Have you ever faced pressure from stakeholders or other business units to do more with fewer resources? It can be difficult to balance, especially if every department has its own unique training needs. But it can also be an opportunity to set yourself apart as an effective learning and development (L&D) leader.
Becoming adept at communication and compromise will help you create learning strategies that achieve desired outcomes without going over time or budget. With the right strategies in place, you can overcome resourcing challenges, meet the high expectations others have of you and offer game-changing results.
Not sure where to start? Let’s look at a couple ways you can do more with less to make a greater impact.
Think Strategically and Creatively
There may be an alternative to a big, elaborate learning journey.
The fact is, you can create effective and meaningful training solutions with a limited budget and timeline if you know what to target, as well as how to articulate the value of your strategies to get proper buy-in from key decision-makers in your organization. It’s a matter of focusing on what will deliver the most impact and creating a design that targets those high-impact points while focusing less on those areas that don’t need much attention. Below are some ideas on how to approach this.
Identify learner personas early on to uncover what type of learning experiences will be most beneficial — and what can be omitted. For example, some learners may want to pick and choose among topics to focus on what they need to learn to cover their immediate needs. Others may want on-demand resources or search features to be able to find what they’re looking for to prepare for meetings or other tasks. And still others may need a comprehensive learning experience.
Tailor the learning journey by breaking it down into three distinct categories:
- Educational (knowledge-based learning)
- Training (actual practice)
- Marketing (readiness, or the “why” behind the training)
Some learning solutions may require all three components, while others may only focus on one or two, depending on the skillsets learners already have and what they will need for success on the job.
Make the Most of Existing Technology
Many organizations are tempted to invest in a learning experience platform (LXP), only to discover later that they didn’t get sufficient return on their investment or that the corporate training solution suffered as a result. In these cases, they often end up overpaying for unused or redundant functionality between the LXP and the rest of the tech stack, and the entire system infrastructure can become fragmented or frustrating to use.
With a more critical, creative eye and a better-defined vision of existing technology, that budget could have been spent on higher priority items that would have made a bigger difference on learner performance and organizational goals.
What about your organization? How do you feel about the technology you use today? Are there ways you feel it can be improved to create a better experience tomorrow?
Not all leaders have a say about the technology their organization uses. But don’t let that stop you from earning a seat at the table. As an L&D leader, you have a unique perspective on learning technology. Your insights could help cut costs while also improving the user experience not just for your team but the entire organization.
Start by evaluating your own priorities and comparing them to those of other stakeholders and business departments. Put learner interests at the heart of your strategy and find ways to align their needs with organizational goals. Then, gather data that can help demonstrate the value of your ideas in generating positive results.
Consider completing a cost-benefit analysis that:
- Compares your ideal vision to what’s actually possible
- Defines if a solution is needed immediately or it can wait for another time
- Identifies where tradeoffs can be made to create a successful learning experience (e.g., while simulations, gamification and branching scenarios need to be customized, simple and less expensive strategies such as templates and/or signature designs may prove just as effective)
Ideally, the full learning journey should be designed to incorporate a variety of technologies and modalities to turn passive learning into an active experience that’s logical and practical. However, a minimum viable product (MVP) may be the sensible way to start, with the potential to make improvements and updates down the road as more resources become available.
After considering all of these factors, develop a clear plan of action, including a list of potential expenses based on what needs to be included, what is optional and how the solution can be rolled out to the audience in a way that’s most impactful for them.
Throughout the strategy and planning process, be clear on the ultimate expectations for the learning experience and what matters for the learners. Ask yourself: “What problems are we trying to solve, and what does the training need to accomplish?
Smart Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive
With years of experience providing cost-effective learning solutions to a broad range of companies, AllenComm knows that proper up-front planning and realistic goal-setting can go a long way toward helping organizations accomplish more with less. When you’re clear about objectives and realistic about parameters, you can develop effective training solutions that achieve and even exceed expectations — without breaking the bank.
