In Real Life: The Best Way to Get Management Buy-In

Ten years ago, I managed the world’sbusiest roller coaster. More guests boarded my “wildest ride in the wilderness”in an hour than visit most businesses in a full day. People were a criticalpart of keeping the ride safe and efficient. So, every morning, hours beforethe first guest arrived, I would review staffing levels. We usually had justenough people to run the operation. However, on some mornings, I was greetedwith a sudden, steep dip in manpower due to … training! Taking my team members was not a good way to getmanagement buy-in!

Figure 1: No, that’s not the roller coaster I managed.But it looks amazing! (Source: Pixabay) 

Without warning, I was forced to squeak byfor an hour or two with minimal staffing and hope that nothing would go wronguntil people came back from a classroom session or eLearning lab. Needless tosay, I was not pleased. And, when people came back from training, I rarely sawa meaningful change in their performance. Sure, they had checked some boxes sowe wouldn’t appear on a delinquency list, but what value was this time bringingto my operation? Training too often became an annoying interruption rather thana meaningful enablement exercise. I could see why L&D has problems gettingmanager buy-in!

Frontline managers are the most important people in workplacelearning. They control employee time, priorities, resources, feedback, etc.Without their support, our ability to help employees is extremely limited. Manywell-planned L&D initiatives with plenty of executive buy-in stall withinthe management hierarchy once they come into conflict with day-to-dayoperational priorities. Yes, managers should recognize the value of workplacelearning. But, in real life, they are also under constant pressure to hit theirnumbers. If training is just going to get in the way, why should they make theextra effort to support it?

Here are three tactics modern L&D teamscan use to gain and sustain manager buy-in for their initiatives.

Fityour strategy into their reality

The operation will not change to suit L&Dneeds. Staffing will always be limited. Customers will always be number one.Priorities will always be shifting. They don’t have to come to us. We have togo to them. I previously shared tactics for fitting learning opportunities intothe average day, but L&D pros must also better understand the manager roleso they can apply non-disruptive tactics that meet management expectations.

Clarify the value

The reason for providing training to employeesshould never be a mystery to management. The value must be clearly articulatedin the language of the business. If it’s skill-based training, it should beconnected to key performance indicators (KPIs). If it’s compliance training, itshould be connected to potential business risk. People don’t go to work tolearn. They go to work to do a job. We must respect this, including the role ofthe manager in leading the operation.

Support them in the same ways

This is the big one! How often do you provide learning and support to themanagers from whom you want buy-in? For many organizations, “leadershiptraining” remains a structured program that managers have to wait for—oftenuntil well after they’ve started their roles. Otherwise, managers tend to onlyhear from L&D when they want something. How can they buy into our workplacelearning strategy if they’re not experiencing it for themselves?

When we talk about a modern approach totraining, such as the Modern Learning Ecosystem Framework,we should be shaping an experience that works for all levels of theorganization, including frontline management. Access to information.Performance support. Practice. Coaching. Managers can benefit from thesetactics just like frontline employees (Figure 2). And, because the same tacticsare being used to help them do their jobs better, they can more easilyrecognize the value training for their team members brings to the overallbusiness.

Figure 2: Shaping a consistentorganizational experience can unify roles through learning

After my time in roller coaster management, Imoved back into L&D, this time in a call center. If you’ve supported a callcenter, you know rule number one: don’t take people off the phones. This pushedme to reimagine my approach to match the realities of the operation. And, withmy recent experience as a frontline manager top of mind, I designed a strategy thatworked for managers too.

• We started by curatingmanager-specific resources, including best practices and stories of commonmanagement scenarios, alongside general employee information. While wecommunicated these resources to managers, they were available to everyone toensure transparency.
• Rather than push the same trainingto managers and frontline employees just for awareness, we provided managerswith specific resources to help them coach to the new behaviors expected fromtheir team members.
• We provided daily, voluntary five-minute online reinforcement scenarios to managers to drive continued knowledge growth and retention.
• We explained upcoming employeetraining initiatives by relating them to the similar tactics we were using tosupport managers. This not only made the initiatives easier to understand, butit also demonstrated consistency and reliability in our overall learningstrategy.

Managers are knowledgeable. They haveexperience. They have control over their time and priorities. But they arestill employees. They deserve opportunities to learn and improve their performance—justlike everyone else. By applying the same modern tactics to support managers aswe do frontline employees, you will not only strengthen your influence withthis critical audience, but you will also create new opportunities topositively impact the business through the people charged with leading theoperation. It is the best way to get management buy-in.