It is not if the glass is half full or half empty – The right question is who is pouring the water!

As organisations embark on various learning programmes to improve knowledge, skills and most importantly competencies, they often think about how to measure the impact—at least they should.  If they are doing this “by the book” they assess their target audience level of knowledge and level of throughput or success (which is very dependent on their ability to apply the knowledge in their day to day work).  This is critical as I talked about in previous blogs.  However, one key area that is often overlooked is the transfer environment.  What does the environment of the target audience day to day look like?  Is it conducive to applying the best practices that are learnt?

There are many models that would help you look into this but I think one should focus on three areas as they relate to the application environment:

1.       Executive and mid management buy-in—this can go a long way to make your application environment much more receptive for individuals to try new ways of doing things.
2.       Relevance of the content, tools and approaches to the environment—we all learn/retain/apply better in context.  Thinking about the day to day work and how would it adjust using new ways or better approaches that come out of learning.
3.        Motivation—probably the most critical area.  Motivation of the individual, their manager, and the organisation.  Understanding how to do this, especially in tough economic times, is critical.   One key area for your consideration is to identify the rewards, not necessarily financials, which will motivate!

Last but not least, we all can learn from Margaret Mead when she said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”.

Tags: Best Practices, Competencies, Impact, knowledge, Learning, PMO, Project Management Office