Make Every L&D Decision Count Using This Simple Framework
It's strategic simplification in your pocket.
In the last few issues of the L&D Must Change Newsletter, I’ve focused on elements of building your L&TD strategy such as how to use your organization’s commonalities and criticalities to zero in on what really matters, and the value of keeping a “scrap list” for the rest.
In this issue, we’re getting really practical. When you’ve got a long list of shiny new ideas, how do you decide which ones are actually worth your time?
Enter the Difficulty vs. Impact Grid. I started using this delightfully simple (and entirely unscientific) tool over a decade ago to help my team focus on what truly moves the needle. We used it so much that if it were a book, it’d be dog-eared and held together with coffee stains. It’s simple. It’s effective. And it might just change how you make decisions. Here’s how to get started and use the tool for your own laundry list of projects.
Define the Difficulty and Impact Associated with Each Potential Solution
Start by defining the level of difficulty and the level of impact associated with each potential solution on your list.
Difficulty refers to the level of complexity of your solution. This can best be defined by asking yourself a few questions about each potential solution:
Will this solution take many hours, multiple people, and require collaboration? Projects of this nature generally don’t move quickly and there are a lot of moving parts. To execute them well, a high level of communication and partnership will be required.
Will this project require new systems that don’t currently exist? If the project requires purchasing additional software, learning a new way of working, and/or creating new workflows and processes, the difficulty level ticks upwards. Implementing anything new takes time and brainpower. If a purchase is required, gaining the budget and buy-in that is often coupled with a vendor selection process can easily eat away your time.
Will the company need to orchestrate change management processes? If implementing this solution requires change management to be successful, it’s a sign the difficulty level is high. If done well, change management takes time, coordination, patience, and expertise.
Can the solution be accomplished quickly with minimal effort? Unlike the previous questions, a yes in response to this one indicates a lower difficulty level.
Impact refers to the amount of positive difference each solution will make in your organization. The key here are the words, in your organization. Impact is focused on the overall business, not L&D. Ask the following questions about each potential solution on your list.
To what degree will this solution save the organization time and money? If the result of this solution will be a sizable decrease in expenses or increase in productivity, the positive impact will be higher.
Will this solution reduce significant risk? If the result of this solution will be to increase safety and security and reduce risks such as safety incidents, data breach, legal/compliance issues, or any other high-risk activities the impact is high.
Will this solution add revenue to the bottom line? The opposite of reducing expenses, but with the same result – more money back to the bottom line of the company. More revenue = higher impact.
Will this solution improve effectiveness and efficiency? Solutions that allow the business to do more with less and improve performance move towards a higher level of impact.
Will this solution scale over time for a compounding effect? Solutions that can scale over time to reach a larger audience have more impact than one and done.
Plot Your Solutions on the Difficulty vs. Impact Grid
Now that you have determined the degree of difficulty and impact for each solution on your list, plot them on the Difficulty vs. Impact Grid.
In this grid, the vertical axis is labeled “impact,” and the horizontal axis is “difficulty.” Each axis illustrates a continuum from low to high. With any good grid format, we can break the plot area into four quadrants. Use the quadrant descriptors to determine whether to pursue the solutions on your list and how to approach each of them.
Grid Quadrant 1: Low Difficulty + High Impact = The Quick Win (Start Here)
If a solution on your list can be easily completed with your current resources and capacity and it will pack a punch in terms of impact, it’s a quick win. Start here! Quickly and easily completing a high value project will demonstrate your team’s value and build momentum, motivation, and buy-in for a project.
My team was asked to create a training solution for frequently used internal software. Stakeholder feedback told us this software was causing errors and performance issues, but after some research, we found that only one task was tripping everyone up. We created a screen recording demonstrating how to complete that task and added it to the team’s knowledge base. We spent only a couple of hours on this solution, but within a few days, more than 100 people watched it, and errors decreased significantly. It was a quick win with a big impact!
Grid Quadrant 2: High Difficulty + High Impact = Make a Plan
The solutions you place in this quadrant will have a significant, positive impact on the business, but they won’t be easy. They may reduce expenses, increase revenues, increase efficiency, or improve performance. They often have a ripple effect, affecting many people in an organization. Because the impact will be high, they aren’t worth abandoning, but they won’t happen quickly. Make a realistic plan to work on them over time.
