Learning and Development online support
CHAPTER 12
Producing and implementing L&D strategy
THE PURPOSE OF THE CHAPTER
This four-part chapter’s purpose is to help readers gain a sound general understanding of
different ways in which a strategy and strategic plan for an organisation can be produced and
implemented, together with barriers and aids to the strategy and planning processes (SLIDES 1
and 2). The notes related to the chapter are unusually long because of the group exercise
suggested towards their end (the Groundwork East Durham case). Strategy is an area with
which many L&D professionals as well as students have difficulty at both theoretical and
practical levels. Depending on the level of previous knowledge and intellectual capacity of the
particular students concerned, it could take around three class sessions to adequately explore.
ISSUES OF INTEGRATION
PROBLEMS IN ACHIEVING ‘FIT’
The topic of integration alone could take up a session. It is well-travelled ground, but none the
less important for that. All the major HR authors, most notably Legge (1995) and Hendry
(1995), have mined it thoroughly, but what matters is that students form their own views once
they have a firm enough grasp of the basics. Key problems in integration are identified in the
text and summarised on SLIDE 3.
In the text there is a brief discussion of the loose-coupled approach to achieving ‘fit’. To
expand on this, loose-coupling calls for the kind of L&D professionals indicated on SLIDE 4 –
that is to say, professionals who in their daily behaviour and activity ensure that L&D is in
alignment with the vision, mission and goals of the organisation but also adaptive to local
contingencies. Loose-coupling concentrates on the broad outcomes that L&D strategy must
achieve for the business and on the main areas of activity and change across the business and at
its different levels that these outcomes require.
This, of course, requires not simply skilled L&D professionals but a particular kind of
organisational culture – one in which L&D is accepted as a fundamental part of daily working
routine and of the responsibilities of management and of every individual. In this kind of
organisation the emphasis is on those features that were explored in Chapters 4 and 5 as
characterising a real shift from ‘training’ to ‘learning’. They are summarised on SLIDE 5.
This requirement for a fast-adaptive learning culture calls for adaptable, flexible and innovative
managers, and for leaders who can learn quickly from experience, think strategically and
identify and energetically pursue new trends, challenges and information relevant to the
company’s future direction. As seen in Chapter 17 of the book, such management and
leadership quality is quite rare, not least in the UK. It is therefore unsurprising that loosecoupled strategising, whether in the L&D field or elsewhere in the business, is so difficult to
achieve.
The Reflection at the end of this section can be adapted either for individual use leading to class
discussion or as a group exercise with presentations of findings made at plenary session. I have
produced a questionnaire in Annex 1 to these notes to aid students’ reflection.
Reflection
Reflecting on what you know about HR strategy in your organisation (or one with
which you are familiar), do you think it is linked strongly or weakly to the business?
And on what evidence are you relying to inform your assessment? Use the
questionnaire in Annex 1 to help you decide.
PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE
ACHIEVING L&D STRATEGIC INTEGRATION
To elaborate on the CIPD’s online tool referred to in this subsection of the chapter, its four
instruments take the form of self-assessment questionnaires and check-lists (CIPD, 2008). Each
instrument is supported by an explanatory commentary, a brief illustrative case study, research
references, and notes to stimulate reflection on key issues (SLIDE 6):
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Instrument 1: identifying the organisation’s strategic priorities
helps the user to identify the high-profile activities or initiatives that senior management
regard as critical for the fulfilment of organisational strategic objectives or targets, and any
planned or current change initiatives.
Instrument 2: assessing current alignment
helps the user to assess the extent to which those responsible for learning, training and
development (LTD) in the organisation are making maximum use of opportunities to coordinate and facilitate appropriate investment in learning and development processes
throughout the organisation.
Instrument 3: constructive dialogue
helps the user to assess the extent to which those responsible for LTD in the organisation
can engage effectively in opportunities for formal and informal dialogue to achieve and
maintain alignment.
