We’ve reached week three of our Designing Learning & Development Programs for Impact – Best Practices, Tips, & Tricks Blog Series! At this point, you should have an idea of the impact of your potential L&D program (part one), as well as a strategy for how it will take shape and what it will look like (part two). In that phase, you should have brainstormed who may benefit from your learning and development program. This week, you’re going to take that a step further by actually choosing pilot participants for your first ever L&D program implementation. These individuals will be critical to the future success, laying the foundation and allowing for any tweaks necessary through important and thoughtful feedback.
The steps we cover today will help show you how. Ready to take some notes?
What are our goals for the program/business, and how does each department/management level play into those goals?
If your goal is to transform your managers into mentors, choosing an entry-level employee isn’t going to get you the results you desire.
Think intentionally about those skills gaps you defined earlier.
How is this learning and development program going to improve the business? Start looking at those departments and levels of employees who have the widest gap to fill first.
Who has the greatest potential?
At the end of the day, a learning and development program is an investment in your business’ future. You want participants who are going to take it seriously, do the work to see the results, and ultimately, provide ROI for your business.
Take a look at top performers, those who have potential yet to be fulfilled, and those who you know are invested in the success of your organization. You also want employees who are excited about the opportunity, who will be a champion for the program after they’ve completed it.
If you take that route, you won’t be disappointed.
Which teams have adequate time to invest?
While there are a lot of excuses as to why a learning and development program may not work, time is always at the top of the list. And although we want to ensure that we’re removing roadblocks, rolling out a new L&D program to a team that’s already working overtime and understaffed will not provide you with the results you’re looking for.
You want employees that have at least a bit of time each week to sit down, participate in the programming, and provide feedback so you can tweak your program as needed for future employees and participants.
One of our NimblyWise Coaches, Leslie Mizerak shares, “When a team is in overwhelm mode, it’s first important to find solutions to ease the stressors. This way, when the program starts weeks or months down the road, employees can enter the program with intentionality and excitement, not anxiety about getting it all done.”
As you’re able to cultivate new leaders in the pilot program and beyond, perhaps the goal is providing upward movement so they can then step into a management role and help solve the staffing challenges with creative thinking learned in coaching. The goal is to fill your talent pipeline in ways that can help your business.
NimblyWise Has a Signature Pilot Program Ready to Roll Out
One of NimblyWise’s signature offerings is a Real-Time Learning Pilot Program. Using our proven real-time learning framework, we’ll help you select five of your most promising employees to run through this transformational 6-month program. They’ll cultivate and polish invaluable skills like professionalism, independence, self-awareness, proactivity, adaptability, and career ownership. Not only will it help them excel, but you’ll also see the ROI for your business in enhanced productivity, we’re sure of it.
Want to learn more about how your organization can develop your top talent with a Real-Time Learning Pilot Program? Let’s chat.
Up next week in our Designing Learning & Development Programs for Impact – Best Practices, Tips, & Tricks Blog Series, we’re talking about prepping your management team. Check back Thursday next week!
