CHAPTER 44

Structuring TD to Meet the Dynamic Needs of the Organization

William J. Rothwell, Angela Stopper, and Aileen G. Zaballero

As you think about structuring your talent development team to include the critical components for organizational success, consider two aspects: How do you ensure your team’s priorities directly meet the organization’s dynamic needs? How do you align your activities to meet your organization’s overall business goals and objectives?

The answer is—strategically. Managing and developing people is not only an operational necessity but also a strategic imperative. When talent development is structured as a critical function that is necessary to meet strategic objectives, everyone wins. By doing this, your team will have a seat at the table where critical business decisions are made.

Let’s begin with an overview of ATD’s Talent Development Capability Model and Talent Development Framework, which can support you in the creation of a customized TD structure. We’ll also examine the You-Me-We Learning Model, which presents an alternative view of the CCL’s 70-20-10 framework. This chapter will also help you identify steps to ensure your structure and functional activities support the needs of the workforce and the goals of the business.

ATD’s Talent Development Capability Model

Based on a study conducted in 2018–2019, ATD launched an interactive Talent Development Capability Model that recognizes the changing dynamics of the TD field. “The model is personalizable, updatable, and future-oriented, reflecting the field of talent development now and also five years in the future” (ATD 2021). It responds to the trends affecting talent development, such as digital transformation, data analytics, information availability, and partnerships between talent development and business. The model is subdivided into three domains of practice:

•  Building Personal Capability: The knowledge and interpersonal skills (soft skills) needed to build effective organizational or team culture, trust, and engagement.

•  Developing Professional Capability: The knowledge and skills needed to be effective in creating the processes, systems, and framework that foster learning.

•  Impacting Organizational Capability: The knowledge, skills, and abilities to ensure talent development is aligned with business goals for organizational success.

The Talent Development Capability Model is customizable and interactive, so TD professionals can explore and build a framework for themselves based on their individual roles, responsibilities, and how their organization is structured. This model is an excellent tool to start with when building a dynamic TD function that meets the needs of your organization (Figure 44-1).

ATD’s Talent Development Framework

After you consider how your team can aid in building, developing, and impacting capability (personal, professional, and organization), select the components that must be part of your TD strategy. This is what the Talent Development Framework was designed for.

In 2014–2015, ATD and Rothwell & Associates partnered to study how organizations around the world were structuring and aligning talent development. What they found was that many talent development thought leaders said that describing talent development was complex (Rothwell, Stopper, and Zaballero 2015a). Based on their research, ATD and Rothwell & Associates developed a Talent Development Framework containing 39 different components that influence the success of the TD department. The framework is designed so that you can determine and define the primary and secondary components required to develop a TD strategy that enables the organization to successfully reach its stated operational, business, and strategic goals. This exercise is important because it will help you determine what and how many resources to devote to each component of the strategy. The customizable framework can also be used to help organizations rearrange, remove, and add functions to fit their changing needs (Figure 44-2).

How ATD’s Capability Model and TD Framework Support Each Other

ATD’s Talent Development Capability Model helps professionals understand the knowledge and skills necessary for success and identify development opportunities for an individual’s professional learning journey. The model also provides direction for individuals and teams to assess their knowledge and skills in the profession against 23 capabilities organized into three domains of practice. You can connect with ATD’s interactive Talent Development Capability Model on the ATD website.

Similarly, the Talent Development Framework helps guide organizations to prioritize their talent development components. It focuses on the specific functions necessary for a group or department to be successful, aligning what they do to the needs of their organization. The framework is best suited to determine which components should be prioritized in an organization’s talent development function or structure. You will find an interactive version of ATD’s TD Framework Puzzle on the handbook website at ATDHandbook3.org.

Once organizations prioritize the components within their talent development function or structure, they can then look to the related capabilities in the Capability Model to ensure their employees and teams have the knowledge and skills necessary to be most effective.

As you think about how these two models can help you structure a customized framework to meet the dynamic needs of your organization, it’s essential to consider which components align with the business goals and what capabilities you and your team need to be successful.

The You-Me-We Learning Model

Now that we’ve covered the Talent Development Capability Model and TD Framework, we’d like to introduce one more model you can use to structure your TD function to meet your organization’s business needs.

