Elements of Enablement
Although my focus at CSG is primarily customer education, I’ve done some internal enablement work recently and wanted to explore a few key differences.
Internal enablement has access to more data. It’s hard to know how my learning solutions impact the bottom line at other companies, beyond surveys and anecdotal feedback. Performance data within my own organization is right there.
Communication with stakeholders is more convenient with internal projects. If I need to ping a SME or project sponsor, I can get a response immediately in Teams, rather than waiting for an email to turnaround.
Internal enablement doesn’t directly generate revenue. Yes, we are improving employee performance, but with customer education we sell training and make a profit. Working in a cost center (enablement) feels less secure.
Learner profiles and personas are more clear with internal enablement. I can talk to the people impacted by the project directly. Sometimes going through another companies managers, there is the potential to be far removed from learners in customer education.
The balance has been interesting as I’ve gotten to see how different teams operate and prioritize work. A personal challenge I’ve experienced is figuring out how to make content as transferrable as possible for all of these different audiences.
