March 2018 | CLOmedia.com
McKinsey’s
Nick van Dam The Elusive Quality that Defines Leadership Success - Diversity is Learning’s Business Bringing the Future Forward With VR - UX is Not Extra - Finding the Right Level of Empathy
EDITOR’S LETTER
Are You Experienced?
T
he CLO role is full of exciting opportunities. A host of pressing business issues sit right in the center of learning leaders’ wheelhouses. Finding and developing future leaders, turbocharging the speed and innovation capabilities of the workforce, identifying critical skill gaps and serving up a compelling and engaging set of personalized learning assets, to name just a few. But to my mind one of the greatest opportunities is the learning experience. It’s no secret that more and more learning happens online as digital technology worms its way into every aspect of our daily lives. What once required me to get off the couch and look in a book became instantly available via the supercharged mobile device in my pants pocket. Now I don’t even need to reach for that anymore. I simply shout to the empty air, “Alexa, why is the sky blue?”
In formal education, the digital march continues apace.
principles of user experience on the web are increasingly the principles of learning design. But it goes beyond how learners engage with digital learning. The learning experience is also about forethought and precision. Chief learning officers are a bit like a nightclub DJ, finely attuned to the needs and wants of the crowd and craftily mixing and remixing content and context, method and modality to keep the beat moving. Since the days when behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner was zapping rats in his so-called Skinner boxes, we’ve known learning can be uncomfortable. In fact, discomfort is required. True learning stretches learners in new ways. Thankfully, psychologists have come to understand this can also happen without the electric charge. In fact, if the learning experience is done right we sometimes aren’t even aware of it. Reimagining the learning experience is at the heart of what we’ll be exploring at the Spring 2018 Chief Learning Officer Symposium, taking place from March 26 to 28 at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Few would argue that what’s required of corporate learning is the same as it was even a short decade ago. Technology and globalization have seen to that. But has the learning experience we provide employees — in person and online — kept pace? That’s a question we’ll explore over three days in Florida. We’ll hear from some of the most creative and intriguing people in business today. In addition to learning leaders from AT&T, JPMorgan Chase, GE, the NBA, Walmart, Virgin America, Cleveland Clinic and Uber, futurist Amy Webb will tackle learning in an era of artificial intelligence. Best-selling author Dan Heath shares insights from his latest book “The Power of Moments.” Yale professor Zoe Chance will talk about the power of persuasion and Kelly Leonard of award-winning comedy theater The Second City will talk learning and the art of improv comedy. It promises to be an experience to remember. CLO
In formal education, the digital march continues apace. According to one estimate, one-third of college students are taking at least one online course. And it’s not simply about courses anymore. The learning experience extends far beyond that. When they want to learn a new skill or figure out how to do something on the fly, most people don’t enroll in a class or search the LMS. They find a video or course online and off they go. Learning is on demand at the point of need and endlessly tailored to their increasingly detailed requests. The learning experience is about access. But speed is also of the essence. In today’s world, less than a second is the difference between success and failure. And I’m not talking about Olympic competition or highspeed stock trading. According to studies, web visitors are so impatient that they’ll leave a web page that doesn’t load in two seconds. That problem is acute for companies who sell stuff online but it’s just as important for learning leaders who teach online. Workers don’t leave their digital expectations at the office door when they walk into work. They expect to get what they want when they need it. Learning increasingly Mike Prokopeak happens in Internet Time, as the late, great Chief Editor in Chief Learning Officer columnist Jay Cross called it. The mikep@CLOmedia.com 4 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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MARCH 2018 | VOLUME 17, ISSUE 2 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER John R. Taggart jrtag@CLOmedia.com PRESIDENT Kevin A. Simpson ksimpson@CLOmedia.com VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER Clifford Capone ccapone@CLOmedia.com VICE PRESIDENT, EDITOR IN CHIEF Mike Prokopeak mikep@CLOmedia.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rick Bell rbell@CLOmedia.com MANAGING EDITOR Ashley St. John astjohn@CLOmedia.com SENIOR EDITOR Lauren Dixon ldixon@CLOmedia.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andie Burjek aburjek@CLOmedia.com Ave Rio ario@CLOmedia.com COPY EDITOR Christopher Magnus cmagnus@CLOmedia.com EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Theresa Stoodley tstoodley@CLOmedia.com VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER Andrew Kennedy Lewis alewis@CLOmedia.com EDITORIAL INTERNS Aysha Ashley Househ ahouseh@CLOmedia.com Mariel Tishma mtishma@CLOmedia.com
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Philios Andreou Craig M. Arndt Ken Blanchard Agatha Bordonaro Mekayla Castro Alan Friedman Theano V. Kalavana Elliott Masie Lee Maxey Breeda McGrath Bob Mosher Marygrace Schumann Justin Small Kelly Torres Joseph D. Zuckerman
DIGITAL & AUDIENCE INSIGHTS MANAGER Lauren Lynch llynch@CLOmedia.com DIGITAL COORDINATOR Mannat Mahtani mmahtani@CLOmedia.com LIST MANAGER Mike Rovello hcmlistrentals@infogroup.com BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Melanie Lee mlee@CLOmedia.com
CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Cedric Coco, EVP, Chief People Of ficer, Brookdale Senior Living Inc. Lisa Doyle, Head of Retail Training, Ace Hardware David DeFilippo, Chief People and Learning Of ficer, Suf folk Tamar Elkeles, Chief Talent Executive, Atlantic Bridge Capital Thomas Evans, ( Ret.) Chief Learning Of ficer, PricewaterhouseCoopers Gerry Hudson-Martin, Director, Corporate Learning Strategies, Business Architects Kimo Kippen, President, Aloha Learning Advisors Rob Lauber, Vice President, Chief Learning Of ficer, McDonald’s Corp. Maj. Gen. Erwin F. Lessel, ( Ret.) U.S. Air Force, Director, Deloit te Consulting Justin Lombardo, ( Ret.) Chief Learning Of ficer, Baptist Health Adri Maisonet-Morales, Vice President, Enterprise Learning and Development, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Alan Malinchak, CEO, Éclat Transitions LLC and STRATactical LLC Lee Maxey, CEO, MindMax Bob Mosher, Senior Par tner and Chief Learning Evangelist, APPLY Synergies Rebecca Ray, Executive Vice President, The Conference Board Allison Rossett, ( Ret.) Professor of Educational Technology, San Diego State Universit y Diana Thomas, CEO and Founder, Winning Results David Vance, Executive Director, Center for Talent Repor ting Kevin D. Wilde, Executive Leadership Fellow, Carlson School of Management, Universit y of Minnesota James P. Woolsey, President, Defense Aquisition Universit y Chief Learning Officer (ISSN 1935-8148) is published monthly, except bi-monthly in January/February and July/August by MediaTec Publishing Inc., 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago IL 60601. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chief Learning Officer, P.O. Box 8712 Lowell, MA 01853. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals within the US and Canada. Digital free subscriptions are available worldwide. Nonqualified paid subscriptions are available at the subscription price of $199 for 12 issues. All countries outside the US and Canada must be prepaid in US funds with an additional $33 postage surcharge. Single price copy is $29.99. Chief Learning Officer and CLOmedia.com are the trademarks of MediaTec Publishing Inc. Copyright © 2016, MediaTec Publishing Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of material published in Chief Learning Officer is forbidden without permission. Printed by: Quad/Graphics, Sussex, WI
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CONTENTS M
arch
2018
20 Profile A Life of Learning Agatha Bordonaro A true believer in the power of education, Nick van Dam makes an indelible mark on McKinsey and the L&D profession.
52 Case Study Beyond the Lab Craig M. Arndt Defense Acquisition University has made research into evolving practices a core part of its educational mission.
54 Business Intelligence Measurement, Meet Management Mike Prokopeak Learning organizations continue to measure learning activity and satisfaction while neglecting broader business performance. ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY SASKIA AUKEMA
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UXEXTRA M arch 2018
CONTENTS is not
42
36
16 30
Features
Experts
16 Self-Awareness: The Ladder to Leadership Success
10 IMPERATIVES
Joseph D. Zuckerman, Alan Friedman and Mekayla Castro Physicians play a key organizational role yet are often ill-prepared to take on the leadership mantle. More focus on insight and introspection can tackle the challenge.
30 36 42 48
Elliott Masie Peeling Back the Layers
11 SELLING UP, SELLING DOWN Bob Mosher The 3-Legged Stool Is Balanced and Ready
Diversity Is Learning’s Business
12 LEADERSHIP
Marygrace Schumann L&D teams have traditionally shied away from diversity and inclusion work. That’s starting to change.
Bringing the Future Forward
Ken Blanchard The Rise of the Servant Leader
14 MAKING THE GRADE
Ave Rio The growing power and sophistication of virtual reality spotlights the need to plan and experiment with this emerging technology.
UX Is Not Extra
Lee Maxey The College Oversell Crisis
58 IN CONCLUSION
Kelly Torres and Breeda McGrath As more learning happens online, organizations need to focus on the user experience and design of digital learning to actively engage learners.
Justin Small The Employee Experience Imperative
Resources
Finding the Right Level of Empathy
4 Editor’s Letter
Theano V. Kalavana and Philios Andreou Empathy in business works but only if leaders use the right type at the appropriate level.
Are You Experienced?
57 Advertisers’ Index
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Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
9
IMPERATIVES
Peeling Back the Layers
Inject more experimentation and agility with limited risk • BY ELLIOTT MASIE
I Elliott Masie is the chairman and CLO of The Masie Center’s Learning Consortium and CEO of The Masie Center, an international think tank focused on learning and workplace productivity. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
magine adding layers of new learning content, context and interaction to your LMS — without a major upgrade or expensive integration. Imagine offering your learners the machine learning expertise of IBM’s Watson or Amazon’s Alexa by adding a layer of technology that would seamlessly weave through your existing workplace technology. Imagine your employees who graduated from business programs at institutions like Wharton, Harvard or UCLA being able to add a personalized layer of content, curation and collaboration to their technology workspaces that would enhance their learning experiences. Imagine a business unit’s ability to offer a gamification layer that would provide enterprisewide content for a cluster of employees, adding a powerful engagement strategy for a targeted group of the workforce. Finally, imagine being able to inject a layer of content in the native language of some of your employees. That layer could live alongside or even replace English content for specific learners who want a deeper, native-language exploration of a topic. Sure, we have always had the ability to ask the IT department or an external vendor to design, test and implement an integration of a second program or application into a learning or talent management system. But that often becomes a deeply complicated process with unexpected expenses and “hard-coded” solutions that may require reintegration after an update to the LMS. A layer, however, looks and feels more like an app on your phone. Layers will leverage the equivalent of an open application program interface to allow a business unit or learning department to add, inject, weave or enhance a worker’s learning space with new capabilities in a safe and secure fashion. Let’s explore this more by imagining a layer that would provide Apple’s Siri, a voice- or text-based search-and-assistance tool, in the workplace: • The entire enterprise, a specific line of business or even a group of employees could choose to add the “Siri Business Layer” into their computing world. • Siri would have been approved as a safe and appropriate layer by a software association or “layer registry.” • Siri would then become active and work as an “assistant” in a box, supplementing the content from the learning system with additional search items. • Siri could be replaced with a different layer or even offer multiple layers of search and “TalkTech” tools.
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What makes the layer model so attractive is it gives an organization the ability to take an approach centered on innovation and user experiences. As technology evolves in the marketplace, layers would enable an organization to experiment with and compare diverse tools.
What makes the layer model so attractive is an approach centered on innovation and user experiences. Additionally, personalization by business units or specialized roles could be enhanced through a robust set of easily added layers. Layers would also provide a new incentive to the venture development world, allowing companies to more easily provide demonstration or beta versions of innovations to a global marketplace. What is needed to make layers a reality? • LMSs and training management systems that create a dynamic integration tool for layers: a new API to allow for enterprise security, safety and data sharing that protects the corporate data warehouse while adding functionality for the worker. • A business model for how layers will be priced and marketed; some may be free, some will be directly charged and others may have a sponsored or premium layer pricing model. • Marketplaces where layers could be viewed, reviewed and selected. • A mentality shift: excitement about our ability to be agile, experimental and dynamic. You may have dozens of mobile apps on your phone that you’ve tried but haven’t used in months. Yet the app model has allowed you to be more agile and experimental in how you leverage your phone or tablet. Layers can give you those same benefits — the opportunity to experiment with and compare various tools and innovations — in your organization. CLO
SELLING UP, SELLING DOWN
The 3-Legged Stool Is Balanced and Ready Workflow learning presents a huge opportunity • BY BOB MOSHER
A
colleague of mine recently asked me, “Are we our own worst enemy when it comes to leading, adapting and innovating?” My answer: “All too often.” Now, I know that sounds pretty harsh and negative, but let me share a perspective. As I’ve watched my parents age, I’ve watched their filters come off. Those of you who have elderly parents likely know exactly what I mean. Their words used to be a bit more thought out, careful and guarded. Not anymore! As I age in this business, my filters are coming off too. I used to be a lot more tolerant of our complaining about the attention we think we deserve and the credibility we feel we’ve earned. Before you think I’m finger-pointing, notice that I used “our” and “we” because I’m including myself in this statement. I’ve had to swallow some of my pride and examine exactly why I wasn’t having the impact of which I was capable. One of my dearest colleagues and mentors once told me that for any new instructional approach or technology to take hold, the “threelegged stool of learning” must be balanced and ready — the right methodology, a well-vetted learning technology and a receptive learner. The absence of one or more of these things often makes this deliverable elusive; however, all three exist when it comes to workflow learning. Let sacred cows become burgers and begin creating truly blended, embedded and personalized learning and support solutions for our learners. We just have to get out of our own way, go back to the drawing board and incorporate some new approaches. I am a huge fan of ADDIE. It has served our industry well for more years than I can remember. In many ways, it still has its place, but it’s time to take a serious look at its applicability in creating new workflow deliverables. Before designing for the workflow, we must understand the workflow. It has to be our initial and then constant focus. Design has to shift from an emphasis on knowing to one on doing. Application dominates in workflow learning, and it is supported by knowledge and understanding. This agile and contextual design approach builds for workflow first and supplements with training. That’s a unique way of looking at how we create learning solutions but it’s not a new one. Some say Gloria Geary was the first to coin the
acronym EPSS, or electronic performance support system, back in the early ’90s. Today’s EPSSs suffer from that legacy. Many of us remember the days of
Immediacy and self-direction win the day, and learning and support should be no different.