The You-Me-We Learning Model, developed by Angela L.M. Stopper, provides a way for learners to see themselves in the learning model (Figure 44-3). Current learning models tend to focus on the “products,” such as how many formal learning program hours make up a program portfolio or how many hours of informal learning are pushed out to clients. You-Me-We turns those questions (and the discussions that we have about them) upside-down and asks the learner how our programs support their learning needs. How can we support and enable you to be the very best that you can be?

The model is designed from the learner’s perspective, so “me” is found at its center. Me Learning represents the strategies the TD function incorporates into its portfolio that empower your learners to find and use self-directed learning. It asks “What can I, me, the learner, do to own my development?” and “How can you, the TD function, support my individual journey?”

To the left of Me Learning is You Learning. In the view of a learner, You Learning is anything that they expect you, the organization, to provide. In other words, what formal course and learning opportunities does the organization provide to support their learning journey?

The third piece of the model is We Learning. As the old saying goes, no person is an island, and no learning journey can be complete without the help of a personal learning network. That is what We Learning encompasses.

As you look at your learning strategy through the You-Me-We Learning Model, you are forced to think about what the TD function is doing to build and sustain safe spaces within your organization for the formation and use of those personal learning networks.

5 Steps to Developing a TD Structure

Together, the Talent Development Capability Model, Talent Development Framework, and You-Me-We Learning Model create a foundation for ensuring your TD structure meets the dynamic needs of your organization. Now let’s look at a five-step process that will guide you through the use of these tools:

•  Prioritize

•  Re-vision

•  Launch

•  Communicate/celebrate

•  Evaluate/recalibrate

Figure 44-4 represents an interactive approach you can use when developing and structuring your customized TD framework. This cyclical process emphasizes the need to continuously assess and adjust to ensure your organization’s evolving needs are met. Worksheets to guide you through the first four steps are available for download on the handbook website at ATDHandbook3.org.

Step 1. Prioritize

First, you must prioritize the proper talent development components to ensure your strategy meets your organization’s strategic business objectives. Follow these prompts as you navigate this step:

•  Identify and list your organization’s business priorities. Name the strategic business objectives. Then, working with the leadership team, determine what the organization needs to be successful, and root your TD function in support of achieving those objectives and goals.

•  Name your primary components. Create a table and, in partnership with your leadership, department, or unit, review the TD Framework’s 39 components to identify which are mission critical. These are your primary components and will have the biggest positive impact on one of the business priorities you listed in the first prompt. (Note that you can list multiple components for each priority.) Use the interactive TD Framework Puzzle to highlight your primary components in red.

•  Name your secondary components. Create a second table and work with your leadership, department, or unit to review the remaining components and identify which are important. These are your secondary components and will have a moderate, positive impact on one of the business priorities listed from the first prompt. (Note that you can list multiple components for each priority.) Update your puzzle, highlighting the secondary components in orange.

•  Remove (for now) nice-to-have components. Now it’s time to take stock of the components that remain. Work with your leadership, department, or unit to discuss each one, asking, “Are you willing to remove this component from your framework (for now)?” If you say no, the component may belong in your framework. However, before you make it a primary or secondary piece, provide your rationale for keeping it in your framework. For example, if it doesn’t directly align to a current business objective or goal, why should you focus on it? Is your answer strong and forward thinking, or are you rooting future-focused decisions in the past (“We’ve always done it this way”)? Validate your reason: Is there someone else within your sphere who could take this over for you? Do others agree that no one else can take it over? Do others think this component is mission critical? Important? Is your reasoning strong? Do others agree? If, after this analysis, you are still unwilling to remove the component from your framework, highlight it with red or orange (depending on if you wish to call it a primary or secondary component). Anything that remains is now a nice-to-have component and can be removed from your framework (for now).

•  Revisit the framework as your organization’s business priorities, goals, or resources change.

Step 2. Re-Vision

Next, determine what you need to do to re-vision a robust, organization-wide talent development framework as well as the structure that will align you and your team for success. Using the tools and models we’ve discussed, ensure you have a mix of You Learning, Me Learning, and We Learning in the products, services, and opportunities available within your components to build the capabilities needed to meet the dynamic business needs of the organization.

