Building Internal Advisory Councils

A colleague and I facilitated asession at The eLearning Guild’s 2011 DevLearnconference on selecting and implementing a learning management system. We were enthusiasticabout the subject, having recently done this in our organization. However, aswe shared our experience and the resources we had used for system selection, wesaw a distinctly different pattern emerge from the participants duringdiscussion.

When we asked the group about theirexperiences, there was a collective groan as they lamented about the various learningtechnology solutions in their organizations and how many of these solutions hadgone awry.

One individual who worked for aglobal corporation shared that within their company there were multiple systems,and the systems didn’t mesh well. User adoption was limited in any of thesystems, and their team couldn’t fully support what was put in place.

Another colleague shared that theircompany’s CEO and executive team had decided on a system that they liked, withlittle involvement from the learning and development team. The result wasfrustration from the users and system functionality that couldn’t keep up withthe growing pace of the organization. Although it was critical for the CEO to buyin to any solution, he eventually made the LMS purchase selection withoutengaging the learning and development arm of the organization. The result wasan expensive solution that was a poor fit for the organization.

Unfortunately, we heard similarstories throughout the conference. The frustrations felt by both the vendorsrepresenting learning technology solutions and the learning professionalsresponsible for managing these systems were often the same: lack of internalalignment and preparation often leads to failed selections and implementations.

Taking a proactive approach withinour companies to identify stakeholders at all levels and involve them early andoften in the process through an internal advisory committee can make selectingand implementing learning technology solutions successful.

The importance of involving managers in learningtechnology initiatives

Involving managers early in theprocess is critical to gaining support for your technology solutions. In mostcases, you are more likely to gain buy-in by sharing how the technology willaddress a problem that impacts the managers.

As explained in the eLearning Guildreport Getting Started in e-Learning:Building the Business Case for e-Learning,“Different situations and companies will warrant different approaches. Ingeneral, problems and opportunities are phrased as statements, and a gapanalysis is presented as a conclusion from research.”

In other words, the decision-makersmust understand why they would consider investing in a solution.

Example

Problem statement:

Our on-boarding process for newhires takes 90 days, and there is an additional average of 60 more days beforethey are rated as able to perform their tasks effectively.

Opportunity statement:

By using the new system to supportand automate processes for on boarding, the average time for these tasks willdecrease to 45 days, and estimated time to proficiency will be 30 days. Ourtime overall will decrease 50 percent, and lead to accelerated ramp up and thepotential for increased sales.

Sample gap analysis:

The cumbersome on-boarding processcurrently frustrates new hires, and overall job satisfaction ratings within 30days decrease by 20 percent, with another 15 percent in the next 30 days. Improvingthe process will lead to increased engagement and grow our talent pool.

Even if your learning anddevelopment team is abreast of the latest trends in learning technology andthey know the reputation of different solution providers, they may still runthe risk of losing support from the front lines if managers are not involved inthe process.

How to identify key stakeholders and communicate the value oftheir input

It is your role to engageyour internal stakeholders early in the process and encourage them to plan forthe future, and to paint the picture of how technology can support theorganization’s visions. Leading the charge in selecting the right fit andcommunicating early and often throughout the process will help you avoid acommon setback in successful implementation: lack of support from seniormanagement.

—ASTD Infoline, July 2012

Byidentifying all of the business areas that your solution could potentiallyimpact, you increase the likelihood that everyone will buy in to the finaldecision.

In additionto identifying end users and executive stakeholders in business units of theorganization, consider asking the following:

• Who can assistyour team in anticipating larger-scale initiatives in your organization? Thesemay impact your rollout if other, more widespread technologies or initiativesare competing for resources.

• What ishappening externally, but within your industry, that could conflict with anenterprise-wide rollout? Who is able to offer advice in this area?

Dependingon the size of your organization, you may need representation from:

• Humanresources
• Compliance
• Informationtechnology
• Internalhelp desks
• Risk/audit
• Projectmanagement
• Marketing
• Accounting
• Safety
• Quality
• Sales

Alsoselect a sample of your end users. Are there members of your organization thatwould be early adopters of the system? Gaining their support and asking forfeedback will increase the likelihood of system adoption. 

Best practices in forming the council

Once you have identified councilmembers, customize your invitation and messaging to the group to set your teamup for success.

In many organizations, individualcontributors as well as managers are being asked to do less with more. They aredoing the work of two or more people as a result of staffing cutbacks. They arealready serving on multiple project teams and workgroups. In this case, beingasked to attend additional meetings or adding to their workload could causeresistance.

