Avoid the temptation to start a client conversation focused on learning activities and solutions. Rather, initiate a strategic conversation by asking about the problem to be solved and the desired outcomes. Opposite of how we read a book, the logic model helps us look at this strategic conversation by understanding the key questions to ask and how to document the “chain of evidence” from the problem statement to the required investments and activities leading to the desired outcomes.

In a recent webinar, we discussed how to:

1. Recognize the value of “beginning with the end in mind.”
2. Design a program to achieve the desired outcomes using a logic model.
3. Identify how evaluation can be used to measure outcomes.
4. Use key takeaways on your job.

If you missed the webinar, a recording is now available. But if you’re looking for the Reader’s Digest version, I wanted to offer a quick look at some of the key takeaways:

• Have a strategic, consultative discussion asking key questions.
• Understand the problem and the expected outcomes before jumping to designing solutions.
• Use the logic model to:
  • Build clarity and consensus with clients about
    expected outcomes
  • Communicate with client and colleagues the goals, assumptions, resources, activities, and outputs
  • Evaluate, check and verify

The webinar was a discussion designed to trigger an ongoing dialogue around an outcomes-focused approach with the logic model. I’d like to continue the discussion here by answering some of the questions that came up during the session. I also encourage you to continue the conversation by voicing your thoughts and opinions in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

Q: ­Logic models have been helpful to me in the past as a marketing piece. It’s a great way to explain the logic of what you’re doing to people in a single-page format. This process forces you to really understand what you’re doing and how to explain it. Would you agree?

A: Yes. As you said, the logic model is an effective way to show what the program will do and accomplish.

Q: What is the risk of jumping to the solution design before understanding the intended business?

A: The risk of jumping to solution design before knowing the intended outcomes is that the program or products developed may not be aligned or complete enough to drive the necessary changes in learning and actions to achieve the expected results.

Q: ­Are there other uses for the logic model?­

A: The logic model can also be used to build clarity and consensus with a client and colleagues about the expected outcomes, goals, assumptions, resources, activities and outputs. The logic model is also an input into evaluation planning to determine how and when to measure use of resources, effectiveness of the products, services, and whether outcomes were achieved.

Q: ­What is the difference between outputs and outcomes?­

A: Outputs are what results from the activities (e.g., products, services). Outcomes are the changes expected to occur as a result of the program. The changes can be in terms of learning, actions, or conditions within individuals, groups or organizations.

Q: ­Are evaluation questions and indicators only used to evaluate outputs and outcomes?­

A: In addition to asking evaluation questions for the outputs and outcomes, it is important to evaluate if sufficient resources have been provided (e.g., budget, people), as well as determining if the activities were completed in a timely manner and produced effective products.

Q: ­What might the Inputs column look like if there is only one trainer on staff or limited funding?­

A: The inputs column would represent the number of trainers assigned and allocated budget. Don’t forget to consider things like tools, equipment, subject matter experts or instructors required for developing and implementing training. Through evaluation questioning, you can determine if there were sufficient resources necessary for the activities identified.

The first girl I ever had a crush on was an “older woman.” I was six; she was eight. The crush materialized at a drive-in movie theatre. For the millennial reading this, ask your parents—or perhaps your grandparents—what a drive-in was (imagine an outdoor primitive IMAX).

Built into the foundation of the mammoth movie screen was a concession stand. I had accompanied my father to the stand, navigating the gravel waves of cars with bulky, wired speakers clamped onto the windows. This concession stand offered more than popcorn, candy bars, and sugary soft drinks—it was set up to serve families “fast food-like” meals including hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, and onion rings. Another part of the business model was that customers dressed their own burgers with condiments on a table across from the counter.

Just as we were ordering, I spotted a pretty girl at the condiments stand. There was something about this girl, or more so what she did, that gave me an adrenaline-like rush I will never forget.

Just as she spooned a dollop of relish onto her burger, the girl went to grab a plastic knife to spread it, but there were none to be found. I watched in awe as she turned the spoon over and used the back of the spoon as a knife. She had improvised¸ and I was in love (well, at least until my family’s order of onion rings arrived). The girl had made a spoon serve one of the roles intended for a knife. (Granted, had she tried to cut the burger in half with the spoon, she would have likely become quickly frustrated, but she adapted and made the tool at her disposal perform the task at hand.)

In school and at work, many of us have been told and taught to use the “right tool for the right job.” But what do we do when the right tool isn’t available and the task is urgent?

How many times have you been forced to improvise when the “appropriate” tools were not available? Perhaps a projector bulb has blown, a particular system was not available, the fancy authoring tool was not in the budget, teaching materials have not yet arrived, or a guest speaker has been unavoidably detained. Have you discovered that improvisation leads to innovation?

