Creating and Launching a Learning Council

Learning Council: A group of individuals interested in sharing knowledge and ideas around effective learning within an organization or a group.

Although usually associated with higher education, corporations frequently use learning councils to gather ideas from those involved in the training function and/or to gather data from clients as to needs around learning and development within their organization or industry.  Learning councils are also frequently used to enable collaboration among various learning & development (L&D) groups within organizations to ensure consistency and efficiencies in processes and practices.

When considering a Learning Council for your organization, answer the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the Learning Council?
•  Enable increased sharing of information
• Brainstorming and problem solving
• Enable for efficiencies in developing and implementing L&D programs
• Select and develop agreements with external contractors/vendors
• Make recommendations for L&D programs
• Approve L&D program budgets
• Complete business impact and ROI studies of strategic programs
• Reduction in L&D expenses
• Development of strategic L&D plans
• Coordinate development of in-house L&D programs
• Who will comprise the Learning Council’s group members besides members of the L&D function?
• Internal employees representing various business units
• External clients

If external clients are members of the group, you will need to consider how to effectively integrate them into Learning Council meetings.  Think about:

• Do external clients attend all Learning Council meetings or only as relevant.
• What do the external clients get out of the Learning Council meetings? What is the value add for them?
• Why do you want them in the Learning Council?  What are you trying to accomplish by having external clients as members?

Let’s return to the questions you’ll need to think through when considering launching a Learning Council:

• How often will you meet as a group?
• Will there be a rotation of members into the Learning Council? If so, how will that work?
• Is the Learning Council a temporary group? Or a long term group?

Once you have thought through these questions.  Start socializing the Learning Council within the organization, and most especially with those individuals who ideally will be members of the Council. Talk about:

• The benefits of the Learning Council
• The purpose of the Learning Council
• The value add to be a member of the Learning Council
• What it is hoped the Learning Council will accomplish
• Time commitment and expectations of members

For ideas on how two socialize and effectively communicate the Learning Council to get buy-in, visit the blog post, Communicating the Value Add of a Project Management Best Practice.  It provides suggestions for communicating within the organization the value add of a project management best practice but will work just as effectively for communicating a Learning Council.

Planning for the First Meeting

Plan for at least 2 hours for the first meeting of the Learning Council to accomplish the following:

• Introductions and some team building exercises
• Discussion around what the group wants to accomplish
• Discussion around personal goals for group members
• Agreement around objectives of the Learning Council
• Development of a charter for the Learning Council
• Discussion of ground rules for the group
• Discussion of roles and responsibilities of group members

Consider developing a collaboration portal for the members of the Learning Council.  The collaboration portal will enable Learning Council members to:

• Share information
• Ask each other questions and problem solve issues
• Upload documents and work on documents in a shared environment
• Access resources
• Schedule meetings
• Track progress on subcommittee work

Think of the collaboration portal as a “gathering place” for the Learning Council members.

Summary

For organizations that have multiple L&D groups and resources supporting the organization, a Learning Council enables for consistencies between the groups.  Sharing of information and coordinating of efforts will improve efficiencies and reduce costs for the organization.

If you are considering allowing external clients to be a member of the Learning Council; think carefully about what they will get from their participation and what you want to get from having them as members. For one organization I worked with on development of a Learning Council where external clients were included, meetings were scheduled for once a quarter for internal employees of the organization and of those four meetings each year, external clients attended two of them.  When external clients joined the Learning Council meeting, meeting discussions focused on industry trends and client needs.  The goal of these Learning Council meetings with external clients was to get a better understanding of the client’s issues and goals, and ensure that programs developed supported their needs.

Of most importance is ensuring you effectively communicate the Learning Council – socialize among the organization the purpose of the Learning Council and the value add to the organization and the members of the Council.  Do appropriate planning up front to ensure that you have the right people as members of the Learning Council and that you know what you want to accomplish and why.