The phrase "learning operations" is anything but exciting. In fact, it encompasses much of the mundane, day-to-day "stuff" that your audiences take for granted. That's why your CEO isn't likely to talk about this part of your job at your next meeting.

But the fact is that learning operations - the people, tasks, processes, and technologies that actually make corporate learning possible - represent the biggest slice of most training budgets. And they also are frequently the source of much frustration and worry for learning executives.

An even bigger problem is that inefficient learning operations often hold organizations back, rather than paving the way to strategic, next-generation initiatives.

For example, consider learning management systems. Most major systems were designed over 10 years ago, and weren't built to handle multiple learning portals for distinctly different learning audiences. Nor were they designed for on-demand training, podcasts, learning communities, and other components of today's learning environment. Learning organizations spend too much time, personnel, and budget trying to determine how to work around such constraints. In such cases, technology becomes an obstacle, not an advantage.

Some operational problems are invisible. For instance, while working on a technology integration project for a client, an Expertus project manager noticed that several key administration processes involved a large volume of extraneous tasks and steps. Since these processes had been in place for years, no one questioned their validity or efficiency. By making several changes, the CLO was able to redirect staff resources (approximately $250,000 per year in salaries) to more strategic, higher-profile priorities.

In other cases, a learning executive might know he or she has a problem, but can't pinpoint it. Expertus helped one company improve the effectiveness of channel training programs by providing reports that showed class registrations and cancellations across specific geographic regions. With this intelligence, the program manager quickly identified where to target promotional activities, managed cancellations more effectively, and reached out to specific sales managers for support. Previously, the learning executive could only guess at problems, because reports showed only aggregate registrations and cancellations.

While most attention inevitably goes to "what's new" and "what's strategic," you can't afford to ignore the operational engine behind your learning initiatives. Unless that infrastructure runs smoothly, even the best learning initiatives can stall.

If you have questions about best-practice learning operations or if you have a good example of some operations done well, contact me.