Developing Business Acumen for L&D Professionals
Join us in this 4-week, online course to learn the fundamentals of business acumen applied to corporate learning , including how to create, review, and measure your business plans for learning.
At the conclusion of the course, participants should have a good understanding of the fundamentals of business acumen applied to learning. They will also be well on their way to creating a business plan for learning for their own organization.
Meet Your Lead Faculty: David Vance
Executive Director, Center for Talent Reporting
David Vance is the Executive Director of the Center for Talent Reporting, a nonprofit, membership-based organization dedicated to the creation and implementation of standards for human capital measurement, reporting, and management. He is the former President of Caterpillar University, which he founded in 2001. Prior to this position, Dave was Chief Economist and Head of the Business Intelligence Group at Caterpillar Inc. with responsibility for economic outlooks, sales forecasts, market research, competitive analysis, and business information systems.
Dave was named 2006 Chief Learning Officer (CLO) of the Year by Chief Learning Officer magazine. Caterpillar was ranked number one in the 2005 ASTD Best Awards and was named Best Overall Corporate University in 2004 by both Corporate University Xchange and the International Quality and Productivity Center.
Dave serves on the Metrics Working Group for the International Organization for Standardization and is also an Intermittent Chief Learning Officer for Defense Acquisition University. He has published two books: The Business of Learning (2nd edition, 2017), and Measurement Demystified (with Peggy Parskey, 2021).
OVERVIEW
In Developing Business Acumen for L&D Professionals, you will learn the fundamentals of business acumen applied to corporate learning , including how to create, review, and measure your business plans for learning.
This course is designed for hands-on, real-world application for those at any level.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The Four Week Program takes 2 hours per week and includes:
Week 1 – Introduction to the topic and key concepts of business acumen. Vision, mission, people and value statements. Organizational and departmental goals. L&D charter or remit.
Topics
• Explore what it means to run learning like a business or with business-like discipline.
• The essential components of business acumen at both the organizational and departmental levels
o How does your organization fulfill its mission?
o How does the learning department fulfill its mission?
• Vision, mission, people and value statements for the organization and learning department.
o How to create and use
• Your organization’s goals and critical needs. The need for specific, measurable goals.
• The role of L&D. The three models for structuring L&D. The remit or charter for the learning department.
Week 2 – Learning programs, alignment to goals, and impact.
Topics
• Questions on vision, mission, people statements and values. How many found specific, measurable organizational goals? department goals? What model for L&D is employed by your organization?
• The different types of learning programs and assets.
• The direct and indirect impacts of learning
• The strategic alignment process, CEO input
• Discussions with goal owners.
o Exploration of the impact of learning: quantitative and qualitative outcome measures
o Agreement on impact and roles & responsibilities
• Creation of the strategic alignment table for your organization
Week 3 – Creation of the business case and business plan.
Topics
• Questions on strategic alignment, impact and reaching agreement with goal owners.
• The purpose and elements of a business case
o For specific programs or initiatives
o For the department
• Creating the business case for a program
o Definition and use of gross benefit, accounting costs, opportunity costs, net benefit and return on investment (ROI)
o Fully-burdened labor & related costs
o Application to a make or buy decision
• Creating the business case for the learning department
• Creating the business plan for learning
Week 4 – Disciplined execution and measurement.
Topics
• Questions on the business case for either a program or department
• The types of L&D measures and the creation of a measurement strategy
• Explore the concept of disciplined execution.
o The need for reporting and a reporting strategy
• The five types of reports
o Scorecards, dashboards, program evaluation reports, custom analysis reports and management reports
• Selection of the appropriate type of report based on purpose
• Focus on the three management reports and their use in disciplined execution of the business plan
Learners who complete this course are eligible for 8 re-certification credits from SHRM and HRCI.
Future Workplace® is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.
