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My approach
As someone who is involved in learning and development, I try not to walk barefoot and translate the lessons I learn along the way into working principles
The business context is always important, even the most important!
Every organizational process should ultimately serve a business goal, or create a win-win situation for employees and the organization.
The earlier you make the connection, the easier it is to connect managers in general and management in particular to the process, manage resources, and more.
Everything is connected!
An organization is an ecosystem that has everything – people and relationships, goals, resources, expertise, needs and interests, agendas and politics.
And so everything is connected. I will try to demonstrate:
We want to teach a group of employees a new skill. True, we need to develop a course or a blended solution. But they also need to be motivated. Motivation is related to organizational connections, their managers, their perception of their role (and more).
Do their managers have the skills (perception, knowledge, skills) to positively influence motivation to learn?
The day after learning, in order for employees to apply the new skill, there needs to be a demand and a feedback loop – we went back to the managers. But also to work processes, their interfaces, and more.
See? It's all connected!
Baby steps and spirals
In direct continuation of the previous principle, you still need to decide on a starting point. I would usually recommend that it be in the place that hurts the most, that is most urgent, that provides the quick win in relation to the business need (here we are back to principle #1). And from there, move forward in small, gradual steps that the organization knows how to "digest". We will create spiral circles of influence, which, if we built them and implemented them correctly, will create much wider spiral circles of influence.
Balance and compromises
In organizations, as in life, nothing is perfect. And there is always complexity. Successful solutions are those in which one manages to create a balance between opposing forces, and/or compromise. Compromising is, in my opinion, a daily necessity in a complex reality, and often this is the essence of professionalism and leadership – how to create a solution within existing constraints that pushes the organization forward, that is a balance between best practices and limitations.
Movement and changes
I won't elaborate on VUCA, on "a world in disarray," on the new world. Let's just say that it's clear to all of us that things are changing all the time, at a rapid pace. This dictates a simple working principle – we embark on long processes and projects while taking into account that things will change along the way, from the focus and scope of work, through the people to the technologies. We don't fall in love with anything we do, and are constantly ready to change, while balancing (here we connect to principle #4) with the efforts we've already invested and, above all, the final result we want to achieve.