The document discusses the importance of moving beyond mere consistency to achieve genuine alignment in enterprise-wide learning. It emphasizes the need for training programs to connect with an organization's vision and create deeper inter-program connections for stronger alignment. A systematic approach to aligning training portfolios can foster shared understanding and integration across the organization.

1. Building Global
Alignment Through
Enterprise-wide
Learning
TMA World Viewpoint

2. Enterprise-Wide Learning:
Beyond Consistency
Globalization used to be a race to plant flags around the world.
Today, those early globalizers are seeking greater
integration and alignment – organizing and
enabling distributed resources, like talent,
to fast-track along a common
strategic direction.
This Viewpoint examines how
a training portfolio review can go
beyond global consistency and create
genuine alignment across your
organization.

3. Enterprise-Wide Learning:
Beyond Consistency
Let me begin by distinguishing between
consistency and alignment.
Think about geese swimming on a pond. Their
individual behaviors are consistent with being
geese, but they are unaligned behaviors.
The same geese flying in the air, in their ‘V’
formation have individual behaviors that are
still consistent with being geese, but they are
now aligned to achieving a shared purpose –
migration to the same destination.
Consistency is related to repetition; alignment
adds the power of unity and direction.

4. Enterprise-Wide Learning:
Beyond Consistency
FIRST,
Start by placing every program in
the context of your collective
vision, mission, values and
business strategy.
Is the program helping generate alignment power as
well as consistency?
Does each program make connections to the greater
why, as well as the specific what and how?

5. Enterprise-Wide Learning:
Beyond Consistency
SECOND,
Look at the portfolio as a whole and look for existing connections and
contradictions between programs.
Yes, I’ve seen individual programs that seem to work against other programs in
the portfolio; eliminate the contradictions.
Then examine the existing connections between programs, e.g., reinforcement
of vision, mission, values, skills, models, tools, strategies, concepts,
key messages, and terminology, and ask:
Do any of these inter-program connections need to be strengthened to
deepen alignment?
Are some connective knowledge
threads missing between programs that
could strengthen collective alignment?
Can we add this connective knowledge
and know-how without creating too
much redundancy in the portfolio?

6. Enterprise-Wide Learning:
Beyond Consistency
Reinforcement of company values in a portfolio is particularly important for
creating alignment and integration, and so is the issue of creating shared
terminology or connective language.
Will an enterprise-wide learning management system guarantee people
alignment in the business? Not necessarily.
Greater consistency should result, but greater alignment power will depend
not just on the quality of individual programs, but the vertical connections
to business strategy, etc., and the integrative connections across the
portfolio.
And so, bottom line, we need to help people see
connections, make linkages, and arrive at shared
understandings.
This can be achieved with a more rigorous and
systematic approach to alignment in our
training portfolios.

7. To learn more about how TMA World can
help your organization, please contact us at
enquiries@tmaworld.com
or visit
www.tmaworld.com/our_solutions.cfm