Business Objectives: How to Ensure that Training is Linked to Strategic Business Objectives

Business Objectives: By Tom McDonald, McDonald Sales and Marketing, LLC

(1) You have been tasked with a strategic business directive that sales and resulting revenues need to be increased.

(2)  You have defined your strategic learning objectives by interviewing managers, executives and learners across your organization.

(3) From this you have developed a blended learning and development strategy that is specific to the defined sales and revenue objectives.

(4) You have created  a defined  business case for your initiative, including required investments in technology and critical content.

(5) Prior to sharing this information with your stakeholders, you make a decision to additionally research the learning performance improvement market, to see if there are learning technology improvements that will better your sales and revenue outcomes specific to your defined business objectives.

• Historically, your facilitative process and critical content has always been well received, but you know your optimum outcomes have been and will continue to be hindered by conditional factors outside of your direct control – primarily focused around the individual transfer of learning:
  • If each participant learns your critical information to fluency, where fluency produces people who have the adaptive reasoning skills required to effectively apply knowledge to new situations.
  • If each participant is able to successfully apply your new critical information initially and long term
  • If each participant, changes their behavior to your new best practices methodology, through ongoing individual reinforcement
  • If each participant ultimately advances their individual performance
  • If business sales and revenues are then  advanced, consistent with your defined, strategic, business objectives

You are aware that your CEO’s new requirements are:

• T&D  must perpetually validate their value to the organization
  • T&D must tie their initiatives to the business strategic objectives
  • T&D must tie their initiatives to the business bottom line

You know that if you don’t directly add value to these items above, your outcomes will remain similar to prior initiatives and you will not meet your new strategic objectives.

You have looked at accelerated, brain based, learning methodologies and agree that learner centric approach would deliver your best outcomes:

• You know that anything delivered manually, one-to-one, will be cost prohibitive due to its lack of scalability.
• You know that incorporating accelerated, brain based, learning methodologies  into your critical content will advance individual learning outcomes, but you are not an expert in these methodologies, nor do you have the time or staff to incorporate a new learning methodology.
• You know that you need to accelerate individual learning transfer for your individual and business outcomes to be advanced

You, by chance, stumble across information about one to one, learning performance improvement technology, that:

• Has documented, advanced, individual, strategic, sales performance improvement
  • Specializes in individual learning to mastery, where mastery produces people who have the adaptive reasoning skills required to effectively apply knowledge to new situations.
• Has been around since 2000, was awarded the National Tutoring Association’s ‘Online Learning System of the Year’ award and is currently being used by a recognized sales association for their sales certification program.

You find this all very interesting and relevant because:

• Accelerated, brain based learning methodologies are integrated into the learning software, so adding your critical content automatically incorporates these methodologies for each of your participants
  • Individual learning gaps are identified
  • Sales Best practices are identified
  • Each participant will learn what they don’t know to fluency
    • An individual learning plan is created on the fly, via the software and each participant has individualized customized spacing,  pacing and reinforcement through learner centric study sessions
    • Individual learning progress can be identified, monitored and coached over time
    • Best practices, including verbal proficiency, can be individually monitored, reinforced and coached over time
    • The coaching and ongoing individual reinforcement is scalable. One coach is effectively and efficiently able to interact with up to 200 participants, on a one to one basis.
• Independent research has validated that this methodology has delivered these advanced learning results:
  • 11% less study time, 22% less test time, and 95% higher test scores.
  • The ability for you  to solve the individual problem of forgetting
• To your surprise, you discovered:
  • This one to one,  learning performance improvement solution, will fit into your timeline requirements
  • This one to one, learning performance improvement solution, will fit within your budgetary requirements
  • You will be able to easily modify your business case to your internal stakeholders highlighting
    • Advanced learning and individual performance improvement outcomes
    • Defined business value directly tied to advanced business outcomes and added value to business bottom line

You successfully implemented your new learning performance improvement technology, with your facilitative expertise and with your critical content. You overcame your conditional, individual learning obstacles, delivering the following strategic, business outcomes, consistent with your strategic business objectives, to your internal, critical, stakeholders:

• Impact
  • Advanced individual performance
  • Advanced business revenues
  • Bettered business bottom line
• ROI – Return on Investment
  • Percent return on training expenditure
•  Application
  • Number of skills used three months later
• Awards
  • Received from a recognized industry body or government

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To Discuss how these Solutions will add value for you, your organization and/or your clients, Affinity/Resale Opportunities, and/or Collaborative Efforts, Please Contact:

Tom McDonald, tsm@centurytel.net; 608-788-5144; Skype: tsmw5752