Kleenex facial tissues were originally intended for make-up removal, but the market moved them to a much different application. Have your audiences or team members (learners, stakeholders, clients) surprised and even delighted or inspired you with their improvisations and innovations when presented with a challenge, regardless of whether that challenge was circumstantial or engineered? How many times have you found that a “spoon” can do the job just as well as (or perhaps even better than) a “knife”?

Tell us your stories about improvisation and innovation in learning by leaving a reply below.

As learning and development professionals, we know the value of locating resources, sharing ideas, and learning about best practices from the experts in the field, so why then do we seem to underestimate or ignore the value of our own hard-earned knowledge and insight? Our experience and expertise are unique assets we can share in the workplace. They are a professional advantage that we can leverage within the organization to mentor colleagues and use to gain new clients.

The expectations that all learning and development professionals should be comfortable sharing can be intimidating and know how to share the knowledge can be misleading. We often have more opportunity to share because of the nature of our work but may feel unprepared or aren’t sure how to distill, organize, and communicate what we know and have learned from a project. By organizing the information into digestible chunks, the information becomes useful and shareable.

I’d like to offer a list of Best Practice resources to help you on your journey to better knowledge-sharing—enjoy!

Where Knowledge Management Has Been and Where It Is Going– Part One by Dr. Nancy Dixon

Developing and Sharing Best Practice: Some Key Issues and Principles by Della Fazey

Leadership by Example: A Conversation With Frances Hesselbein

Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It by Peggy Klaus

Summary: Knowledge Management Best Practices on KMT, an educational KM site

Knowledge Sharing: Moving Away From the Obsession With Best Practices by Peter Holdt Christensen

Quality Service – Benchmarking and Best Practices: An Update (Guide X) from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Share your ‘Best Practices’ as a First Step into Knowledge Management by Luc Bouquet

5 Ways to Share Your Professional Expertise and 4 Reasons You Should by Chrissy Scivicque

18 Ways to Leverage the Internet to Enhance Your Professional Credibility on Positively Magazine.com

How In-House Training Can Boost Your Team’s Morale by Mark Arnold

What Does the Term “Best Practices” Mean Today? On the Lean Mining LinkedIn Group

Best Practice on the Info Entrepreneurs Blog

For more information, watch Karen’s latest webinar on Best Practices for Sharing Best Practices where she discusses:

• Why sharing can build professional credibility and retain organizational knowledge
• How to share knowledge through writing, speaking, and mentoring
• Where some places are to share best practices

Since 2000, significant changes have occurred in Talent and learning technologies. Numerous products have undergone considerable change by adding or creating features and functions that address changing market trends and government regulations.  Mergers and consolidations have integrated and aligned the best technologies.  While these changes and advances have been significant to the ability of organizations to define and manage talent, there is a greater, untapped opportunity for software vendors that will likely provide the strongest market impact yet.  This opportunity might allow proactive organizations to differentiate their companies by the talent and quality of their workforce and truly accelerate performance.  We know that organizations with good talent management strategies see higher returns per employee than organizations without such strategies—now those strategies should be harvested for the betterment of all companies.

With the markets shift to Software as a Service (SaaS) and the culmination of large data repositories, vendors are now armed with more data and intelligence on how great companies use talent to improve operations, create sustainable competitive advantage, and increase time to knowledge than ever before. I believe the largest untapped opportunity today remains in the use of this data for predictive talent analytics, workforce analytics, and industry benchmarking.

Let’s look at an example outside of talent like Amazon’s “Anticipatory” shipping. This patented concept predicts what buyers are going to buy next and then stages items for near term or immediate shipping. What if a learning management system applied the same concept, but instead of shipping courses, it predicted what each individual needed to learn based upon long-term organizational goals and objectives? What if your talent vendor could tell you what talent operations looked like at comparable companies and could predict the development and training your organizations needs to accelerate revenue and profitability?

One of the most exciting concepts in today’s talent marketplace is workforce analytics & planning. Workforce analytics (WFA) improves decision making by helping companies find answers to key questions about workforce challenges and provides guidance to help solve them. WFA systems today look at all types data across organizations, HR metrics, and industry trends to help provide actionable insight that has long-term strategic value. The company that can supply knowledge married with cross-industry best practices will be the company that moves beyond the historical trends of training and tracking to creating long-term strategic value for its customers.

The industry has been collecting data for years and now it is time to create actionable insight with it.  With industry analytics and predictive talent capabilities can you imagine the speed at which organizations can grow their talent base?  Proactive planning for skill attainment and development would mean that companies will be ready to execute on the most strategic goals of leadership.  What an exciting day that will be!

Paul recently participated in an excellent panel discussion at HR2014 with SuccessFactors, Aasonn and hyperCision around the future of learning management solutions. Click here to watch.

