we talking about: information or competencies? And for learning to be shared, indeed, there has to be some community first. From top to bottom, team leaders, directors, and department heads must know that they give space to openness, collegiality, transparency, diversity and personal initiatives.1
21st-century skills
Ultimately, as an organisation, you want every employee to have the correct set of skills that can carry, move and connect the people and the organisation. Those 21-stye century skills answer the challenges above: the rise of AI, scarcity of human resources, increasing competition and social complexity. The aim is for you to become agile and flexible as an organisation and to be able to respond quickly to change through innovation. But also that you retain talent and are an attractive employer for new talent. Plus, strengthening leadership, in which working with trust is central. That way, a learning organisation becomes a successful, high-performance organisation.
Ad Hofstede | #workingwithconfidence ©2023
If you want to know more about how I can use strategic L&D to turn your organisation into a high-performance, learning organisation, get in touch. I would be happy to give a presentation without any obligation. Please email me at contact@adhofstede.nl or call +31 (0)6 24 58 45 90
1 For the sake of brevity of this blog, I have skipped the following steps: formulating learning goals, implementing the curriculum and learning lines, evaluation and iteration (adjustments), although these are just as important.