When You Have to Take the Order, Find the Opportunity
There's an opportunity within every training order to move the needle closer to working as a strategic business partner. All you have to do is find it.
Many of us in L&D are on a quest to move from a role as a transactional order taker to that of a Strategic Business Partner within their companies. This is awesome! Working as a Strategic Business Partner, we can have a much larger impact, add more value, and solve talent challenges. But, getting there can be complicated.
It isn't as simple as deciding to do our work differently. The rest of the organization also needs to embrace this change. Most stakeholders aren’t even aware there is a need to change or that L&D could be a more potent contributor. That means the move for L&D to work as Strategic Business Partners is a cultural shift for the entire organization. It involves changing behavior patterns, expectations, and legacy thinking about L&D and what we do. How do we get there?
The Strategic Business Partner Continuum
The concepts of order taker vs. Strategic Business Partner, while different, are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they exist on a continuum with order taker at one end and Strategic Business Partner at the other. Most L&D leaders find themselves more towards the middle than either end or they move along the continuum in both directions from day to day based on factors like the emergence of new strategic initiatives, critical issues, or stakeholders. Some stakeholders in the company may see L&D as Strategic Business Partners while others, on the very same day, see L&D as order takers and treat you as such. It’s more likely that you will be working as an order taker and a Strategic Business Partner simultaneously to varying degrees than entirely on one side or the other.
The goal is to position yourself closer to the end of the continuum where the Strategic Business Partner makes their home. The work to get there and stay there is continuous. Maybe the most surprising part? To get there you often need to start by taking the order.
Turns out, taking orders or requests for training is a vital part of the change process for L&D to move from a transactional role to a more transformational working partnership with the business. If you have an order, you have an opportunity to begin making a change. Finding and capitalizing on that opportunity is a powerful strategy to start moving the needle down the continuum. Begin this process using the “4S Opportunities.”
The 4S Opportunities
The 4S opportunities are the most common ways to tap into and utilize an order to start moving the needle they are:
Shift Mindset Opportunity
Strategic Approach Opportunity
Surprise and Delight Opportunity
Sure Thing Opportunity
The Shift Mindset Opportunity
Start working within the training order by shifting your mindset. Instead of thinking of yourself as a support function who takes and delivers on orders, think of yourself as a partner who is working with the business as an equal.
It’s akin to wearing the clothes for the job you want vs. the one you have. Even those working more frequently as a Strategic Business Partner occasionally need to take and deliver on a training order. Imagine this is one of those times. How do you approach the work differently? What questions do you ask as a partner instead of a support?
By acting like a partner within the request instead of waiting for the day you are seen as a partner, you will begin to crack open the door on what is possible. Your own mindset shift begins to enable the mindset shift of others.
The Strategic Approach Opportunity
When you must take a training order, you may not be able to proceed according to the ideal scenario of needs analysis first followed by design and delivery. At least, that’s been my experience. The training is needed stat, the key influencers are already on board, and your ability to push back and ask questions is nonexistent.
But you still have an opportunity to be strategic. It’s the opportunity to put pieces in place that allow for the next request to be handled according to the ideal format. This means thinking about what you can do while fulfilling the order that also illuminates a better way for the future.
For example, can you add in measurement to show what did and did not work? Can you ask to do a full needs analysis after the fact? This might seem backwards, but it can work. When I was asked to do a last-minute webinar series to “fix” a customer education issue without any analysis and no time to negotiate, I agreed with the stipulation that I be allowed to conduct full analysis of the current customer education process after the webinar series was complete. I wanted to help the requesters make customer education even better and a full analysis would more specifically show us where customer education was working and where it was falling short.
The Surprise and Delight Opportunity
How can you add unexpected value to your work within this training order? Using your learning and performance expertise, get creative. Deliver something that they didn’t see coming or show how performance is positively impacted without being asked. In other words, don’t just fulfill the training order as it is written, expand on it to add value.
I recently spoke with Sarah, the learning and OD manager for a mid-sized retailer who shared how she received a request to update the company’s safety training videos. She added unexpected value through changes that resulted in a more effective and efficient training program. After interviewing managers to find out the most common safety mishaps, Sarah created shorter, more enjoyable videos that used humor and thus, were fun to watch. She set up a program that would deliver the shortened videos to employees throughout the year, when each incident was most likely to happen, instead of asking employees to watch all the videos at once. She also calculated the cost savings accrued by pulling employees off the floor for shorter periods of time. Finally, she put measurement in place to monitor the safety incidents before and after employees watched the videos. Note that the initial ask was simply to recreate training videos and the expectation was to do this the same way it had always been done. No one expected the surprise and delight of increased efficiency, measurement, and fun.
How might you surprise and delight the requester to exceed their expectations and highlight more of your skills and expertise?
The Sure Thing Opportunity
There is one opportunity that is completely within your control, no matter the request. It is a sure thing. You can always build and/or improve relationships with stakeholders and learn something about the business with each project you take on.
As you work to fulfill the training order, engage in conversations with the stakeholder to learn more about their business. Get curious about what it’s like to sit in their seat. Aim to discover more about how their portion of the business functions, their team’s biggest challenges and successes, and their goals. Listen to their responses as insights. Refer to what you learn when thinking about how to work more proactively with them in the future, especially when it comes to partnering with them to solve their challenges and achieve their goals.
I guarantee there will be times in your L&D career when you need to take and deliver on a training order, when conditions and processes are less than ideal. It doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t be able to work as a Strategic Business Partner. Especially if you can find the opportunities to move the needle and work differently within that request.