Bob Mosher is a senior partner and chief learning evangelist for APPLY Synergies, a strategic consulting firm. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
Adobe RoboHelp and rudimentary checklists. The authoring systems of today have matured well beyond those early efforts, but our industry has struggled to understand and incorporate these powerful tools. One of the greatest myths associated with these solutions is that they are for IT systems only. With the advent of mobile technologies and the contextualization of PCs as an everyday office tool, an EPSS can host non-IT content, such as leadership skills or onboarding, more effectively and better embed in the workflow than the classroom binder of yesteryear. Finally, self-service is the way of the world. From ATMs to shopping apps, our culture has adopted a “two clicks, 10 seconds” approach to life. Many look to these options in learning, as well, ahead of the more traditional approach of seeking outside help and support. I’m not knocking social learning platforms, I’m just saying that immediacy and self-direction win the day, and learning and support should be no different. Learners are more than ready to stand independent of the classroom and LMS if we enable them to. I’m not implying these approaches are going away completely, but the time has arrived when they may no longer be the tip of the sword for learners. It’s a brave new world. As Will Rogers once said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” It’s up to us to embrace these new realities or run the risk of being made obsolete. This is a wonderful opportunity to make an impact beyond any we have made before. CLO Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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LEADERSHIP
The Rise of the Servant Leader
Servant leadership benefits people and builds better organizations • BY KEN BLANCHARD
T
Ken Blanchard is chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Cos. and co-author of “Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster.” He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
he practice of management and leadership is constantly evolving. During the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, efficient production of goods was the name of the game. Leaders saw their role as getting workers to produce the most goods in the shortest amount of time. In the 20th century, information became as important as materials, leading to what my friend and mentor Peter Drucker called knowledge work. People were no longer viewed as mere “hired hands,” and managers had to learn to encourage and inspire those who worked with them. I would like to think that the 21st century will be remembered as a time when leaders realize that in order to produce the greatest results for their employees, their customers and our planet, they must serve rather than be served. Robert Greenleaf defines servant leadership as a practice that “enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.” It’s a lofty concept. But what does servant leadership look like to the average manager who has a budget to work within and goals to meet? Let’s take an example shared in an article by Matt Peterson, managing director at Aethos Consulting Group. Matt wrote about a servant leader manager at the famous Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. This manager was faced with a tough decision. An otherwise competent server who knew the hotel’s standards for excellence had
Servant leaders don’t deny their power — they just recognize that it passes through them, not from them. messed up an order and handled it so dismissively that a longtime customer complained that she would not be returning to the hotel. The manager had to decide: Should he fire the server — or just rake him over the coals? The manager did neither. Instead, this servant leader sat down with the employee, reviewed ex12 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
actly what he had done wrong and redirected him to change his behavior in the future. Then he pulled out a piece of paper and, together, he and the employee wrote an apology to the guest. The note was delivered to the guest that evening. As Matt reports, the next day the server happened upon the guest in the lobby. Feeling horrible about the negative effect his carelessness had on both the customer and the hotel’s reputation, the server approached the guest. With tears in his eyes, he apologized for his poor service. The guest accepted his apology and they made a genuine connection. Before she left the hotel, the guest booked her next stay. This story illustrates the ripple effect of a servant leader’s actions. By treating the server’s lapse in performance as a learning moment rather than a punishable offense, the manager was able to serve the employee, the customer and the organization. The manager’s firm but compassionate approach did not place the employee on the defensive, so he was open to learning a valuable lesson. More important, the employee was able to pass that compassion on to the customer — who in turn remained loyal to the brand. This story also demonstrates how servant leadership can lead to profitability. When people are well served by their leaders, they in turn serve their customers well. A well-served customer is a repeat customer, which creates a healthy bottom line. In short, doing good is good for business. Contrary to what many people assume, servant leadership isn’t about shirking responsibility and power. Servant leaders don’t deny their power — they just recognize that it passes through them, not from them. They make the world a better place through the moment-to-moment decisions they make as they interact with others at work, at home and in the community. Like the manager at the Hotel del Coronado, servant leaders reach out to support and encourage others rather than judging and controlling them. Today, leadership behavior has a greater impact than it did in years past. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, one person’s actions can affect millions — even billions — of lives. That’s why servant leadership is more important now than ever before. CLO
MAKING THE GRADE
The College Oversell Crisis
A middle-class level of wealth should not be a matter of degrees • BY LEE MAXEY
L Lee Maxey is CEO of MindMax, a marketing and enrollment management services company. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
ike the dream of homeownership for all, which drove America’s 2001-06 housing bubble and its subsequent collapse, many sectors of the U.S. economy currently are overpitching four-year degrees. According to analytics software company Burning Glass Technologies, 31 percent of postings for IT help desk roles request a bachelor’s degree. But when Burning Glass compared the job postings that ask for a B.A. with those that do not, the exact same technical skills were specified for both. I dislike this trend for two reasons. First, it devalues a postsecondary degree — even a two-year degree — when employers require hires to have credentials beyond what’s necessary to perform well in a job. Second, there is a needless barrier to entry for those with a high school diploma who are able to perform a job paying a living wage. Although a two-year or four-year degree increases earning power, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, these degrees are not necessarily the pathway to happiness or even self-worth. A few years ago, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich wrote on his blog that equal opportunity shouldn’t mean a chance to get a four-year liberal arts degree; it should mean learning what’s necessary to get a good job. As college costs continue to skyrocket, many parents won’t be able to afford a four-year degree for their children, or high school graduates will simply dismiss the idea of college because they don’t want to drown in student debt. Some colleges are even promoting how little debt their average graduate experiences, as if this makes the institution a better school to attend. From Delaware to Colorado, trade groups are advocating for an end to pushing all high schoolers to pursue a college education. Contractors and building trades in Delaware are involved in redefining high school curriculum so students and parents are exposed to the opportunities offered by a construction career, where the average annual salary for a newly minted heavy-equipment operator is $61,091, excluding overtime and benefits. In Colorado, CareerWise, a nonprofit partnership between business, government and education, places high school students two days a week with an apprenticeship site where they learn about career paths such as advanced manufacturing, financial services and business operations. Instead of treating the high school student’s mind
14 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
as a tabula rasa, let’s better understand their aptitudes and potential early on. In Germany, students are guided toward a vocational learning track at age 14. I’m not certain whether that’s the ideal age to slot a student for a potentially lifelong career, but I do agree with
College is not necessarily the pathway to happiness or even self-worth. Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, who advocates for making 10th grade the target for being college or career ready. According to Tucker, if students can master disciplines like algebra and effective writing by the end of their sophomore year, they should be able to go on to take rigorous AP courses, earn an associate degree or begin real-world career and technical courses that set them up for well-paying jobs. You might think these are policy issues beyond your scope. Your interest is finding talent, not changing the American education system. But other employers are taking up the mantle for that change. IBM has a “new collar” jobs slogan: “No Degree, No Problem.” The tech company is opening the door to apprenticeships for people with the aptitude, resilience and grit to succeed, even if some don’t have a four-year degree on their wall. And the Robotics & Advanced Manufacturing Technology Education Collaborative, which is part of the Tri-Rivers Career Center in Ohio, teamed up earlier this year with Whirlpool to develop an apprenticeship program for area high school students. High schoolers who successfully complete the Whirlpool apprenticeship will eventually earn their journeyman card. With input from American corporations, educators can teach high school students and even middle schoolers the technical skills needed by industry and create a pathway for these students to join America’s middle class. We can and should create a pathway to a middle-class level of wealth that is not exclusively based on attaining a four-year degree. It’s time for employers and CLOs to jump in and take action. CLO
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16 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
SELF-AWARENESS: THE LADDER TO LEADERSHIP SUCCESS Physicians play a key organizational role yet are often ill-prepared to take on the leadership mantle. They’re not alone. More focus on insight and introspection in health care and business at large can tackle the challenge. BY JOSEPH D. ZUCKERMAN, AL AN FRIEDMAN AND MEK AYL A CASTRO
F
or the past two U.S. presidential administrations, health care has been a contentious issue. National dialogue and federal policy shifts have caused change to continuously ripple throughout the health care industry. In part due to the ongoing change, the terms “transparency” and “accountability” have become part of the daily dialogue for workers in health-related fields with a focus on how to improve. In fact, there’s been so much discussion and change that more new words are entering health care management vocabulary: “engagement” and “burnout.” We keep trying new things to engage workers and better serve patients. But the majority of those efforts are doomed from the start. In the book “Who Killed Change?,” Ken Blanchard and co-authors noted that as much as 70 percent of change initiatives fail. Through all these conversations and interventions one key element has been missing — something so central to work that it seems impossible we’ve overlooked it. There hasn’t been much talk about self-awareness and the role it plays in the key
issues we keep trying to tackle, be it resilience, accountability or something as basic as patient safety and satisfaction in health care. Recent research by Tasha Eurich highlighted in Harvard Business Review estimates that only 10 to 15 percent of people are self-aware and that true self-awareness has internal and external facets. Internal self-awareness is what we typically refer to as introspection, the process of understanding our preferences, motivations and behaviors. External self-awareness is understanding how we are perceived and the impact we have on others. Both are needed to maximize the benefits of self-awareness. Without self-awareness, ongoing introspection and social insight, we miss key opportunities for improvement, whether in addressing areas of particular challenge or in capitalizing on strengths. In health care or hospitality, consulting or manufacturing, insight and introspection are critical to addressing the continuing changes. And when it comes to our organizational leaders, lack of self-awareness can lead to organizational breakdowns that have a direct, often dire effect on results.
Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
17
The Example of Health Care Take patient safety in health care. A core issue is the lack of reporting errors when they occur. Although emphasis has shifted away from blame to identifying the reason for an error and instituting a systemwide change in response, this approach has not yet become part of the DNA of health care. Many reasons contribute to this including pride and fear of retribution. Harvard Business School professor Amy C. Edmondson pointed to a lack of psychological safety as one potential problem in “Managing the Risk of Learning,” published in International Handbook of Organizational Teamwork and Cooperative Working, a scholarly journal. Independent of the justification or excuse, the fundamental problem stems from an underlying culture that isn’t supportive of introspection and learning from failure. The unforeseen consequence is an inability to grow intrapersonally. Our ability to understand how we relate to others is the foundation of our ability to understand how to lead at the systemwide or organizational level. This could be termed the emotional intelligence of health care. By admitting and reviewing mistakes, we can change the system or technology, tailor workforce training and change behaviors. Failure to do so prolongs the inevitable — repeating the same mistakes. The same can be said for leadership. As a broader example, consider the recent flood of sexual harassment claims being brought to light across multiple industries including media, entertainment, technology, startups and government. In multiple instances, the accused admitted to behavior that in hindsight was inappropriate, but at the time of the impropriety the individual failed to question their intent and understand their impact. The consequences of a hostile work situation are significant. In a study published in Gender & Society, Heather McLaughlin found that women who were harassed were 6.5 times more likely to leave their job compared with women who were not targets of harassment, resulting in increased economic strain. There is also a loss to companies in the form of social and innovation capital as individuals who leave take their ideas and talents with them. So, what causes a lack of self-awareness for physician leaders? To solve that question, look at the career life cycle of a physician.
Education and Training By nature of their training, physicians are taught to identify a problem and treat it. In dire cases this can be the difference between life and death for a patient. There is no room to reflect or review the problem. The focus is simply to fix. Anything else is deemed a weak18 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
ness and falls short of the expectations of both the patient and physician. Historically, medical schools and physician training did not focus on soft skills like communication and self-reflection. This has changed over the past decade and newly minted medical students and residents now receive more formal training on these topics. The Association of American Medical Colleges and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education have made them a priority in their competency guides for medical students. Although a variety of training opportunities exist for training current medical faculty and program directors, there has not been the same level of focus and attention. This widening gap, largely generational, is made worse by a shortage of well-trained mentors, low funding for training and a lack of leadership engagement in this type of education. An additional challenge has been the pressure physicians are under to see more patients in less time, leaving less time to focus on these areas. This shift in focus is no different from many others that the health care industry has seen in recent years. Care delivery has been transforming for the past decade and with it, all the methods, systems and technologies have been turned upside down. No system would be able to adequately address needed changes in these areas without organizational support and resources dedicated to it. The same is true for shifts in medical training. Without leadership comprehension and engagement, skills like self-awareness can’t gain traction in a meaningful way. This is not an issue specific to health care. Business schools have also been on a journey to incorporate soft skill development in the training of aspiring management leaders. MBA programs have historically emphasized teaching content and technical skills over the intrapersonal and interpersonal skills needed for effective leadership. Even while business schools have brought leadership into the core of their mission and increased leadership development curricula, Gianpiero Petriglieri and Jennifer Louise Petriglieri argue in their 2015 Academy of Management Learning and Education article, “Can Business Schools Humanize Leadership?” that such efforts have focused on career advancement and the economic view of leadership effectiveness and not a humanistic model that inspires trust and creates broad social value. There are also gaps in corporate education and training. A common missed opportunity to bring the application of self-awareness into the organization is during the onboarding of new employees. An increasing number of companies are utilizing pre-hire assessments with personality, preference and values components to in-
form selection decisions. After a leader is hired, too frequently that valuable information is set aside and left unused when it could be shared as feedback and leveraged to educate and train the leader on how to successfully transition in the organization.
