Sheppard Moscow has sponsored a report produced by the Corporate Research Forum, which was also the subject of a CRF symposium held in London in July 2008.
In a foreword to the report, Sheppard Moscow partner Michael Nolan commented “this CRF report is certainly timely as we face, perhaps, a once in a generation paradigm shift in business environments and the way organisations both work and learn. With fewer resources and at a time of continuous change, organisations must learn very rapidly how to navigate in this shift – and learn effectively too. These thoughts amplify the trend we see towards business-focused learning and the everyday learning of new practices – rather than attending one-off programmes. “
These are just some of the points made by report authors Ian Cunningham and Anne Gimson.

Research shows that investment in business-focused learning pays off better than most structural and process changes that have occurred in recent years

Gathering evidence on what works and doesn’t should be a priority for L&D professionals, and the report points to the work already done in this area.

As with all strategies, the secret for success lie as in how effective an L&D strategy is implemented. The strategy itself is just the starting point – the quality of execution is critical.

Evaluation should start at the design stage, not just after interventions. L&D professionals should generally be able to identify from existing evidence the kind of interventions that are likely to work – and use this in their business cases and subsequent measurement.

While organised learning programmes promote effective learning, the reality is that most learning occurs informally in the workplace. Learning strategies should thus seek to support and enhance workplace and experiential learning.

In doing so, strategies should take account of the fact that line managers – including top management – generally need help in becoming effective facilitators of workplace learning, indirectly through their choices and directly as ‘coaches’.

People learn in different ways and in different settings, and much learning is self-managed. Learning approaches need therefore to be flexible – one size does not fit all.

The context in which learning takes place can determine success as much as any learning process.

Historically, the focus has tended to be on individual learning. This misses the point that much learning is collective, and also that much of the value that organisations generate lies in the embedded learning that takes place, partly unseen and unmeasured. This is referred to as ‘social capital’, in contrast to simply thinking about people or ‘human capital’ which can come and go

Forward-facing L&D functions need to be both cognisant of business strategy and be part of the debate about strategy design and implementation. This is a far cry from the old ‘training department’ and requires far higher levels of competence.

Organisations that are very strategic in their learning approach, and particularly focus on learning’s contribution to transformation, have distinguished between classic HR functional focus on the ‘today’ and the focus of OD and L&D on future performance and capability. In some cases, OD/L&D is in effect no longer part of the HR function.

At the CRF symposium, it was pointed out that leadership capability and development is usually the primary strategic imperative for L&D functions. While this should not be at the expense of broader organisational competences, if the leadership ‘gets it’ and acts as role models, the rest should follow.

Copies of the report are available from Sheppard Moscow. For further details of CRF's programme of activities and how to get involved, please go to www.crforum.co.uk

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