Becoming a Business Partner Isn't a Process Change, It's a Cultural Shift

Leaving order-taking behind in favor of working as a strategic business partner means you need to move beyond changing your processes.

Despite the increased frequency of the L&D as strategic business partners vs. order takers narrative, we aren't making a ton of headway.

Yes, many of us can now envision a different future for our profession. In this future, L&D works in lockstep with the business, is strategically aligned, and is a partner who moves the business forward. We solve the biggest talent challenges and contribute to organizational success. We address root cause issues and contribute to the most important business initiatives. We no longer work reactively. We are strategic, transformative, and an essential component of organizational success.

We can see it. We want it. We are on board.

Yet, we can't seem to entirely crack the code and make this change a reality. Even though the narrative for working differently has increased, the majority of L&D teams are still stuck in reactive, order-taking mode.

If we can envision it, why can't we realize it?

Believe it or not, most L&D teams are still thinking too small. Not about what we can accomplish, but about what it will take to get there.

I've found through multiple conversations with L&D pros, that most boil this shift to working as a strategic business partner down to a few different process changes.

For example, if we just ask different questions (more related to business outcomes), figure out how to add in measurement that shows impact, and/or push back on requests where training isn't the answer, that will be enough.

Spoiler alert: This isn't enough.

Yes, these actions are parts of what can eventually lead to a change. But they aren't enough.

Moving to work as a strategic business partner isn't just a process change or a series of process changes. What we are really talking about is a complete cultural shift across the entire organization. We need to create an entirely new reality of what it means to work with L&D. In part for ourselves as a profession, but more so for everyone else who works with our profession.

Moving to work as a strategic business partner isn't just a process change, it's a complete cultural shift for the entire organization.

Cultural shifts require more than the brief period of clunky slowdown that usually accompany a process change. They require full transformation in mindsets and approaches. That's difficult enough, but in most organizations, it's compounded by stakeholders who lack any awareness that this shift is needed.

Mired in legacy thinking

In L&D, we do a great job at delivering exceptional products. We have been doing this for decades. The unwritten rules of how to work with L&D - come to us when you need training and we will get it to you - have been reinforced over time. Now this script is expected, accepted, and never questioned by stakeholders in most organizations.

From the vantage point of the stakeholder, the current process of interacting with L&D is working. Why would we change it?

Improving L&D isn't top of mind for stakeholders

Most of our stakeholders aren't sitting around thinking about how L&D could be more effective. They don't see the need, and they don't have the brain space. In my experience, stakeholders are focused on other overflowing challenges in their own corner of the organization. They are putting out figurative fires, trying to keep customers happy, under pressure to increase revenues and/or decrease expenses, figuring out how to improve the performance of their team, under pressure to do more with less, working to balance their budget, and more. L&D doesn't make their priority list until they have a pain point that they believe can be solved with training.

So, if we walk in one day, announcing to overworked stakeholders that we will now work as their strategic business partners and we will now start questioning whether or not training is really the best solution, if their requests tie to larger business outcomes, and what business metrics tie to their need, we are likely to be met with confusion, frustration, and resistance. It will feel to them like this came out of the blue.

Their response may sound something like this (at least this is how it sounded for me), "Excuse me, training lady, I just asked you for training, isn't that what your team does? Why are you asking these questions about my business goals? Just create the training I asked you for and stop making this difficult!"

Expanding stakeholders' current reality

The good news is that if we can both envision a preferred future for our profession and define our current reality, we can start doing the hard work to close the gap. The work of a full-on cultural change process and these type of change processes work best when we start exactly where we are.

That's right. We start with the current reality of how we work with stakeholders today, traditionally, and then, we gently begin to crack the door to a new future a little bit at a time.

The best place to start creating change is exactly where we are right now, using the tools we already have.

So, we start by taking the order because this is what our stakeholders expect. Pushing back right away would only confuse the situation and infuse stakeholder frustration. Instead, we begin making changes in the way we fulfill that request.

Small changes that add up

Big changes, especially desired changes that others don't know they need, don't happen all at once. We can't jump to the top of that staircase with one leap, one conversation, or by changing our processes from the onset. Instead, we insert small changes a little at a time.

Here are five ideas to get started cracking our own door to that cultural shift:

Idea 1: Add unexpected value.

Don't merely tell the stakeholder what else you can do, show them. Add value that expands their viewpoint using the tools you already have. Add in measurement, provide a non-training suggestion to enhance the solution, design for scalability. If applicable, use non-traditional methods like workflow learning or nudges. Start cracking the door to show what's possible and more effective.

Idea 2: Come equipped with business knowledge.

Do your homework. Learn about the stakeholder's business including their role in the customer lifecycle, how they contribute to revenue, their current goals and initiatives, etc. Look for this information in a variety of places like company intranet sites, annual reports, quarterly performance metrics, or any other places you can overhear or find more. To the degree that you can, show up as an understanding partner in the work, not an unknowledgeable helper waiting for direction.

Idea 3: Ask questions and make suggestions with the goal of solving the problem.

Just because they asked for an e-learning doesn't mean that's what you must provide. Commit to successfully solving the problem and couch your questions and suggestions in that spirit. "In order to create the best solution, I need to learn more about what it's like to sit in the seats of your employees. Could I shadow a few people for a few hours?" or "I really want to make sure we take the burden of lengthy training time off your employees but still get them the tools they need. With that in mind, are you open to suggestions other than a multi-hour training class?"

Idea 4: Build relationships before you need them.

Make a point to meet and learn from stakeholders (even if it's just for 20 minutes) before they come to you asking for training. When you meet, ask questions about their business with genuine interest and curiosity. Aim to get a baseline level of knowledge. Trust is built through positive interactions and fulfilling commitments. More trust equals more leeway for you in working differently.

Idea 5: Keep your promises, even the "small" ones.

Speaking of commitments, one of the best ways to build trust is to keep your promises. All your promises. Of course, this means commitments to big promises like delivering a solution on time and under budget. But it’s just as important to keep your smaller promises as well, like telling someone you'll get back to them by Friday. When I trust you with the small things, I can more easily trust you with the big things.

Keep cracking the door wider with each project

Use these starting points and then, with each project, crack the door a little bit more. As you gain trust and influence and demonstrate new ways of working a little at a time, you will gain the ability to ask the tougher questions, get involved in strategic work sooner, make recommendations before requests, dive in to determine whether training will really solve the problem, and more.

It's about gradual exposure and small changes that add up to eventually expose an entirely new reality. More than a process change, a cultural shift.