Changing the Culture and the Pathway to Leadership Most leadership paths, both in and out of health care, follow a predictable trajectory. High-potential employees are identified and placed in leadership development programs or given stretch assignments or mentors to test their skills and help them grow. Promotion and ultimate success is based on their skill as a manager but also on core leadership skills identified by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman in a 2014 Harvard Business Review article, “The Skills Leaders Need at Every Level,” like motivating, communicating and promoting teamwork.
Leadership must be able to adapt and grow with the industry. Self-awareness is a key factor in the capability to do so. In specialized fields such as medicine, leaders follow a unique path. Instead of managerial accomplishment and growth, physician leaders frequently are selected based on their clinical prowess, research credibility as gauged by a number of peer-reviewed publications and grants, and reputation. They then are often thrust into roles and situations for which they haven’t been prepared without the time or training necessary to adjust. They may lack the practical experience needed to hone their leadership skills — the same skills their nonphysician counterparts have likely spent years developing. The required leadership skills often vary greatly from the skills that led them to be successful in a clinical environment. This leadership promotion model may seem like an endless cycle and if you’ve dealt with this at your institution it may feel insurmountable. However, there are ways to address it: Find your “pain point.” When we started looking at this issue in health care, we noticed that 20 percent of orthopedic surgery residents were mismatched in some way with the program they were in. This resulted in a lack of fit between residents and programs but also resource drains due to
the time it took to address issues, as well as potential patient safety and satisfaction risks. Building an assessment-based solution to this particular problem can help gain credibility and raise the profile of self-reflection as an important topic. Use the right tools and resources. Personality assessments have long been seen as successful tools for leadership development and placement in the business world. Their proven scientific methods allow an individual to review his or her strengths and areas for potential development. By adapting these tools to your environment, you gain a strong tool in building a culture of self-awareness, reflection and coachability. Get leadership walking the walk. Leadership buy-in is critical for anything to be successful. But for a topic such as self-awareness, buy-in isn’t enough. Leaders must be invested and personally believe in the importance of implementing these initiatives. The programs where we’ve seen change are the ones that invest in leadership development activities for their leaders and where leadership participates in these processes themselves. Your front-line employees will automatically acknowledge an initiative’s importance if your leaders are seen leading from the front by action. Remember the trainees. As you build momentum, look to all levels of your organization including those who are still in training. They are your future generation of leaders. Build in self-awareness as part of their training program and when they finish as fully trained professionals, it will become a part of who they are and how they practice. These individuals, in turn, will serve as the mentors for future trainees, allowing you to begin to bridge the generational divide that exists today. For the foreseeable future, it’s likely that the health care industry and many other industries will continue to adapt and grow. Leadership must be able to adapt and grow with it. Self-awareness, introspection and commitment to coachability are key factors in one’s capability to do so and an organizations’ future successes will likely be determined by their level of dedication to these concepts. With the right entry point, leadership involvement and a focus on trainees, you can help your organization successfully navigate these uncharted waters. CLO Joseph D. Zuckerman is chairman of the department of orthopedic surgery at NYU School of Medicine and surgeon in chief at NYU Langone Orthopaedic Hospital. Alan Friedman is founder and CEO of J3Personica, an advisory firm focused on personality assessment in health care. Mekayla Castro is director of global leadership and learning at American Express. They can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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Profile
A Life of Learning A true believer in the power of education, Nick van Dam makes an indelible mark on McKinsey and the L&D profession at large. BY AGATHA BORDONARO
C
hances are, if you were to reflect on the times in your life that felt most fulfilling, you would recall that you were in the middle of learning. “If you look at all the studies on happiness, there are three things that make people happy,” Nick van Dam said. “One relates to people continuing to grow in their lives. Another relates to people having social relationships: spending time with friends, family, colleagues. The third is about having meaning and purpose in one’s life. “If you think about it, learning plays a role in all of that,” he continued. “I think that’s very exciting.” Van Dam would know. With a master’s degree in sociology and psychology, a doctorate in human capital development, an adjunct professorship and advisory board membership at the University of Pennsylvania’s PennCLO Executive Doctoral Program, and a — Ursula Fear, associate, professorship of Catalyst Consulting South Africa corporate learning and development at the Netherlands’ Nyenrode Business Universiteit — not to mention nearly 20 books and countless articles and workshops to his name — the 30year industry veteran is a true believer in the transcendental power of learning. “He really lives learning,” said Kayvan Kian, a junior partner at global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., Amsterdam. “I wouldn’t know whether there’s a difference between Nick at work and Nick outside of work. This is his passion.” Kian has participated in a number of McKinsey leadership programs and co-facilitated one of the company’s flagship programs, the Young Leaders Forum, with van Dam, who joined McKinsey in 2013 as global chief learning officer. “Nick is the true depiction of what a ‘lifelong learner’ should be,” said Ursula Fear, an associate with talent consulting firm Catalyst Consulting South Africa and van Dam’s former colleague at Deloitte, where he was
“Nick is the true depiction of what a ‘lifelong learner’ should be.”
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global CLO and director of human capital. “Nick is always bettering himself and his work in the L&D space. His thirst and hunger to know more, to do more and, ultimately, to help the world at large is what makes all of us awe-inspired by this incredibly professional man.”
The Learning Revolution A native of Soest, a town about 40 minutes outside Amsterdam, van Dam got his start in L&D as a consultant working for Siemens, where he put his undergraduate degree in digital education to use helping clients implement learning systems, primarily in IT. In the next 10 to 15 years, van Dam said, business as we know it will be transformed by entirely new suites of technologies, such as the “internet of things,” artificial intelligence and 3-D printing, and “that will have massive implications for the skills that people need to have. Therefore, organizations need to step up and do more in terms of developing the workforce for existing and future roles.” In addition to its impact on our personal fulfillment, learning is — now more than ever — a business imperative: With higher life expectancies leading experts to predict that the average person will spend more than 50 years in the workforce, and with the pace of technological advancement accelerating at warp speed, workers will need to constantly learn and adapt to stay relevant. “We’re in the fourth Industrial Revolution,” van Dam said.
A Holistic Approach Revolutionary times call for a dynamic role for learning, one which van Dam sees as all-inclusive, contextual and experimental. “He has a very holistic approach to learning and development. It’s interdisciplinary,” said Ludmilla Kruske, a corporate training and development manager for a subsidiary of the Freudenberg Group in Germany. Kruske met van Dam in March 2017 when she took his International Masterclass Learning & Development Leadership at Nyenrode. “He takes a lot of ideas from psychology to the latest research on neuroscience, and he combines all of that together with theories of adult development.”
PHOTOS BY SASKIA AUKEMA
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Profile For example, van Dam incorporated elements of health and wellness into the Learning & Development Masterclass, leading attendees in yoga and meditation segments, Kruske says. In his work for McKinsey, van Dam is collaborating on a new program with Kian called Leadership by Wisdom, which will leverage insights from philosophy. “His idea was, how about we collaborate with real philosophers?” Kian said. “It’s timeless: It would be applicable and relevant to senior executives, board members, anyone in a leadership position who would like to look at the problems they’re facing from very different angles. Like, what would the ancient Romans and Greeks think about this? Or how would someone with more of a Buddhist lens look at this issue? Being able to switch between these lenses is a skill that only helps you become a better leader and solve very complex problems.” Kian said that van Dam also is open to trying things, — Nick van Dam, global chief learning officer, McKinsey & Co. testing to see what works and what doesn’t. “There are some people who might say, ‘We haven’t tried this before in learning; maybe we should wait and see.’ Nick is someone who says, ‘Well, there’s a good way to find out — and that’s by actually doing it.”
“My personal mission is to advance the L&D profession and, as a consequence, to have an impact on people development globally.”
Driving Growth at McKinsey
The explosion of digital education tools is both a catalyst and a driver of the learner-driven model, and van Dam is leveraging those tools at McKinsey. For example, one new module that his team has launched is called “industry quick starts,” which offer traveling consultants helpful client-industry overviews that they can access on the fly. “Let’s assume you’re a consultant and you get assigned to work for the financial services industry tomorrow,” van Dam said. “You can go into this industry quick start and learn everything about the financial industry that’s relevant for you and also understand what we, as a firm, are doing in the financial industry. So if you are spending time tomorrow with your client, you are well prepared to do so.” In addition to these performance support tools, van Dam has rolled out a series of personal development courses, including a game designed to teach project managers leadership skills and a program that helps workers prioritize and organize themselves better. Van Dam and his team have also used technology to facilitate in-person learning. They launched an application called Coach Now, which connects employees looking for guidance with potential mentors. That hard work is paying off: On average, the entire suite of learning programs that van Dam and his team delivered at McKinsey globally in 2017 received a score of 6.4 out of 7 in terms of value for time spent. That’s based on participant survey feedback. “It’s always extremely exciting and rewarding if you spend time with people who are pleased with the kind of programs they have been attending and feel the programs have helped them — not just as colleagues at McKinsey, but also personally, in their lives, to make decisions,” van Dam said.
At McKinsey, one of van Dam’s missions is to make learning an integrated, seamless part of the work experience. “Nick’s approach to L&D is all about job effectiveness, continuous employment and finding ways and means to making the people within organizations successfully evolve over time,” Fear said. To that end, van Dam and his team have redesigned the firm’s learning program to move from a single two- or three-day course to ongoing “learning journeys” for different cohorts. “So you build capabilities over your tenure at the firm,” van Dam said. Even in just a few years, this restructuring of the learning program has been noticeable. “If I compare my last year, 2017, with when I first joined McKinsey [in 2014], it feels much more that learning is a continuous part of the dayto-day work,” Kian said. This integrated approach is in line with the learning profession’s movement toward becoming a personalized Nick van Dam believes workers need to constantly learn and adapt to new technologies and comprehensive experience. to stay relevant. “We’re in the fourth Industrial Revolution,” he says. 22 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Profile Teaching the Teachers
Challenges and the Road Ahead
Van Dam’s penchant for education doesn’t stop with McKinsey business executives — he is equally invested in developing learning professionals on his team and around the world. “My personal mission is to advance the L&D profession and, as a consequence, to have an impact on people development globally,” he said. In addition to helping develop the next generation of CLOs through his work with the PennCLO Executive Doctoral Program, van Dam’s International Masterclass Learning & Development Leadership brought together 24 senior L&D professionals from 11 countries for a six-day immersive “learning journey.” The class, developed by practitioners and academics, boasted a blended approach that focused on building expertise, skills and lifelong learning mindsets and included the opportunity to be mentored by experienced peers. “Nick cares about individuals and about everyone reaching their full potential as a member of an organization,” Kruske said. “He spent quite some time mentoring me through some challenges in my career this year. Van Dam’s passion for the field is further demonstrated by the fact that he is donating 100 percent of the royalties from his latest book, “Do What Matters Most in Life: Positive Psychology in Practice,” as well as the royalties from his books “You! The Positive Force in Change, Next Learning Unwrapped,” and “The E-Learning Fieldbook,” to E-learning for Kids, the nonprofit he founded in 2005 to provide free online learning courses in math, science, computer skills, language and the arts for children between the ages of 5 and 12. “If you look at statistics, there are about 70 million children who don’t go to elementary school,” van Dam said. “There are a couple hundred million children who unfortunately don’t benefit from a high-quality or personalized education experience. That time [in one’s life] is crucial. [This nonprofit] is something I can do to help a little bit.” According to van Dam, E-learning for Kids is now the No. 1 massive open online course, or MOOC, for children ages 5 through 12 based on an elementary school curriculum. Since its launch, more than 34 million courses have been taken in 109 countries globally. Van Dam visits schools, meets with principals and gathers feedback to continuously improve the platform. “It is very rare these days to find a person with so much knowledge and wisdom and yet, at the same time, an equal amount of humility,” Fear said. “Ego does not exist with Nick, and he always comes across with an open mind and heart, eager to learn from others.”
One of the challenges van Dam sees both for himself and for the L&D profession is that many people don’t realize how important continued growth and learning is for success. Van Dam demonstrates the importance of learning by investing in it himself. “I always tell clients, ‘We are taking our own medicine,’ ” he said. “We are making significant investments in learning [at McKinsey]. Human capital is incredibly important, and in order to retain its value, you need to continue to invest in people and leadership development.” That work has come with recognition. Van Dam received the 2012 Lifetime Learning Leadership Award from the Masie Center, a workforce education think tank, and the 2013 Leonardo European Corporate Learning Award from the European Parliament Federal Ministry of Education & Research.
Nick van Dam’s goal is to make learning an integrated, seamless part of the work experience.
Despite these accolades, it’s the feedback from colleagues that brings van Dam the greatest gratification. “I got an email last week … sharing a message from one of the professionals on our team, who said, ‘I’ve been in this profession for 20 years. If I reflect on what I’ve been learning over the last three years, it’s off the charts. This is the most exciting time in my career in L&D,’ ” van Dam said. “Feedback like that makes me smile and proud that we are really helping to develop a next generation of professionals in L&D.” CLO Agatha Bordonaro is a writer based in New York. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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industryinsights High Tech, High Touch: The Power of People in the Digital Era More than 90 percent of organizations expect digital impact in the next two years. Does your business have the right people strategy in place to be successful?
