Connecting learning and development to the business is a must these days. Research shows that executives rank business impact as their number one measure of success for learning and development. Achieving business impact requires you to align programs with the business. This is not an unfair request. You would feel the same way if you funded a host of programs – regardless of the type of organization in which you work. Business measures exist in for-profit, nonprofit, government, and nongovernmental organizations. Sadly, many learning and development professionals admit that they don’t connect programs and improvement in business measures. Why? They don’t exactly know how to do this, for the most part.
The bad news is that failing to align programs with the business leaves executives guessing – often not in your favor. The good news is that aligning to the business is not that complicated. It involves three specific actions.