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L&D has been treated as a corporate fulfillment center for a long time, providing training on the demand with little space for strategic impact. Dr. Keith Keating has seen enough of the order recipient mentality.
As the main learning and development official in BDO Canada and author of Trusted learning adviserHe argues that L&D will never create a genuine business influence if it does not stop acting as a service desk and begins to function as a reliable business partner.
“An order holder in L&D is like a pharmacist fill that recipe without even knowing the diagnosis,” Keating said. “Interested parties come to us with a solution already in mind.” We need training on X, we need to learn on X, “and Taker Order gives it without asking whether it’s the right approach or even the right solution. But what if the recipe is wrong?”
The analogy is so painful that it is correct. Organizations spend time, money and effort when they treat learning as a passive function instead of a proactive force that can promote business results.
Keating warning is clear: the work world has changed, and L&D cannot allow to continue running with outdated assumptions.
L & D identity crisis
The mentality of obtaining order is not a recent development. It is a relic of the industrial era when there was training to solve immediate production issues. Managers would discover a problem, issue an order and wait for the L&D team to fill the order. That inheritance – like the Addie model model and level 1 smile sheets – still follow L&D today.
Keating said: “If you think again in production, the industrial revolution, a manager would identify an on -line issue and say,” Go to train them to move this widget here. “That mentality simply immortalized and continued, understandably, until we became aware and began to understand, ‘Oh, there is a science to learn, what we do, why do we do it, how we do it.’ However, many still work without that basic knowledge. “
Many organizations still see L&D as a transactional function rather than a strategic. The result? L&D teams remain stuck in a reactive cycle, producing training programs that treat symptoms rather than address the root causes. Is inefficient. Also also a credibility killer.
From the training provider to the business partner
Keating believes that L&D should get into business – not as a teaching provider, but as a critical partner in workforce planning, improving performance and executing strategy.
“A trusted learning adviser is a strategic business partner who is embedded in the business, who knows the business as good as the stakeholders, if not better,” he said. “That’s my personal goal – for me and my team, I want to know the business just as good, but better than them.
To move from the order of the order to the trusted adviser, Keating developed the Idad model – to include, discover, analysis and decision. Instead of meeting the requirements without question, L&D professionals should use each requirement as an opportunity to diagnose true business challenges.
“If we have not been proactive already, we regain that request as an opportunity for cooperation. Instead of accepting the solution immediately, we initiate an advisory dialogue. The worst scenario of the occasion, we prove what brought us interested parties. The best case, we discover deeper issues and resolve them effectively.”
The goal is not to refuse the contribution of the stakeholders – is to partner with them in solving the right problems. The best L&D teams have a measurable business impact.
Empathy and active hearing
Keith Keating
Transfer from the recipient to the business partner requires more than business shrewdness. Requires empathy, curiosity and active hearing. Keating’s doctoral research revealed a harsh truth: Outside L&D leaders often struggle to prioritize learning because they are overloaded by the most immediate fires.
“One CFO told me once, ‘I have so many fires on my feet that I’m trying to get out. I can’t take care of what you care about because I can’t see these fires.” “Keating recalled.” “Help me see these fires past. Stop sending me to Excel Spreadsheets with ROI data I can’t use. Tell me true stories.” “
The message is clear: L&D professionals must stop guiding with learning metrics and begin to guide the importance of business. Learning teams that understand the challenges of their stakeholders – and link solutions to business objectives – Trust. Those who are not ignored.
How builds L&D influence and impact
Becoming a reliable learning adviser does not happen by accident. Requires deliberate action. Keating puts three essential steps:
- Strengthen your knowledge basis: “We have to be rooted in science. We need data. We need empirical evidence, “Keating said. L&D professionals must be able to learn science, business strategy and workforce trends to establish reliability that then promote real business results.
- Invest in quality research: “L&D teams should actively engage with students and stakeholders to understand their challenges,” Keating advised. “Conducting regular research ensures that learning strategies are aligned with current business needs.”
- Embrace thinking in design: “Oni one of our most important tools,” Keating said. “He shifts the problem solving from reactive to proactive, helping teams reveal deeper knowledge before rushing to solutions.”
Stepdo builds competence, reliability and confidence. When L&D teams know their business, collect real knowledge and solve significant problems, they win their country as strategic partners.
The future of L&D
L&D professionals face a choice: Continue to react or start leading.
The trusted learning advisers receive not only orders. They help form business running. They translate the lesson into business results. They solve the problems that the stakeholders have not yet identified.
Keating summarizes it best: “It has to do with our relationships, our conversations, and our ability to defend for true stretch and partnership. When we embrace it, we really direct the value.”
The question is not whether L&D can be strategic. The question is whether it is ready to grow.
Check out the full interview with Keith Keating and Dan Pontefract on the leadership program now below, or listen to it in your favorite podcast.