The Art of Establishing L&D Foundations with Hillary Miller
In any organization, L&D professionals must lay the groundwork for effective learning and development. Hillary Miller, CLO at Penn State Health, shares with us how to development the foundations. Whether you are looking to establish your own L&D foundations or strengthen the ones currently in place, this guide will help:
Assess Organizational Culture for Psychological Safety
Evaluate the current culture of your organization and prioritize psychological safety to ensure teams can communicate inclusively and with mutual respect. This sets the stage for a learning environment where employees feel secure to voice ideas and concerns.
Initiate with a Listening Tour
Begin your journey with a listening tour, seeking to understand existing perceptions and identifying organizational and developmental needs directly from employees. Relationship building during this phase is imperative for later strategy alignment.
Gain Early Momentum with Strategic Initiatives
Target quick strategic wins, such as optimizing onboarding processes, to gain early credibility. Aim for consistency and comprehensiveness to make a positive impression on new hires, thereby affecting retention positively.
Craft a Strategic Alignment with Business Objectives
Ensure your L&D strategies support the broader business goals. Align closely with executive objectives and champion the transition from department-centric to organization-wide responsibility in talent development.
Prioritize Resources and Impactful Investments
With a focus on strategic pillars like learning development, organizational development, and workforce development, carefully choose where to invest your resources. It's essential to make measured decisions that reflect the organization's priorities and needs.
Encourage Holistic Employee Development
Instill a culture that values self-leadership and holistic development, fostering skills such as emotional intelligence, negotiation, and communication, which are foundational for any role within the organization.
Insist on Impactful Learning Metrics
Go beyond satisfaction surveys and look at the tangible impact of L&D initiatives. Develop and utilize metrics that can reflect the actual changes in the workplace, assessing both the effectiveness and the integration of learning programs.
Establishing L&D foundations goes beyond the basics. It's about creating lasting structures that reflect and support corporate strategy. Utilize Hillary Miller's insights to make your mark and contribute significantly to your organization's talent development.
Be sure to listen to the full episode on the Talent Development Think Tank Podcast!
Hillary Miller is the Chief Learning Officer for Penn State Health. She has more than 15 years of learning leadership experience, most recently serving as director for education and quality assurance at Parallon, a wholly owned subsidiary of HCA Healthcare. Her areas of expertise include public education as well as for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare companies, in both the clinical and revenue cycle settings. She began her career as a special education teacher with a focus on multi-handicap, learning disabilities and reading intervention.
Listen to the podcast episode here:
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