Do youhave the juice?
No, not the juice in the graphic. I’mreferring to the influence needed to get things done.
In real life, many L&D pros don’t haveenough juice. This makes the job incredibly difficult in a complexorganization. When it comes to large-scale learning ecosystem evolution, just forget about it if you don’t have thejuice.
So the question becomes “How do you get thejuice?” While there’s a pile of tactics you can use to foster trust andinfluence across your business, I always start with a simple recommendation.It’s number one on my recent suggested L&D strategy list: Solve a smallbut meaningful problem.
Remember that the juice flows in alldirections within your organization. This means you need more than executivebuy-in—it’s great and all, but it ultimately won’t get you where you need togo. You need frontline employee buy-in, too. So, rather than try to improveyour influence with everyone at the same time, start with the people who really know what it’s like to do the jobevery day.
What is a “small but meaningful problem,” andhow do you solve it as an L&D pro? Here are three examples from my pastcorporate learning roles that each had huge impact on my future ability to getthings done.
The conference room map
How many times have you been unable to find ameeting room? This can be super challenging if you work on a massive campus orvisit satellite offices. I experienced this problem during the first few weeksin one past role. The room names were all very similar, the rooms lacked anyidentifying characteristics, and they were often hidden around corners. I wasconstantly bugging people or running up and down stairs after walking into thewrong room.
One day, I made a comment about my conferenceroom problem to a peer. She casually showed me an Excel spreadsheet she hadmade complete with room names, locations, capacities, and equipment. Eureka!Problem solved, except she was the only person with access to the spreadsheet.As is my nature, I immediately posted the map to the location’s Yammer group.Within days, people in the elevator were calling me “Conference Room Guy.” Fastforward a few weeks. When I came calling on these previously unknown folks, Ihad an established reputation as a helpful partner—just because I shared theconference room map.
The sales list
Much of my early time in L&D was spentdeveloping content. I shot video, built eLearning modules, and constructedPowerPoints. One day, I had an offhand discussion with a member of the salesteam. He mentioned a list salespeople were required to reference during everycall, and that it was often out-of-date. This caused confusion for potentialcustomers and frustration for employees. I wasn’t familiar with the salesprocess, so I started asking around about the list. It turned out that only oneperson, from the home office, was allowed to update the list.
Looking to be helpful during my early days on thejob, I called the person to ask about the process. She acknowledged thefrustration and pointed to the company communication process as the realproblem. Apparently, sending an email with the new version to the entireorganization required planning and approval. If she could push the informationdirectly to employees, the list could be updated every day. Fast forward a fewmonths, and the sales list became the cornerstone of my shared knowledgeinitiative (aka the wiki). Once the list was digital, she could update it withease, and employees had immediate access to new information. Seventy thousandpages were eventually published in the wiki during my time with the company,but it was the sales list that demonstrated the power of shared knowledge andtriggered immediate engagement in the new platform.
The comment box
My organization was going through anear-constant state of change. Processes were in flux. Products were beingadded and changed. And employees were expected to keep up and deliver on expectations.However, every time a major change was implemented, mass confusion would erupton the day of. Regardless of how much training or documentation was provided,employees would get confused, managers would provide misinformation, andcustomers would suffer. Sure, my learning content was being completed andreceiving positive feedback, but it wasn’t solving the day-of problems.
After hearing the complaints during projectafter project, I made a simple suggestion: What if, during the days leading upto and following a major change, employees were told to go to a specific wikipage and ask their questions via the comment box? At the top of the page, wecould place the hours when a subject matter expert would be available to answerin real time. This would eliminate misinformation and reduce the need forduplicate streams of questioning. And, once a question was answered, we coulduse the new details to improve our reference information.
On the first day of using this idea, wereceived over 200 comments. Everyone received an answer immediately. No emailchains. No games of telephone. We established a timely, direct connectionbetween SME and employee. Within a week, the reference information for theproject was so much stronger that the commenting subsided. We learned how tobetter support the next project, all because we let employees ask questions inthe open and reserved time with a subject matter expert.
Sowhat is your “small but meaningful problem”? What do you constantly hearemployees discussing, and what can you do about it using your L&Dresources? Solving one small problem will demonstrate your willingness to helpand give you some of the juice—the influence—you’ll need to address biggerchallenges in the future.
