‘Scooch over’, says L&D, I’ve bought my own chair.
After years of standing awkwardly by the wall during strategy meetings, Learning & Development has finally secured their own chair at the proverbial table. The only challenge now? Finding somewhere to actually put it.
"It's a huge win for us," said Sarah from L&D, clutching her folding chair with both hands. Marg nods and adds, “In my day we weren’t even allowed in the room. On a good day, Steve or Brad, or was it Chad? Anyway, one of them would accidentally leave the door ajar, on other days we just had to wait for the memo - or hold a glass to the door.” Sarah not letting the chair out of her sight knits her brow in contemplation, "Now we just need the Executive Leadership Team to maybe shift over a bit, or perhaps if Finance could squeeze in closer to Marketing?"
The chair, a collapsible camping model with not a great deal of lumbar support, was procured after a three-year business case that demonstrated the ROI of having L&D present when decisions about learning are made. A representative from Procurement who preferred not to be named said, “Look, just between you and me, we figured if we just got them the darn chair, maybe they’d just get back to contributing a week before a go-live, like normal.”
"We're thrilled to have them join us," said the Chief Strategy Officer, not looking up from his phone. "Just as soon as we figure out the seating arrangement. Say, have they considered sitting behind someone? Can someone ask them if the location is as important as actually having the chair?"
When asked what they plan to contribute now that they have a seat, L&D responded enthusiastically, "We're ready to add value! We've prepared a 20-minute eLearning module as mandatory pre-work for the next strategy meeting. They should all be getting daily notification reminders from the LMS by now."
Early observations show L&D's chair has been primarily used to hold coats during meetings, word is a one hour eLearn on Procurement was launched without proper business consultation on the pictures.
How did we get here?
The L&D seat at the table has been a talking point for decades. The reality is, if your organisation doesn't see the strategic value of learning, a whole dining suite of chairs isn’t going to help you move the dial. Start by speaking the language of business outcomes, not learning objectives. Rapid prototyping and piloting quickly is a great way to bring actual outcomes to the table to get the funding or buy-in you need.
