Whether you’re considering changing your current learning management system (LMS) or rolling out an entirely new training platform for employees or clients to use, the question regarding “ownership” of the training platform is bound to arise. From sales to marketing teams, every department will have its own needs, and internal office politics on training platform ownership can hamper the roll out of much-needed training. That’s because office politics can hurt productivity and be a persistent pain point when working in team environments. However, you can mitigate this issue by taking a few simple but vital steps.

1. Listen

Listening to the concerns of the different parties involved is important to reducing office politics regarding training platform ownership. Whether a leader from your sales team wants to push a specific platform because of its ease of navigation, or your HR coordinator finds tracking results easier on another, each team member has unique needs and concerns that need to be addressed. As a leader, it’s important to listen with equal attention to all concerns and to not jump to conclusions. To fairly resolve the issues surrounding training platform ownership, suppress the urge to quickly dismiss any individual opinion(s) and balance your active listening with only the best opportunities to inject your expertise into the conversation. The key is to keep communication open and ongoing so that all parties involved can feel that they are being heard and contributing — without internal office politics usurping the training and development goals the company needs to achieve.

2. Clarify Goals

Setting the ground rules and reminding all parties involved in organizational goals is vital to reducing politicking in the office. Make sure everyone understands the training goals that need to be accomplished, as well as the base training platform ownership on achieving these goals. For instance, if the organizational goals are to offer training that focuses primarily on sales, then partnering with a high performing sales manager from the sales team may make sense when establishing who owns the training platform.

3. Select an Empowering LMS Platform

The actual LMS that you choose may make or break training and development if it lacks flexibility, especially when supporting multiple departments or clients. Choosing a training platform that not only offers flexibility to meet the unique needs of different teams and clients, but also empowers them to take ownership for their learning program and its associated tasks will help resolve the internal politics for owning the training platform. You can choose a training platform that helps keep track of results and even allows you to assign courses to learners, so that your team and clients feel empowered. The idea is to make each group feel like an owner (even if they’re not the official platform owner). It’s also important to follow up with teams once the LMS is in full swing to ensure needs are being met.

Final Thoughts

Internal office politics don’t have to hamper the training and development of your employees, partners, or clients when training platform ownership is in question. Take the time to listen to the specific needs of each party involved, clarify goals and ground rules, and put an LMS in place that offers both the flexibility to address these needs and the robustness to empower and motivate multiple teams. Get your team back to work and reduce the internal office politics surrounding who owns the training platform by initiating these simple steps.