By ManpowerGroup
We’ve been here before…
Leader transformation
If today’s digital disruption seems familiar, that’s because it’s not the first time technology has shaken up our world. During the Industrial Revolution, it took 50 years for industries to redefine processes and scale technologies. Today’s organizations don’t have that luxury of time. Shorter business cycles challenge organizations in six months or less to either change or fail.
Most organizations — including early digital adopters — believe their leadership pipeline and existing leaders aren’t yet prepared to fully win at digital. Eighty-seven percent of HR leaders believe they lack the leadership talent to drive success.⁷ To thrive during digital transformation, organizations must fill their current pipelines with a community of digital-ready, connected leaders dedicated to creating the necessary culture and capability within the organization. An adaptive leadership network will be what both unlocks opportunities and drives successful digital transformation, Antonucci says.
More than 90 percent of employers expect digital impact in the next two years.¹ As digitization advances automation and computing, 75 percent of leaders believe automation will soon require new skills.² Skilling up will require a high level of learnability; across the OECD, jobs requiring greater proficiencies are growing the fastest.³ Younger workers are coming into this environment. By 2030, millennials will make up two-thirds of the workforce,⁴ and they’ll need a high degree of learnability: 65 percent of the jobs they’ll fill over their lifetimes don’t even exist yet.⁵ For Lory Antonucci, senior consultant of organizational effectiveness for Right Management, the challenge of being successful in this digital era goes beyond technology. “These days, successful digital transformation means everybody operates from a shared, comprehensive view of the demands and capabilities required across the organization. This approach helps individuals, leaders and the organization operate under a common understanding of change and opportunity; adapt and function in an era that demands more connectivity; and to make smarter decisions that benefit both people and technology.” Transforming quickly can make the difference between organizational success and failure. Companies embracing digital transformation are 26 percent more profitable than their competitors and enjoy a 12 percent higher market valuation.⁶ To succeed through digital disruption, organizations must proactively address transformation through leadership, culture and the workforce itself.
Culture transformation A culture of innovation is another critical differentiator. Organizations need to embrace change, take calculated risks and be open to failing fast. Culture is both the proof of the past and the foundation for the future. In these times of change, every organization needs to understand and leverage culture as its primary enabler of growth, success and survival. Organizations with a formal innovation system see significant yields: 51 percent are the first to market with most new products and services.⁸
Workforce transformation Forty percent of employers face greater difficulty filling jobs this year than last, the highest level since 2007.⁹ The biggest threat to manufacturing isn’t machines — it’s people. Up to 2 million jobs may go unfulfilled because existing and emerging workers don’t have the necessary skills to perform them.10 Organizations and individuals need to approach digital opportunities with both a short- and long-term plan. “Invest in tools, connections and learning opportunities to gain a new sense of what’s happening with your customers and your work. Learning actions should focus on gaining updated insights, resources and innovations, and then sharing and scaling the new value that you see,” Antonucci says.
Right Management is the global career and talent development expert within ManpowerGroup®. We help organizations become more agile, attractive and innovative by creating a culture of career mobility and learning that nurtures future talent, motivates and engages people, and provides individuals with opportunities to increase their value throughout their careers. We improve time to value through our expertise in organizational effectiveness, career management and individual development. Find us on the web www.right.com.
From the digital suites to the factory floors, digital transformation is a comprehensive journey that impacts every part of an organization. To be successful, organizations must consider: • Are we prepared for calculated risk and set up to fail fast? • Are we agile and open to change, now and throughout the journey of transformation? • Are our processes informed by digital insights? • The path is clear: to thrive in the digital age, organizations need to operate with agility, deliver in the short term and adapt for the long term. Right Management partners with organizations of all sizes to accelerate transformation success, wherever they are in the transformation journey. For more information, visit www.right.com/digitalleader.
“The good news is digital leadership isn’t a total replacement of the fundamental attributes underlying leadership effectiveness. Instead, the 80/20 rule applies. Eighty percent of the competencies and enablers that have always made leaders effective remain the same. The other 20 percent is made up of the capabilities that weren’t so necessary before, but are critical now for modern and future leaders.” —Right Management, “From C-Suite to Digital Suite” (2017)
E ManpowerGroup (2017). The Skills Revolution. ManpowerGroup (2017). Impact of Automation in the Workforce. 3 OECD (2016). Survey of Adult Skills, OECD, 2016 4 Bureau of Labor Statistics. 5 ManpowerGroup (2017). The Skills Revolution. 6 IDE (2017). The MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. 7 Right Management (2014). Talent Management: Accelerating Business Performance. 8 Accenture (2015). US Innovation Survey. 9 ManpowerGroup. Talent Shortage Survey, 2016/2017. 10 Deloitte (2015). The Skills Gap in U.S. Manufacturing, 2015–2025 Outlook. 1 2
industryinsights Putting a Plan Together Case study: How Mackenzie Investments developed a succession pipeline for its inside sales department
By Tim Harnett
How important is succession planning and employee development at your organization? More than threequarters of organizations (78 percent) have some sort of plan in place, yet 60 percent say they have too few candidates for their needs.¹ Developing employees and promoting from within is crucial to keeping successful employees in house and reducing knowledge loss. For Denise Teixeira, senior manager, product education and blended solutions for distribution at Mackenzie Investments, promoting people to internal sales roles benefits both customers and the organization. “Executives discuss how important professional development has been in their careers, growing them into the leaders they are today. They wanted an initiative that would provide an opportunity to develop employees to be promotion ready to move into the inside wholesaler role — a role that requires deep product and industry knowledge.” Teixeira agreed with the opportunity to identify and move current employees into the role — with the right platform. “Recruiting people internally reduces the time it takes for onboarding. The person comes in with the background knowledge and skills the role requires. By having the impetus come from the top down, it demonstrates commitment to developing people within the organization.” Teixeira developed the online portion of the program using D2L’s Brightspace platform. While it isn’t geared toward any generation, succession programs like the one at Mackenzie Investments are particularly attractive to millennials, 87 percent of whom want development in their jobs.² But before the rollout could begin, Teixeira needed to weigh delivery options. “Due to the nature of the role, we designed our training
with a blended approach — online delivery with some in-person activities.” D2L’s Brightspace was the best platform choice thanks to its discussion boards and video training features, best suited for a mobile sales force. “With the Brightspace platform we are able to host the fundamental learning online with video and required reading to form the basis of their knowledge, and then test their understanding using the built-in quizzing tool. The statistical reporting capabilities allow us to understand in which areas the participants are strongest. Learners will have 4-5 months to complete a series of self-study and in-person learning assignments,” Teixeira says. “Within that time, they’ll apply the knowledge they’ve learned and meet with our inside wholesaler managers and mentors. Timelines and deadlines are managed through conversations with applicants, but the learning is selfpaced. They’ll also receive more onboarding once they become inside wholesalers. The idea is that the program will provide applicants with the readiness to move into the role when there’s an open position.”
“The idea is that the program will provide applicants with the readiness to move into the role when there’s an open position.” Teixeira is building metrics into the succession program to ensure its success can be measured. “We’re examining how the content is digested throughout, since people will be completing the program while employed in their current positions,” Teixeira says. “We want to be building knowledge without having
D2L is the software leader that makes the learning experience better. The company’s cloud-based platform is easier to use, more flexible, and smart. By using D2L, organizations can personalize the learning experience to deliver real results. The company is a world leader in content creation and curation, and enables employers to act in real time to keep workers on track. D2Le is used by learners in higher education, K-12, and the enterprise sector, including the Fortune 1000. D2L has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore. www.D2L.com
the program become a roadblock to success in the employees’ current roles. Going forward, I’ll have communication with program participants as well as their managers, and will periodically touch base and get a pulse check to determine how successful participants are with the content.” Mackenzie’s commitment to internal promotions isn’t limited to the distribution department, either. “There’s been several company initiatives to make sure we keep high performers interested in growing their
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careers with us,” Teixeira says, “giving them access to programs and opportunities to grow and learn while they’re here. The Inside Wholesaler Development Program is one piece of a larger puzzle to addressing attrition, promoting engagement and maximizing product knowledge, which benefits our customers and our bottom line.” Mackenzie Investments uses the D2L platform for their inside sales succession program. Learn more at D2L.com/ financialservices.
2016 Talent Management Succession Planning survey. Adkins, A. and Rigoni, B. (2016). “Millennials want jobs to be development opportunities.” Gallup.
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Havas Health & You Develops Emerging Leaders for Long-Term Success Havas Health & You partnered with BlessingWhite, a division of GP Strategies, to establish a comprehensive leadership development program to enhance leadership skills and encourage leaders to pay forward what they learned to support future executives.
THE CHALLENGE Great advertising campaigns for clients start with great input from talent. No one knows this better than advertising agency Havas, whose employees’ creative genius and intellectual capital are what drive its business. As the brains behind such memorable campaigns as Dos Equis’“Most Interesting Man in the World” and TJX Companies’ “Bring Back the Holidays,” workers at Havas must be continually inspired and motivated to propel the firm’s success. So when Havas launched its newly expanded and branded Havas Health & You practice, which combined its separate global consumer health agencies under one umbrella, the talent management team knew it would need to identify and cultivate each agency’s future leaders for long-term success.
Second, leaders should be given a sense of what qualities Havas Health & You values in a leader and have a clear picture of what the firm wants in its executives. And third, the program should help participants look outward to understand what others need from them so they could be as responsive and effective as possible. With these initiatives in mind, the Developing Leaders program was called “Becoming a Better Leader Through Introspection to Inspiration.” With this blueprint set, the learning and development team then addressed each of its goals for the program with a four-pronged approach consisting of coaching, mentoring, leadership development workshops and executive support. Figure 1.
“An inspired and motivated workforce is the lifeblood of creative agencies and leaders are the torch bearers for engagement,” said Patrick Chenot, executive vice president and chief learning officer at Havas Health & You. “To ensure the success of our newly branded division, we needed to identify and develop a strong corps of emerging leaders.” In 2015, in partnership with BlessingWhite, a division of GP Strategies, Havas Health & You rolled out Developing Leaders @ Havas, a program aimed at enhancing leadership skills, establishing a network of supportive relationships, providing greater exposure to and connections at the executive level, and promoting an environment in which Havas Health & You leaders would pay forward what they learned in supporting future talent. THE SOLUTION The Developing Leaders program is a comprehensive, ninemonth semester that encourages professional growth and includes cross-agency representation—a new approach that allowed participants to get to know and learn from individuals from other parts of the organization. In creating the Developing Leaders program, the Havas Health & You talent management team considered several key elements. First, it was important that each program participant be encouraged to establish his or her own path and style of leadership, fostering a culture of authenticity and individuality.
“While coaching and training has always been an important part of how HAVAS Health & You supports its people, this program took a more structured approach and included cross-agency representation—a new element that allowed participants to get to know and learn from individuals from other parts of the organization,” said Leah Clark, director of strategy and development, GP Strategies. First, each Developing Leaders participant was paired with an external coach to pinpoint, prioritize and address development issues. As part of this process, the firm collected 360-degree feedback from peers and associates to assess each leader’s strengths and weaknesses. Insight was also gleaned through an emotional intelligence (EQ) assessment— conducted during the Emotional Intelligence workshop as part of the leadership development workshop series—as well as through leadership reports generated during two other
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workshops. Further, coaches formed their own team so they could support each other and share best practices.
Happenings, which is distributed to senior leadership as well as to participants in the Developing Leaders program.
Next, each program participant was paired with an executive mentor who could impart insight, advice, challenges, best practices and opportunities based on his or her own experience as a leader at Havas. Participants and mentors took part in a mentorship workshop as part of the leadership development workshop series.
THE RESULTS By focusing on a renewed leadership development experience, Havas Health & You exceeded its targeted goal and saw a positive response from participants and business sponsors. The program has grown in size and scope with each subsequent year.
The third prong of the Developing Leaders program comprised a nine-month curriculum of four leadership development sessions: the mentorship workshop, the emotional intelligence workshop, a workshop titled “Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?” and a workshop called “Leading Out Loud.”
Up-and-coming executives were accepted into the program through a process that included a one-to-one conversation between Havas’ chief learning officer, the managing directors of each internal agency and their human resource leads, as well as nominations of three to five individuals from each managing director. The learning and development program sponsors made the final decisions. Figure 2.
The mentoring workshop focused on defining the mentorship experience and understanding the roles, shared responsibilities and phases of a mentoring partnership; balancing inquiry and advocacy with a foundation of trust, mutual understanding and confidentiality; and defining and practicing skills related to listening, coaching and giving feedback and advice. Havas supplemented the mentorship workshop with an internally created tool called “A Guide for Mentors and Mentees.” The “Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?” workshop shifted the focus from introspection to the outward view, helping leaders understand what their teams need from them and tips to develop strategies to meet their follower’s needs. The final workshop, titled “Leading Out Loud,” focused on communication’s role in effective leadership and taught leaders how to inspire others for greater engagement, ownership and agency. The Developing Leaders program also included coaching circles, facilitated events in which the group discussed and coached each other on whatever topic was most relevant as a workshop follow-up. Throughout it all, the Havas Health & You executives spent time with program participants to share insights and answer questions about the importance of leadership on business success. In 2017, the learning and development team also created an internal, bimonthly publication titled Leadership
The Developing Leaders program has garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback. In a post-program survey, nearly 88 percent of veterans of the program report their leadership skills improved as a result of the program, 100 percent said their confidence as a leader improved, 87 percent indicated their team members have noticed a change in their leadership style, and 100 percent felt as though the program was a valuable investment. Further, the program is fulfilling its goal of having leaders pay forward what they learned. Graduates address each new class of participants in a panel session as well as serve as mentors for each new class and for participants in a pilot Havas Health & You fellowship program that offers learning opportunities, tuition reimbursement and mentoring to a select group of entry-level talent. Graduates and their mentors are also encouraged to continue their mentorship relationship.