In the course of my work across the human capital enablement landscape, I talk with a lot of learning leaders about their challenges in building a bridge to the lines of business. Some have become partners with the business units, but most feel they don’t have the influence they need to drive strategic learning initiatives. Take, for example, the chasm that exists between Learning Executives and VPs of Sales. As someone who has a foot in both worlds, I continue to see the gap widening between these two groups. From my perspective, both groups have a lot of value to their executive team. But, for some reason, that value isn’t being realized—especially within the context of cross-functional teaming to pursue sales objectives.

So, how do I illuminate the gap that I’m seeing? Well, I will spare you the details of what needs to happen and instead offer you two fictional letters that illustrate what I am seeing. One letter is from the desk of the VP of Sales and the other is from the desk of the Learning Executive. These letters summarize what is occurring across our client base—and give a peek into what I’m seeing. After you read the letters, take a look at the suggestions for breaking down these barriers and moving forward in a more collaborative manner.

1) An open letter to Learning Executive from VP of Sales

Dear Learning Leader:

I need to talk with you. I have a challenge with my team. I haven’t been able to drive the sales results I need to, and I’m afraid I’m going to get fired because of it. The CEO shared that he counts on you to help improve the human capital of our organization, but so far, we haven’t been able to work together on something specific. Don’t get me wrong; I like you and your team, but it’s hard for me to make major investments in my time if I’m not sure what the outcome is going to be.

Our CEO said you were able to get results with that technology we’ve been deploying across the organization. He shared some examples about how you were able to help people get outside their comfort zone to drive our business strategy. I am not sure what to ask for, but I need your help. We both believe people are a critical asset…so how do we get started?

– Signed, VP of Sales

2) An open letter to VPs of Sales from Learning Executive

Dear VP of Sales:

I would like to talk to you. I have a challenge that I would like to address and get your input on. I haven’t been able to find a way to engage you and your team in an ongoing, continuously improving manner. While I believe you’re my internal customer and I want to make sure you are happy, you’re treating me a lot like an order taker. On one hand, you tell me what you want, and my team delivers. On the other hand, you want me to be more strategic and help you and your teams evolve, but you won’t help me engage with the field. As a case in point, I have been trying to get on your calendar to talk about some of the projects we could partner in, but you’ll only give me 30-minute chunks.

I have talked to my peers in other companies, and some of them have been able to develop a partnership with their VP of Sales. I would like to do that with you; so how can we get started?

– Signed, Learning Executive

I know there are some outliers to these two open letters; however, for most of our clients, these letters are reflective of the disconnect I see. So what’s going on?

In a nutshell, Sales VPs want to talk about driving sales results and achieving sales objectives, while Learning Executives want to talk about projects and deliverables.

– If you’re a Learning Executive, what approach do you have in your bag of tricks to pursue business outcomes?
– If you’re a Sales VP, how clear have you been on the outcome you want your Learning Executive to achieve with you?

Since the disconnect largely boils down to a communication challenge, and as the self-appointed “marriage counselor” between the two groups, let me offer some advice:

To Sales VPs:

1. Find a small project (like a small team in a region) to give to the Learning Executive and her team to work on with you.
2. Clarify the outcomes you want her to achieve with that small sales group.
3. Empower her to drive to the outcome, and then stay engaged by reinforcing her work and helping her report progress on pursuing the outcome.
4. Spend more time telling her sales stories. What wins have there been? What are you hearing from sales managers? What are you seeing on the road?
5. If you feel progress isn’t being made, say so. If progress continues to be an issue, then go ahead and let her know you’re moving on and looking for help elsewhere.

To Learning Executives:

1. Stop thinking about helping the whole sales force, and focus on one group of people to make successful first, so you can get traction.
2. Make sure you understand the outcome to achieve, and get your Sales VP’s point of view on what needs to happen to achieve that outcome.
3. Be a leader by gaining more empathy for the salespeople and sales managers who ultimately benefit from your work. If you don’t know their reality and the challenge they have in talking with their buyers, you won’t have credibility.
4. Spend more time architecting an approach to solving the problem before “jumping to the answer.” To Sales VPs, leadership isn’t about random activity—it’s about purposeful problem solving.
5. If you feel like you have to persuade or educate anyone on why you’re doing what you’re doing, stop.

A strategy cannot be successful until the people on the front line have changed the way they do their work. Greg Long, VP Organizational Excellence at GP Strategies, discusses how CLOs can partner with thier business to execute strategies and overcome organizational drag.

I know a young lady who intended to run her first marathon. She was active and did a lot of rock climbing, bike riding and ran some 5K races, but she never ran more than 7 or 8 miles at a time. She agreed to run this marathon because her boyfriend was doing it. Love does crazy things to a person. She is very driven and has always achieved the goals she set for herself and anyone who knows her knew she could do it, but more than once during the months of training preceding the 26.2 mile race she wondered if she was going to be able to cross the finish line. Like I said, she is driven, and she knew when she said “ok, I’ll do it”, she needed a clear plan that would prepare her body and mind for the task. She researched training plans, diet requirements necessary to support such rigorous training, and identified the people who would supportively hold her accountable.

