Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2021 - 32

in creating solutions to enable the new
culture and behaviors.
ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES:
An organization's L&D team is
often comprised of experts on the
organization's current talent strengths
and opportunities. Business leaders are
the experts on what future capabilities
are needed to advance the organization.
Collaboration between the two groups
enables a full view of current and future
talent capabilities that will drive the
future state vision and strategy.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: L&D
will need line of sight into the future
state structure of the organization to
begin planning for future knowledge,
skill and ability needs.
PROCESSES AND TECHNOLOGY: In
this phase of organizational design, L&D
needs to understand updated or new
processes and technologies, conduct
training needs analysis and plan for
training to ensure compliance with the
new ways of working.
PEOPLE AND TALENT PRACTICES:
L&D should be involved
in
talent
conversations because the team will be
involved in new employee onboarding, as
well as upskilling existing employees to
prepare them to work in the new reality.
METRICS AND MEASUREMENT: Lastly,
in this phase, training and learning
metrics (completion, proficiency, etc.)
can be good measures of adoption,
change success (process compliance,
etc.) and how the initiative is measured
and reported.
This means that as a L&D leader, you
should be involved from the beginning
of an organizational design initiative
through to the end. Being involved
in the solution design early reduces
project risks and ensures a more holistic
organizational design solution, leading
to a better outcome.
Ideally, the organizational design project
lead is pulling all critical players to the
table at the start of any engagement
such as this. However, we all know that
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doesn't always happen. As a L&D expert,
it may be up to you to get yourself a seat
at the organizational design table.
As a L&D practitioner, how can you
make sure you are a part of the action?
First, we recommend that you come
prepared with a strong elevator pitch,
or a persuasive speech that creates
interest and conveys your ideas, on the
importance of L&D in the organizational
design process. This will help you
convince the right people to let you pull
up a chair.
Because organizational design impacts
employees directly, change management
should already be sitting at the table. If
they're not, they need to be involved to
ensure successful adoption of the change.
L&D is often included as a component of
preparing employees for the change,
so you should have some advocates for
why you should also be involved in the
organizational design process.
It is best not
to wait until a
change management
practitioner
comes to you.
A 2020 article, " 3 Ways Learning and
Development Can Affect Change
Management, " made the case for
how L&D can have a strong impact on
change management by arguing that
" [L&D] can engage from end to end in
the design, development and delivery
of the change management program,
not simply the training portion of it. " A
comprehensive change management
approach should include L&D as a
strategic partner, involved throughout
the process, to ensure strong readiness
to adopt the change. This is true not only
for organizational design changes, but
any transformation.
It is best not to wait until a change
management practitioner comes
to you, though. If you know about
upcoming changes, get involved. Start
by inserting yourself in the changes
you know about by creating a business
case to demonstrate why L&D should
have a seat at the table. Is it because
significant upskilling is needed? Are
there significant process changes as
a result of changing ways of working?
Are roles changing because of the new
organizational design? These are all
areas where L&D specialists can provide
incredible value to ensure the workforce
is positioned for success when the
change is implemented.
Strategically, it would be ideal to
advocate for a change in the culture
and practices of your organization.
In close partnership with L&D and
change management leaders, gain
leadership buy-in with your business
case and elevator pitch so that your
organization's leaders fully understand
the value of an integrated approach.
If your company has a strong learning
culture, it will likely be easier to gain
buy-in from leadership. However, if
your company's culture is less learningfocused,
this may prove to be more
challenging. If this is the case, we
recommend partnering with change
management or another influential team
of experts (such as sponsors, leaders,
and SMEs from across the organization
related to the organizational change,
HR leaders and business partners,
and talent management) to assist with
your business case and advocate for
your involvement.
Organizations
capabilities may find
with more advanced
it valuable
to
consider a structure similar to a
program management office (PMO)
where change management, program
management and L&D are on the same
team to ensure strong alignment across
all disciplines. This integration can
ensure fluid exchanges of information,
which can be critical in a rapidly
changing environment. It ensures
everyone is working toward a shared
objective and allows for work to occur
in a more agile way by having more
visibility to plans, upcoming changes
and barrier points across the three

https://www.trainingindustry.com/articles/strategy-alignment-and-planning/3-ways-learning-and-development-can-affect-change-management/ https://www.trainingindustry.com/articles/strategy-alignment-and-planning/3-ways-learning-and-development-can-affect-change-management/ https://www.trainingindustry.com/articles/strategy-alignment-and-planning/3-ways-learning-and-development-can-affect-change-management/

Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2021

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