Founded in 1966, GP Strategies (NYSE: GPX) is a global performance improvement company serving more than 16 diverse industries. GP Strategies is a leader in sales and technical training, e-learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies services, solutions and technologies empower companies to perform above their potential.
DIVERSITY IS LEARNING’S BUSINESS L&D teams have traditionally shied away from diversity and inclusion work. That’s starting to change as companies discover that difference is a source of competitive advantage.
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BY MARYGR ACE SCHUMANN
n an increasingly polarized world, differences have become an opportunity to sow discord rather than promote dialogue. This is particularly true in the workplace. In 2017, the #MeToo movement went viral, laying bare the scale of sexual harassment and abuse across the country, especially in the workplace. In today’s world of work, many employees post anonymous comments to employer review sites like Glassdoor or turn to chat forums like Blind to air grievances rather than confront their employers directly. This mistrust is one of the reasons why diversity and inclusion has taken a new air of importance at work, yet many corporate learning and development functions have traditionally steered clear of the topic, leaving it to HR or a dedicated diversity function. According to Steve Pemberton, chief human resources officer at social recognition provider Globoforce and former chief diversity officer at Walgreens Boots
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Alliance, organizations tend to treat L&D and D&I as independent functions within HR. With the convergence of social change and the evolution of D&I training, the time is ideal for L&D teams to partner to create programs and approaches to promote differences as a source of competitive advantage rather than continued conflict.
From Anti-Harassment to Unconscious Bias It wasn’t until the late 1980s and early 1990s that some American businesses took a serious look at diversity in the workplace. Jennifer Brown, CEO of diversity consulting firm Jennifer Brown Consulting, said diversi-
fails to tackle tough challenges, such as how to change behavior over time, keep bias in check, seek and value greater diversity and create inclusive environments.
From Diversity to Inclusion Doug Harris, CEO at consulting firm Kaleidoscope Group, said it’s important to do more than just educate people. “Education is about learning something,” Harris said. “Preparation is preparing to do something.” According to Harris, preparation starts with making sure everyone is learning from and teaching one another. “I might be keenly aware of African American issues because I’m African American but stepping on women all day long because I’m unaware of women’s issues,” Harris said. “So even when you get it, there’s a misunderstanding of how far that goes.” Harris said companies should focus on what he calls “conscious inclusion” to move from abstract concepts to behavior change. Conscious inclusion incorporates five principles: demonstrating empathy, authentically communicating, embracing differences, managing privilege and acting courageously. The key is to help people grow rather than focus on correcting them, he said. Brian Miller, vice president of talent, development and inclusion at biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, said a focus on behavior change is about asking people to be accountable for their actions but also to reflect on their previous behavior in order to change it. Pemberton said a call to action can propel people to change their behavior. “The #MeToo movement is a case in point,” Pemberton said. “While an organization can have policies and training in place to raise awareness, that is not the same as changing behaviors, including taking action against offenders.” Movements like #MeToo can teach organizations how to punish harassment but also how to move beyond punishment in order to support inclusion and safety. “When ideal behaviors and core values are integrated with ongoing communications and learning programs, change happens more quickly and good behaviors become the norm,” Pemberton said. Reverse mentorship is another method to teach inclusion in a positive and continous way. For example, Brown said, if you’re a white man, being mentored by someone with a different identity is a way to move beyond unconscious bias and build a trusting relationship with a person through whom you can see another perspective. Beyond strengthening individual relationships, leaders can use reverse mentorship to build an understanding of the impact of diversity across the board.
“While an organization can have policies and training in place to raise awareness, that is not the same as changing behaviors, including taking action against offenders.” — Steve Pemberton, CHRO, Globoforce ty training started primarily as anti-harassment training designed to protect companies against civil rights lawsuits. This focus treated the symptoms rather than the illness, she said. Instead of teaching employees to understand and respect diversity, they were teaching them not to attack it. “A lack of understanding of inclusion leads to toxic work environments where harassment actually happens,” she said. In recent years, the focus has shifted to unconscious bias. Teaching employees to acknowledge and understand the biases they bring to work helps them better understand the different experiences that others have in the workplace, the argument goes. Leaders who better understand their biases are able to build teams with more diversity of thought, thereby leading to more collaboration and innovation. “When you check your own bias as a leader, you may realize that you have some flawed assumptions, like if you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and keep your head down and work hard, it will be its own reward,” Brown said. “This is not true for anybody but white, straight, able-bodied cisgender men.” To be an inclusive leader is to be aware of differences, your own biases, and where and when they might materialize. However, unconscious bias training is not the end for diversity training. According to Brown, it often 32 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Specifically, they can become more aware of inclusion during the hiring process in order to build a more robust and diverse pipeline. Diversity Best Practices’ 2017 “Inclusion Index” showed that while the percentage of men and women in nonmanager roles is nearly the same (51 percent men and 49 percent women), the executive pipeline is only 31 percent women versus 69 percent men. As a result, companies struggle to fill a quota with one of the few women they have. While the intent is positive, the results can be negative. “It’s not fair to her and it’s horrible when it doesn’t work, which it often does not,” Brown said. “She becomes a lesson: ‘We’re not going to do that again.’ ” Recruiting and developing a diverse pool of talent requires long-term investment. To be effective, companies need to mentor women and people of color so they are not merely checking a box. That requires leaders to be aware that people of varying backgrounds and identities face different career obstacles in the hiring and onboarding process as well as in their advancement and development within the organization. Brown said many leaders still struggle to understand how their biases impact interview and selection processes. “It’s the idea that if I intentionally give opportunities to people who don’t look like me and I use my power for that it’s going to mean less power for me,” she said. Gilead Sciences built a diversity of thought toolkit to help leaders think about diversity and inclusion on
Recruiting and developing a diverse pool of talent requires long-term investment. a larger scale and examine their own biases. The toolkit includes assessment and application tools that address challenges like how to get a greater diversity of voices heard and defining what the end state should look like. Though it’s still early, Miller said they’re getting a large number of requests to implement the program.
Learning’s Role in D&I In addition to helping leaders recognize and overcome their biases, CLOs can use their knowledge of the talent pool to ensure inclusion and diversity happen at the ground level. “You must know who is in jeopardy in your talent pool,” Brown said. “You must be selecting your [high-potential] lists with a positive bias toward diversity.” According to Brown, learning programs should have a D&I lens on at all times. This means looking at 34 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
who is in the room, who gets invited to programs and how leaders are being developed. “Are we developing all of our leaders in the same way?” Brown said. “Is that the right answer? I would say no. Based on identity, there’s a vast number of people who are having very different experiences every day.” Gilead is in the early stages of creating a network analysis map that will take the entire organization and cut the data to figure out whether certain groups are “on the inside or outside of certain decision-making networks and/or on the inside or outside of certain networks that drive innovation,” Miller said. That map can be analyzed by a number of factors such as race and gender. Tools such as the map can be used by learning organizations to build a more diverse talent pool of future leaders. Another path toward building a diverse pool is by examining mentoring and sponsorship programs to see whether diversity conversations are scaring people away and encouraging leaders to ask themselves how they approach mentees of different backgrounds, according to Brown. “Leaders should learn how can they be a productive leader to all types of talent, particularly talent that doesn’t look like them,” Brown said. Brown also said CLOs and D&I teams need to look at the content of diversity training together to determine whether they’re addressing inclusive behaviors as a leadership competency and holding leaders accountable. “The learning function has such an important role to play,” Brown said. “They’ve got to allow themselves to be taught so that they can be more inclusive in their designs in the content of the training for the organization and in their definition of what leadership looks like and how they measure the competencies.” According to Miller, one of Gilead’s biggest implementation successes in the past couple of years was adding inclusion as a core competency. “It starts to change a bunch of things within the organization, including how we show up every day,” Miller said. Harris said D&I is a central part of a broader approach to developing competencies, building relationships and engaging employees. “One of the things that would be most helpful for chief learning officers to understand is that diversity and inclusion education is really not a separate entity,” he said. “It’s looking at how does this help you empower all the competencies that you currently have in the organization. “What chief learning officers can help with is not positioning [D&I] as an add on, but as an enabler,” Harris said. CLO Marygrace Schumann is a former editorial intern at Chief Learning Officer magazine. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
There’s no better place to discover what’s new, what’s next and what tomorrow’s learners will expect than CLO Symposium 18. It’s where hundreds of industry and business leaders convene to re-examine and reimagine the role of workforce development and their own roles in making sure it stays relevant. Experience this remarkable conference for yourself. Register today!
BY AVE RIO
The growing power and sophistication of virtual reality spotlights the need to plan and experiment with this emerging technology.
V
irtual reality for learning is no longer an abstract concept — it’s here. It’s already being used to train surgeons, help retail workers prepare for Black Friday craziness, keep construction workers safer and even help quarterbacks improve their game. According to one expert, virtual reality is the first real disruptive technology in learning, breaking away from the flat-screen mode of learning and
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hacking the senses to enter a three-dimensional world filled with sights and sound. “It will be on par with the change that the internet brought to the industry, if not bigger,” said Anders Gronstedt, president of digital training consultancy The Gronstedt Group. The internet, paired with personal computers and mobile devices, has until now mainly taken the traditional classroom model for learning and repurposed it in a new medium, he said. Virtual reality has the po-
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VR Today, AR Tomorrow While virtual reality creates an immersive virtual world, augmented reality is the real world, only with digital objects superimposed upon it. While AR is not as mature as VR, many smartphones will soon be equipped with AR features that will allow users to superimpose arrows on the floor for directions, float instructions for how to do a technical task above the actual task or conjure characters with the ability to have a conversation, said Anders Gronstedt, president of The Gronstedt Group. An IKEA app, for instance, gives users the ability to see what a piece of furniture from the Sweden-based retailer would look like in their own living room. “It’s obviously not an ideal form to hold up your phone like that, but it gives you an idea of what’s to come,” Gronstedt said. While VR is a good way to immerse learners in an environment where they can rehearse and practice skills, AR is particularly suited to performance support, allowing workers in the field, on the factory floor, in the warehouse or at the hospital to access guidance on how to perform a particular task, he said. VR headsets are already on the market but AR headsets are still about three to four years away, Gronstedt said. He thinks Apple will launch AR glasses within three years and others will soon follow. Danny Belch, chief strategy officer for VR training company STRIVR, said he doesn’t think the technology is advanced enough for the mainstream but his company is keeping an eye on it. “We believe AR is going to be amazing when it actually is ready for some real-time application, but we just haven’t found any real-time applications yet,” he said. Deloitte Principal Michael Gretczko said the power of AR lies in bringing human ability together with technology. “Humans do some things better than machines, and machines do some things better than humans,” he said. “When we bring the best of both worlds together, that’s where we’re going to truly see the innovation and the value for society and economic output.”
— Ave Rio 38 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
tential to fundamentally change how learning happens. By strapping on a VR headset, learners step into an immersive computer-generated world that can serve as a virtual rehearsal space for learning. Gronstedt said VR in its current form works best for industries where special technical training is needed such as construction, manufacturing, health care, retail and the military. But as this emerging technology becomes more ingrained in our lives, CLOs should consider how it can be used more broadly and strategically for employee development.
From Stanford to STRIVR One of the companies leading the charge in developing learning applications for virtual reality is San Francisco Bay-area based STRIVR. When Derek Belch was a graduate student and assistant football coach at Stanford University, he had an idea. Working with Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson in the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford, they wanted to see how VR could be used to improve the play of the university’s football team. That early work led Belch to start STRIVR, a VR training company that works with U.S. professional sports leagues as well as corporate clients including Walmart and Google. He now serves as CEO of the company. Danny Belch, Derek’s brother and STRIVR’s chief strategy officer, said VR allows athletes to engage in extra practice without putting additional strain on their bodies. Those benefits reach outside of sports. Athletes have to look for specific visual, mental and spatial cues and similar training is required for some corporate jobs. Danny Belch said the best opportunities for VR can be identified by using the acronym RIDE: rare, impossible, dangerous or expensive. Danny Belch said companies that work with STRIVR sometimes know exactly what they want to do with VR while others simply know they want to use VR and need help figuring out how. There are two options for them. STRIVR can capture footage using six GoPro cameras welded together to make a 360-degree video camera and use that footage to create custom VR experiences or STRIVR can provide the tools to the company to capture its own content. In both scenarios, data is recorded about where users look while wearing the headset and how long they look at each location. “It’s such a rich data set about true behavior,” Danny Belch said. “You’re not watching a 2-D video screen or clicking on buttons. You’re actually learning as if you were doing, so the data of the behavior is tracked.” Danny Belch said companies do different things with the data. Some use it to provide feedback to individuals. For example, they might ask an employee, “Why are you looking over there? You missed all these customers over here,” or say, “Great job, you scanned every possible hazard.” Companies also are aggregating data to see how a class of learners is performing overall. If a majority make similar mistakes that helps the company identify a potential instructional problem. Going forward, Danny Belch said the data will be used more in evaluations either as part of the interview process or as a competitive benchmarking system for current employees.
