What struck me most in our Thursday
webinar on
How
to Get Management Buy-In for eLearning was the senior level of
approval required to "green light" eLearning development projects.
Most participants said that they had to get sign-off at a very high
level. Some needed Vice-Presidential approval (e.g. VP of
Organizational Development, or Marketing, or Sales, etc.), one
needed Chief Financial Officer approval, and one even required
Presidential sign-off. This can prove to be a daunting task. In my
experience, the higher up in an organization that you have to go,
the harder it is to make your case for your eLearning project. It
faces much more critical scrutiny and many more competing priorities
for attention and investment.
We focused on a three-pronged approach to
"selling" senior management on the merits of your eLearning project
idea.
1. Understand Management
Motivations
You have to clearly understand organizational
goals and priorities and know what motivational "buttons" to press
to get senior management to stand up and take notice of your idea.
In what ways can your eLearning intervention increase organizational
gain (e.g. in terms of higher sales / revenue, service improvement,
higher client satisfaction, etc.) and decrease organizational pain
(e.g. in terms of decreased down time, less defects, less support
calls, etc.)? If your solution speaks to management priorities you
will get a fair hearing.
2. Use Measures that Speak to
Motivations
Define success for your eLearning idea based on
gathering and analyzing data directly related to the gains you are
trying to realize or the pains you are trying to minimize. Senior
management prefers to manage via facts, not conjecture. Show the
ways that you will measure real outcomes from your eLearning
intervention. Also, collect metrics that speak to the advantages of
an eLearning approach to training (e.g. better reach, more
convenience, improved consistency, lower costs per learner over
time, etc.). Committing to measuring the effectiveness of your
approach will win respect from management.
3. Communicate Your Vision
Effectively
In the age of instant communications and
information overload, attention spans are extremely limited. There
is a very small window in which to make your point to senior
management, so use it wisely. Boil down your value proposition for
your proposed eLearning intervention to its essence. Can you sum it
up in a few paragraphs? This takes time and practice. Remember, it
is harder to say something of import and impact in a couple of
pages, than it is to say nothing in 50 pages. And, please, at all
costs, avoid slipping into overly-technical language. This will just
create more confusion than clarity. Management wants to know what
you are going to do, what benefit it will have, and how you will
measure effectiveness in realizing that benefit. Period.
Finally, we discussed how it is far better to
introduce eLearning incrementally, learning from experience, and
scaling up intelligently as you grow. Nothing succeeds like success.
This will make your next case that much easier to make.
