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This month’s Big Question on Learning Circuits Blog is

What questions should we be asking? 

In a former life I worked for a company whose business model was structured around a two-day workshop.  Although in the time since I’ve been there I have learned that a two-day workshop can usually be just a cog in a larger wheel (if it’s to be effective) that two-day workshop was excellent.

One of the most popular modules was one called ‘Effective Questions.’  In it, the facilitator had participants experience the difference between two different questions that could be asked in the same scenario (i.e. Why are we so behind schedule? vs. What can we do to get back to our projected timeline?)

An effective question can leave a person to stew on it for hours or days only to have an answer pop-in unexpectedly.  I feel this is what the learning and development field should strive for in their communication to business executives.

Some examples would be:

•  What knowledge, skills and attitudes are necessary to execute on your strategy? 
• How can we more effectively diversify your learning ‘portfoilio’ so that the maximum return is realized?
•  What are the various futures that may be in store for this organization?  What are the common denominators between those potential futures that we can align learning and development with now?
• How can your incentive programs be better aligned with the behaviors required for success?  What can learning and development then do to make it easier for people to receive those incentives?
• How can your current training expenditures be adjusted in order to maximize the net present value of these allocations?

I feel that learning and development needs to continue to show that we think like business executives in order to get the ear of business executives.  Through well targeted questions, executives will convince themselves of the value of their workforce having the skills, attitude and knowledge needed to succeed.  At that point, we in the learning and development field can banter as to the specific methodology to use - won’t that be a good problem to have?

A friend of mine sells large-scale consulting services for a big firm.  She was extremely frustrated with the company’s President on Friday because he refuses to invest in some up-front costs that would payoff down the line in the form of more deals won and more projects delivered effectively.

In her mind he is “an idiot” for making these decisions and I don’t blame her for feeling that way.  She and others on the frontline are the ones that are impacted the most.  It’s her covering for a lack of resources during the sales cycle and her still when necessary resources are absent from projects.

Further into the conversation she mentioned, “all he cares about is NOI” (net operating income).  How much do you want to bet that NOI is a big factor in how much money he makes?  I’d bet big if I were you.

I’ve never met the man so I can neither confirm nor deny whether he’s an idiot or how his pay is calculated.  I can say that based on the decisions he’s making in regard to NOI, he’s probably performing to the metrics that were given to him.  He knows that increasing NOI translates into a much bigger paycheck.  Who wouldn’t be tempted to do the same thing?

What does this have to with learning and development?  Before I begin projects with clients I have them take a hard look at what type of behavior their measurement/incentive policies are encouraging.  You can have the best learning strategy ever conceived but if you are measuring and rewarding behaviors that contradict with the ones you want, you’re fighting a losing battle. 

Start by developing metrics and incentives that reward the behaviors or results you want to see.  Then provide the tools, resources and knowledge for people to perform to those metrics.  Metrics will influence people’s motivation and goals while learning and development is there to make it easier for people to attain their goals.

A method I was introduced to at the CLO Institute is Economic Value added (EVA) which provides the incentive for the behavior that is in the best interest of the overall organization and its shareholders. 

EVA is “a financial performance method to calculate the true economic profit of a corporation.  EVA can be calculated as net operating after taxes profit minus a charge for the opportunity cost for the capital invested.”

Whatever model is used, it’s up to the organization to ensure that the metrics that are in place to reward employees are aligned with the behaviors that will create value for shareholders.  Otherwise, no amount of learning and development will make the difference you want to see.