This series of articles provides a comprehensive look at the LIFT certification process from two critical perspectives: the peer reviewers who evaluate and endorse the certification and the company that has successfully achieved it. Through firsthand insights, we will uncover how LIFT-certified learning functions embedded impactful learning into their organisational framework and the benefits that ensued.

In February 2024, the UEFA Academy in Switzerland received the Learning Impact Certification (LIFT) after conducting a self-assessment to evaluate its impact on the organisation, learners, and society. A virtual discussion with stakeholders and an EFMD peer review team, including experts from London Business School, MLP Finanzberatung SE, and EFMD, examined how the UEFA Academy implemented its approach through key learning solutions. The review team provided a benchmarking report that recognised the UEFA Academy’s strengths and offered recommendations for further development.

Andy Smith, Learning Director for Executive Education at London Business School (LBS) and a member of the peer review team, provides insights into his organisation’s approach to impact and the LIFT process for the UEFA Academy:

What does learning impact mean for you?

Learning impact, for me, is synonymous with performance at all levels—individual, team, and organisational. It encompasses the continuous development of the organisation, fostering role competence, and achieving proficiency. A quote from Theodore Levitt sits on my desk. “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.” Oded Koenigsberg, LBS Professor of Marketing, put it as succinctly: “People want the impact the product creates.” For “People” read “Client.” Curiosity, personal growth, and continual performance improvement are crucial for making a significant difference and having a lasting impact.

How does your organisation (LBS) ensure learning delivers impact?

London Business School, founded in 1964, is a globally recognised institution with over 53,000 alumni across 160 countries and 14,000 participants in its degree and executive education programmes each year. With campuses in London and Dubai, LBS is committed to teaching learners how to think critically, emphasising research excellence, diversity, innovation, and practical learning. The school continually evolves to meet the demands of the changing business landscape, maintaining a focus on real-world impact as a central part of its mission.

Firstly, we established a centre of expertise that integrated design, quality, and impact. In addition, our approach always begins with organisational needs, designing backwards. We look to maximise both “Learning Transfer” and overall “Learning”. We also intentionally incorporate time into our programmes for participants to translate our faculty’s new thinking into meaningful performance actions and encourage them to experiment in the workplace. Below I look at each of these activities in more detail.

1. At LBS Executive Education, the governance of both learning design and impact is owned by the Transformative Learning Team. We try not to leave impact to chance. We ‘design for impact.’ This team has 5 pillars: Design, Quality, Impact, Learning Ecosystem, and New Products and Services, and brings together learning experts from a range of different professional backgrounds. Central to the work of the team is the continuous evolution of our design principles, our point of view on executive development, and the associated processes supporting our work.
2. We design backwards. In our collaborative design process, our Programme Directors work upfront with our clients to explore the programme’s intended impact. Together, we agree on what future success looks like and the indicators/measures to be put in place to track our course. Before Programme Launch, the client, the programme team, faculty, and learning partners are clear on the programme’s learning objectives, understand the desired behaviour change, and the associated performance indicators that will evidence a shift in behaviour.
3. We pay as much attention to learning transfer as we do the learning. When Brinkerhoff (2006) evaluated the impact of training, he found that while some trainees applied parts of their new learning to improve performance, the training did not work across all participants. We went in search of possible answers and were inspired by Holton’s paper (2000) on Learning Transfer. This research identified key factors that either facilitated or hindered the application of new skills and knowledge upon re-entry. These learning transfer factors were grouped into participant characteristics, programme design, and work environment. The work environment is critical in the effective transfer of learning. In designing for impact, we work with the client’s HR and L&D teams and collaboratively explore the factors that enable the organisation to embed learning, sustain new behaviours, shift mindsets, and thus prepare the groundwork for the realisation of ‘impact’. These factors include exploring the organisational culture, values, capabilities, behaviours, relationships, and strategic priorities.
4. We hardwire reflection, sense-making, and social learning into the design. Faculty-led research insights are often our starting point. We help participants to make sense of these evidence-based insights in their own organisational contexts, to understand the connections and join the dots, to challenge their assumptions and orthodoxies, and ultimately, to translate these insights into meaningful actions that will support the desired behaviour change. Furthermore, we encourage social learning and sharing and believe that when learners actively engage in collaborative sense-making, they generate new knowledge and learning. We regularly audit our programmes to ensure that they maintain the appropriate balance of research insights, sense-making, and social learning.
5. Experimentation is a key enabler of learning transfer and impact. Through experimentation, participants test and apply new ideas and explore new possibilities. Leadership experiments help participants refine and adapt their leadership style, while business experiments provide a platform to test possibilities for value creation and strategy execution. In our experience, experimentation can drive the workplace application of new skills, reinforcing learning and sustaining improved performance. Leaders become competent and proficient in their defined roles, ready to make that difference. Experimentation is also a key enabler of innovation and agility, a common client request. During the diagnostic phase, we explore the appropriate work environment for experimentation to thrive, thus increasing the likelihood of learning transfer and impact. An environment conducive to experimentation includes psychological safety, line management support, openness, sharing of diverse viewpoints, a culture of feedback and coaching, and an acceptance of experiments possibly ending in failure. Above all, we believe that developing a growth mindset is possibly the most important accelerator and enabler of experimentation and a critical driver of

