A great piece of learning I got in talking to a learning / training veteran – It goes like this:
Business leader: ‘I am sending people to your programs. Can you guarantee that they will do what they learn (i.e. L3) and perform better (i.e. L4)? Oh, and how are you going to prove such to me?’
Learning consultant: ‘You tell me. You have your reasons in why sending people to programs. And you are the one who control the environment in how they transfer the learning into the workplace.’
The above may be a bit extreme. But there is some truth in it. Conversely speaking, problem will arise if as a passionate learning consultant, one promises to produce and measure L3 and L4 result. He takes away the business leader’s responsibility in clarifying what specific result he tries to improve and providing the necessary support for learning transfer. It is like a stationery store selling a pen to a dad for his kid. And the store keeper is trying to promise to the dad that the kid will use the pen and will win the caligraphy award. It is tempting to be so helpful but it could actually be…… not helpful….
I experienced it before. Lesson learnt.