•  You Learning. Remember, when a learner looks to you, the organization, for a learning experience, that’s You Learning. It’s important to create learning journeys for your employees as opposed to one-and-done programs that aren’t integrated into the business strategy. Engage your top leaders to talk about the importance and impact of development and market your offerings like you are the top learning and development company in the world!

•  Me Learning. Anything in your Me Learning strategy should focus on creating content that people search for and can find right when they need it or are ready for it. They own their learning journey, and know where to go and whom to ask for help. A good Me Learning portfolio allows learners to feel in control, supported, and ready to seek out learning opportunities throughout the day, as part of their job, right in their workflow.

•  We Learning. As you build your We Learning portfolio, focus on developing vehicles you can distribute to engage your clients as they build and use a personal learning network. Think, “How is my team creating and enabling safe-space opportunities for people in the organization to gather and learn from one another?” and then build a portfolio that does that.

Step 3. Launch

When you get to the launch step, we like to point to a quote from Arthur Ashe: “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” Launching a new strategy can feel overwhelming, and this quote helps us center and focus. Remember, you won’t get to the perfect TD structure overnight; it is a marathon, not a sprint. Here are some important things to remember:

•  List your programs and products.

•  Define what’s existing and what’s new.

•  Determine the input needed to make each item happen, the impact it will have, and the budget you will need.

•  Assign accountability and timelines.

Think actionable (what do we need to do?) and measurable (how will we know it’s being done [numbers] and by when [timelines]?) for every strategic step you wish to take. Remember that in business, what gets measured is what gets done, and what is rewarded is what gets repeated.

Step 4. Communicate and Celebrate

This takes us directly into our next step—sharing the TD framework with the whole organization and acknowledging your outcomes.

It’s not sufficient to simply hold one town hall meeting to announce the launch of your TD strategy. One-shot communication efforts are here today and gone tomorrow. People listen, nod politely, and promptly forget what they heard. In fact, this is why many change efforts fail—people forget what the change goals are, who is involved, what results are desired, why those results are necessary, and what that means (and why that is important) to managers and their teams.

A communication strategy is comprehensive in scope. Each step in a change plan should include a corresponding step focused on the communications needed to ensure people understand the “what,” “why,” and “how.” Work to ensure that each communication step you outline describes:

•  Who is (or should be) the target for communication? Who are the stakeholders?

•  What is the objective, or gist, of the message?

•  What three takeaways should your reader remember after receiving the communication?

•  When should the message be delivered?

•  Where should the message be delivered?

•  Why is the message important, and what change goals will it support?

•  How should the message be delivered, and how can redundancy be built in so that there is more than one way to reach a targeted audience?

In addition to planning the communication strategy, decision makers should hold celebrations. It is not good enough to launch a change effort and manage it effectively. People also need to celebrate their successes. Celebrations help dramatize what has been achieved in the change effort, who was involved, and why that matters. They also engage and motivate people so they feel good about themselves, the change, and the value of talent development. This step is the reward that ensures that what you want to happen will continue to happen.

Step 5. Evaluate and Recalibrate

Measuring the impact of your program and products allows you to modify your TD framework to ensure it remains relevant for years to come. As the business goals change, your TD strategy should also change.

Evaluation has long been emphasized by TD professionals. In fact, it has been a preoccupation of many in the field. Perhaps the best-known model of evaluation is Donald Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation. For Kirkpatrick, evaluation rests on four important questions:

•  Level 1: Reaction. How much did participants like the learning experience?

•  Level 2: Learning. How much did participants learn from the experience?

•  Level 3: Behavior. How much did participants change their on-the-job behavior due to the learning experience?

•  Level 4: Results. What measurable results—productivity gains—were realized from the learning experience?

Jack and Patti Phillips expanded on the idea of the four levels of evaluation by adding impact, which includes calculating the return on investment. ROI examines the benefits provided by talent development minus the costs of analyzing, designing, developing, delivering, and evaluating TD experiences. In other words, ROI measures the financial impact of the TD function.

You may also want to examine the strategic business impact of change efforts such as TD experiences. This looks at how well the TD experiences contributed to meeting the organization’s strategic goals as measured by the Balanced Scorecard strategic goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) of each division, department, work group or team, or individual.

