Having a Managed Learning Services (MLS) partnership has become a popular solution for companies that look to be cost-effective and time-efficient while delivering superior learning opportunities to their employees. MLS partners have access to the best tools and learning infrastructure needed for enhanced training delivery, which means employees are more engaged and likely to retain the information you need them to.

Partnering with an MLS provider will give you confidence in your operations while bringing a level of efficiency that allows you to expand your investment in learning solutions. With that being said, having a successful relationship with your MLS partner requires work and attention.

How to Maintain a Great Relationship with Your MLS Partner

From my experience, the magic ingredients for a successful MLS partnership are commitment and great communication, which manifest in five key ways:

1.      Prioritize Executive Sponsorship

When MLS partnerships fail, it’s often due to a lack of sponsorship. And when sponsorships do exist, they’re often the weakest link in the operation. An executive sponsor of an MLS partnership is someone who has the authority and ability to navigate the politics of your organization and ensure leadership is aligned with your goals and action plan. These individuals are the influencers of success; they typically meet monthly with the MLS provider, have the executive power to promote change at a high level, and are deeply involved in the relationship from the beginning.

For global organizations, it’s important to have sponsors for each region the organization is involved in because, unsurprisingly, the strength of the sponsorship diminishes as it moves from the center of the engagement.

2.      Set Clear Expectations

When you partner with an MLS provider, it’s important to realize that you are both working for the same team. If the partnership is successful, both organizations flourish, so both parties must be on the same page.

Creating clear goals and guidelines for performance, measurement, and client satisfaction beyond service levels is imperative for a good working relationship. This is the only way to hold yourself, your team, and your provider accountable for the success both parties want. Revisiting those expectations regularly and collaborating on solutions to potential issues are also critical activities.

3.      Have Fearless Conversations about Your Action Plan

Providers are often tentative about raising issues due to the natural fear of being perceived as failing. The problem is, though, that the client in an MLS partnership usually won’t engage on a given topic until a problem exists. This isn’t exactly a healthy environment for a good working relationship—you want to get in front of potential issues before they begin affecting learning delivery.

Rather than bottle things up, set regular meetings every month with your MLS provider to discuss recent successes and to create action plans for any upcoming challenges. This gives everyone the opportunity to assess the problem, the solution, and the outcome before a disruption occurs. Even though the MLS provider will be the party taking action, action plans serve both the client and the provider, so clients should be engaged in this process too.

This meeting also serves as a regular touchpoint to discuss learner satisfaction scores and any other feedback learners may provide. When you have these discussions regularly, you develop action plans for issues that may affect the partnership and training delivery in the immediate future, and you also begin building the foundation for solving problems in the distant future. When you get into the flow of these regular touch-base meetings, the trust in your relationship will grow, and you can continue to ensure that your learning approach is aligned with business needs.

4.      Take Change Management Seriously

Change management is the art and science of helping organizations transition from their current mode of operation to a desired future state. The fundamental objectives of change management are to facilitate the implementation of new technologies or ways of working and to promote a shift in mindsets to create positive, successful transformations in an organization—which undoubtedly include changes in learning needs and learning delivery.

Continuous efforts in this area should happen throughout the life of your partnership. The amount of change and necessary change management is dependent on the size and scope of a given project, but change will always be occurring. If we aren’t thinking about the best ways to implement change, we will inevitably fall short in our communications and cause confusion. You and your MLS partner should strive to implement changes and communicate those changes to your learners in the best way possible.

5.      Celebrate Success           

We should always encourage our teams to promote their wins among themselves and across our organizations. To do this in the context of your MLS partnership, let your business partners, stakeholders, and employees know when things are going well.

Don’t hesitate to promote the success of your partnership with the outside world either. Uniting with your MLS partner for presentations, award submissions, and case studies helps to build the reputation of both organizations. Be loud about your successes—both teams will be delighted and encouraged by the recognition!

Building a Great MLS Partnership Is Just the Beginning

If you don’t yet have an MLS provider, check out our recent article, How to Choose a Learning Outsourcing Partner, to learn not just how to choose the right partner for your learning needs, but also how doing so can facilitate more cost-effective and impactful employee development.

About the Authors

Dan Miller, Senior Vice President

Recognized as one of the top 20 Training Industry influencers by Training Industry Inc., Dan Miller is more than just a Senior Vice President at GP Strategies. He is an industry thought leader with more than 20 years of service at GP Strategies. He has led our expansion into the Asia-Pacific theater; overseen the development of GP Strategies' marketing and business development strategies for our learning outsourcing services; developed our Enterprise Assessment Methodology; and managed the design, delivery, and measurement of large-scale training interventions for our Company. He holds a B.S. in human resource management, an MBA from Anderson University, and an executive certificate in global management from Thunderbird University. Dan is also an accomplished speaker, having presented at key learning industry conferences such as ATD, Global Learning Summit, CLO Symposium, and the World Learning Summit.

Over the past 30 years, I have been fortunate to live and work in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia. The experiences have been enriching and have presented me with the opportunity to work with several global and regional clients as they transformed their learning approaches or developed the operational infrastructure for employee training and learning.

