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Gaining Top Management Support
Key to gaining top management support for e-learning initiatives and projects is to integrate the evaluation and prioritization of those initiatives as an integral part of the organization's standard investment planning process. Many organizations who have been successful in gaining top management support have implemented rigorous evaluation processes to link their portfolio of potential investments to longer-term strategic and financial goals. Chapter 2.
Figure 3-1: Strategy Formulation
Historically, traditional learning projects and proposed investments have been handled below the radar screen in the annual investment planning cycle, and may actually have been budgeted in a decentralized mode to departmental or regional tactical budgets. However, the future appears to be more promising. The challenge for learning departments is to elevate the visibility of e-learning as it relates to the strategic charter of the organization. This requires mapping standard criteria for learning initiatives to those which will relate more closely to e-learning and providing top management with a better understanding as to how e-learning initiatives can support firm strategy. By integrating the e-learning initiatives with specific strategic and financial goals, and aligning the benefits of those projects with high priority strategic agendas, the learning organization can elevate e-learning projects to a strategic level of evaluation, and ensure that they are regarded as a highly relevant part of the planning process.
Figure 3-2 illustrates the steps to gaining management support, where the business initiatives identified by the executives, drive the selection of learning programs. To promote the strategic viability of each e-learning project and initiative with management, the learning team needs to revisit the questions in each of the circles in Figure 3-1, with e-learning in focus.
Figure 3-2: e-Learning Investment Decision-Making Process
"Growing market traction on the part of large technology firms such as IBM Global Services, Oracle, and SAP, professional services firms like IBM Global Services, Accenture, Deloitte Consulting, and KPMG, and publishers including Thomson, Pearson,Wiley & Sons, is providing e-learning with more visibility among senior management of large enterprises."
IDC 2003
Do the Company Executives Understand the Impact the Projects Have on Value?
Learning, and in particular e-learning, projects may not tie as clearly to value in the minds of top executives as other corporate initiatives, such as those that link closely to increased revenues, decreased costs, and reduced turnover. The concept of value is one that differs for every organization, but clearly e-learning initiatives must demonstrate a supportable return on investment (ROI) from a quantitative perspective. The investment outlay required for each e-learning initiative must at least satisfy the minimum level of ROI required for implementation of any investment project, regardless of its nature, from an organizational perspective. Value, for most e-learning initiatives, can be categorized in three different areas as seen in Figure 3-3.
Figure 3-3: Measurement Categories for e-Learning Initiatives
The value of each of the components in the categories in Figure 3-3 is highly dependent on the scope and aggressiveness of the specific initiative; however, in every case, both qualitative and quantitative value, needs to be included in the ROI analysis and value equation. Reduced expenses alone are obviously the most easily understood and quantifiable. In addition, reduced expenses clearly will result in a definitive impact on the bottom line. However, it is also possible and imperative to quantify the productivity and employee commitment gained through e-learning initiatives to gain management and leadership support.
In this total valuation of the contribution of e-learning, it is equally important to assess each initiative's impact on the top line. Jay Cross of the Internet Time Group provides his view of the top line as follows, “What's on the top line? Sales. Revenues. Out-surviving the competition. Increasing market share. Building brand. Staying in the game and holding on long enough to score. Reinventing the business (Jay Cross 2001).” With the renewed focus on the investment considerations for learning, this is a prime time for e-learning proponents to directly tie their initiatives to this new thinking.
How Can Disparate Types of Projects be Evaluated?
What constitutes success for an e-learning project? The answer may be different for each e-learning initiative; but it is critical to be clear at the outset how your definition of success criteria will be employed, in addition to the measurements that will be used to evaluate the level of success and communicate it to management. Typical evaluation criteria for e-learning may include:
Percent of employees taking at least one e-learning course within the first year of rollout
Total e-learning hours taken within the first year of rollout
Percent of classroom hours replaced with e-learning hours
Learner satisfaction with content (based on quantitative evaluation scores)
Learner performance post-e-learning experience (based on job evaluation scores and performance reviews)
Repeat e-learners
Increased levels of compliance with industry standards, such as Capability Maturity Model (CMM), IS09000
Speed to retooling in specific high priority technology areas
Reduced employee turnover
Improved recruiting rates and candidate feedback
Technical issues associated with e-learning launch
There are many other potential evaluation criteria that could be used to assess any given e-learning initiative. Regardless of the criteria, the important thing is to:
Identify the criteria as part of the investment planning process
Identify the metrics to be used to measure performance against those criteria
Ensure buy-in of those measures as evaluation criteria for the success of the e-learning initiative
See Chapter 6 of this Fieldbook for more specific information on how to measure e-learning initiatives and results.
Many major content and technology e-learning providers are highly aware of the need to provide demonstrable success, and now provide product features and services specifically geared to assist learning organizations in their compilation and reporting of required effectiveness measures. This includes such features such as:
Pre-assessment and post-assessment comparison metrics
Multiple evaluation criteria, such as usability, accessibility, and relevance, for collecting user feedback
Highly flexible reporting mechanisms
All contribute significantly to the effective evaluation of initiative or project success factors. While e-learning evaluation criteria may be radically different from those used to measure the effectiveness of other types of projects, once they have been reviewed and approved by top management, they can and will provide a barometer for the success of e-learning projects against others competing for parallel funding and resources.
Do Current, Planned, or Proposed Initiatives Align with Strategic Objectives?
