You Know You're a Strategic Partner When the CFO Says So

For many years, learning professionals have talked about the need to have a seat at the table and be seen as a strategic business partner. But how do you achieve that goal and how do you know when you have arrived?

If you’re struggling with this very challenge, follow the lead of Emerson, which conceived, developed, and executed a global leadership development program that is achieving sustained relevant, compelling, and credible business outcomes.

During our session at the ATD 2016 International Conference & Exposition in Denver, we will explain how the team charged with global leadership development at Emerson earned its relationship as a strategic business partner that helps management create competitive advantages and sustainable success.

We will suggest that the credible evidence of the learning function’s new role is that the chief financial officer of this $24 billion multinational company is a strong supporter of learning—so much so that he recorded a call-to-action video message for the Leading at Emerson program in which he describes learning as a strategic investment and challenges participants not to let learning stop at the end of the workshop.

Three ideas were central to the transformation. First, learning must be treated as a process, rather than an event. That means moving the finish line from the end of class to performance on the job. We must stop giving credits and certificates of completion simply for attending a workshop. Learners have not completed a program until they have intentionally applied what they have learned in a way that improved their performance. The concept here is simple: The real work begins when the workshop ends.

Second, we need to align learning much more closely to the goals of the business. That is, we need to “begin with the end in mind” by defining the desired business outcomes before we start defining learning objectives or designing instruction. And we need to align our evaluation strategy to those outcomes so that we measure what actually matters to the business.

Finally, we have to take a more holistic and disciplined approach to designing a complete learning experience. That is, we have to plan what happens before and after the instruction with as much care and effort as we have traditionally applied to the coursework to ensure that the learning is transferred and used on the job. In this regard, we found The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning (the 6Ds) to be an invaluable framework. In our presentation, we will explain each of these disciplines and how they contributed to the overall result.

If you are serious about becoming a trusted advisor and a strategic business partner, join us to learn how to raise the value of global leadership development—with the CFO’s help.