I mentioned Strategy On A Page the other week and was asked by Joan Keevil to provide some examples so here’s a few thoughts:

A learning strategy shouldn’t detail the how but the why. This means you don’t need to include the operators and processes, but the thinking behind how those things will happen. A SOAP will explain the principles behind the approach and what next. Here’s what I’d see in a SOAP.

Title
It sounds obvious but have absolute clarity over what this strategy is called. If it’s a learning strategy for your organisation, make sure it’s called that. You have to include when it’s published from and when it’s to be reviewed and how long it’s for. E.g. 2 year Learning Strategy for Llarn Learning. Published 1st January 2024 – review January 2025.

Principles
This is the essential element of your strategy. The principles are the fundamental truths which serve as the foundation for your reasoning. Written in simple terms, they will create the framework within which the activity is developed and should be designed to be socialised with all the interested parties. Here are a few examples:

• All learning will be relevant, timely and support Llarn Learning’s business performance
• Design will primarily be digital but will also flex based on Llarn Learning’s organisational demands
• The effect on organisational performance should always be measured using learning AND performance metrics
• Our aim is to facilitate a culture of continuous learning and development and employees will be encouraged to self-determine what they need to learn
• We will use use modern learning principles in design, delivery, and evaluation of all learning support

You need enough principles to make sense but not so many they become self-limiting. Generally anything between 5 and 8 would be sufficient and they need to be very high level – as you can see. They’re written to create tacit agreement and, by having a clear timetable and duration are transparent to all. The key principle, which should be in every learning strategy, is the statement and intent to measure the effect on organisational performance. If you’re not doing this, you’re not contributing to the business and why would anyone want to engage with you?

Stakeholders
Stakeholders is a horrible word but all the interested parties need to be included on the SOAP – I much prefer the term delivery partners. Delivery partners can be internal and external and, if engaging an external supplier, seeing these kind of principles would be heart warming for me. Stakeholders are the roles which will impact the learning function’s ability to deliver, so you need them to be on your side. The people in the roles need the opportunity to agree the principles and confirm they are happy with your approach. Having them signed up to the approach before you start to design further will make the delivery much smoother.

Next steps
After the SOAP has been circulated, the timetable for next steps should be detailed at the end of the SOAP. This is where you’ll list the remaining activities as further strategies – if you’re a corporation – or plans if you’re smaller. You need to, as a minimum, have clear plan for design, delivery, evaluation. All your procurement, IT, audience segmentation, etc should be detailed in these plans. By having clear agreed principles, you have agency and permission to build within these limits.

So that’s my interpretation of a SOAP – what do you think? What surprises you? Please let me know in the comments.