Instrument 4: assessing skills and knowledge required for alignment processes
helps the user to identify how far he/she possesses those skills and areas of knowledge, and
to plan remedial action to tackle any gaps.
The Reflection that concludes this section of the chapter is probably best left as an aid to
private study. However, to clarify that last sentence in it, the ‘other suggestions’ to which I
refer are the six produced by Wright et al (2004) that follow at the start of the next section of
the chapter.
DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY PROCESS
I emphasise at the start of this section the danger of the domination of the strategy process by a
group composed of individuals with ‘like minds, like status, like experience and like views of
the business and its environment’, all, often, outdated and a threat to strategic progress. It will
be helpful at this point to remind students that in Chapter 5 I referred to the concept of the
dominant logic, proposed by Prahalad and Bettis (1986). In a subsequent updating paper the
authors explained that (Bettis and Prahalad, 1995: 8, 9) (SLIDE 7):
The dominant logic can be seen as similar to a genetic factor . ... It predisposes the firm
to certain kinds of strategic problems and often interacts with organizational systems
and structure ... in a complex way in causing these problems.
The dominant logic of an organisation filters incoming data which are then incorporated into
the strategy, systems, values, expectations and reinforced behaviour of the organisation. This
shapes the dominant logic through feedback. The authors observed that (ibid: 8):
An organization’s intelligence is the ability of the organization to learn. What an
organization is able to learn can be transformed into organizational knowledge . ... The
dominant logic puts constraints on the ability of the o rganization to learn. ... It is the
primary determinant of organizational intelligence ...
They concluded that strategic learning and unlearning of the kind involving the dominant logic
are inextricably intertwined, and that this highlights the importance of constructing
organisational events to challenge that logic. Three other excellent discourses that will help
students understand the need, in the interests of a high-quality strategy process, to find ways of
challenging rigid mindsets and encouraging unlearning and new learning are all contained in
Starkey (1996):
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C. Argyris’ chapter on ‘Skilled incompetence’ (pp82–91)
A. P. de Geus’ chapter on ‘Planning as learning’ (pp92–9)
N. M. Tichy’s chapter on ‘GE’s Crotonville: a staging-ground for corporate revolution’
(pp243–57).
I refer in the text to the use of scenario planning and include a short case example to illustrate
its value. A good additional source of information here is the report of a strategy seminar
organised jointly by the Performance Hub and Third Sector Foresight, available online at
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/3sf/index.asp?id=4908 [accessed 24 November 2008]. The report
contains concise practical notes on scenario planning, when and when not to use the process,
how to carry it out and what use to make of the material that it generates. The notes are in a
voluntary sector context but their content adapts readily to any other.
The Reflection at the end of this section of the chapter can be adapted for group work, as
follows:
Group work:
STRATEGY PROBLEMS OF AN L&D MANAGER
Purpose:
To stimulate reflection on the process of aligning L&D strategy with the business and
ensuring it can be implemented effectively.
Task:
Consider the following scenario. An organisation’s L&D manager complains that
although she produces drafts for an L&D strategy that fully supports business goals and
strategy and provides logical arguments to underpin her proposals, she still doesn’t seem
to be a strategic player in the organisation and often finds herself having to try to
implement an L&D strategy which she finds unsatisfactory. ‘Where am I failing and
what should I do?’ she asks you.
Prepare a presentation for discussion in plenary session, explaining and justifying the
advice you would give the manager.
Feedback comments
Unfortunately the questioner’s problem here is by no means uncommon. There is no easy
solution where it has built up as the result of an L&D professional working in a ‘Cinderella’
L&D function.
Before any action is taken, the facts of the situation must be established. One source of help for
the manager has already been mentioned in the chapter: the CIPD’s (2008) online practical tool.
