Have you felt frustrated when a stakeholder comes to you asking for a specific training solution in a shortened timeline?

One day, as I was sharing these frustrations with my boss in a one-on-one, she simply responded with, "We need to train the business how to do business with us."

If those of us in L&D want to work as Strategic Business Partners, it's critical that we deepen our understanding of the business. We need to approach the work as business partners with learning expertise. It's one thing to know what to learn and another to know where and how to find that information.

L&D, It's time to amp up our business acumen game. If we want to move from a place where our work is transactional, where we take and deliver training orders, to one where we are working in partnership with our business colleagues, then we need to do better. We need to know more.

Like any process, intake will be most successful when it matches your company culture and maturity level. It needs to make sense for those providing the information, your stakeholders.

Of course, the intentions behind the requirement are positive, but when it is treated as just a way to "check the box," it doesn't have any more impact than that or sometimes, it can even negatively impact the L&D team.

I've noticed a trend in the way those of us in these areas think about measurement. I think we've got it all wrong.

We tend to see measurement as a necessary evil. We didn't go into this profession to run numbers and most of us aren't particularly good at it. But over the years demands from executives and those who hold the checkbooks started to necessitate we measure and report.

Politics exist in every organization and knowing how to work with them in a positive way is an essential part of working more strategically and effectively.

What comes to mind when you think of organizational politics? Disgust? Annoyance? Frustration? Acceptance that they are just part of the office?