Upscaling 4 - Key to upscaling is Learning & Development

Upscaling is about multiplying, not about additions. It’s about achieving more with less. It is about one leader growing multiple leaders, multiplying impact, skills, capacity, output, results.

A strong Learning & Development strategy is essential to successfully upscaling an organisation, because in the end upscaling is about growth and capacity, which means a larger skills base. A strong #traininganddevelopment program can train 1, 5, 20, 50 people where the costs per person trained significantly reduces with the number of people trained. Your #ROI multiplies.

I am a vivid believer in a strong L&D agenda for a company that is looking to rapidly upscale. After years of experience, I cannot see how a company can successfully upscale without a strong L&D agenda. The L&D agenda also functions as an imperative communication tool ensuring that everybody is aligned on the company's approach to, for example, management, or sales techniques, standard of service, project management, or performance excellence.

Remember, with organic growth a team naturally merges their skills, knowledge over time through collaboration and shared experiences. However, when new teams are created following an intense recruitment drive, all team members have various approaches, experiences, understandings of how things should be done. With little time to find a common approach the “organic way” -because with upscaling there is no time-, a strong learning and development program will teach and train people on what the common approach is within the organisation and aligning everybody accordingly.

Your L&D system drives the communication, the culture, efficient teamwork, it grows managers, leaders and your company’s skills base!