I have witnessed how the rapid rise in global connection (thanks to technology) has forced organizations to adapt and modernize operations to meet learner needs. Even with these changes, we must continue to recognize the cultural and regional differences across the world, and organizations must be positioned to adapt and deploy learning consistently and efficiently. Despite the rapid evolution of learning over the past few years, the foundation for a global learning organization remains the same. Great learning needs require great execution.

5 Steps for More Efficient Learning Organizations

When planning your learner experience, here are five of the most important steps to take to build a learning infrastructure that is efficient, cost-effective, and regionally specific.

Step 1: Develop a Global Governance Framework

When first beginning to build your global learning infrastructure, intentionally create a framework for how you should operate. Consider which operating models are best for your business today, and how best to meet your short-term needs while simultaneously looking at the future. Take time to benchmark and carefully consider an inclusive framework.

You should also seek executive sponsorship. If your regional and global executive teams are not aligned and supportive of a change, you will struggle to implement it. Developing a reference document in collaboration with your business partners that outlines your global governance framework will provide structure and direction as your learning operations expand across regions.

This global governance framework sets the foundation for all future plans and expansions, can help build stakeholder support, and brings transparency to who is responsible for which process and how different aspects of your infrastructure will function.

Step 2: Build in Compliance and Regulatory Requirements

When it comes to compliance, companies now rely heavily on providing consistent, evidence-based learning to employees. This demand for implementing more consistent, evidence-based learning has led many organizations to centralize their learning functions and implement global learning operations.

As you design your global learning infrastructure, recognize that there has been a rise in regulatory requirements. Learning organizations are in a great position to reduce risk for companies and customers, and you should take advantage of this as much as possible. When creating policies and procedures, consider how best to thread compliance into your learning operations. To be purposeful with information security and General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR) in your processes and communications, automate workflow to reduce risk when possible.

While global learning operations can bring cost savings and operational efficiencies, we are an agent of change—don’t miss the opportunity to be a strong supporter of the development of global solutions.

Step 3: Avoid Groupthink and Consider Regional Preferences

To prevent centralized groupthink, organizations should be careful when designing their governance models. When a learning team operates centrally, team members often assume they are the experts on delivering learning. While this may be the case, these team members may not have experience in deploying solutions regionally. They also likely do not understand regional resource complexity nor how to navigate purchasing at the regional or country level, both of which have their own set of obstacles.

To ensure the right people are on the governance team, it is important to engage stakeholders in the team-forming process. This helps to build trust and engagement among stakeholders and can lead to cost savings through a deeper understanding of potential purchasing challenges.

Step 4: Consult Your Local Experts and Interested Parties

Although modern technology has made it easier for people to connect with each other, there is still no substitute for firsthand experience living and working in other parts of the world. As an American, my personal experiences in Asia, LATAM, EMEA, and the United Kingdom have provided me with a deep understanding and appreciation for the culturally specific challenges global teams face.

Although it may not always be financially feasible, it can be beneficial to assign team members from the central organization to work in a particular region or to have regional team members join the central team; this can ensure you are building a model that works across the enterprise. A successful global team recognizes and embraces the unique qualities and perspectives that each team member brings to the group.

Allowing flexibility means adaptation—not the creation of a unique model. Build flexibility into your operating model, allowing for certain regions and business units to make their own regional adaptations. Of course, any regional adaptations should be considered through your governance teams.

Step 5: Establish Global Partnerships

A well-connected, effective global learning team can assist the organization in finding and partnering with the right organizations around the world. As different regions develop and grow, so do the local resources available in those areas. It is essential to be selective when choosing partners and to prioritize organizations that complement your areas of weakness or inexperience.

It is also important to consider whether potential partners share your organizational values, have the desire and ability to collaborate and build capabilities that meet your needs, and are willing to work with and across learning providers in your best interests. When you select learning partners, consider their ability to deploy learning where your business operates and their willingness to collaborate and partner with your network of providers.

Experience More Efficient Global Employee Training

It is important to recognize that modern learning strategies can present numerous benefits like bringing savings to your organization. Leveraging shared service centers, creating a cost-effective resource arbitrage, and outsourcing operations are not only about savings, though; they are also key to reinvesting in talent and learning initiatives. They are opportunities to adjust your global spend in a way that allows learning organizations to become better strategic business partners.

How you establish governance and relationships now will have a significant impact on your ability to navigate and successfully respond to future changes. To learn more about learning vendor management or building and maintaining a successful training delivery team, check out our other resources on gpstrategies.com.

About the Authors

Dan Miller, Senior Vice President

Recognized as one of the top 20 Training Industry influencers by Training Industry Inc., Dan Miller is more than just a Senior Vice President at GP Strategies. He is an industry thought leader with more than 20 years of service at GP Strategies. He has led our expansion into the Asia-Pacific theater; overseen the development of GP Strategies' marketing and business development strategies for our learning outsourcing services; developed our Enterprise Assessment Methodology; and managed the design, delivery, and measurement of large-scale training interventions for our Company. He holds a B.S. in human resource management, an MBA from Anderson University, and an executive certificate in global management from Thunderbird University. Dan is also an accomplished speaker, having presented at key learning industry conferences such as ATD, Global Learning Summit, CLO Symposium, and the World Learning Summit.