References:

• Development of a generalized learning transfer system inventory. Elwood F Holton III; Reid A Bates; Wendy E A Ruona.
• “Increasing impact of training investments: an evaluation strategy for building organizational learning capability.” Robert O. Brinkerhoff

What strengths did you find in the UEFA Academy’s approach to learning?

Like LBS, UEFA have set themselves up to “design for impact”. The UEFA Academy clearly demonstrated its commitment to serving both individual learners and their organisations. Their design methodology, which includes a questionnaire and a six-step design process from the initial idea to the launch of the learning solution, showed they were well-prepared to expand their model to the organisational level. They have done all the hard work upfront. The strengths outlined below gave me that confidence when assessing them for LIFT.

1. The UEFA Academy understands the “Why”. The UEFA Academy always starts by asking “why” a learning programme should be created, understanding the importance of the initiative. Their mission is to anticipate and address the learning needs within the European football landscape, ensuring relevance for all football professionals throughout their careers. This understanding of the market is evident as the UEFA Academy proactively proposes learning solutions that have been adopted. Additionally, they tap into their alumni community for insights on relevance and challenges, allowing them to continually improve, design agilely, and remain relevant.
2. The UEFA Academy understands the Participant. For effective learning transfer and impact, understanding the participant is crucial. To enrol in a UEFA Academy programme, participants must complete an application form that gathers information on them and their motivation for attending. The third step of their design process is prototyping, involving potential participants to understand how they will use the learning beyond the programme. They use case studies, tests, and group reports to gauge how much learning has “stuck,” a leading indicator of future impact success. The safe learning environment for testing ideas and experimenting with new behaviours, as seen in the Women in Football Leadership Programme (WFLP), is also a key strength.
3. The UEFA Academy works closely with football national associations’ HR teams. If local HR understands the intended business impact, the expected new behaviours, and the learning objectives, they can support participants in becoming proficient and role-competent. HR can observe behaviours, provide nudges and encouragement, and support line managers in their coaching and feedback skills. They can also ensure that formal processes, such as performance management systems, align learning with business goals.
4. The discipline is there to gather effective “impact” stories. The UEFA Academy’s programme catalogue includes testimonials from alumni, sharing their stories of impact in the workplace. The UEFA Academy already has a systematic approach to measuring learning acquired, with data collected from participants by the learning team. The UEFA Academy can easily expand this rigorous methodological approach to include perspectives from sponsors, line managers, peers, team members, and local HR.

For further insights into the LIFT certification process and its role in advancing UEFA Academy’s initiatives, stay tuned for an upcoming interview with Thomas Junod, head of the UEFA Academy.

About LIFT

To learn more about how EFMD’s Learning Impact Certification (LIFT) can help your learning function benchmark its approach to delivering impact and receive insights into how it can further mature, check out the LIFT website or contact Shanshan Ge.

For additional insights, announcements, and perspectives about LIFT, visit the conversation here.