Embark on a journey of transformation with The Trusted Learning Advisor. This book is a treasure trove of strategies, tools, and insights to transition from a traditional L&D role to a trusted business partner. Let it guide you and your colleagues towards becoming change agents for learning, development and business performance!
Elliott Masie
Chair, The MASIE Learning Foundation
If you’ve ever asked yourself…
Why am I treated like an order taker?
How can I make learning part of the overall company strategy?
How do I convince key stakeholders of the value of L&D?
How can I get a seat at the table?
You’ve found the answer.
The Trusted Learning Advisor
The Trusted Learning Advisor is a revolutionary guide, full of practical advice, tools, and case studies outlining the path Learning and Talent practitioners need to follow to transform from order takers into strategic consultative business partners (Trusted Learning Advisors). Written by an author with over 20 years’ experience in the industry, this book covers everything from strategies for developing skills needed to build trust and relationships with stakeholders, to practical advice on connecting the learning strategy to the business strategy and measuring the value of learning and communicating impact to the organization.
This is a Must-Read for anyone aiming to amplify their impact within the learning or talent sphere as strategic business partners that add true value to the organization and positively impact lives through the power of learning.
START YOUR TRANSFORMATIONAL JOURNEY!
After Reading This Book,
You Will ...
Understand the necessity and benefits of transforming from a traditional "Order Taker" to a "Trusted Learning Advisor".
Discover the nuances of understanding your stakeholders' business and how nurturing these relationships can pave the way to successful learning initiatives.
Learn to spot signs of mistrust and utilize the Five Pillars of Trust to cultivate trust, credibility, and meaningful relationships.
Master the four-step process of "Taking the Order" and understand the importance of having a seat at the decision-making table.
Learn how to overcome resistance when stakeholders resist or say 'no' to proposed learning solutions, and when to challenge their views.
Know how to shape your personal brand and develop a Trusted Learning Advisor mindset, both crucial in navigating the L&D landscape.
Recognize the distinct value that a Trusted Learning Advisor brings to an organization.
Be able to build your own personalized roadmap for your growth and progress toward becoming a successful Trusted Learning Advisor.
What Others Are Saying
The story of Talent Development is being actively rewritten. To develop and grow a future-ready workforce, L&D must bring a strong perspective, a flexible and strategic approach, and an end-to-end mindset to developing talent. In this book, Dr. Keating presents an actionable approach to help reverse the malaise that many L&D organizations now find themselves in. He offers an approach that recognizes how we must become more connected to the business, more consistent in our solutions, and more credible as trusted advisors that enable the outcomes both the business and the workforce need in today’s work environments.
Brandon Carson
Global Head of Learning, Starbucks
About the Author
With a career spanning more than two decades in learning and talent development, Dr. Keith Keating is a Chief Learning & Talent Officer, having worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies where he utilizes learning sciences, or how people learn best and under which conditions, as a scientific method supporting the development and lifecycle of global talent.
An author as well as a practitioner, Dr. Keating penned The Trusted Learning Advisor, a call-to-action manifesto for L&D practitioners to evolve from order takers to Trusted Learning Advisors. By following the practical insights and strategies outlined in The Trusted Learning Advisor, Dr. Keating believes L&D can live up to its full potential of creating value for organizations while positively impacting the lives of learners.
Dr. Keating is not only an advocate of the benefits of education and its power to lift and match talent with their higher goals, but he’s also a scholar-practitioner, earning two master’s degrees and a doctorate in organizational learning from the University of Pennsylvania.
A celebrated advocate for talent development, Dr. Keating leverages his platform to underline the value of human talent as the cornerstone of organizational success. Driven by a passion to encourage, enable, and empower talent, he champions lifelong learning as the key to seizing control of one's career trajectory.
Click Here to learn more about Dr. Keith Keating
Foreword – Dr. Nigel Paine
My entire career has been spent trying to encourage organizations to maximize human potential, innovation, and performance in the workplace. To successfully achieve this, we need quality Learning & Development (L&D) practitioners. However, for a long time, L&D practitioners have kept in the shadows, being led by the business with an occasional opportunity to provide consultative input or expertise. Dr. Keith Keating strongly advocates for a new set of L&D practitioners, an evolution that requires a transformational journey which he beautifully outlines in this book. He shows the reader what the necessary skills are, and proves that these are what organizations really need to become Trusted Learning Advisors.
I like this book! It does what it says it will do: chart an essential rite of passage for any self-respecting L&D practitioner. The book starts where they may start; in a place that is comfortable, subservient, and in the context, we find ourselves, short-lived. The book drops us off in Chapter 10. By now we are in the sunny uplands of power, authority and presence inside the organization. Keith shares the best of the best practices when we become what the book defines as: “Trusted Learning Advisors.”
You Might Be an Order Taker if…
Your Stakeholder
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Makes all the decisions
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Starts the conversation with: “I need you to create…”, and you finish the conversation with: “Okay,” and then you execute
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Identifies a problem, determines the solution, tells you what to do, and you do it without conducting any due diligence
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Says: “This is what the business wants, and you don’t know the business”—and it’s true that you don’t know the business
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Does not trust you
You
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Do not solve for the future, but only solve for today
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Do not proactively spend time with your stakeholder, business, or learner to understand more about them
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Are afraid to speak up to help your stakeholder identify alternative solutions, even ones that may not include training as the solution
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Cannot identify three ways in which you provide value to your stakeholders
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Think your role is to only put out fires (reactive)
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Do not have relationships throughout the organization
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Do not assert your educated and researched point of view
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Do what your stakeholder wants, even if it’s the wrong thing