Its four instruments will enable the L&D manager to assess with a reasonable degree of
objectivity how far her L&D activity is in fact well aligned with the organisation’s strategic
goals, to determine whether she and her staff are effective not only in the tasks but the
processes involved in aligning L&D with business and HR strategies, and to decide whether she
and they possess the skills, knowledge and credibility that those processes require. Once she
has subjected her assumptions and her fears to evidence-based analysis she will be in a better
position to draw up an action plan (which, again, the tool will help her to do) to tackle root
causes of her problems. None of this will transform her overnight into a ‘strategic player’, nor
will it instantly endow her with the authority and know-how to disregard instructions to
implement strategy that she personally believes to be ‘unsatisfactory’. However, it will help to
separate fact from gut feel and provide her with a more reliable picture of likely causes of her
difficulties.
Another approach would be to advise the L&D manager to read Beer and Eisenstat’s (2000)
article, also referred to in the chapter, on the six ‘silent killers’ of strategy and how to deal with
them. This article, like that by Wright et al (2004), places a major emphasis on getting the
processes right when developing any kind of strategy and planning for its implementation. Both
articles reflect an ‘outside-in’ strategic planning approach (as explained in Chapters 7 and 8 of
my text).
Whatever advice is given, it would be useful to conclude with a list of key skills that this L&D
manager, like any other, needs as a ‘strategic player’. The CIPD’s practical tool provides one
list. I have suggested one of my own on SLIDE 8.
L&D STRATEGISING: LESSONS FOR THE PROFESSIONALS
MOVING FORWARD
At an early point in the chapter I refer to Hirsh and Tamkin’s (2005) case-based research
identifying problems in integrating L&D and HR strategies and practices. To reinforce the
advice given in this final section, it will be helpful for students to consider the suggestions
those researchers make about how to strengthen the vertical integration of training and
development activity. Here is an extract from their 2005 article that appeared in People
Management:
Practical tips for strengthening the business alignment of training and development
(T&D) activity include:
 One-to-one dialogues between T&D managers and unit line managers on business
and skill issues and training plans. These must be both at corporate/divisional and at
local level.
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Collective management processes at different levels to reach formal agreement on
T&D priorities and budgets, or service agreements.
Involvement of functional leadership (eg heads of profession and skill owners) in
setting learning priorities for key functional or professional groups across the
business.
Central funding to support the learning and development aspects of major change
projects, and T&D people assigned early to these project teams.
Inclusion of learning objectives in personal objectives for employees, managers and
T&D professionals. For managers these should include objectives for the
development of staff. For T&D professionals, objectives should be results-based (ie
learning achieved) rather than input-based (ie courses run).
The T&D function needs to give a quick and professional response to line managers
wanting a bespoke intervention. This response requires some flexible T&D resource,
whether from a central organisational development team or local T&D business
partners.
Whenever a training need is identified, the T&D function should have a constructive
yet challenging discussion with line managers about why a particular training
intervention is desired, what it should achieve and how it will improve business
performance.
In managing T&D resources day-to-day against overall objectives and priorities, it
helps if the training function maintains clear information on the projects and
activities in which it is involved, their timing and resources.
A strong loop is needed from the delivery of training, through evaluation and back
into future T&D planning and design.
Source: Extract from Hirsh and Tamkin (2005) People Management, 8 December, p.33. With the permission
of the publishers.
Finally, it is worth emphasising three points.
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A strategy of high and continuous investment in the people’s learning and development
tends mainly to emerge from an inbuilt philosophy held by top management about the value
of people as organisational assets.
Certainly such a strategy requires the total commitment of top management, and relies on
the abilities of line managers to play the leading part in organising that development.
Because the investment is a long-term one, results will become evident through time rather
than being capable of immediate identification. Where businesses are supported by shortterm, high-interest loans coming from financial institutions, the barriers to this kind of
investment can be great: shareholders will be looking for early gains, and if the business is
in a highly volatile market this will put additional pressures on those arguing for the tying
up of money and other resources in major L&D expenditure.
