If you conduct a Training Needs Analysis, your solution is almost certain to be training.

Change the T in TNA to Talent. Ask your managers, what are the position and talent gaps you’ll have in 6, 12, and 18 months time? Ask people to work from a perspective of position and the skills which are required for the role, not what people are missing now.

Change the T in TNA to a D – Development Needs Analysis. Ask your managers, what the development gaps in their services, their offer, and their future needs are. Ask them to work from a premise that you need to add to their skills and capability, not from where gaps exist.

We work in L&D – Learning and Development. How can we be taken seriously if we continue to minimise everything we do down to plugging the gap training?