VR for the OR and Beyond While VR is spreading quickly in some industries, others like the insurance industry have been slower to get on board. Farmers Insurance, however, has started experimenting with VR headsets like Facebook’s Oculus Rift for onboarding claims adjusters. One of the biggest challenges adjusters face is the real world experience necessary to learn and improve, said Jessica DeCanio, director at The University of Farmers. The university built two full-size homes as learning labs so adjusters can gain that experience but DeCanio said it’s not ideal because it’s the same house with the same rooms and same damage every time. Farmers decided to invest in VR training in 2016 when the technology showed swift advancements, prices came down and equipment became more accessible.
the effects decisions might have on the claim or customer experience, DeCanio said. While most corporate training involves using headsets like Oculus Rift, the medical industry is using VR in a different way. At the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Dr. Jeffrey Barsuk said they work with simulations and VR, which often involves three-dimensional work with the hands but a two-dimensional image on screen. One such simulator is a colonoscopy machine for aspiring gastrointestinal doctors. Barsuk said the machine has significant upsides. After using the machine, it’s as if the resident has already done between 50 and 80 procedures on a real patient, he said. VR machines are also used to train for laparoscopic surgery-based procedures such as removing the gallbladder or appendix.
“Things are so complex that the ability of something like VR to deliver just-in-time training at the moment of need in a way that is highly ingestible for employees is frankly a required opportunity.” — Michael Gretczko, Deloitte Consulting The company hired Talespin, a VR production company, to create a digital home with six different floor plans and several options for types of damage that can be applied. “Claims adjusters can capture literally thousands of different experiences before they’re ever even in a real customer’s home,” DeCanio said. “That helps build up their confidence, their skill set and ultimately their empathy with the customer.” Although it began as a pilot program, Farmers plans to build the VR platform into all property onboarding programs based on feedback. Pilot participants said they wished they had gone through the training earlier and appreciated being able to slow down, think decisions through and ask questions in the moment. Farmers’ VR setup also offers a basic and advanced level allowing employees to practice at different proficiencies. “The gamified effects of VR make it something that’s appealing to people who have been on the job for a while to test their knowledge with a competitive angle,” DeCanio said. Similar to STRIVR, Farmers’ VR sessions can be recorded so there’s an opportunity to use them from a coaching standpoint to debrief and discuss
Eric Hungness, a Northwestern surgeon, said a major benefit of medical VR is standardization. “The residents experience the same thing every time,” he said. “The computer can track motion and can define and look for errors.” One downside Hungness identified is the artificiality of VR. “When you’re doing real surgery, you get feedback from the tissue,” he said. “You touch the tissue and you feel a resistance against your hands. How do you simulate that in a virtual reality world?”
Beyond the Barriers While it appears to be a growing trend, many companies are still hesitant to get on board with VR. Experts say most of the hesitation comes from either limited budgets or the fear of new technology. “It still feels very futuristic for many companies,” said Michael Gretczko, a principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP. “They can’t envision how it fits in to the workflow of their organization.” STRIVR’s Danny Belch said it’s hard to challenge the status quo for learning at companies which often VIRTUAL REALITY continued on page 56 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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Duke University’s senior fellow and founder of Change Academy, Dan Heath, the New York Times best-selling author discusses the impact of certain moments and how we could be the creators of richer experiences in his latest book,“Power of Moments.”
What is the power of a moment? Moments are powerful because they define experiences. Think back to a recent vacation and how a few special moments from that trip capture the joy of the experience even as most of it has faded from memory. Great experiences hinge on “peak” moments — moments that arise above the rest. So when we talk about creating better experiences for other people, whether students or employees or customers, we’re really talking about creating peak moments. How can a moment that occurs in such a short period of time have such a profound impact on one’s entire life? Not all peak moments change your life but some do. Usually those are moments of insight. In an instant, we realize something that changes our view of ourselves or our world. And while many of those moments seem to come serendipitously, there are strategies we can use to create powerful moments of insight for ourselves and others. What is a simple idea educators can use to leverage the power of moments to create more powerful learning experiences? Educators need to plan for peak moments. What’s the singlemost important moment in the training you’re leading? If the participants recall one thing from the training a year later do you know what it would be? Have you consciously planned that peak? This sounds like a simple idea but the vast majority of training sessions lack peaks. Including mine! I realized that many of my own workshops lacked a “peak.” And often our instincts lead us in the wrong direction. At many off-sites and conferences, for instance, organizers will spend a fortune on entertainment and fancy dinners. And meanwhile, every hour of the training receives roughly the same investment of resources — a parade of instructors stand in front of the room with a PowerPoint. Why aren’t we creating peaks in learning with the same effort and enthusiasm that we use to organize group dinners? How does technology, particularly as it relates to education, help or hinder our ability to create memorable and powerful experiences? As usual, the unsatisfying but true answer is that it does both. Technology can be a horrible distraction, as anyone who’s ever taught to a room full of laptops can attest. The participants are “taking notes,” of course. You can’t create a peak moment when people are multitasking. But technology is often the only conceivable way to deliver a message well. There’s a simulation called the Beer Game, for instance, that gives students the chance to manage the supply chain for a beer company. And they learn some really powerful lessons that are the result of the horrible consequences of their own choices. To learn from your own actions is so much more powerful than hearing a
lecture about supply chains. And we have interactive technology to thank for that. How does the experience of powerful moments differ individually? Is it possible to create powerful moments as a group? Moments are fundamentally individual. When I get an adrenaline high from riding Space Mountain at DisneyWorld, that’s my moment embedded in my memory. But of course, the guy in the car behind me had a similarly great moment which suggests that we can sometimes create moments at scale. What’s interesting about peak moments shared by groups is that they usually emerge from shared struggle. Picture a championship youth soccer team, or a development team after a successful product launch, or a group of people who’ve built a house for Habitat for Humanity. What bonds them together is the fact that they strained and suffered and adapted together. That’s why no one feels bonded to the people they meet in a half-day workshop with a PowerPoint-wielding instructor. There’s no struggle, there’s no investment. But of course, as people who care about education, we can change that! We can create powerful peak moments of learning.
Why Attend Dan Heath’s Symposium Keynote: Identify why certain experiences are more powerful than others. Learn the four elements of a positive moment. Understand how the power of moments creates opportunities for deep learning.
Register today at www.CLOsymposium.com
UX BY KELLY TORRES AND BREEDA McGR ATH
As more learning happens online, organizations need to increase focus on the user experience and design of digital learning to actively engage learners.
T
he popularity of online learning and training has exploded in recent years. Due to the increase of online learners, it is important to ask whether our instructional approaches have evolved from face-to-face settings. If not, we need to ask what’s needed to implement new instructional strategies to effectively engage online learners. How can we structure online learning environments, including workplaces, to meet the unique needs of our current generation of learners? Technology-savvy learners are entering the workforce with digital expectations and are constantly seeking information and connecting with others through online platforms. And it’s not just new entrants to the workforce. Online
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XEXTRA is not
learning environments are becoming more attractive to students at all levels of formal and informal education and to employees who want to further their professional development skills. The rise of user experience, or UX, as a core principle of digital design has added more urgency. With the advancement of technology, we can now gain new expertise at any time in any place. Meeting the needs of our digital learners goes beyond simply providing didactic or instructional lectures to technology-enhanced approaches. Many companies can’t use online approaches such as recorded lectures but they want their employees to be able to apply their new skills instantly to their current jobs. This is particularly important in fields such as information
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technology and medical professions that are constantly evolving and have limited time or resources to develop or revise their materials and workshops. Online training is becoming more popular since it is easier to quickly disseminate updated information and resources in a cost-efficient manner.
The Rise of Online Learning The internet has provided students and employees with an amazing opportunity to gain knowledge, skills and expertise from the comfort of their homes or offices. The “Digital Learning Compass: Distance Education Enrollment Report 2017” reports about a third of higher education students are taking at least one online course. Students in online courses are more likely to be graduate learners at public (68 percent) or private nonprofit institutions (18 percent). Also, these individuals are most likely to reside within the same state as their institution (55 percent). These are interesting and somewhat surprising statistics. Companies have also observed upward trends in the popularity of online training. Docebo, an e-learning solutions provider, examined worldwide e-learning market projections. Their “E-Learning Market Trends and Forecast 2014-2016” report found online learning technologies help to keep the workforce aware of job functions, aims and goals and the necessary skills and expertise needed for employee promotion. Furthermore, they found that online training helps to reduce overhead costs and results in higher rates of employee retention. Online learning is no longer a new phenomenon but how we engage in online instruction may still be a relatively novel concept to many educators and trainers. Novice online instructors may erroneously believe online teaching is easier than face-toface instruction. Due to its popularity, the focus of online learning has to be on designing and implementing educational environments that actively engage learners. This is of utmost importance for industry leaders who are responsible for the design, implementation and continual enhancement of a company or program. CEOs, CLOs and COOs need to understand how to select curricula, promote leadership and professional development in this area, and maintain a culture of excellence through up-to-date organizational development approaches.
Practical Techniques to Improve Online Learning Online training has become more popular across a diverse range of fields and organizations. Companies that have implemented online training programs have found employees who complete 44 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Ensure courses and training are developed based on high standards and are taught by professionals who understand the uniqueness and complexity of online learning contexts. e-learning may learn up to five times more material and may need to invest 40 to 60 percent less time in workshop attendance. Additionally, companies may experience higher levels of revenue and believe they have a competitive advantage since employees are able to keep up with industry changes. The use of online training has become so popular that there has been approximately a 900 percent increase in these types of workshops since 2000. However, the effectiveness of online learning is dependent on learners’ active engagement in the course or workshop materials and their willingness to discover the new information that they are acquiring. Psychologist Jerome Bruner described discovery learning as occurring when learners construct their own knowledge. He proposed that learners construct knowledge by organizing and categorizing information. This approach leads to the learner creating a coding system in which they are able to discover new information rather than simply being told it by a more knowledgeable person. Courses and training that incorporate discovery learning may include simulations, problem-based learning or exploration. The increase in e-learning training can be found in fields such as banking, leadership workshops, education, human resources via recruitment and retention, and administrative leadership focused on developing business analytics. Emerging educational technologies have also provided an easier and more feasible way for organizations to move to online learning platforms. Organizations can use training through already established online training platforms such as Coursera or create their own workshops through businesses like Udemy. Whichever path they take, administrators,
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course instructors and training facilitators need to consider carefully how they develop and deliver their classes or workshops. In comparison to face-to-face learning contexts, online learners may feel disconnected from their course instructors, colleagues or peers. To ensure that learners receive meaningful and engaging online experiences, instructors and trainers can: • Provide personal touches in which they connect with learners prior to or at the onset of the class or workshop through video self-introductions or audio/ video feedback on weekly assignments and activities. • Create a virtual presence for classroom community, be active in the course site and provide continual learner support. • Keep learners up to date by creating open lines of communication, such as daily or weekly email or video messages outlining course or workshop expectations. • Enhance interactional opportunities to increase instructor-to-student and student-to-student interactions so learners can share relevant resources. • Use multiple forms of learning technologies integrated directly into the course or workshop site. • Consider multiple forms for viewing content and accessibility for a variety of smartphone, tablet and computer devices to ensure students have immediate and constant access to course and workshop materials.
The Psychology of Online Learning Another important component of successful online instruction is understanding how unique learner characteristics impact the learning environment. The field of educational psychology can provide instructors a more in-depth understanding of learning and how emotional, cognitive and social processes impact learners. For example, be mindful of how learning conditions, backgrounds, course materials and learning tasks can all affect learning outcomes. Learners’ levels of motivation, autonomy and self-regulation can strongly influence their performance in online environments. Learners need to be active and reactive throughout the entire learning process and have the opportunity to construct their own knowledge of course or workshop content. They need to have cooperative learning experiences, which can enhance their collaborative and metacognitive skills. Gaining an understanding of learner preferences can also be beneficial when designing, implementing and revising courses and workshop materials. By better understanding their learners, instructors may be able to implement more efficient instructional processes that effectively enhance how learners absorb and retain new information. 46 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Given the current generation of digital learners’ desire to have technology-enhanced learning experiences, organizations will most likely continue to observe an increased demand for online educational and training opportunities. The role of educators, instructional designers, administrators and industry leaders is to ensure courses and training are developed based on high standards and are taught by professionals who understand the uniqueness and complexity of online learning contexts. This may require instructors and instructional designers to complete advanced degrees or training on development, implementation and continual enhancement of online learning.
The effectiveness of online learning is dependent on learners’ active engagement in the course or workshop materials and their willingness to discover the new information that they are acquiring. Because potential employees are more likely to consume, connect and seek out information online, it’s important to determine how to provide more effective online learning and workplace training opportunities. This can enhance employee satisfaction and retention and provide companies higher return on training investment. Learning is a lifelong process. Instructors and trainers need opportunities to continually hone instructional skills to meet the unique needs of learners. Using educational psychology approaches will help us better understand how to train our instructors and educate learners in a technology-enhanced world that is evolving and changing. CLO Kelly Torres is the department chair for the online campus at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Breeda McGrath is the dean of academic affairs online at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. They can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
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Finding the Right Level of Empathy Empathy in business works but only if leaders use the right type at the appropriate level.
