Best Ways to Build Impact in Training and Talent Development in 2024
If you’re a Training Manager or HRD professional looking to make progress in your 2024 career or professional goals, or to improve your Learning and Development or Training department, here are some great ways to do this.
1.) Focus on Performance Pockets – Rather than looking to fix everything all at once as that takes time, find 2 or 3 pocket areas where you can fill a niche in your organization. Niches are easier to work with. They are smaller and usually very focused on particular outcomes. Win on this and it will be much easier to expand them to other areas. This makes for a great win for you and for your organization. How to find them? Easy. Talk to a few different managers in your organization. Include people you may not know. This gives you a chance to get to know them and their challenges. When more than one have the same challenge you have found a niche.
2.) Communicate Beyond Borders – It’s easy to get insular when you’re focused on current projects and have a demanding workload. But taking time to sharpen your awareness of trends and what’s going on in your organization can help you think ahead and recommend solutions for future needs. Every month, do some outreach beyond your department and current projects to have a “get to know you” conversation with someone else in your organization. Especially because environments have become more virtual, you need to make a concerted effort to do this. Making it part of your workplan will yield many advantages. You’ll have an expanded network and you’ll be more tuned in to what is going on and better able to plan or recommend new things or seize opportunities for growth and improvement
3.) Strength and Empathy – Build on both strength and empathy this year and express a sense of hopefulness that others can pick up on. Know what you are strong in and make efforts to communicate that in ways that support others. Ask questions and encourage others and try to understand more about their world. By doing this you’ll be helping them to pick up on the same and magnify it to others.
4.) Build a Brain Trust – One of the secrets of innovative organizations is that they always have a cadre of innovative others outside their organization. Having a small group of others that can do this for you is a master move that will bring immense benefit to you and your work. These may be former colleagues, contractors, leading voices and specialists who are well connected and active in projects or activities that can be beneficial for you to know about. Identify a small cluster of those others and seek to connect, communicate, mentor or be mentored by them.
5.) Look for Better Approaches – Go beyond a focus on tools and tactics of your trade. Look for success stories and approaches that can potentially bring scalability and influence to the work you or your department does. The more you can build things that bring impact internally, the better your career and department can change, grow and adapt new capacities to do this better. This is a great way to build value, trust and confidence in your clients and team.
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