In today’s workplace, professionals are becoming more and more knowledgeable. Learning and development teams are decentralized and often thrust into product development, IT, sales or engineering teams. It can be challenging to support a product manager who is not training the way people learn if he or she doesn’t have the skill set to even realize the gap. How can we make sure everybody contributes his or her expertise to increase performance through stronger training programs?
Stepping into a new team of experts is challenging. You want them to acKNOWledge your expertise, but first, they need to KNOW what you’re bringing to the table. Here are some tips to lead the leaders to welcome your expertise as a complement to their own field.
Make the Sale
One of the steps of any good sales process is to identify the need. If you want to sell your expertise, you need to know the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) factor. What do your manager and your organization have to gain by using your expertise? They are probably not interested in your expertise in the ADDIE concept. However, they might find it interesting that you can build stronger relationships with your partners, empower new employees, or solve their training problems and improve productivity.
To do: List what you have achieved using your skills and knowledge. What is your added value?
The Game of Give and Take
You won’t win all the time, and that’s OK. Your team will not accept everything you propose as if you were its savior. You have priorities, and leaders have theirs. What’s important is for you to know what their concerns are so that you can answer them. You will then have an amazing lever to drive the value of your expertise. You want to be perceived as a flexible team player. Sometimes, you’ll want to strategically let go of some points to set a collaborative dialogue – and because everybody likes a win.
To do: Choose wisely what you are willing to grant and what you are willing to let go of.
Who Is Your Client?
Is your client really the learner? Let’s face it, even if your learners are 110-percent happy with what you designed, if your manager isn’t, you won’t make the cut. Of course, you designed activities for the learners to learn, but if you used Legos, and your board members are too conservative for this level of playfulness, you won’t be able to use Legos in your trainings. You must satisfy your client if you want to last and to achieve real change in your team. Legos aren’t a big deal if you look at the big picture of what you want to achieve.
To do: Listen carefully, and never forget who the boss is.
Let the Learners Do the Talking.
Learners will let you know that they expect something different from run-of-the-mill training programs; they are great self-advocates! Modern learners are impatient and want their time away from work to be profitable. If they don’t see training as an added tool, it will be impossible for trainers to engage them.
Have you reached the point where trainers ask learners to put their phones in a box prior to the training, because if they don’t, they will tweet throughout the session (hopefully not about how bored they are)? Maybe the phone isn’t the problem. When training is designed by an honest learning professional, learners won’t even think of looking at their phone! Use their feedback, explicit or implicit, to sell your expertise.
To do: Ask trainers or see for yourself how learners react to their training, and share these facts with your manager.
Joining a new team is always a difficult experience. Working with leaders in their fields of expertise and leading them into the L&D world is even more challenging. By staying open-minded and listening attentively, you can succeed. Inch by inch, helped by your learners, you’ll lead the leaders to build solid training programs.
