L&D, it’s time to amp up our business acumen game.
If we want to move from a place where our work is transactional, where we take and deliver training orders, to one where we are working in partnership with our business colleagues, then we need to do better. We need to know more. We need to be business partners with learning expertise.
Most L&D pros didn’t end up in this profession based on our love of business. We did it because we love learning and the development of people. We love the light bulbs that signify an “aha” moment more than we love the dollar signs.
But business (or the organization) provides the context and foundation for everything that gets done in a day, a week, a month, a quarter, a year. It is the grounding, the framework, and the reason why our work exists in the first place.
Intentional or not, whenever we give ourselves a pass on learning more about the business, we hold ourselves back from becoming a Strategic Business Partner. We can only gather half the pieces — the learning pieces — to the puzzle. We leave out the context for problems and our solutions.
Let’s think about this logically with a few intentionally redundant questions:
- How can we partner within the business, at a strategic level, without understanding that business?
- How can we truly help to solve the talent challenges in our organizations if we don’t understand the environment in which those talent challenges have emerged?
- As a business leader, why would you trust someone to work with you as a strategic partner who has no idea as to the strategy you are collectively attempting to fulfill?
It’s time to increase our business knowledge.
But where to begin? What do we need to know and where can we find the information?
Business basics for L&D professionals
If you can gain a basic understanding of the following six components of the business where you work, you will be off to a good start in working as a business partner. The goal isn’t to know everything to the teensiest detail, but to get a few levels deeper than the description you give your aunt at the next family reunion. You need to dig a bit below the surface.
I recommend starting with the biggest picture items as those ground the rest of the work and then diving into more details along the way.
- Vision, mission, purpose: Why the company exists. Often the easiest to find as these items are on the company internet or intranet pages.
- Primary customers: Who the company is serving. Aim for a detailed persona if possible. Sales and marketing teams are generally keepers of this information.
- Products/services: What the company offers to customers. Learn about the primary products/services and why customers need them. If possible, become a customer yourself for even greater understanding. It can also be helpful to learn if there is a product/service lifecycle.
- Goals and/or strategic initiatives. What the company is working toward. Generally, there will be overall goals, objectives, and/or initiatives that cascade to multiple teams. They are too big for any one team to do alone.
- Basic functional/operational knowledge. How the work gets done and who does each portion of the work as well as how the company makes money and whether there is a predictable work cadence (times that are busier than others). Also look at which metrics are monitored.
- Company culture and maturity. The landscape of unwritten rules where the work gets done. Working counter to the culture or at an inappropriate level of maturity will increase the chances of failure for any project.
If you can get the basics for each of these areas, you will have a good foundational knowledge of the business where you work. The next challenge is to see where and how each of the learning projects you are working on relates or fits. Are they advancing the goals, improving the customer experience, increasing performance, and designed in a way that complements operational and cultural aspects?
Once you begin to answer these types of questions, you will see how the learning function is one aspect of the overall business. Then you can begin to function more like a true partner.
Where’s my business handbook?
You may be thinking, “This is great, but I don’t even know where to find this information.” If so, you aren’t alone. Last I checked, most learning and development pros aren’t given a handbook describing the ins and outs of the business where they work and answering all their questions. For most of us, finding information about our business feels like a randomized search for puzzle pieces.
Where to even begin?
Finding the puzzle pieces for your business acumen
If you’ve ever participated in a scavenger hunt, you know that the most successful participants tap into a healthy dose of curiosity. That same attitude will serve you well in your own hunt to learn more about the business. Sometimes the information will be obvious. Other times you might need to turn over a few rocks.
Here are a few places to search:
- Scour digital sources. Chances are you have access to more information than you think. Scour your company’s digital sources including the website, intranet, knowledge base, and shared files. Don’t be afraid to click in and learn more.
- Make a direct ask. It seems almost too obvious to say but sometimes asking for access to information, reports, and planning documents is all that’s needed. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you need a justification, use something like, “I’m working to learn as much as I can about the business so that I can be a partner who helps to proactively solve talent challenges.” I’ve found that unless there is a good reason (security, confidentiality, or a cultural norm) to not share information, it’s difficult for most to deny someone who is trying to learn in order to improve the business.
- Insert yourself into meetings. You don’t always need to wait for an invitation. Ask to be included in key meetings using the same justification as above — learning more about the business to be a better partner. You can even offer to take notes if that’s what gets you in the door.
- Listen strategically. In every meeting and conversation, listen for information that will fill in your business knowledge gaps; the pieces that will help you put together the puzzle of the business. This could include new-to-you acronyms, insights into the biggest business challenges, clues as to unwritten rules, nods to revenues and expenses, and more. Often the information is discussed without being explicitly called out. Listen for what’s behind the agenda.
- Find at least one business mentor. Look for someone outside of L&D/HR who can share insights about how the business operates, the top business challenges, leadership pressures and goals, and navigating the company’s political landscape. You could even get as granular as finding a mentor for a specific gap area like understanding how to read company balance sheets or how to better understand finance.
- Go to the gemba. Gemba comes from the Japanese term “genba,” which means “actual place.” In business, it refers to the place where the work is done. Nothing can substitute for seeing work completed in real time along with the nuances, real-life challenges, unwritten processes, tips used only by top performers, and more. These are rarely written down but they are regularly experienced.
- Learn from every project. Every project that you do presents an opportunity to learn more about the business basics. Spend dedicated time reflecting during and after every project on the business basics that were expanded or illuminated.
Start by trying to gather as much information as you can but know that learning about the business won’t be completed in a day. You will continuously learn little pieces of information that fill in gaps to varying levels of depth. If you are always watching and listening for puzzle pieces, you will find them over time and the picture of your business will continue to emerge more and more clearly.
Jess Almlie is a learning and performance strategist with over 25 years of experience across multiple industries. In that time, she has worked in all the people development roles, from her very first job as a trainer at McDonald’s to vice president of learning experience at WEX Benefits. Now, as an independent consultant, she helps L&D leaders and teams shift their approach to work more strategically, intentionally, and impactfully.