The Marquette Marathon is a pre-qualifier to the Boston Marathon held in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was a cold, rainy September day when she finished the 26.2 miles a little slower than she anticipated, and half an hour behind her boyfriend. She was a little disappointed in her time, but she achieved her goal to run the marathon and the process of preparing for the event helped her stay focused through some difficult events in her life. Strategic intent can give us fortitude for dealing with tough times, too.

People set intentions on all kinds of things; to get married or have children, to get a job or make a career change, lose weight, or travel to a foreign country. When you proclaim your intention and then act on it to demonstrate your commitment, amazing things occur. Here are some suggestions for taking the first steps towards successful strategic intent:

1. Get clear about your goal and write it down.
2. Share your intention with someone in a way that will supportively hold you accountable to taking action.
3. Do something today to demonstrate your commitment to your intention.
4. Acknowledge that you did what you said you would and then, take the next step.

The same holds true when talking about an organizations’ strategic intent. As the speed of business continues to accelerate and change becomes even more of a constant, the ability for organizations to be nimble, agile and execute flawlessly can be the difference between thriving and extinction. Just as it is for individuals, the health and success of an organization depends on initiatives driven by clear strategic intentions.

What is the health of your organization’s strategic intentions? Are you inspired to start running and cross the finish line?

Watch to see  how maintenance reliability and a learning strategy can enable business growth objectives.

Almost immediately thereafter, as I juggled and reorganized the rest of my items to try and help clean up the mess, my mother’s voice echoed in my head, “That’s the lazy man’s load.” Yep, Mom, the apple of your eye is still doing it at age 42. What am I doing? I’m looking for what seems to be the easiest, fastest route to get my requirements met with an approach that is in deep deficit of forethought, preparation, or planning. Sometimes what seems to be the easy way just doesn’t pay. 

Of course, this is not unusual to say the least. 

I’m sure you know what I mean. Much to my chagrin, it is not an uncommon practice in my life―just as painful, it is also fairly ubiquitous in business. 

One recent example is a customer who is getting increased pressure from a new boss to flawlessly execute the business strategy as a priority for 2012. What if the strategy and plans are based on the specter of seasons past? He’ll pass to his go-to people, and keep over-tasking the same direct reports with as much as possible, especially those items critical to executing the strategy (we call this “box-checking” as opposed to realizing business benefits and the strategic intent). Do these direct reports have any special skills? Probably, but none more important than just the willingness to sacrifice much to get the work done; sometimes too much. The problem is that these team members just get overloaded with tasks―an approach that is not only not sustainable, but also counterproductive. In fact, it’s the fastest route to burnout for the employee and the quickest trip to things going “SPLUNK” for the company. 

As an example, ask the large consumer products company being dogged by repeated errors in their supply chain, struggling to move product out the door, that may be losing strategic placement opportunities on their customer shelves and, maybe even worse, could be losing the faith of their consumers.

Your biggest boss may not declare that “Excellence in Execution” is what creates competitive advantage for your organization, but guessing, hoping, and taking what appears to be an easy road can lose your hard-earned, coveted ground. As you enter 2012 and conduct strategic planning for your life, your career, your business, consider what measures you are taking to execute flawlessly on strategies you put in place.

Are you starting with Why? Are you developing a sense of purpose, clear intent to be built upon as the foundation for success? Do you have a framework for identifying obstacles that can inhibit reaching your intended goals? Allow me to share a favorite quote attributed to Unknown: “There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy.” That’s the bad news. 

The good news is that you’re not doomed to do things the way they’ve always been done. Click here to learn more about how to fundamentally change the way work gets done in your organization and achieve more success in 2012.

During a recent discussion with a client, he shared that the coming year was not really about setting new paths or strategies. Would his organization be doing so? Absolutely – in fact, they were in the midst of some large strategic shifts at the time we met. The key to his team’s success, in his opinion, lies not in charting the new course, however. Success exists in his two words:

Purposeful Execution

I could not agree more with his sentiments. Strategy formulation is very important in charting the course and setting the vision of how a team or organization will achieve the mission. None of it really means anything, though, without intentional, diligent and purposeful execution.

As we move forward into the coming year, I encourage you (as I know our client would, as well), to reflect on what it will take for you to successfully transform your team, business unit, organization, community – how will you execute flawlessly to ensure the realization of the strategic intent (of whatever is being executed).

Studies show that 70% of initiatives fail to deliver the intended business results. I’m not ok with that. Are you?

Learn how you can beat the odds here

Originally published on http://drewdice.wordpress.com/