L&D strategies and plans must be realistic.
For a variety of reasons it can sometimes be more productive at least initially to focus on
short-term, relevant, well-designed and well-delivered training, which aims to give people
immediately useable, job-specific skills in the areas of obvious need. Success in those areas
often leads to a greater credibility of training, making possible a movement into everwidening areas of learning and development.
There must be appropriate and effective measurement of L&D outcomes.
Principles to guide the setting and measuring of the outcomes of L&D strategy and plans
are outlined on SLIDE 9.
As a conclusion to the subject matter covered in Chapter 12, and depending on available time
and on students’ learning needs, some tutors may find the following group work helpful. It is
quite demanding and will probably need two sessions, with some interim work by the students
in their own time.
The group work below is based on a real-life case. I am grateful to Groundwork East Durham’s
Executive Director, Peter Richards, for permission to publish the information on which the
charity’s training and development strategy for 2007–8 was based, and to Groundwork’s HR
and Special Projects Co-ordinator Jennifer Cameron for supplying me with both the
information and the strategy.
Group work:
PUTTING TOGETHER A TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR
A LOCAL CHARITY
Purpose:
To develop some practical understanding of components of a strategy and plan to guide
the training, learning and development of employees in a small organisation.
Contextual information (late 2006): Groundwork East Durham
Groundwork East Durham works in partnership with local people and agencies,
contributes to the economic development of the local area and facilitates sustainable
regeneration. It was established as a charitable trust in 1986 as part of the Groundwork
Federation which comprises about 40 such trusts across England, each, like Groundwork
East Durham, a limited company and independent charity. All the following information
relates to Groundwork East Durham only.
GROUNDWORK EAST DURHAM: VISION, MISSION AND CORE VALUES
Groundwork vision is ‘a society of sustainable communities which are vibrant, healthy
and safe, which respect the local and global environment and where individuals and
enterprise prosper’. Its specific mission is ‘building sustainable communities in areas of
need through joint environmental action’. It employs around 32 staff and works with
partners to support communities in need, and improve the quality of people’s lives, their
prospects and potential and the places where they live, work and play.
The charity’s core values relate to:
 equality and diversity
 innovation and learning
 subsidiarity
 integrity and professionalism
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
partnership
sustainability.
THE TRUST’S NEW CORPORATE GOALS
Groundwork faces two new challenges during the period 2007–2008:
 the extension of its charitable area to cover not only East Durham but also the
borough of Hartlepool and city of Sunderland
 in the light of this extension, the need to establish changing relationships with
existing partners and develop relationships with new partners, maintaining the Trust
presence within a changing policy context.
To enable it to meet these challenges the Board has set three corporate goals for the
2007–8 period:
 to develop and diversify the approach to the market and increase income. This will
involve producing a three-year marketing and communication plan
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to change the organisation’s structure to improve effectiveness, efficiency and
viability in view of the extension of its scope. This will involve refreshing
governance with existing partners and revising, commissioning and developing a
programme with new partners
to ensure proven excellence in delivery. This will involve developing a project
management guide and an evaluation process.
The charity faces a number of challenges in achieving these goals. It must enhance its
‘core competencies’ and develop what the Trust is really good at doing. It must be
proactive in helping to achieve future developments and to support change, and fastreactive in tackling problems arising from everyday operations and from organisational
and individual performance deficiencies. Crucial needs with L&D implications include:
 training, learning and development that are firmly linked to business outcomes and
evaluated against them
 effective talent management
 excellent organisational capability to manage change
 employees fully committed to their own continuous learning and development
 improved marketing expertise at the charity.
TRAINING, LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT AT THE CHARITY
Groundwork has seven core values that guide its training, learning and development
activity:
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Our employees are assets, rather than costs.
All our employees have potential to develop, so learning and development should be
invested in all employees, not just those who are going to move into senior
management.
