How to Get Your Organisation to See L&D as Strategic

Your people should be your most valuable resource, especially if they use the processes and tools your business has invested in to ensure it achieves its goals. They help you deal with the "Russian Doll of Change" we are all confronted with. The more they can handle adversity, the greater their agility to pivot as the organisation needs them to.

If people are central to success, then L&D is key to unlocking their strategic value. But do your peers see L&D as a strategic partner, or just the people who deliver compliance training?

The uncomfortable truth about why suppliers bypass L&D

As a learning supplier, I'll be honest: I too often go around L&D and speak directly to functional leads, helping them create a business case to justify a program or piece of learning. Why? Because L&D isn't seen as strategic.

I say ‘too often’ because it would be so much better if we worked alongside L&D from the outset. I've spoken to many frustrated L&D leaders who know they could do better if someone would just listen to them. 

So, what do people like me do to have more strategic conversations with business leaders?

Step 1: It all starts with Why Change

Before discussing training solutions, there needs to be a conversation about "Why Change" from what you are currently doing. As powerful as FOMO appears, today's ‘decidophobia’ is more powerful. (Yes, this is a real word). My colleagues and I call this "the hidden competitor." We rarely compete against another provider—we're competing with the fear of making the wrong decision.

How do you overcome the hidden competitor? By providing a sound answer to "Why should I change?" This answer can’t be subjective—it must be objective: "to overcome this quantifiable risk" or "to benefit from this quantifiable opportunity."

Within STR, my role is to help buyers discover why they need to change and create consensus that they can’t remain with the current approach. This isn’t a conversation about training courses—it's about business, strategy, and the outcomes they need from their people.

How you can prepare for a “Why Change” conversation

Become an expert in what is driving the business:

• Get to grips with the business strategy: growth targets, profit targets, costs, people, technology

• Understand external influencers: legislation, market conditions, competition, technology

• Learn what drives budget holders and who's involved in deciding whether change is needed (The Buying Room)

• Build insights as to why something must change: "we don't currently equip people for this..." or "this is what best in class is doing"we often see:

How to gain consensus around Why Change

You may first need to "sell the meeting" by sharing an insight: 

"I need to talk about what we're currently doing, as I don't believe it will give us the result we need. Our strategy has changed, and we need people to do something different, but our current training doesn't reflect that."

Here's a simple approach for the meeting:

1. Understand that the goal of the meeting is for your colleagues to uncover for themselves why they need to change. Your role is to facilitate this, not to tell them.

2. To achieve this, you need to share insights that will trigger a reaction and start conversations.

3. Lastly, introduce a way forward. This will help everyone gain consensus on the need to change and start to consider what the next steps may look like.

So, go into the meeting with a Goal.

Run the meeting so that people uncover the Reality of the situation and share some Options.

Do not leave the meeting until you have a Way Forward. 

If this sounds familiar, it’s the same technique used in coaching conversations (GROW). The difference here is that you bring insights about the Reality and Options, and guide the conversation towards your preferred way forward (we have to change).

At the end, you will have gained consensus, and you can start to build a business case.

Practical suggestion: Involve procurement early—they can help build the business case and will support you later when engaging suppliers.

Step 2: From "Why Change" to "Change to What"

You've successfully gained consensus that the business, supported by L&D, needs to do something different. This changes the perception of the conversation from tactical "we need something now" to proactive "why we need something different going into the future."

As many a management consultant has told us, “prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.” So far, we’ve started the diagnosis, but in reality, only gone as far as identifying the impact of the symptoms. Apologies if I am going a metaphor too far.

Now we start looking at the solution criteria. This isn’t a conversation about who provides the solution—it’s the start of internal discussions about what we could do to address the reasons to change.

How do you prepare?

You need to think about potential approaches, which means you need to speak to people you trust. You’re not looking to buy anything at this stage; instead, you’re trying to understand the art of the possible.

1. Turn your reasons to change into business requirements:

• What business problem are you addressing?

• How long must the solution last?

• Who owns the solution and rollout?

• What measurable outcome are you looking to achieve?

• What's the business case for acting now?

2. Look at analyst reports about what other organisations are doing. (Remember, these may not be as independent as you hope, as most reports are paid for by vendors.)

3. Talk to people addressing similar problems and find out what they did and whether they would do the same again.

4. Avoid getting caught up in FOMO at this stage; do not just follow the herd. Always refer back to the reason to change and how you are addressing that. 

5. Turn all of the above into insights that you can share. 

How to gain consensus on the solution criteria

1. Get the right people in the room. Have the recipients of the solution attending; they’re the ones who it has to impact, so get their views.

2.  Have clarity as to your Goal, i.e., what consensus you’re driving towards - What solution criteria are required to address the reason to change.

3.  Have a conversation to help uncover the current reality and what options we need to have that become our solution criteria.

4. Turn this into a business case for the way forward.

You can use this with procurement as the evaluation document for potential suppliers.

Step 3: Change to Who? Build your strategic business case

The consensus you’ve created becomes a business case focusing on strategic need, built with support from all key players (your Buying Room). As such, it can’t be seen as a tick-the-box solution, unless that was strategically what was required.

Share with vendors:

• Your reason for change and measurable outcomes

• Key solution criteria that must be met

Let procurement run the first evaluation using your solution criteria. From the shortlist, get suppliers to present to the "Buying Room," to help you gain consensus as to who is the preferred supplier.

Coach suppliers to: 

Prepare: Have insights showing how they address your reasons for change and meet solution criteria 

Present: Collaborate in discussion, don't just tell. Behave as business-led trusted advisors.

From agreeing to doing

Work with procurement to ensure contracts get signed—things can fall apart between verbal agreement and signing. Things may happen in your business that take attention away from what you are trying to achieve. Your best partner to ensure that this does not happen is procurement.

Unless you are really unfortunate, your business case should stand up even if circumstances change. If there is a catastrophic change, then you return to Why Change!

Now you may be asking why I am telling you all of this?

I believe my role is to help prospects find the best solution to their challenge, which often doesn't involve me selling anything. I aim to be the "Trusted Advisor" who tells the truth. By explaining these steps, I'm not excluding myself from influencing you strategically. If I'm lucky, it may give me an advantage when you're identifying who to change to, but there's no guarantee you'll pick me.

If all I do is engage with you after you’ve identified the solution criteria, then all that happens is we have a price discussion.

But you may say, “Why shouldn’t I buy solely on price?”, to which I would reply, have you bought anything from Temu?

I work with businesses that are prepared to pay a fair price for a piece of work. Beyond that, I am always prepared to enter into a risk/reward discussion where I take some of the risk from you, by reducing the initial price, but get a share of the results of my work based on pre-agreed criteria.

I truly believe the more professional both parties are, the better the outcome. I freely share this approach, believing it delivers a win-win for everyone. And I hope you'll call me to start a discussion about "Why Change" from your existing learning content.

Success for me is working with strategically focused L&D teams who help equip people to deliver outcomes required by business strategy. Where we achieve this, we deliver great results, making L&D the heroes of their own story.