(Step 2) 3 Steps to Building a Smarter Training Budget - One that Gets Approved by Executives


Step #2: Use the Training RAI™ Model to Ensure Alignment of Each Training Initiative and Learning Solution

Now that you have created your learning strategy based upon your company’s strategic direction or key pressures, you have the core information required to ensure that your training plans and budget are aligned with the business. The first step in the Training RAI™ Model is to determine Relevance for each proposed training initiative and learning solution within your learning plan.

Relevance
For business alignment to occur, each learning solution should be highly relevant to four key stakeholders (1) The Business, (2) Leadership (including your boss and his peers), (3) Your Target Audience, and (4) Your Target Audience’s Supervisors.

Without relevance at all 4 levels, your chance of success is low. In fact, you would probably be better off buying books on the subject for each participant – you’ll get similar low-value results for a lot less money. To avoid failure, use the matrix below for an easy way to ensure relevance and alignment with your key stakeholders.


  • First, for each potential learning initiative or solution, plot the importance and urgency for each of the 4 stakeholders listed above based upon what you know now.

  • Second, see what the chart tells you.

  • Lastly, review and validate your chart with the key stakeholders and adjust, plan, and budget accordingly.
Here’s a recent example of how we used the LSA Training RAI™ Matrix at a Fortune 100 Technology Company. The company wanted to make a significant investment in designing and implementing a “Transition to Management” Workshop for all new managers in the upcoming fiscal year. When asked how important this was to the Training Director, she said that it was her top priority. She wanted to invest approximately $500,000 over the next 6-9 months. If we were in the business of just making money, this would have been a great opportunity. But our focus is first and foremost on helping clients. We wanted to make sure that her plan made sense for her business. We ran her initiative through the LSA Training RAI™ Matrix and it was clear (in about 15 minutes) that she needed to reevaluate her learning priorities and budget with her boss. Analysis & Outcomes

  • While the initiative was very important to her and a group of new managers (the Target Audience), it became graphically clear that it was relatively unimportant to everyone else (see red boxes indicating stakeholder urgency and importance).

  • This stakeholder distribution is a perfect example of why training budgets often get cut, ”once-important” workshops get cancelled, and why it is difficult to get people’s supervisors to support training that they previously “really wanted.”

  • Based upon our discussion, the Training Director reviewed the chart with stakeholders and decided to take a different, less expensive,
    and ultimately more effective approach.
Fifteen minutes and a simple model saved her and her organization over hundreds of thousands of dollars, months of time and frustration, and possibly her reputation with key stakeholders.
While many experts continue to pontificate about focusing on training efficiency and delivery mediums to save money, we believe that one of the most effective and important ways to gain executive credibility while managing overall training costs is to cancel, postpone, or shrink all irrelevant learning expenditures. Before you worry about training inefficiencies, assessments, designs, follow-through, coaching, delivery mediums, administration, participant materials, support tools, and measurement, ask yourself and your key stakeholders: “How urgent and important is this initiative compared to your other priorities”
Now that you have identified the most relevant training initiatives and thereby created business alignment, it is time to get a sense of how much you should budget and invest in each initiative.