Continuous learning should be embedded in each employee’s daily work experience.
We assist our employees to become qualified and accredited.
In managing careers in this organisation we recognise a need to reach a balance
between meeting individual and organisational needs.
We want our employees to own and drive their development, supported by their line
managers.
We strive to be open and honest in discussing potential and development with each
employee.
T&D responsibilities at Groundwork East Durham are shared between line managers and
employees, with the HR and Special Projects Co-ordinator providing specialist expertise
and support including guidance on responses to identified training need. She also sources
training in terms both of external courses and of internal job experience. Line managers
act as coaches and mentors to their staff, who are expected to take prime ownership of
their training and development.
The charity has a performance management process that links performance appraisal to
business planning through joint dialogue between managers and individual staff. The
purpose of this dialogue is to identify training and development needs to meet business
targets and inform personal development planning. Training is provided with the aim of
ensuring that managers and their teams understand and are competent in the performance
management process. A competency framework for all posts was introduced a year ago.
Groundwork also aims to retain the Investors in People Standard.
Task:
Groundwork East Durham is a real-life environmental charity in the North-East of
England (http://www.groundwork-eastdurham.org.uk/). Until 2007 it did not have a
formal strategy related to the training, learning and development of its people, but by late
2006 its Executive Director and its HR and Special Projects Co-ordinator agreed that one
was needed. Imagine that you are an L&D consultant whose advice they have sought in
this connection. Your task is twofold:
1 Drawing on the information supplied above, draft a training and development (T&D)
strategy document for the two senior executives to present to Groundwork’s board. Its
purpose is to propose T&D goals and strategy for the year 2007–2008 that will
support Groundwork’s corporate goals for that period. The strategy should be
informed by the charity’s core values and your document should include an outline
T&D plan to implement the strategy.
2 Provide and justify in the document any additional advice you think should be
conveyed to the board relating to the proposals it contains.
Feedback comments
Each group should make a presentation of its proposed strategy in plenary session. When the
strategies are being discussed, group members should be asked what they have learned during
the group work about the process of producing a strategy, as well as about what a strategy
document should cover. It will be helpful to remind them of the ‘silent killers’ of strategy
discussed in Chapter 12 to see if any of these emerged, and if so, how they were tackled.
It should be emphasised that there is no ‘best format’ to follow in producing a strategy and
plan. As the following example shows, given the right kind of information the production of a
strategy document is more a matter of editing and structuring that information appropriately
than anything else. What matters most is a clear, straightforward document that speaks the
language of the particular business, shows understanding of the context in which strategy must
operate, and proposes a strategy that is relevant and achievable in that context.
The unshaded area in the document below is the T&D strategy and outline plan that was
actually produced (in reality without the help of an external consultant) and was approved by
Groundwork East Durham’s board. I precede this with an introductory (shaded) section in order
to illustrate how that strategy could have been presented on paper.
GROUNDWORK EAST DURHAM:
A DRAFT T&D STRATEGY and PLAN
Introduction
This document is a first draft only. Before finalising any strategy and plan for T&D
activity over the coming period we need to hold fuller consultation with our staff and
with relevant external stakeholders in order to gain their perceptions and expectations
about needs that our T&D strategy should tackle, and their active commitment to its
implementation.
The document has four components (SLIDE 10):
1 Groundwork’s vision, mission and core values
These provide the essential framework for all our strategies, including
T&D.
2 Groundwork’s corporate goals for 2007–2008
These provide the outcomes that all our strategies, including T&D, must combine
to achieve by the end of 2008.
3 Proposed T&D goals and strategy for Groundwork for 2007–2008
These show the outcomes that T&D activity must achieve by the end of 2008 and
the route proposed to achieve them.
4 Outline T&D plan for 2007–8
This suggests main elements of a T&D plan to achieve T&D strategic
objectives during 2007–8.
