Management
TRANSFORMING
BY JOHN McKINSTRY
When it comes to change – when an organisation has made the decision to transform itself - who should that organisation look to in order to ensure that the changes it plans to bring in are a success?
Having worked in L&D for over a decade now I honestly believe that people from that profession should be the first people to be consulted when change arrives.
But having worked in industries where change – up to and including quite radical transformations was common, I have to acknowledge that L&D are not always the first people who the business talks to about change.
Why is that?
Any change requires some new learning to help people understand their new roles and to succeed at it – so who better than L&D to drive things forward?
However, for a mix of reasons, I believe we don’t always do ourselves justice and sometimes actually sell ourselves short in this regard.
I’d like to offer three challenges – three questions to ask ourselves – to assess just how realistic it is that our own organisations will think of L&D first when change arrives…
1)Do you have the courage?
Consider the reputation which the training team has within your organisation.
Be honest and ask yourself if the team is genuinely thought of as being a group of change agents who the business can rely upon?
Or would it be more accurate to describe the team as being perceived as “just” order takers?
And if it is the latter then whose fault is that?
Within L&D we hold some wonderful tools which can help change to happen quicker and more painlessly for those undergoing it.
We can design and run interventions which help people acquire new skills and which help them move into new and challenging roles with confidence.
But do we tell people about that? Do we sell ourselves as the “go to” people for the organisation when it is time for changes?
I2) Do you have the credibility?
Consider just how up to date and dynamic your own training material is.
If you are still rolling out that workshop which you have “always used” or if you are using an induction course which contains slides which you know are out of date then what kind of impression does that give other parts of the business about the L&D team?
Have any of the trainers ever been heard to say that they run a training course in a particular way because “That’s the way we’ve always run it”?
If you put yourself in the shoes of a manager from your own organisation, would the training team be your first port of call when it came to a period of change and transformation?
3) Do you have the skill?
When your organisation needs to transform itself, do the L&D staff have enough of an understanding of change to be able to create and deliver the kind of sessions which the organisation will need?
14 | TRAINING MAGAZINE EUROPE MARCH 2015
ORGANISATIONS