It's Time for Measurement Strategy

It's Time for Measurement Strategy

by Chris Moore

 

You've heard it over and over again: "There's no better time than the present."

 

We could apply that phrase to just about any situation in life where we're trying to produce some type of positive result: exercise, eating right, saving for retirement. You clearly understand the consequences if you procrastinate too long in any of those areas. Couldn't we say the same about learning measurement?

 

We know the purpose of learning is to produce positive results, and we know the purpose of measurement is to make better, more accurate decisions. So, if you could make informed decisions about producing positive results from learning, why would you continue to put that off? The reasons, in most cases, are the same as why we don't exercise enough or put money away for that rainy day: We don't make the time, and we don't make it a priority. As a result, we put our future and livelihood at risk. And that's exactly what we do when we continue to push learning measurement off to next month, next quarter and next year.

 

Now, it's true that no one reaches his or her desired weight in a week, nor can you save a huge nest egg in a couple months. It's the same with learning measurement. You have to take an incremental approach. And you have to start somewhere.

 

Challenges to Measurement

 

Reducing risk is one of the key benefits of a successful measurement initiative, yet it's commonly overlooked by those who just can't seem to get out of the starting blocks. There are many hurdles keeping organizations from instituting a sustainable learning measurement process.

 

Perhaps the most common hurdle is that the learning function is simply too busy dealing with the day-to-day tactics of learning administration and delivery. No doubt about it: You're doing lots of stuff. But how do you know it's the right stuff?

 

Maybe you don't have the resources - people, time or money - to get a measurement initiative started. Measurement and reporting may be happening as some end-of-quarter event, or even ad hoc. Unfortunately, as a result, the learning team practically reinvents the wheel each time to produce its reports and metrics. Or perhaps they're being directed to create ad hoc reports in a reactive way to meet the changing demands of metrics-hungry managers.

 

The risk here is that the learning organization must continually drop what it's doing to react to these projects, putting other deliverables on the back burner. Then again, if they don't follow through with those end-of-quarter scrambles, they may not produce the analytics and key reports necessary to assess progress to date. After all, you can't make the critical decisions that are imperative to run your business effectively without the information you need, right?

 

Another hurdle is that many organizations don't know where to start measuring. Some don't know what to measure, while others have difficulty prioritizing their measures of success.

 

A common fallacy is that learning management incorporates learning measurement. Wrong. Yes, it's true that organizations invested tens of thousands in a learning management system (LMS), and perhaps a vendor demonstrated some evaluation and surveying capabilities and then showed a slick report or two. But the truth is LMS-type tools rarely measure value or show alignment to what stakeholders and managers want to see. If your organization is like most, the LMS is data rich but information poor: There are dozens of canned reports that came with the LMS, but only a fraction of them are useful. For reporting of any value, you end up developing custom reports using ancillary reporting tools, which is a costly, non-scalable alternative to a much-needed measurement process.

 

In some learning organizations, there's also the added issue of accountability. Some don't want to be accountable. They're concerned about what might turn up from measuring their people and processes. They don't want a spotlight being shined on them if they can avoid it.

 

The bottom line is that some of these so-called hurdles are borderline excuses. Just because the learning department doesn't have a good relationship with the information technology department doesn't mean there isn't good data. Furthermore, an LMS isn't necessary to initiate a sustainable measurement process. Data is everywhere. And it's accessible in more ways than can be imagined.

 

Fortunately, there are strategies to clear these hurdles and implement a sustainable measurement process.

 

Define What Success Looks Like

 

Have you ever said, "I wish I knew now what I didn't know then"? A good learning measurement strategy makes that statement a relic.

 

It all starts with defining what success looks like for the organization and its initiatives. One of the best vehicles to define success is through stakeholder roundtables. Meet with chief executives and meet with line of business vice presidents. Ask them plain and simple, "How do you see learning contributing to the success of the business?" Discuss and agree on a set of quantifiable metrics that represent progress in making those contributions, and be sure the metrics are ones that the learning organization can clearly control. Then, put a sustainable measurement process in place to start collecting and sharing those measures on a regular basis.

 

Just as a superstar runner makes training a part of his or her daily routine to succeed, so must learning executives make measurement a part of their daily routine. While the payoff for the runner is winning big on the day of the competition, for the learning executive it's justifying why the learning budget shouldn't be cut, or answering to the CEO and stakeholders to explain the positive outcomes of their investments. Just like the runner, if you're scrambling on the day of the meet to perfect your form, you might as well accept defeat. Measurement must be an integral part of the way learning thinks and acts. Measurement should be fully integrated all along the process and not treated as an afterthought.

 

Ultimately, to be successful, learning organizations must make the initial investment - and to do that, they need to budget for the measurement process each cycle. Further, they have to choose the right measures of success for their organizations. An experienced measurement strategist can help learning executives do just that, through research, analysis, forecasting and plenty of discussion. Together, in the end, the strategist and the learning organization will agree on an appropriate portfolio of metrics for the company.

 

Immediate Action Steps

 

Before selecting new metrics for the measurement portfolio, test existing measurement reports for actionability. Based on the answers to the following questions, determine whether the person producing the report should be working on something more important, or whether the report needs to be altered or expanded:

 

a) What do you do with the report?

 

b) What decisions does it help you make?

 

c) What is the norm or target for the metrics on the report?

 

d) What actions do you take if the report deviates from the norm?

 

e) On a scale of 1 to 5, how important is this report to your work success?

 

f) How quickly can you refresh the report with current data points?

 

g) Is the report too granular or not granular enough?

 

h) Who are the other consumers of the report? What do they do with the information? How would they answer these questions?

 

These questions must also be asked of the new metrics selected. Remember: Only manage what you can measure, and only measure what you can control.

 

Suppose you're an avid hunter. If you're planning a hunting trip for some type of elusive game, then you develop a good hunting strategy, and perhaps secure a hunting guide who knows the territory and the prey. Now, let's apply this to learning measurement. Nothing is more elusive than the isolation and measurement of the change in business impact from learning activities. If you're hunting for business impact, then you definitely need a good measurement strategy - and maybe even a measurement guide. The better the strategy and the more experienced the guide, the more successful the hunt will be.

 

The key to a successful measurement initiative is actually using the results to make informed decisions. Basing decision making on gut instinct will only get you so far. You need to see trends in past activity and be able to predict where the organization and its initiatives are heading. Know what actions to take before the numbers show up in the report or appear on the dashboard. Action planning is a valuable exercise that many managers overlook when they define their measures and reports.

 

Learning loves to think strategically but act tactically. If you're going to think strategically, then act strategically. It doesn't mean you won't get any work done. Rather, the work will clearly align to strategy, and if it doesn't, you'll have to consider why you're doing the work in the first place.

 

It's time to invest in a new pair of running shoes and start training for the race. It's going to take discipline, but all things of value require perseverance before they are attained. The hurdles are about to begin - but every one of them can be cleared.

 

 

[About the Author: Chris Moore is president of Zeroed-In Technologies, creator of Zeroed-In Dashboards, solutions for visualizing, measuring and executing performance strategies.]