I just finished a 400 page book that outlined in tremendous detail how to measure the value of learning in organizations from the commonly used "smile sheets" where participants are asked about the value of a session or program all the way to the highest level of measurement, ROI or return on investment.
The book was very informative although I can't say I walked away feeling inspired. The effort involved with demonstrating to executives that learning is worth the investment was tedious and in some cases more involved than designing and delivering a learning experience itself.
Does that mean I'm advocating for giving up on the pursuit of measuring the impact of learning? Not at all. Any investment made by an organization, family, or individual should be a worthwhile investment. We may have different success measures, but we all have finite resources - time and money.
Let's start with time. While I don't map out every single day from the time I wake till the time I go to sleep, through a combination of goal setting, our family and work calendar, task tracking for actions that are not yet habits and executing the "habit loop" for actions thst are a part of my daily habits, I am confident that I am spending time learning every single day, likely a better investment than scrolling social media.
On the money front, there's so much free or relatively cheap content out there that an investment in learning is inexpensive. I have even started buying books on Thrift Books and have explored online books at the local library to feed my reading habit at a reduced cost. That being said, there are learning resources and programs that have a cost in our family including, golf, piano, and swimming lessons for our kids.
How do I know the investments of time and money are paying off? It starts with how I feel after spending time learning. If I just spent the last hour learning something, I feel like I accomplished something and I want to learn more. From there I reflect on what I learned and look for ways that I can apply the knowledge and skill to my work and life.
Whether or not what I learned translates into behavior change usually depends on if what I learned translates into a habit. I won't go into too much detail here on habits in this post as I will cover them in other posts, but at a minimum, if you learn something that you believe has the potential to be transformational, set a reminder in your phone every day to remind you about it including why it's important.
Finally on the ROI front, while our family may not have quarterly earnings or learning reports for investors like a publicly traded company or data scientists to measure and analyze lead and lag measures, there are many ways to track impact of learning aligned to my values. Health for example can be measured by lead measures such as tracking food and activity and lag measures such as weight and blood pressure.
If you don't have the time or expertise to implement a measurement strategy for your own learning, start small, spending a few minutes a day learning, track how you feel, reflect on what you learned and if there's something that you learn that has potential to be transformational, see my recommendation above to set reminders in your phone to start the "habit loop."
Back to the organization front. Considering I've been in financial services for almost 25 years, I know that any investment needs to be worth the time and resources. In many circumstances it's challenging to pinpoint the true ROI of learning.
Don't let the effort deter you from gaining clarity on the impact of learning. Start with a belief in the value of learning, especially when learning is aligned to the core mission, vision and values of the organization, leverage the individual example above and apply if to your learning initiative, and leverage the strengths your organization already possesses to measure results and impact.
I expect you will find the effort worth the investment in learning.
Learn In The Flow Of Life
Jason
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