When I was leading an L&D team, an important part of our learning strategy was providing robust resources that customer service agents could access in their moments of need. Essentially, this was a content management strategy we could pivot to become a training strategy focused less on memorization and more on practice using resources. Our resources improved the efficiency and effectiveness of onboarding and reduced calls to supervisors because agents could find answers to questions on their own.
This idea had the potential for high impact, but it was complicated to create and execute. We needed to purchase expensive software to house the solution, create a large library of content and a repeatable process to update it. We also needed a strong change management strategy to shift all customer service agents to relying on this new resource, instead of calling supervisors or asking a friend. The solution would have a major impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire customer service team, but it required a plan that we worked on for several years to complete and gain full adoption.
grid Quadrant 3: Low Difficulty + Low Impact = Build Influence
The learning solutions in this quadrant won’t be hard to complete, but because they won’t have much impact, you should think twice about initiating them. However, if the solution has the potential to build influence for L&D or strengthen your relationship with an important stakeholder, it may pay off in the long run.
When I was leading the training strategy for organization-wide new software implementation, it became clear that our small but mighty L&D team couldn’t do all the training, so we leaned on SMEs to complete some of the work as appropriate. For example, Jackie, the director of purchasing, told us she would conduct training for the 1,500 people across the company who regularly made purchases, but she did want our help as training experts to review her work and offer feedback.
This was an easy solution with minimal impact, but Jackie was a stakeholder with influence and had many employees who might help us with other training initiatives in the future. So, we happily added a review of Jackie’s training program to our overall strategy. We invested only a couple of hours, and the work had very little impact, but we won big because our efforts strengthened an important relationship and opened the door for further collaboration.
grid Quadrant 4: High Difficulty + Low Impact = Not Worth it
I fondly refer to this as the quadrant where, “the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.” If your time and resources are limited, you won’t get much bang for your buck spending hours on something that will result in very little positive impact.
Years ago, I worked with a business unit that wanted my L&D team to create a full-scale, multilevel onboarding and upskilling program for one of their teams, a team of four people. The time and effort required would have been massive, and there was no guarantee the program would be used before it became outdated. Add to the mix that this business unit only hired a new employee every three to four years and it was even more obvious that our time intensive work wouldn’t pay off. Needless to say, we chose not to work on this project.
Now What? Apply This Grid Everywhere
The beauty of this simple tool is that it can be used whenever you need to finalize your strategy, increase efficiency, or are faced with a prioritization decision. Yes, you can use it when faced with a myriad of new solutions/projects, but you can also use it to scrutinize your current offerings to determine if they are worth the upkeep (using data to inform your plot points, of course). In addition, it’s useful when determining measurement and metrics for learning projects or learning strategy overall.
There were many times I was trying to figure out the best way to measure progress or impact for a particular learning project, only to realize that getting the needed data would have taken hours, input from multiple people, and/or a lot of manual work to convert or organize for little result. In those cases, we decided “the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze” and pivoted to rely on different metrics that were more accessible.
One Final Note: Saying No Doesn’t Mean It’s a Bad Idea
Just because you decide that pursuing a particular solution isn’t worth it due to its level of difficulty and impact, it doesn’t mean the idea was bad. In fact, it was probably really good! I’ve learned throughout my 30-year L&D career that the hardest decisions happen when we are forced to decide between multiple good ideas. That’s when this tool comes in most handy. It’s also when your scrap list comes in most handy.
The beauty of the Difficulty vs. Impact Grid is that it doesn’t throw shade. There’s no judging the idea itself. Instead, it simply helps to clarify which of your good ideas and solutions should bubble to the top of your list. It shows you where your limited time and resources are best spent. It’s a tool to help ensure your decisions are intentional and strategic. It’s a simple tool to increase the overall impact of your work. Some might say “it’s strategic simplification in your pocket.”
What’s Next
This article focused on gathering the right information and uncovering the commonalities and criticalities that guide your business aligned L&D strategy. Throughout the fall, I’ll be covering tools to narrow this strategy, how to negotiate your tough choices, and strong partnerships for execution. The final outcome is a realistic, business aligned strategy that moves the organization forward.
So stay tuned…
