Accelerate Aug 2015 | Page 20

Learning & Development O ne of the biggest challenges we are facing in today’s fast moving and always changing organisations is keeping the role of the L&D professional visible and relevant. discussion around performance, metrics and ROI, which would bring more clarity and would allow us to target better learning solutions. In the past, our role had somewhat limited visibility and range of motion – at times, with the support of the learning consultant or manager, the business identified training priorities that were in alignment with the business strategies, and in return, the learning organisation would source int ernally or externally for learning solutions that would meet that need. In the best of cases, there would be a deeper Not wanting to sound like a cliché, if we want to truly provide value to the business and be seen as “trusted advisors”, we need to build relationships that will allows us to “get a seat at the table” early enough in the strategy planning process to understand the organisational direction and priorities. Now more than ever, we need to understand what organisations need to achieve their goals – not only in terms B ristan Group are the number one supplier of taps in the UK and number two for showers. The company strategy is growth over the next three years – a challenge as the market is currently flat. To support this strategy, the mission of L&D is 20 August 2015 In any scenario, the role of the L&D professional was usually reactive and the conversation focused on the learning curricula, which is our area of specialty, right? This is our comfort zone. to create a learning organisation where knowledge is shared across functions, roles and responsibilities are clear, everyone has the skills they need for their roles and the right environment is created to take risks and learn from them if not successful. There are three main focuses: Over the last five years, one of the focuses has been to develop the of learning and knowledge, but in terms of readiness. We need to move beyond the traditional or functional role of L&D – that of training brokers, and become talent experts who accompany the organisations we support as they achieve their business goals. Betsy Urdaneta is an Expert Learning and Development Consultant, advisor and coach. For the better part of her role, Betsy has been responsible for designing, developing, customising, marketing and delivering global learning and development solutions in alignment with business and organisational requirements. Considering herself an organisational readiness enabler, her main goal is to help clients gain high levels of awareness regarding the readiness capabilities of the organisations and individuals they lead in order to achieve their business goals. skills of our leaders and people managers to empower their teams by coaching and leading by example. The ultimate aim is to create a company full of high performing teams that make the most effective use of the resources available and are resilient and flexible to changes that may occur. The biggest pain point for L&D in Bristan Group is consistency. There are a number of managers that have embraced and executed