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N
ot all empathy is created equal. Psychologists recognize two kinds of empathy: affective and cognitive. Great leadership hinges on understanding the difference and how to harness the unique power of each. Affective empathy involves stepping into another person’s emotional state (“I feel your pain”). Cognitive empathy requires a genuine understanding of someone else’s condition (“I see what you mean”). Both types have their place in business but the most effective leaders emphasize cognitive over affective empathy. Just as there is more than one kind of empathy there is more than one way to fail at empathy. For argument’s sake, let’s consider the hypothetical example of Jenny and Simon, two rising stars at an international manufacturing company who both saw their career trajectory stall because of flawed management styles. (continues on next page)
BY THEANO V. K AL AVANA AND PHILIOS ANDREOU
Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
49
Jenny approaches decisions dispassionately using her keen intellect to rationally assess a situation and respond appropriately. That clear-headed thinking propelled her up the corporate hierarchy. She now heads a large multiregion team. Unfortunately, she’s often perceived as blunt, insensitive and uncaring. Some of her team’s top talent has left the company. Simon is liked by all, especially his direct reports. His ability to engage colleagues helped him scale the ranks quickly. Now that he’s in a position of power, though, he struggles to make tough decisions, constantly worrying about how his actions will make others feel. As fond as they are of him, Simon’s subordinates have lost confidence in his leadership. Jenny and Simon are representative of company managers we meet every day. Jenny’s problem is easy to diagnose. She lacks empathy. Simon’s shortcoming might not be as readily apparent but it’s just as destructive. He’s got an excess of affective empathy. One of the qualities most successful professionals share is their ability to relate to people and be sensitive to their needs. Communication, self-efficacy and trust can pay off in employee satisfaction and productivity. By showing awareness of and concern for the needs of others, managers strengthen their standing as leaders, enhance their credibility and improve their team’s attitudes. Even though evidence supports the importance of empathy in leadership, there is danger in being empathic in such a way as to lose or diminish executive leadership skills such as planning, organizing, problem-solving and decision-making. Leadership is based on the perforFIGURE 1: THE FOUR TYPES OF LEADERS Low affective empathy Low cognitive empathy
The manager/ leader
High cognitive empathy
The inspirational/ effective leader
High affective empathy The friendly colleague leader
The emotional leader
Source: Kalavana and Andreou
ity benefits everyone involved in the interaction. At the same time, the leader can perform well on executive skills. Leaders with higher levels of cognitive empathy experience a greater sense of well-being, personal growth and career satisfaction. Affective empathy can likewise help leaders build trust, rapport and cooperation. This is important for ensuring employee engagement but it may work against an objective decision-making process. In heavy doses, affective empathy can also have other side effects. Business leaders who can’t keep some emotional distance from the problems of the people they see at work every day may be as susceptible to burnout. Let’s look at a hypothetical example of a situation all managers face: An employee asks for a raise. Rajiv, a stellar performer, approaches his manager Noella to make his request. Noella knows both that Rajiv deserves the salary increase and that company policy won’t allow it at this time. It may sound like a straightforward discussion. The results though will vary greatly depending on Noella’s empathy style.
The Manager/Leader Noella: Let me explain a few things to you regarding salary increases. The company’s regulations say that a raise is possible when the employee fulfills criteria (a), (b) and (c). Furthermore, these decisions are made once a year at the end of the year. So at the moment there is nothing that can be done. When the right time comes, then we will go through each employee’s records and achievements and we will invite you to submit your application regarding a salary raise. Rajiv: OK. Thank you. Lacking both cognitive and affective empathy, Noella doesn’t try to connect with Rajiv on any level beyond reciting company policy. Such leaders fail to recognize empathic opportunities with their followers for two reasons: one is conscious avoidance because they cannot deal with people’s emotions; the other is they are so focused on their own agenda they ignore their employee’s concerns. They appear to be totally inflexible and they rely on the hierarchical model and positional directions. Rajiv comes away from the conversation demotivated, not because he didn’t get a raise but because his boss does not appear to value him as an employee or a person.
The Friendly Colleague Leader mance of complex tasks, requiring objectivity and a willingness to take unpopular actions when necessary. Cognitive empathy is what allows leaders to balance their relationships by creating a comforting, friendly atmosphere with their employees while also encouraging the latter’s self-efficacy. This level of clar-
50 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Noella: Oh yes, I am sorry to hear that you need so much extra money. Surely, you are great. You are one of our best employees and I really feel what you are saying. I don’t want you to feel that we treat you unfairly. We do have regulations regarding salary increases but there is no doubt you deserve a raise. I promise I will do everything I can to make that happen as it is only fair.
Rajiv: Thank you. You know my wife is still without a job and we are planning to buy a new house now that she is pregnant. I struggle so much financially with these developments in my life and that’s another reason why I asked for the extra money. Thank you. I really need the money. Once we move to our new place I will invite you for dinner. Many thanks for sorting this out for me! Noella presents low cognitive and high affective empathy, a classic friendly colleague leader. These leaders encourage the sharing of feelings but they have difficulty managing others’ emotions and they often struggle or fail to set boundaries. Furthermore, they have difficulty applying executive skills such as action planning, decision-making and problem-solving. When a problem occurs, they focus more on dealing with the emotions that result from the problem instead of solving the problem itself. Leaders in this category have great vulnerability to burnout. As for Rajiv, his attitude and productivity will likely decline when Noella can’t deliver on the raise.
The Emotional Leader Noella: I absolutely understand your request and I do acknowledge and value the reasons you give for needing a raise. There is no doubt that you deserve a salary increase. We have certain regulations regarding raises for our employees but let me see what I can do about this. I think I will manage to process your request but allow me some time to see how this can be done. Thank you for talking to me. You have every right to demand this raise based on what you have achieved. Rajiv: Thank you! I really need the extra money as we are buying a house and you know my wife is pregnant and unemployed, and based on these developments she won’t be able to find a job until she gives birth. Noella: I have gone through this myself. Don’t worry, I will do everything I can to sort this out for you. Good luck with the new things in your life! Emotional leaders who have high cognitive and high affective empathy create a warm, friendly environment and easily establish rapport. However, they may fail as Noella does in this conversation to communicate clearly the ground rules of the company. This may lead to endless conversations with their subordinates based on the latter’s needs. These leaders also tend to waste a lot of their limited time trying to predict how others will think or feel about a decision, an ultimately futile habit. Usually, leaders high in cognitive empathy and high in affective empathy need a close partner who is low in affective empathy in order to execute decisions. Such a partner could have kept this discussion with Rajiv from veering off into the wrong direction.
The Inspirational/Effective Leader Noella: I absolutely understand your request and I do acknowledge and value the reasons you give for needing a raise. There is no doubt that you have achieved much within this period and I appreciate that you came and talked with me today. Let me tell you how we see things at this moment in time and how these are related to your salary request. The company does take into consideration employees’ achievements and performance, and thus, we do show appreciation back to our employees through raises and bonuses. This type of decision in accordance with the company’s policies is discussed once a year during the board’s annual meeting and this usually happens at the end of the year. There are also certain criteria under which we raise employees’ salaries, and these are (a), (b) and (c). So, based on what I just told you, there is no doubt that if you continue the way you are at the moment, when it is time your salary will increase. How does this sound to you?
Both types of empathy have their place in business but the most effective leaders emphasize cognitive over affective empathy. Rajiv: Thanks for listening to me and explaining the policies and procedures. Even though I need the money, I do understand what you just told me. I will try to meet these criteria as soon as I can. Thank you. Noella: Thank you! I’m looking forward to hearing about your further progress and successes in our company. Your exceptional work surely adds to our team. Noella shows high cognitive empathy and low affective empathy in this discussion. Leaders who strike this balance tend to be the most effective in creating rapport within a comfortable, warm, inspiring environment. Followers and clients of inspirational/effective leaders feel that their concerns are recognized, acknowledged and validated. At the same time, they experience feelings of security because the ground rules are clear and because actions, decisions and solutions are identified objectively. This is when empathy can help create maximum engagement and productivity. As for Rajiv, even though he won’t be getting a pay raise yet, he comes away from the conversation feeling validated and motivated. EMPATHY continued on page 56 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
51
Case Study
Beyond the Lab BY CRAIG M. ARNDT
T
In - ho
t io n
use
bor a
r ese
C o ll a
a r ch
raditionally, research is the domain of major academic universities, not corporate universities. We conjure images of people dressed in lab coats at places like Johns Hopkins University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The time has come for corporate universities to take a fresh look at research in order to meet the needs of their students and address the increasing challenges of new technology and rapidly changing business models. At Defense Acquisition University, the Virginia-based education arm of the United States Department of Defense, we’ve begun to take on the challenge and are making research into new practices a fundamental part of our mission. The traditional role of corporate universities has been to develop workforce training in order to give the parent organization a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The role of academic universities has been the advanceFIGURE 1: THE DAU RESEARCH MODEL ment of knowledge, Tra which they accomin t n s i t plish by educating ng eg i o n i t s r at / io n students and pursurve a H ing research. With the growth of technology, research is being conducted by more companies and practitioners are expanding their role. The proliferation of technology has also Acquisition research quickened the rate of infrastructure progress bringing about rapid obsolesSource: Defense Acquisition University cence of new technology and research. These factors create additional challenges for practitioners in finding and using relevant research to improve their products and services.
The Corporate University Challenge Training institutions of all kinds, and corporate universities in particular, must find new ways to ensure their programs are current and relevant to the workplace challenges students will face. This requires corpo52 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
SNAPSHOT Defense Acquisition University has made research into evolving practices a core part of its educational mission.
rate universities to keep learning assets such as course materials up to date and faculty current with new developments in their professional areas. At DAU, one part of our curriculum is designed to teach Department of Defense engineers and managers how to manage software development programs and contracts. In order to keep this program relevant, the curriculum must include changes to national and local policy as well as changes to the software the DoD purchases and it must keep up with new, constantly emerging software development methods. That last point is particularly challenging. Collecting all of the information about today’s software development methods such as agile development and then validating the collected information and incorporating it into the curriculum is a large task. If a corporate university is, as defined by Mark Allen in his 2002 “The Corporate University Handbook,” a strategic tool designed to help its parent organization achieve its goals by fostering individual and organizational learning and knowledge, then to fulfill these goals a corporate university must provide training and consulting that is current and relevant and enables the workforce to be more innovative and productive. DAU carries out that mission in three ways: providing relevant workforce training; developing tools and best practices to support the workforce in delivering quality products; and supporting continued development of the workforce and organizational components (in DAU’s case the DoD’s acquisition program offices) through consulting and other services. In order to improve DAU’s ability to meet the needs of the defense acquisition community, we must also create a system that will incorporate additional sources of new information as they are developed or discovered. With that goal in mind, DAU reconsidered the university’s traditional view of research to determine whether a different approach would be better. The traditional view of university research focused on the development of new knowledge through funded research programs. In the case of a corporate university,
the challenge is to create useful knowledge but also knowledge that will specifically enable the workforce to be more creative and productive in meeting the organization’s mission. In short, to promote innovation. To create that value result, DAU developed a new model for how the university’s research enterprise can deliver products and services (Figure 1).
The DAU Research Model The model comprises five major sections, each representing a major effort to develop and deliver information and knowledge needed by DAU faculty and customers. They include: 1. In-house research: This research, devoted to development of new knowledge, is akin to traditional university research, including faculty research in graduate programs and independent research in acquisition and acquisition-related topics. 2. Collaboration: This involves developing and maintaining ongoing research partnerships with key research universities, government research centers and other organizations to create joint research opportunities for faculty and keep DAU engaged with the global acquisition research community. Collaborative research is also being conducted for and with customers within the DoD. 3. Harvesting: Harvesting refers to searching the range of research being produced worldwide for findings that might improve acquisition practice. Activities include identifying, analyzing and organizing relevant research and training conducted across the entire research community. The harvesting process gives faculty and customers direct access to the newest and best information available to accomplish their mission. 4. Transition/integration: “Harvested” findings are integrated with existing knowledge and delivered to DAU customers, including faculty for development of courses and other learning assets, DoD communities of interest and the defense acquisition workforce. 5. Acquisition research infrastructure: DAU will provide the DoD and the acquisition community the framework to facilitate meaningful research on a continuing basis, including the university’s knowledge repository, the library and its staff, databases, researchers, the university’s publishing arm and the IT resources needed to support the infrastructure. The implementation of the new research model started in the fall of 2016 and continues through 2018. It started with development of the requirements and the concept, then the development of the critical parts of the model itself. After research staff and DAU leadership approved the model, the research staff implemented a communication plan to inform the faculty by making in-person presentations at DAU’s major regional campuses. Pre-
sentations informed faculty about the new research model to increase their capability to deliver current and relevant products and services to their customers. After the communication plan was under way, the university’s policy directive was updated and additional research-harvesting resources were put in place. The research and knowledge repository teams continue to deploy research resources to the faculty and customers in the form of searchable databases, direct support for research projects and opportunities for collaborative research within the university and with other stakeholders in the acquisition field. The research team is also developing an internal training class to give faculty additional skills in support of the enhanced research model.
Early Benefits The model was released in conjunction with an expansion of the university’s knowledge repository and redesign of DAU’s website. These new resources provide customers and faculty with direct access to data for day-to-day research. There have been hundreds of hits per month on the knowledge repository databases in addition to specific research-support requests. The new capabilities are also facilitating bigger projects, including research to support a major update to an advanced science and technology management class and ongoing support to the congressionally established Advisory Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations. Consistent with DAU’s goals to provide research support to customers and increased collaboration in acquisition, the research group also collaborated with the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy group within the office of the Secretary of Defense to develop their new research agenda. The DAU research group has also started an acquisition research collaboration with the chief of staff of the Air Force Fellows program. DAU research staff continue to develop programs and systems to make collecting and using research easier for faculty. The current research resource program started prototyping in summer 2017 and is designed to push the most recent and relevant research in a wide range of topic areas directly to inboxes and social media accounts of faculty who have a need or interest in the topics as they develop curriculum. The university has also expanded its internal corporate awards to recognize research contributions to the university’s mission. DAU is making research a core part of the corporate university mission to enable faculty to provide the best information and methods in support of customers. CLO Craig M. Arndt is a senior fellow for research and professor of systems engineering at Defense Acquisition University. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
53
Business Intelligence
Measurement, Meet Management Learning organizations continue to measure learning activity and satisfaction while neglecting broader business performance.
