Learning & Development: Why You Should Want to “Take People with You”

This blog was co-authored by Joanne Flynn, Jim Bosserman and Debbie Gower.  This article brings together perspectives and research from three strategic performance and learning and development professionals.

What happens when you make learning a strategic investment in your people?  Discover two real life stories showing how “taking people with you” achieves business performance objectives.  

This is the third post in our series demonstrating why learning and development (L&D) is critical to an organization’s success. We’ve previously set the stage for 1) why L&D needs to elevate its game to support organizational growth and change initiatives and  2) leadership’s “make or break” role in L&D.  Today we highlight the workforce … the “arm” of the organization that executes strategy and a key differential for success.

“It starts with what we've defined as our core formula for success—building people capability. When you get the people capability right, you satisfy more customers and make more money. Many companies start out on the wrong end by thinking first about the money, but I've never seen success on a sustainable basis happen without developing people first—especially their leadership capability. You need good leadership to really build a sustainable business. …We’re using the training to drive operational excellence around the world. ”[1] David Novak, CEO of YUM! Brands

Sounds pretty insightful, doesn’t it?  To understand just how insightful, we invite you to download our latest article and learning and development case study to discover:

• What significant organizational challenges are created by the skills gap
• What are the consequences of not addressing the skills gap
• What organizational leaders should do to re-skill and up-skill their workforce

Additionally, we share 6 key observations related to workforce development issues:

• Inadequate attention is paid to workforce readiness and enablement
• Although critical to learning, on-the-job training may have serious insufficiencies during periods of change
• Change can cause challenges to routine work
• How workforce capacity for change can be increased
• Knowledge transfer improves confidence and the realization of the opportunities that change presents
• Why investment in focused, L&D can improve individual performance

How will you “take people with you” and realize both individual and organizational benefits that have been proven to impact performance?  Download our complete research article to learn more.

[1] David Novak, ASTD interview on “Taking People with You,” April 9, 2012