I was really interested in a post from Martin Couzins last week. Talking about L&D’s voice and how it’s heard, he pointed out the following:

The learning profession has traditionally suffered with voice – a lack of it. There have been so many reports over the years (a repeated theme in the Towards Maturity reports, for example, long before they became Mind Tools reports) and the 2024 LPI Learning Survey suggests little has changed. When team members were asked ‘Has L&D really got a voice or is it still seen as a cost centre?’ only 17% gave an emphatic yes, they had a voice. Just over 45% said they mostly had a voice although were still seen by some as a cost centre, 32% said mostly seen as a cost centre and for just under 5%, no voice at all.

Listening and giving voice to people, Insights Media

I get what Martin’s saying but don’t think it’s quite correct. It makes the assumption that there is a lack of voice in learning and I don’t think that’s the whole problem. I think learning has a great voice and is great at shouting about what it does – just look at the awards we’re happy to hand out, case studies we listen to, and stories we tell of success. The problem isn’t the voice; the problem is saying the wrong things to the wrong people.

Your business leads don’t care that you achieved a GPA of 4.4 over 10k deliveries under the question ‘I know how I will apply this in practice at work’. They want to know WHAT people will do BETTER, from WHEN, and by HOW MUCH.

They don’t want to know your learning design and channels were innovative; they want to understand the EFFECTS of what you’ve done and the VALUE they’re getting from you, not just the COST.

If you can’t describe yourselves as anything less than that, you WILL be a cost centre. You will be taking people away from their work, doing the learning thing, and sending them back with crossed fingers and a hope they’ll ‘be better’.

If you want to know more about how you don’t have to be like this, please get in touch.