THE TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY PROPOSAL
GROUNDWORK’S VISION, MISSION AND CORE VALUES (SLIDE 11)
Our vision, the ‘Big Idea’ that unites and inspires all of us at the Trust in a shared
purpose, is ‘a society of sustainable communities which are vibrant, healthy and safe,
which respect the local and global environment and where individuals and enterprise
prosper’.
Our mission related to this vision is ‘building sustainable communities in areas of need
through joint environmental action’. Working in partnership is key to the achievement
of this mission.
Our core organisational values underpin the Trust’s culture and embody its mission.
They relate to achieving:
 equality and diversity
 innovation and learning
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subsidiarity
integrity and professionalism
partnership
sustainability.
GROUNDWORK’S STRATEGIC GOALS, 2007–8 (SLIDE 12)
Groundwork faces two new challenges during 2007–8:
 the extension of the charitable area to include the borough of Hartlepool and city of
Sunderland
 the need to establish changing relationships with existing partners and develop
relationships with new partners, maintaining the Trust presence within a changing
policy context.
To enable it to respond effectively to these challenges, Groundwork has three strategic
goals for that period:
 to develop and diversify the approach to the market and increase income. To
implement this will involve developing a three-year marketing and communication
plan
 to change Groundwork’s structure to improve effectiveness, efficiency and viability.
To implement this will involve refreshing governance with existing partners and
revising commissioning and developing a programme with new partners
 to ensure excellence in delivery so that the Trust can evidence its impact. To
implement this will involve developing a project management guide and an
evaluation process.
GROUNDWORK’S T&D STRATEGY AND OBJECTIVES, 2007–8 (SLIDE 13)
Groundwork’s T&D strategy is to support the mission and values of the Trust and aid the
achievement of its strategic objectives through focused learning and development that
adds value to the Trust and its people.
T&D strategic objectives for 2007–8
T&D strategy at Groundwork has three strategic objectives for 2007–8, supporting the
Trust’s corporate goals for that period:
 to link all training to business outcomes, in order to ensure that it adds value to the
organisation
 to ensure continuous learning and development for all employees in order to enhance
Groundwork’s capability to manage change and to innovate

to identify and develop the enthusiasm and skills of outstanding employees in order
to foster, retain and fully utilise Groundwork’s ‘talent’.
OUTLINE T&D PLAN, 2007–8 (SLIDE 14)
In order to achieve these three strategic objectives, the main elements of Groundwork’s
T&D plan for the year will be:
 developing a competency framework for all posts
 linking the performance appraisal system to that framework and thence to the
business planning system
 ensuring that managers and their teams have the training, experience and incentives
to ensure that they fully understand and effectively implement this new approach to
managing for performance
 providing priority training and other learning processes in the areas of:
change management
marketing
team-building
 developing an appropriate approach to, and process for, evaluation of T&D in order
to identify and build on its key outcomes for the business

maintaining the Investors in People Standard (SLIDE 15) and BS8555 in order to
ensure a business-focused, high-quality and consistent approach for all
Groundwork’s T&D activity, and to build a strong T&D brand for Groundwork.
Implementing T&D Strategy at Groundwork East Durham (SLIDE 16)
In order to ensure effective implementation of T&D Strategy at Groundwork, it is
essential to ensure that:
 the responsibilities for T&D are split between line managers, individual employees
and the HR staff
 top management and HR practices help, motivate and reward line managers to act as
coaches and mentors to members of their teams, and to work jointly with each
individual to identify and meet his/her T&D needs
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every employee is encouraged and enabled to take primary ownership of his/her
training, learning and development
the HR function provides guidance and advice on responses to identified T&D needs
and sources activity to respond to them, either in terms of external courses or
arrangement of internal job experience.
