An organisational capability framework outlines the capacity, skills, knowledge and behaviours needed to successfully meet a company’s specific objectives. It creates a common language of expected behaviours across teams, as well as providing a basis for resourcing and workforce planning activities. 

Organisational capabilities comprise the skills, knowledge, activities, information, processes, staffing systems and technology that a specific organisation depends on. It’s not that that another organisation can’t do the things yours does, it’s that they can rarely replicate exactly how you do it.  


Organisational capabilities give your organisation a base for strategic workforce planning and business planning. For many, a framework can help: 

• Plug risks associated with changes
• Create a universal language and market for strategic issues
• Clearly define competitive differentiators
• Be a stable reference for business architecture.

Strategic learning is a dynamic approach to L&D that shapes learning programs with insights from your internal and external environments, ultimately adapting them to meet changing business and employee needs. Tying strategic learning to capability frameworks benefits organisations by making capabilities a dynamic learning resource that you can upgrade, nurture or even abandon as the organisation evolves. It only takes 4 steps. 


Step 1: Analysis 
At this stage, you’re gathering insights that form the basis of any strategic choices. This is where competitive advantage begins. The aim is to understand your external environment against your internal realities to determine your most optimal future direction.  

For some organisations, looking inwards can be the harder part of an environmental scan. Heatmapping is one way you can easily determine what’s at risk and needs attention. It priorities capabilities by risks to their performance.  


Step 2: Focus 
Once you have the right data, the next step is to define key deliverables of learning programs. Consider employee needs alongside business drivers as this will give you better clarity on the content and design of a learning program.  

Note: It can be easy to focus solely on technical business drivers when developing capabilities, yet research shows that behaviours are often more important when creating an agile business structure. As an example, leadership is commonly viewed as a soft skill, even though it’s crucial to high-performing organisations.  

Step 3: Execute 
Now planned, strategy can be implemented. Establishing a focus means that employee training is fit for purpose for individuals and the organisation from the outset. Ensure you set the climate for learning and continue to experiment with learning as it happens. Being too focused on a fixed process in the name of efficiency can inhibit the process of experimentation.  

Step 4: Measure 
This is the step that actually starts the learning loop. The most effective way to measure the impact of L&D is through performance management. This can be tricky as you aren’t just looking at numbers, but behavioural indicators.  

Keep in mind that capabilities are learned over time. You can’t do one learning cycle and expect all employees to suddenly possess optimal capability.  

This step is also where you update your initial insights or even your methods of examination. What you’ve learned from this cycle may provoke a new environmental scan which takes you back to Step 1.  

For a more in-depth look at organisational capability frameworks, have a read of the full article.