Missing The Mark: Learning Must Step Up… Or Step Out
Many practitioners continue to miss the mark and miss opportunities to show learning can make a measurable and positive difference. Don't believe me? Here are some recent real-life examples
Source | elearningindustry.com | Ajay Pangarkar, CTDP, FCPA, FCMA
When Learning Fails To Deliver Business Impact
Learning practitioners no longer get a pass. That’s it. I said it. Stop playing the victim in the eyes of operational leaders. No reason exists to say training can’t make a tangible impact on business results.
Recently, I was at a franchise of a well-known, worldwide fast-food company. While I was enjoying a coffee and burger, a manager and new employee sat in the booth next to mine. To my good fortune, I found myself privileged to overhear a one-on-one training session with an eLearning module. A peek behind the curtain of a famous company.
It quickly went downhill from there with the manager saying things like, “We just need to get through this eLearning stuff”, “Don’t worry about a lot of this content, it’s boring and not relevant but I have to go through it”, or when handling customer complaints, “Just try to smile and get rid of them as fast as possible, they can be a nuisance.”
Consider the negative consequences that may occur? Imagine if there was a food poisoning outbreak at this restaurant because they “just needed to get through it”? It would impact the chain as a whole. What about the insincerity when dealing with customers? This location may lose this customer returning and bad word-of-mouth among those they know.
Suffice to say, none of this is what I was expecting from a leading fast-food company. It deflated me and, probably because I’m a learning practitioner too, it was a sad moment and lost the opportunity to develop this new employee into a learning champion.