As a final point, it may be of interest to know that Marks & Spencer has become a corporate
sponsor of the Groundwork Federation and has pledged to give a proportion of the profit from
the 5p charge that M&S has introduced for its food carry-bags. This funding will be used to
create or improve ‘greener living spaces’ such as parks, play areas and gardens in local
communities around the UK. It is expected that 40 neighbourhoods will benefit in 2008/09 and
East Durham has already received £25,000 from this source to support one of its local projects.
CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS
Review Question 1
It is quite common in organisations to find impressive L&D strategies that fail at
the implementation stage. What would you recommend – and why – to ensure that
L&D strategy in an organisation is put into practice effectively?
Feedback comments
Many failed this question when it was set by the CIPD in a national L&D Generalist exam
because they merely trotted out mantra about horizontal and vertical alignment without any
attempt to explain the kind of difficulties into which both can run and how those problems
might be avoided. Such answers essentially concerned the production of strategy rather than its
implementation.
Common causes for strategy failing in the workplace include:
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a poor strategic decision-making process that stops at producing strategy instead of also
making implementation plans
line managers who subvert strategies for a variety of causes
lack of key performance indicators and other ways of monitoring and measuring progress in
implementing strategy.
To ensure improved implementation in an organisation it would be necessary first to identify
exactly where the gaps between the intended and the real lie, and their causes. The following
are therefore suggestions for what may prove to be appropriate action once the necessary
evidence has been collected and analysed:
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Get the active support of top management to produce an L&D strategy that is flexible, and
can continually adapt to changing challenges and pressures in the environment.
Get the active support of line management in both suggesting to top management
components for L&D strategy and in ensuring that L&D plans can and will be carried out in
the workplace.
Seek to integrate what you do in L&D activity with what is done more widely in HR
practices, but do not expect that it will be easy. Look for practices that will support your
planned L&D strategy, and for any that will make strategy difficult or impossible to deliver.
In the latter case either strategy or practices will have to give. L&D strategy can only be
delivered effectively when there are no serious barriers to it on the ground.
Develop political skills and political allies, because strategy doesn’t operate on a purely
rational basis – the more contentious are the issues with which it deals, the more politicised
the whole strategising process will become.
Review Question 2
Assess whether L&D activity in your organisation, or one with which you are
familiar, has achieved vertical and horizontal integration, identifying reasons for
its high or low level of ‘fit’.
Feedback comments
Typical weaknesses in exam answers to this kind of question include the following:
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failure to tackle both parts of the question (‘assess’ and ‘identify’)
ignoring the instruction to relate the answer to ‘your organisation’ (or equivalent)
naive and generalised points
purely descriptive answers without evaluative content
unsubstantiated claims in relation to ‘your organisation’ practices.
Here is an example of an answer provided by a candidate in the CIPD exam in which this
question appeared in the ‘answer 7 out of 10 questions in an hour’ section of the L&D
Generalist paper. It achieved a good mark for having provided, in the short time available, a
thoughtful, insightful response, well focused on the question and with significant evaluative
content.
My organisation is a medium-sized law firm. There is a small HR team which includes
one dedicated L&D practitioner.
L&D activity in my organisation is loosely aligned with wider HR priorities, largely
through the effective teamwork in the HR team itself. However, there is at present no
formal HR strategy in place, so the goals are less clearly articulated than might be the
case if a strategy was in place. The main HR goals are currently focused on two of the
firm’s main operational goals, quality and growth.
In L&D terms the strongest link is in terms of quality. This is illustrated by the
significant involvement in maintaining Investors in People (IiP) accreditation, alongside
the Law Society’s Lexcel quality standard. There is a less direct link to the HR goals
around growth, which are mostly focused on recruitment to grow the size of the firm and
expand the areas of legal practice. The L&D input is therefore following on to provide
excellent induction, job-related training and further development for recruited staff to
fulfil their potential.
However, L&D has a clearer link to the wider organisational strategy, through detailed
team development plans, designed and updated regularly in partnership with senior
managers in each area of the business. This aligns well with HR’s role in supporting the
business effectively, but also highlights a weakness in the HR approach which is less
closely in partnership with the key areas of the business.
