Why Starting at the End of L&D Strategy Pays Off
Find out how lean L&D budgets often drive innovation, why self-directed learning won’t net results, and starting with strategic impact.
Matt Gjertsen is a former instructor pilot for the US Air Force, former Head of Learning and Development at SpaceX and current Chief Learning Officer at Better Every Day Studios.
He joins Blake Proberts to talk about flipping your learning management cycle to start with strategic impact, why your learning budget doesn’t dictate results (sometimes lean budgets drive the best innovation), and what happens when self-directed learning is actually impeding strategic impact.
Listen to the full episode above or watch below.
Key takeaways
“Make sure you’re not taking on things that learning can’t change.”
1. Work backwards to determine needed behaviour change.
Start with business outcomes and focus on real problems, not just assumed ones, to ensure learning addresses genuine needs.
“I love eLearning, but you need to understand what it can and can’t do. The most effective medium is going to depend on where someone is… applying the knowledge.”
2. Context remains king.
Think about how quickly people need to get information while, say, onboarding. The snappier and more digestible the content, the better.
“You need to [know] where you’re at, where you want to be, and what ‘ideal’ is.”
3. Bridge gaps for people.
Not just business context, but also language, environment, and real-world scenarios in a specific learner’s job role.
“I honestly look at the administration side before I look at the learner side… you don’t know what constraints the system is going to put on your learning strategy unless you understand the administrative side.”
4. Data will get you everywhere.
It’s like the master key to unlock all business doors. And understanding your LMS inside and out goes a long way towards delivering training that yields meaningful data.
“[Self-directed learning] can be a little bit of a mental tax on employees. What we should be doing is saying… here’s the curated path.”
5. You gotta tell people what behaviour to change.
That’s what learning is about, after all, and no one’s free of bias when evaluating themselves. Give people the context they need.
See more from our host: Blake Proberts
Learn about our guest: Matt Gjertsen
Hear more of the Strategic L&D Podcast on Spotify and Apple. You’ll also find us in video form on YouTube.