Use a timeframe to examine Kirkpatrick’s four levels, ROI, and the business impact and create an evaluation grid. This makes it possible for you to forecast each level before the TD experiences, during the experiences, after the experiences, and into the future. The grid is shown in Figure 44-5.

The TD Framework is a strategic model and should therefore be evaluated strategically. Indeed, evaluating long-term and strategic issues is not the same as evaluating one-shot, short-term, tactically focused change (Jones and Rothwell 2017). How much does the TD effort contribute to meeting organizational needs and achieving organizational goals? To what extent does the organization have the right people in the right places at the right times to achieve the right results? These are the questions that the TD framework seeks to address, and it is a useful issue to bear in mind as the framework’s relative success is evaluated.

Thus the results of evaluation can help you periodically recalibrate your TD framework, ensuring it remains dynamic—linked to business needs and aligned to the strategic goals of your organization now and in the future

Final Thoughts

Building a TD strategy and team to meet the dynamic business needs of your organization is not only good business, but also a necessary task in remaining relevant to your organization. Budgets will continue to get smaller, organizations will continue to get flatter, and resources will continue to get more scarce. By aligning your TD strategy with the larger organizational goals, you will show your value as a strong member of the organization’s leadership team and earn your seat by helping make strategic business decisions.

About the Authors

William J. Rothwell, PhD, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CPTD Fellow, is president of Rothwell & Associates and a professor in charge of workforce education and development on the University Park campus of Pennsylvania State University. As a professor, he heads a top-ranked program in learning and performance; as a consultant, he travels the world presenting on his 104 published books. In 2012, he was honored with ATD’s Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award, and in 2013 he was honored by the ATD Certification Institute by being appointed a Certified Professional in Talent Development Fellow. Visit his website at rothwellandassociates.com.

Angela L.M. Stopper, PhD, is the chief learning officer and director of people and organization development at the University of California, Berkeley. She is responsible for the team that creates and delivers campuswide learning initiatives supporting supervisory, management, functional, technical, and nontechnical learning efforts for the campus’s 9,000 staff and faculty administrators. Angela is also a member of the teaching faculty with Penn State World Campus, where she has developed and is teaching a course for the online master of professional studies degree in organization development and change.

Aileen G. Zaballero, PhD, CPTD, is a senior partner at Rothwell & Associates and a Certified Professional in Talent Development since 2009. She helped develop a competency model and career map for the advanced commercial building workforce and redesigned a performance management system for a senior living community. Aileen recently co-authored the book Increasing Learning & Development’s Impact Through Accreditation (Palgrave 2020).

References

ATD. 2021. “About the Model.” The Talent Development Capability Model. td.org/capability-model-cert/about.

Galagan, P., M. Hirt, and C. Vital. 2019. Capabilities for Talent Development: Shaping the Future of the Profession. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Jones, M.C., and W.J. Rothwell, eds. 2017. Evaluating Organization Development: How to Ensure and Sustain the Successful Transformation. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Kirkpatrick, J.D., and W.K. Kirkpatrick. 2016. Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Phillips, P.P., and J.J. Phillips. 2006. Return on investment (ROI) Basics. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Phillips, P.P., and J.J. Phillips. 2009. Return on Investment: Handbook of Improving Performance in the Workplace. New York: Routledge.

Rothwell, W., A. Stopper, and A. Zaballero. 2015a. Building a Talent Development Structure Without Borders. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Rothwell, W., A. Stopper, and A. Zaballero. 2015b. “Measuring and Addressing Talent Gaps Globally.” TD at Work. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Recommended Resources

Rothwell, W. 2009. The Manager’s Guide to Maximizing Employee Potential: Quick and Easy Strategies to Develop Talent Every Day. New York: AMACOM.

Rothwell, W. 2012. “Advance Organizer.” In Talent Management: A Step-By-Action-Oriented Guide Based on Best Practice, edited by W. Rothwell, M. Jones, M. Kirby, and F. Loomis. Amherst, MA: HRD Press.

Rothwell, W. 2012. “Talent Management and Talent Development: What They Are, and Why You Should Care.” In The Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management, vol. 2, edited by W. Rothwell, J. Lindholm, K.K. Yarrish, and A. Zabellero. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.