Interview with Ross Stevenson, independent learning and performance strategist

Meet Ross Stevenson, a diversified learning and performance strategist. We discussed the key challenges, key tasks for L&D teams, and resources to read and listen to — more on that below.

It’s about growing human potential, setting people up for rewarding careers through skill acquisition and improvement, and helping companies to perform better with high-skilled individuals.

They’re certainly less of the vanity metrics like ‘how many times your platform was accessed’ and more about measuring value. We want to focus more on tracking value and a shift in performance outcomes.

I would suggest an alternative of ditching KPIs for OKRs which is an alternative goal-tracking system. OKRs encourage continuous improvement vs. KPIs definitive reach in this measurement model. I believe OKRs provide a better framework for the L&D industry to measure their impact.

Same as they’re now, supporting people in their personal and professional growth and enabling performance outcomes for organizations through the work they do with these people.

It does this in many ways, in my opinion. Not all of these may seem obvious or even visible to all, but it has touchpoints across engagement, retention, talent attraction, and, of course, performance outcomes. Without highly-skilled and capable people, an organization cannot reach its goals, impacting its ability to make money.

I believe the future is bright. People will always need guidance in navigating the field of continuous improvement, whether this is for the professional or personal world.

Skills for an L&D expert are hard to define, as many roles within the L&D space exist. However, the skills that will serve people well are marketing, product management, and digital technology skills will greatly help navigate the future.

Massively! We should look at digital technology as an enabler in our work, but we must have the right intention with it. The work of a modern L&D team can be greatly amplified. However, teams need to get better with their own tech skills.

L&D teams need to practice what they preach and learn how to make the most of digital technology available to them.

That’s the silver bullet, right? If I was to distill it, it would be three pieces:

1. Focus on the activities that produce the biggest performance outcomes. This delivers ROI to a business’s bottom line.
2. Build solutions that are solving problems that people actually have. Gather data to figure out what this is.
3. Understand that you need to build a brand and market your strategy to your business. Get better at telling the story of why people should care about this strategy and how it will help them and the business.

There are so many, aren’t there? My advice would be to filter out the noise where possible. Everyone will want to tell you that this shiny new thing is the answer to all your problems, but you’ll generally find keeping to the basics of what you’re doing and investing in that is what provides the best returns.