ANNEX 1
What is my organisation’s approach to L&D?
Give a score of 1 to each question where the statement made is more true than it is false of
your organisation. Add up the scores for each section, and enter them on the ‘Total’ lines. To
calculate a final overall total, see the notes that follow the questionnaire.
Section A
Development of people in my organisation seems to be
Score 1 or
leave blank
regarded by top management as a cost, not a value-adding process
not linked to business goals
a luxury, to be reduced or scrapped in difficult economic times
driven by HR specialists, with little line management responsibility
mainly about training rather than learning
viewed generally as something ‘they do to us’, not ‘owned by us’
reliant mainly on training courses or picking the job up as you go along
Total Section A score
(if any, these are effectively minus points)
Section B
Development of people in my organisation seems to be
characterised by a systematic approach
linked to individual targets and to business goals
a basic responsibility of line managers
linked explicitly to the needs of the job
linked explicitly to appraisal of performance
done by ‘them and us’ – a feeling of shared ownership
focused mainly on knowledge and skills
Total Section B score
Section C
Development of people in my organisation seems to be
seen as essential to the survival and advancement of the business
aligned with longer-term corporate goals
embedded in a formal L&D corporate policy and in business planning activity
a major responsibility of every line manager, both in the planning and reviewing
of training and development of their people
linked to individual needs through personal development planning and emphasis
on personal initiative
focused on knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
a process tolerant of errors, which are seen as vehicles for learning
Total Section C score
After completing the questionnaire,
add together the Section B and Section C scores:
list the Section A score:
subtract the second line from the first line for the FINAL TOTAL:
Interpretation of section scores
Section A (maximum possible points: 7) The higher the number of these ‘minus’ points, the
more fragmented is L&D likely to be in your organisation. Any impact it makes on business
results seems to be more by accident than by design, and individuals are unlikely to have much
faith or interest in their training and wider development.
Section B (maximum possible points: 7) The higher the score, the more formalised and
business-led L&D is likely to be in your organisation. A high score suggests it is perceived as
making an impact on short-term business goals but not making any clear contribution to the
long-term growth of the business. Individuals are probably motivated by training and
development, regarding them as valuable for themselves and for their unit.
Section C (maximum possible points: 7) The higher the score, the more strategically focused
L&D is likely to be in your organisation. A high score suggests that L&D is seen by the leaders
of the business as essential in giving competitive advantage and in securing the growth of the
business. It is therefore likely to be a central preoccupation of management at corporate and at
divisional/unit levels. Individuals are probably self-directed in their learning, and development
is likely to be seen as an integral part of their daily activity in the workplace.
Interpretation of final total scores
Overall total score (maximum possible points: 14) The meaning of a total score depends on
how that score is made up. The following are therefore generalised guidelines only.
A score of between –7 and –1 suggests that L&D is a fragmented activity in your organisation,
adding negligible value to the business and lacking business focus or strategic direction.
A score of between 1 and 4 suggests that L&D is beginning to be business-led, but that there
are significant gaps between what is needed here and what is actually being achieved. The gaps
may be at corporate level, or it may be that corporate strategy is in place but is not being
effectively implemented at divisional/unit levels.
A score of between 5 and 7 suggests that L&D is a business-led process, although not making
much long-term contribution to the organisation’s growth. This may be because it is not
expected to do so, or because there are no processes or systems in place to ensure that it does.
A score of between 8 and 11 indicates that L&D has a clear long-term, strategic role, although
there are gaps between the contribution it could make here and what is actually being achieved.
The gaps could be at corporate, divisional or operational levels of the organisation – or in
particular sections of the organisation.
A score of between 12 and 14 indicates that L&D is both business-led and strategic in your
organisation, and that it makes a powerful and recognised contribution to immediate business
goals and to the long-term growth of the organisation and individuals.
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