Most significant business unit strategic initiatives and campaigns have an enormous impact, in some way, shape or form, on one of the organization's most important assets—its human capital. Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) and human resource development professionals have recognized this impact, and have been able to demonstrate that learning, and in particular e-learning, is a strategic enabler to achieving goals such as aggressive growth, expanding client readiness, providing internal and external certification, and giving credibility and visibility to practitioner toolsets and capabilities as they embark on new and mission-critical endeavors. Larry Scott, Deloitte Consulting, Global Director, Strategy & Operations Practice, has said that "Learning has not only enabled us to build mission critical skills and knowledge, but also to foster significant changes in practice direction. We launched an important initiative to develop the best strategy learning available today, fostering a common culture, approach, and skill set to support the development of a world-class practice."
While e-learning initiatives evaluated on their own merits sometimes filter into high priority development queues, those that are integrally linked to high priority strategic initiatives, and viewed as essential for the success of those initiatives, have a much greater potential of surviving investment reprioritization and restructuring efforts. In addition, if done well, there is the potential to reap major benefits by riding on the coat-tails of successful projects, ultimately making true believers out of key organizational stakeholders. Making e-learning initiatives visible on the strategic organizational radar screen is not an insignificant task. Key activities, which may help in this process include: a strategy, high visibility projects, communication, and celebration of success.
"Consider your business culture when implementing e-learning. It can be tough to move learners to e-learning, particularly among sales and marketing personnel who are people-oriented.Start small and provide a lot of chances to be exposed to the system."*
* See Chapter 17: 3Com
Select a strategy that will make everyone successful. Especially in the initial launch of the organization's e-learning strategy, it is critical that the CLO and their team adopt a win/win strategy to ensure the success of initial projects, while constructing the underlying e-learning culture and infrastructure. A win/win strategy includes such components as the right vendors, the right projects, the right team, and the right motivation for embarking on this course. A cohesive strategy for making an e-learning culture successful in your own unique organization is absolutely critical to its success in the long run.
Select a high visibility, strategic pilot initiative for your launch into e-learning. Characteristics of the pilot project should include:
A relatively short duration program
A high probability of success
Support for the work of e-learning-proficient stakeholders (if possible)
A finite and well-selected audience
Focus on discrete and well-defined goals and success measures The successful implementation of the pilot project can provide a launching pad from which to publicize the achievement of critical milestones. It can also be used to bring additional stakeholders on board when it has been demonstrated that e-learning can be a strategic enabler of other broader and more extensive strategic initiatives.
Communicate, communicate, communicate E-learning requires a huge mindset adjustment at all levels of the organization, but particularly at the executive and management levels. By properly inculcating this new learning culture at the executive level, and enabling top executives to become self-appointed champions for the e-learning initiative, you significantly increase your chances of success for all of your e-learning initiatives. When communication, acceptance, and endorsement start at the CEO level, most business unit groups and end users, are quick to follow. E-enable your management team. Sell them not only on the concept, but let them experience the reality; and let them become the champions of this continually evolving technology.
Celebrate and publicize initial successes Success, at any level, is something that everyone wants to be part of, and take credit for. Once the initial pilot project is complete and measurable success shown, success needs to be communicated at all levels of the organization. Ideally, communication of success should trickle top-down, from the CEO level down to other major business unit stakeholders, and then on to their constituents, generating enthusiasm for the concept and the results, and hopefully evoking additional requests for subsequent projects. The learning team, associated strategic business unit teams, and ultimately the end users impacted by initial projects, should all share in the organization's ability to transform the learning strategy to include e-learning as a critical component.
"One lesson learned is to start smaller and do a pilot.Doing something to roll out to the entire 90,000 people on the first shot is a bad idea.I think you need to start with smaller groups; get some successes; and use those success stories to sell it to everybody else.That has worked really well for us."*
Scott Sutker *See Chapter 12:Wachovia Corporation
Are We Agile Enough to Make Investment Decisions Continual and Dynamic?
Organizational agility continues to be a priority for most forward thinking, progressive organizations, particularly in terms of their ability to quickly respond to economic, market, technological and sociopolitical changes and trends. This emphasis on agility and compressed response time, impacts e-learning initiatives in two separate and distinct ways. First, e-learning can ultimately provide unprecedented support for this climate of change; and second, the ability to accomplish this is very dependent on the flexibility of the resources in the learning organization itself!
A well executed e-learning strategy can provide unparalleled benefits in extending the global reach, retooling and refitting capabilities, and achieving rapid time-to-market required by fast-breaking, changing organizational priorities and strategies.
Historically, to incorporate a major shift in firm strategy or priority into traditional learning content, and communicating this change to a global population would be an extremely slow, costly, and disjointed effort. One of the major advantages of an e-learning-based strategy is the benefit to the organization of being able to rapidly modify a centralized repository of content, and to distribute that knowledge to a widely dispersed audience using a range of existing e-learning technologies.
The efficacy of the e-learning strategy in supporting the organization's strategic repurposing and repositioning activities is, however, highly dependent on the agility and flexibility of the learning team itself.
To fully take advantage of the benefits of e-learning content and technologies, the learning organization itself must fully understand the role and vision of e-learning in the overall strategy of the organization, and should be cognizant of the various learning approaches, investment requirements, and alternative design techniques available to respond to the organization’s evolving needs. As the organization begins to understand the depth and breadth of e-learning opportunities and technologies available, it will be the role and responsibility of the learning organization to properly match organizational requirements to the array of products and services available to meet those needs, taking into consideration costs, shelf life, and implementation time for each specific initiative.