In some cases, asking for theirparticipation in a way that sets a positive tone and emphasizes the importanceof their contributions may be better received.

Depending on the culture of yourcompany, you might consider:

• Getting buy-in from a prospective council member’s supervisor, andpositioning their involvement as one of being “nominated.”
• Meeting for the first time face-to-face. If another event in your organizationwill be bringing these individuals together already, such as a company meeting,adding a few hours or a half day for these and a few other participants to gettogether may be feasible.
• Send a formal communication to each member outlining the reason fortheir nomination, the value they could provide your group, and basicexpectations of what they might be asked to do.
• Sending handwritten thank you notes periodically, recognizingindividual team member’s contributions.
• Holding a kick-off meeting to come together as a group, reviewwhat you might want feedback on over the next year, and decide as a group thebest ways/dates to meet and/or communicate. This allows council members toinfluence how often and in what way meetings would be manageable for theirschedules.
• Recognizing the council members in company newsletters or yourintranet.
• Periodically sharing “testimonials” of council members toencourage interest and participation from others in the future.

An additional consideration will beyour technology vendors. If you approach potential service providers aspartners, you have a higher likelihood of gaining acceptance.

Barry Richman of EPath Learning hasover 15 years’ experience both on the client side and in a business developmentrole with learning technology companies. He suggests building a democratic methodology to supportthe selection and implementation of learning technology. For example, whenworking with a small manufacturing organization client, he asked:

• What’syour decision tree? Who needs to contribute input? When?
• What isyour span of control?
• Who doesthe technology impact? What business units? What regions of the company?

Thesequestions helped them discover that the safety, human resources, and qualitycontrol department heads would be critical to the decision process. Duringselection and implementation they used a tool that decentralized the decision-makingprocess so that everyone could weigh in equally, express their opinions, andfeel valued as decision makers.

Richmanadds that feedback from a high level as well as ground level in theorganization is critical to engaging end users as well as influencers, andallows all stakeholders to be a part of the process.

David Guralnick, president of KaleidoscopeLearning and founder of the International Conference for E-Learning in theWorkplace, shared a similar approach for a national retail chain. “We proposed learn-by-doing simulations at a time when most online trainingwas just text and page-turning. Our internal champion was able to convince theVP of HR that this was a worthwhile approach. We showed brief demonstrations ofsimilar work to give a better sense of what it would look like. Ourchampion had to go high up in the organization to get the go-ahead, and it paidoff—the simulation was very well received, and in some ways helped change thetraining culture for the client.”

Whenever possible, communicate openly about internal stakeholderconcerns with your preferred vendors. They may be able to partner with you to achievean outcome that will benefit the organization and the end user.

Good vendor partners will focus on your needs and want touncover how to help you gain buy-in with your council. They should be willingto customize product demos or data sheets in order to best address theinterests of your stakeholders.

Examples of how different stakeholders might contribute opinions

Mike Baker, myco-presenter at DevLearn, has been involved with multiple technology selectionsand implementations over the last 20 years. He advises that leveraging councilmembers as early adopters is critical to the success of any project.

However, hesays, it does come with a price. Because each member’s level of buy-in is adirect reflection of what they feel their departments/areas will get out of theproject, he suggests customizing product demos and presentations for each ofthe council members to best explain what’s in it for them. Although this mayinitially require extra time and work, it will quickly pay off as they startspreading the word throughout your organization of how beneficial the projectwill be. Then you can focus on the task at hand, and they will generate thenecessary buzz throughout your organization.

It may help toanticipate the concerns or questions that might come from differentdepartments. For example, human resources may be concerned about how newtechnology might depend on their HRIS system. The risk department might wantinformation about the background and stability of the solution provider. Andthe sales executives might want to make sure your new mobile sales app reflectsthe sales cycle and expectations for the reps in the field.

The risk associated with not involving key stakeholders

Withoutstakeholder involvement, your technology solution may drain resources, increaseorganizational risk, and frustrate learners, as well as their managers.

In addition, your team’s credibility may diminish without properselection and implementation. 

Summary

Anticipating obstacles, identifying key stakeholders,and setting expectations for internal council involvement will help you achievebuy-in and support for your learning technology efforts. Thorough and thoughtfulplanning, as well as a partnership approach with your vendors, will increasethe likelihood of your success.

Resources

Temple Smolen, GettingStarted in e-Learning: Building theBusiness Case for e-Learning, The eLearning Guild (2009) https://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?id=136&action=viewonly

Stacy Lindenberg, “Selectingand Implementing an LMS,” ASTD (2012)
https://store.astd.org/Default.aspx?tabid=167&ProductId=23168