Harnessing a performance mindset to deliver impact in L&D

Lauren Crichton

Senior Product Marketing Manager

We might not like to admit it, but L&D has been slow to measure its impact. Our industry simply hasn’t made the progress we’d expect. But it's time to step up and prove L&D's impact and influence on human performance and business outcomes.

To prove the impact of learning, we have to know the purpose and intention for training and learning solutions. And no-one knows more about data, impact, and learning than Kevin M. Yates, the L&D Detective™.

Kevin曾帮助Meta和麦当劳等组织衡量其培训和学习解决方案的有效性. 他将他们的“北极星”与学习和培训联系起来，以改变人类的表现.

We asked Kevin why L&D professionals should measure impact, why organizing around a North Star is essential, and how to bring the performance mindset to L&D.

This conversation has been edited for readability, actionability, and clarity. AI helped us transcribe and research this piece.

The purpose of learning

Q: Measuring impact isn’t a typical output from L&D. Why do you think that is? And how can understanding impact improve our outputs?

Historically, L&D has focused on what we create. 传统思维是，一旦我们创建了培训计划或学习解决方案, our job is done. We've been focused on the output and not as focused on the impact. But that's changing.

We need to make the shift from 'delivery' to 'impact'. We make that shift by understanding the purpose for our work. For example, 领导力发展的目的和意图可能是为了加强领导者的能力. 然后，目标是衡量培训和学习在多大程度上实现了这一目的.

We need to set goals, the North Star, for how training and learning will measurably influence behavior, actions, and performance and use data as the signal for training and learning's impact.

Q: How does that work in practice?

想象一下，你的组织的任务是在整个财政年度实现40%的年平均收益率增长, and you’re a sales-led organization. Here, L&D needs to work with the commercial teams to understand their needs. 了解他们最关心的指标，并向后计划，直到你达到正确的学习主动性. You might ask questions like:

What win rates do you need to reach that ARR?
What are our win rates today? What are your team’s barriers to improving them?
What behaviors and capabilities are our sales people missing?
How can we help you to improve those win rates?

Q: It’s interesting that you mentioned a North Star. That’s a process many companies organize operations around. How can L&D teams make the most of this mindset?

在讨论培训之前，甚至在讨论我们要设计什么之前, build, 我们必须讨论业务目标和实现这些目标所需的性能需求. Performance impact is the North Star.

同样重要的是要记住，不同的培训和学习解决方案有不同的目的. The unique purpose for those solutions affects how L&D will measure impact. All training and learning solutions are not created equal. They should be measured for impact fulfillment based on their own unique purpose.

Think about mandatory training. More often than not, the goal is 100% completion to demonstrate compliance. Are we going to measure impact for that? Probably not—impact is not the goal. Compliance is the goal.

Read: People Analytics for agile HR teams

A North Star mindset helps with being focused on goals and outcomes. More importantly, it focuses the mind on measurable results. 今天，我们在培训和学习领域拥有的最大、最令人兴奋的机会是，以一种心态来领导创建培训和学习解决方案，使我们能够衡量对绩效和业务目标的影响. That’s the core of my work. 我衡量培训和学习对人们绩效的影响，以及绩效如何帮助人们实现业务目标. That’s my North Star.

Q: If I wanted to start today, what steps should I take?

Read: Solving people debt with a product mindset

为了确保您专注于具有可衡量影响的培训和学习解决方案，我建议:

Identify business goals first and foremost.
Identify performance requirements to achieve those goals.
Determine gaps in performance; compare where performance is versus where it needs to be.
Identify metrics and data that give signals for human performance.
Design training and learning solutions that produce performance, behaviors, and actions that achieve business goals.

我相信培训和学习可以实现对绩效和业务目标产生可衡量影响的最高目标. 这些步骤确保您的培训和学习解决方案处于最佳位置，以实现最高目标.

