If you clicked and opened this post, the main question in your mind might be "but if the organization grows, we need to create more content for learning. And when we need to create more content, and possibly do more trainings, then we need more people for it".

If you have read any of my previous posts, you already know what my answer will be. If you are a first-time reader, then my short answer is: neither content nor training is learning. Come and read my next month's post about how does learning happen.

A preacher has to believe

I would not be leading Learning & Development department if I would not believe that people are able to learn and expand their capabilities. That is the basic assumption around L&D: we design an enviorment that supports learning and then offer learning opportunities.

Successful companies do that because the top talent on the market is growth-oriented. They love to learn. By redeploying that top talent on new learning curves within the organization, we keep their expertise in-house. Thanks to encouraging them to share and build on their already existing knowledge, organizations get access to exponential gain. BUT, it only happens when the setting is right.

In the end, the best learning happens when there is an ecosystem there to support it. An ecosystem with a common shared understanding of what is learning and development. Ecosystem rich with a variety of methods, and ecosystem that makes driving own professional growth accessible.

Getting practical

I personally do not believe too strongly in moulded roles.

📌 I believe in clarity around responsibilities that a department is committed to delivering and achieving.

📌I believe in clarity in what capabilities and skills need to be represented in the department to deliver those department responsibilities.

Why go so specific and say Specialist A is responsible for compliance. Specialist B is responsible for Technology. Specialist C is responsible for creating content. etc. Is it because we think that is scalable? If so, then does anyone care to explain how is it scalable to keep people in specific and separate disciplines?

Think about 2 options:

1. You could choose a construction crew where you have 1 person for using the hammer, 2 who know how to paint with a brush and 1 to saw. They might be the best in their field, but you will have a limit on how much you can achieve with them 4.

2. Or you have a crew of 4 people, but all of them know how to use the hammer, and 2 of them know the basics of painting while being an expert in their respective fields of hammering and using the saw. And you have 1 of them 4 who knows how to measure, calculate and has the free capacity to learn from others. They are not the top of the field, but the good news: they can grow as professionals thanks to developing their different skills. In the end, you will be able to send them in different rotations off to work on more parallel objects than crew nr 1. And if the master hammer leaves, you will have the internal capability to go one with hammering.

My top 12 expectations for the capabilities that should be represented for a successful L&D department (in no particular order):

✨ Coaching. 1:1 coaching. Group coaching. Peer-coaching. Career coaching.

✨ Learning & Talent Development. Focus on understanding contemporary and future-looking adult learning theory, driving behavioural change, developing best practices etc.

✨ Analytics. Data gathering, mapping, management and analysis. From metric dashboards to forecasting.

✨ Community Management. Learning as a shared community experience.

✨ Facilitation. Collaborative learning, delivery, cohort leading etc.

✨ Technology. Infrastructure design, management and tech-powered experiences.

✨ Research. Learning Personas. Learning Patterns etc.

✨ Instructional Design.

✨ Videography and Content Production.

✨ Performance Consulting.

✨ Marketing & Engagement.

✨ Project & Program Management.

Yeah, but who then does it if not L&D professionals?

What is an L&D professional? Why do we make it sound like it is a magical incubator-grown rare species? I think of an L&D professional as a growth-oriented, thinking, collaborative collection of the right attitudes and skills. And do you know the best thing about skills? They are possible to be developed! And many skills are transferable!

Meaning none of us are stuck with the skills we have today. Most of our skills and capabilities that we have today, will change over time. Some we will forgot. Others we grow. Many new ones we will learn. And if we end up in a situation that we are facing situations we have never faced before or in roles we have not been before, we can still take along our previously developed skills and put them to use in new situations.

For example, you as a Customer Solutions Expert relay a lot on your communication skill to express and share knowledge, to gather information and explain complicated things in an understandable manner. When you would move to a Researcher role, you would take along with your already existing communication skills and build on that.

The same logic can be put to use inside the L&D department by just knowing what are the needed skills. If in the L&D team there is a person with strong career coaching skills and they also do Learning Experience Design, it does not mean that that is the only acceptable combination. I would encourage to see people move from strict areal expertise and occasionally rotate between other supportive L&D areas and topics.

What are the promised 3 tips?

1. Be crystal clear on what is your departments impact on business strategy by defining the departments collective commitment (goal, objective or whatever you want to call it).

2. Know the answer to what skills (both hard and soft) and competencies (both technical and behavioural) you need to have represented in your department to deliver that commitment.

3. Keep a flat and mobile hierarchy. Be flexible and creative in how those skills and competencies get matched and rotated within the department.

The core idea is to work as an agile team on focused strategic impacts (solve problems or create growth). As strategic focus shifts and changes over time, people also move from one collaboration group to others. Exposure to different problem areas and new close partners helps to develop their own skillset and drive their career development inside the department.