O
ne of the most popular management maxims is, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Usually and apparently falsely attributed to management guru Peter Drucker, it nonetheless pops up in management speak and business circles far and wide. Regardless of source, chief learning officers have taken it to heart. Ever since Don Kirkpatrick’s eponymous learning evaluation model roared out of Wisconsin in the 1950s, learning professionals have been busily standardizing, collecting and analyzing a host of learning outputs from smile sheets and course assessments to behavior change and productivity measures. But widespread practice hasn’t necessarily translated to effective management. Many learning organizations continue to measure outcomes of learning activity and learner satisfaction while neglecting broader business performance results such as sales or product quality. According to a survey of the Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board, an overwhelming 93 percent of learning organizations either currently or plan to measure employee response to training (Figure 1). Only 50 percent currently measure learning’s impact on business performance and even fewer (36 percent) extend the effort to specific results like sales. The Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board is a group of 1,500 professionals in the learning and development industry who have agreed to be surveyed by the Human Capital Media Research and Advisory Group, the research and advisory arm of Chief Learning Officer magazine. This survey was conducted from June to July 2017. That disconnect between measurement efforts and business outcomes may help explain learning professionals’ general dissatisfaction. More than half report being unhappy with the state of their learning measurement efforts (Figure 2). The reasons vary. Many learning teams lack data
54 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
expertise or are short of resources or desire to pursue sophisticated measurement efforts. Some learning organizations are simply not expected to produce credible business data. Capability is undoubtedly a factor. According to the BIB data, nearly 70 percent of learning organizations plan to increase their analytics capacity in the next two years. Technology presents another barrier. The rise of Big Data, the popular term for large sets of structured and unstructured data, has made sophisticated collection and analysis tools critical to success. Only 14 percent of learning organizations report they have the technology needed to collect, integrate and analyze data across multiple HR systems. Forty-four percent report they are able to do that to some extent and 42 percent not at all (Figure 2). Despite the challenges, reporting of outcomes is widespread in many organizations (Figures 3 and 4). But many of those reports are either manually generated or automated from the learning management system (34 and 26 percent). Fourteen percent have no formal metric reporting in place (Figure 5). Among the top metrics reported to executives are general training outputs, such as number of people trained or learning hours delivered, and satisfaction with the quality or availability of learning (Figure 6). Business impact and employee performance data are lower on the list and specific measures like Net Promoter Score and ROI fall even lower. As this data indicates, what learning professionals are measuring is not what is being managed, at least when it comes to broader business outcomes. CLO Mike Prokopeak is vice president and editor in chief at Chief Learning Officer magazine. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
Figures’ source: Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board, N=419. All percentages rounded.
BY MIKE PROKOPEAK
FIGURE 1: PLANS TO MEASURE LEARNING IMPACT Already do it Plan within 12 months Plan within 12-24 months Plan to with no time frame No plans
FIGURE 2: SATISFACTION AND CAPABILITY
FIGURE 3: HOW INFORMATION IS PRESENTED TO COMPANY EXECUTIVES
Satisfaction with Extent of Learning Measurement
Annual/quarterly reports:
50%
Unsatisfied Satisfied
45%
In-person presentation:
49%
55%
45%
Able to Collect and Analyze Data from Multiple Systems
Verbal communications:
33%
Yes No To some extent
14% 44% 42%
Scheduled email communication:
17% Intranet:
15% Custom report:
Increase in knowledge or skills:
12%
57% 18% — 7% 12% — 7%
FIGURE 4: FREQUENCY OF LEARNING DATA REVIEW
Overall business performance:
45% 18% — 5% 13% 19%
Employee productivity: 42% 24% — 8% 14% 13%
Sales: 36% 11% — 5% 10% 38%
Monthly
Quarterly
35%
Annually
Never
34%
33% 30%
28% 23%
22%
20%
20%
14%
19%
8%
Line managers
24% 18%18% 12%
6%
Divisional business leaders
Senior executives
5%
Business analysts
FIGURE 5: LEARNING METRICS PROCESS
34%
20%
18%
14% 12%
10%
27%
24%
22%
17%
Finance leaders
5%
Legal advisers
Board of directors
FIGURE 6: METRICS REPORTED TO COMPANY EXECUTIVES General training output data 67%
Learner satisfaction with training 56%
26%
Training data aligned with corporate initiatives 48%
Employee satisfaction with training availability
ROI:
40%
20%
26% 23% 14% 15% 22%
Employee engagement
14%
39%
Business impact 38%
Employee performance data 33%
Net Promoter Score: 23% 12% — 8% 11% 46%
11%
46%
57% 18% — 7% 9% 9%
Product or service quality:
27%
Dashboards:
Employee engagement:
50% 19% 10% 10% 12%
7%
Written report:
Employee response to training: 69% 11% — 5% — 8% — 8%
15%
ROI 24%
Net Promoter Score 13%
Manually generated
Automated Combination of No formal from LMS LMS and ERP metrics in place
None 6%
Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
55
EMPATHY continued from page 51
VIRTUAL REALITY continued from page 39
Empathy Can Be Developed
includes e-learning or instructor-led training. “When we do demos we blow people away but then when they actually think about implementation and the way they’ve been doing things, it gets harder for them to really wrap their head around it,” he said. Danny Belch said they make the case in dollars and cents by explaining that VR can help L&D departments save money through increased employee productivity. “That sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t,” he said. “What’s working right now is saying that this is the future — this is where the industry is going.” In addition to the fear of adopting a new technology, many companies hesitate to embrace VR because of its cost. According to Gronstedt, each headset costs about $500 and each gaming computer can cost up to $1,500 but he said that will change rapidly. “With all of the big tech giants now … really betting the future on this and pouring in billions, we’re going to see hyperspeed,” he said. “It’s going to be better and cheaper at an astonishing rate in the next few years. So, the time to start developing this is now.” Gretczko said VR is still early along the adoption curve and the capital expenditure required causes some companies to balk. “It’s new in the sense that there aren’t many companies that are doing compelling learning offerings yet so you pay a bit of a premium around that,” he said. Danny Belch said STRIVR is benefiting from the interest and momentum in the VR space, however. Some companies have a budget to experiment, giving STRIVR the opportunity to produce pilot programs that demonstrate a proof of concept. The company’s work with Walmart to prepare new employees for the dynamics of a busy shopping day like Black Friday began in part as a pilot in 30 stores and has since expanded to all 200 training centers across the country. At Farmers Insurance, DeCanio said VR has gotten to a point where it’s affordable for them. “Looking at the long-term view, we know that this technology is going to be advancing and one thing that helps reduce our hesitation is finding a good vendor,” she said. What Farmers is developing today will be able to be used in the future so the investment in the initial build is something that can grow in return over time, she said.
Empathy styles have serious implications for the everyday interactions that lead to success or failure. A leader who maintains a balance between cognitive and affective empathy can nurture a feeling of closeness and of being understood and appreciated while also helping to create a high-performing organization that achieves its targets for growth and profitability. Fortunately, empathy isn’t an inherent trait but a muscle that managers can develop. Here are some ways leaders can boost their cognitive empathy skills while learning to control affective empathy: • Look for situations that call for applying empathy and respond accordingly. • Never ignore an opportunity to be empathic but deal with your own emotions before listening to the difficulties of others. • Practice active listening skills. Focus on what you are hearing and recognize and validate the other person’s experience. For example, say, “This must be hard. No wonder you couldn’t ...” instead of, “If I were you, I’d ...” • Be an observer of what you are listening to and keep some psychological and emotional distance. For example, say, “It sounds as if this is a difficult time for you,” instead of, “I am sorry for you.” • Focus on the problem, not on the emotions that are the result of the problem. • Keep your own feelings to yourself. When you listen to others’ feelings, acknowledge them but keep in mind that what happened had nothing to do with you. Control your feelings of guilt especially when what you are hearing has no relation to your own actions. Feeling sorry creates an unequal relationship. • Don’t reflexively apologize. Say sorry only when what you are hearing was a result of an action that you took. • Be genuine in your reactions. What you say must reflect in your facial expressions. It’s time for a more nuanced understanding of empathy as both essential and potentially destructive. It’s time to start differentiating the particular architecture of empathy leaders apply to achieve desired business results. It’s time to remember what Stephen Covey wrote nearly three decades ago: “When you listen with empathy to another person, you give that person psychological air. And after that vital need is met, you can then focus on influencing or problem solving.” CLO Theano V. Kalavana is assistant professor in health psychology and clinical communication at the University of Nicosia Medical School in Cyprus. Philios Andreou is a global partner at BTS. They can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com. 56 Chief Learning Officer • March 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
VR a Required Opportunity For organizations where learning agility and skill agility is critical, Gretczko advises investing in VR based on where he sees the market going. “For years, learning wasn’t really focused on the
skills that were needed in the moment to perform the activities that were required,” he said. “It was much more longitudinal, more about long-term capability building.” VR provides an opportunity to arm employees with the skills they need to address challenges in the market. “Things are so complex that the ability of something like VR to deliver just-in-time training at the moment of need in a way that is highly ingestible for employees is frankly a required opportunity,” Gretczko said. VR’s rapid emergence has surprised even people who track the market like Gretczko. “I’ve been pretty amazed at what some of the technology companies are doing in terms of being able to make this real,” he said. “It’s going to start to become a competitive requirement.” The options will continue to grow. Within the year, both Danny Belch and Gronstedt suspect technology companies will be able to combine the quality of PC-based VR that requires a gaming laptop with the portability of
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mobile-based VR. Danny Belch predicted that capturing and viewing 360-degree video will become easier, too. The time to start developing is now, said Gronstedt. “Any learning organization that’s just going to sit on their hands is going to be doomed to play catch up and they’re probably going to have a visit from their CEO who is going to be asking what they’ve been up to these last few years,” he said. Virtual reality is here to stay, said Gretczko, and companies should be open to experimentation and think about how it will affect their business. “Don’t be an ostrich and stick your head in the ground and think this is just going to go away,” he said. “You can’t ignore technology. It’s fundamentally changing everything and learning is certainly not going to be resistant to that.” CLO
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57
IN CONCLUSION
The Employee Experience Imperative Culture is at the heart of digital transformation • BY JUSTIN SMALL
S
Justin Small is chief strategy officer at The BIO Agency, a London-based agency that helps companies develop digital strategy. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
uccessful digital transformation rests on four pillars: technology, operations, customer experience and culture. The last one is the most challenging to get right. Implementing a cultural transformation in response to commercial problems or market disruption is difficult because changing culture implies changing people. But an organized and engaged employee experience, or EX, culture can deliver major benefits. Getting it wrong is dangerous. Culture doesn’t just eat strategy for lunch. It will have operations and customer experience for breakfast, too. Investing in employee experience is crucial. Employees are no longer the malleable delivery function of a product or service. They’re central to the delivery of competitive customer experience and the CLO can be a force in building digital solutions alongside cultural and behavioral changes. There are four powerful benefits to getting EX right: Employee engagement: Engagement depends on internal practices and processes that drive a strong culture. It covers a hierarchy of employee needs from creating stable and secure jobs to empowering employees to make decisions and collaboration between employers and employees. A sense of meaning at work allows for wholehearted commitment to the success of the organization. A recent KPMG study pointed out that “If the typical day-to-day employee experience is at odds with that which is sought for customers, it becomes very hard to excel at serving those customers.” The development of high EX culture drives positive employee behaviors, creates advocates for the organization and builds commitment. These behaviors are crucial to creating an agile, constantly improving culture that allows the organization to anticipate and react to changing customer needs and competitor strategies. Operational execution: Agile, data-led organizations that can react instantly to market changes are driven by efficient standardized processes and trained and motivated employees. Without employees that feel empowered and engaged in their jobs, operational execution is impossible. Organizations with low EX cultures will find the tenets of Lean management and other continuous improvement methodologies beyond their capabilities, leading to delivery failures and decreased productivity. Talent acquisition and retention: The digital revolution and its accompanying tech innovations have irretrievably changed what customers want from their
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products and services. Digital native employees are driving organizations to meet the digital needs of the tech-driven customers like themselves. Last year, GE’s Susan Peters told Forbes: “We define employee experience simply as seeing the world through the eyes of our employees, staying connected, and being aware of their major milestones.” Becoming a learning organization means taking account of employees’ development and embracing change and new ideas. Employees’ expectations of an organization have been transformed in the past 20 years — and legacy culture is beginning to hold back many organizations. To compete and win over customers, an organization must win over employees. A high EX culture becomes a competitive advantage through the ability to find and hold on to future talent and deny that talent to competitors.
To be successful, organizations need to move from filling jobs with employees to fulfilling employees with jobs. Customer experience: Highly engaged employees make the customer experience and disengaged employees break it. The way employees feel is the way they make customers feel. Employee experience and customer experience are two core elements of future organizational success. They create satisfied customers and develop advocacy. Ron Ritter, a partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Co. stated it this way in a McKinsey report: “Building that alignment and closeness to the customer brings the organization together and keeps it together.” To be successful, organizations need to move from filling jobs with employees to fulfilling employees with jobs. EX has always been a key element but with customer experience now so crucial, it’s a strategic priority for all organizations that want to compete. CLO
PROGRAMS FOR
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CUSTOM PROGRAMS
OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR GROUPS
results
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the definition of a successful partnership.
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