L&D as performance consultants

Q: We can see that aligning L&D with the North Star or purpose is important. You also talk about aligning L&D with business goals. That can be hard to get started with. How would you begin?

我知道我在重复自己的话，但我真的相信表现是培训和学习的“圣杯”. For me, that’s where it all starts. More importantly, 首先，将我们的培训和学习解决方案与实现这些目标所需的业务目标和性能要求结合起来.

Alignment is more than just a cliché. 对齐是一个有意的过程，将培训和学习与业务战略和人才发展联系起来. 这意味着我们的培训目标应该是创造能够赋予人们权力的学习解决方案. 它意味着为人们提供成功所需的技能和能力，帮助他们所服务的组织取得胜利.

Ask yourself:

What skills and behaviors do we need to activate performance?
What actions can L&D take that will help people behave, act, or perform differently?
How are we helping employees achieve business goals?

Think about our ARR example from earlier: L&D can bring a performance-focused mindset to the table. Start with a skill-gap analysis. Say you learn that BDMs aren’t clear on how to leverage upselling opportunities. 商业团队可以告诉你你的ARR可能在哪里，以及实际的增长可能产生什么. With the data from commercial and sales performance now and where you want to be, you can set your impact goal.

这个例子中的机会是从顶级销售人员那里获得设计输入和内容建议. They’re sharing best practices, habits, and actions that show up as performance for achieving business goals.

Q: L&D is central to the successful transformation, and that’s exciting. But surely we’re not the only team who helps to make change?

我想说，胜利是一项团队运动，实现商业目标也是如此. There are multiple triggers and activators for human performance. Training is just one of those activators.

As we consider what it takes to achieve a business goal, we must consider all the team players who play a role. 组织中的其他团队在实现业务目标(包括但不限于培训，如营销)中扮演什么角色, technology, or product development? How do we incentivize performance with rewards, recognition, and compensation? Are there environmental considerations for activating performance?

These are all points-of-consideration for impacting performance. We must consider teams outside L&D and other contributing factors for driving performance. As I said, winning is a team sport.

Part of what I’m talking about here is mindset. A curious mindset leads to reaching beyond training as a sole, 单独的解决方案，并促使我们考虑所有影响和影响性能的整体景观.

问:转变成这种心态听起来很简单，但实际上需要做出很多改变. 如果一个人领导着一个精益的组织，他们怎么能从今天开始做出改变呢?

That’s a good question and I’m glad you asked. Yes, it starts with mindset and following mindset, 它需要行动，而行动就是你所做的，使衡量影响成为可能. There are questions that must be answered. Some of this I’ve already said but it’s worth repeating:

What are the business goals?
What are the performance requirements to achieve those goals?
现在人们的表现差距和他们需要的表现差距是什么?
What are some of the risks to performance?
In addition to training and learning, 其他可能影响性能的激活因素或触发因素有哪些?

If you’re going to put impact measurement into practice, you have to start with the answers to these questions. 这样做将为你的成功奠定基础，用绩效作为衡量培训和学习的影响的北极星.

Inside the leader’s mind

欢迎来到闪电回合，我们要求每位嘉宾回答这三个问题…

What’s been on your mind lately? What’s been keeping you up at night?

我花了很多时间研究的一件事就是在理想的真实和现实的可能之间架起一座桥梁. 有很多关于衡量培训和学习影响的讨论. There’s a lot of good ideas and perspectives about measuring impact. For me, 机会在于告诉我们什么是我们可以衡量的，什么是我们不能衡量的，并积极地追求可能衡量影响的领域.

What one thing would you love HR and L&D leaders to start doing today?

我们对衡量培训和学习影响的动态并不总是诚实和开放的. It's hard work. It can be frustrating. It can feel uncertain, unsure, and ambiguous. But difficult does not mean impossible. 我鼓励我们的社区花更多的时间在我们可以衡量的事情上，花更少的时间在我们无法衡量的事情上.