At a recent ASTDNY program, L&D leaders and CLOs met in a midtown executive board room to reveal what it takes for the learning function to become a senior business partner. The surprising tactics shared that evening challenge our traditional beliefs about achieving credibility for the learning function. As it turns out, an invitation to the senior management table is less about proficiency in Adult Learning Theory and more about emotional intelligence, political savvy, and a passion for the business in which your organization is engaged.

The Great Matter, for those who dare to assert a deep impact on the business,   becomes one of a reconciliation of opposites. How do you trade-in the core principals that first attracted you to the field of L&D for a completely different set of values in the corporate suite? Other questions loom as well. Anecdotally, we know that there are senior managers in the HR Talent Management / OD function who did not arrive at their positions through accreditation, but rather through relationships or a deep knowledge of their industry.  If so, how can our L&D professionals distinguish themselves as offering a better product than the lay person who feels that they can achieve the same results intuitively?

Compromise Can Lead to the Greater Good

The Educate vs. Capitulate argument asks us to choose between two targets; pleasing the client or genuine results.  The good news is that there is no need to abandon your workplace values when aiming for the top.  In fact, the tools of our trade are precisely what are needed to succeed in the most challenging of corporate landscapes. Applying the principals of Instructional Design (ID) when persuading internal stakeholders can be the flux that joins the opposites.  This is done by viewing your stakeholders as students with special needs. Or children. Or only speaking French. Opportunity knocks when your students tell you that they need ‘X’ when in reality you know they need ‘Y’. The ID process helps you get to ‘Y’ because it considers the 4 Needs Assessment Quadrants:  Business, Behavior, Learning, and Learner.  When you own the analyses of the quadrants, you become powerful. You will be in a better position than your senior stakeholders to impact the business.

How Far is the Moon?

The technique of getting into the mind of your stakeholders is best illustrated in a story Many Moons by James Thurber. In this tale, a princess falls deathly ill from eating too many raspberry tarts and insists that the only remedy is for the moon to be brought down from the heavens and be given to her. All the wise men of the land could not achieve this as they were daunted by the moon’s distance and size. It was the Court Jester who argued that since it is the perception of the beholder that is crucial, why not ask the princess how far she thinks the moon is and how we are to obtain it?  After a few simple questions it was revealed that the moon is only as big as her thumb and made of gold. She knew this to be true because she was able to obscure the moon by placing her thumb in front of her eyes. When presented with a golden “moon” necklace the princess returned to the peak of health. The next evening the court was in a panic because the moon was once again high up in the night sky. What would the princess think about that?  But even this question was posed to the princess: “How is it possible that the moon is up in the sky when you are wearing it around your neck?” She answered all knowingly that the moon is like a tooth; when you lose it grows back.

Approaching people from their perspective is a door into their soul. Not everything you will find there is wholesome, but you will know how to present your case in a way that it is heard. Once that interface is established you can introduce genuine skill transfer practices that can have an impact with your stakeholders’ support. This technique can be used for interviews, consulting, in the boardroom, at a planning meeting, and any other place where the human element stands in the way of progress.

I leave you with some hard-won advice. Be passionate about your work by being dispassionate for the moment to achieve the greater goal.

Lance Tukell