Celebrating a Decade of Recognition The LearningElite is a study in how the best learning teams help their organizations adapt and prepare for change. BY SARAH KIMMEL
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he LearningElite kicked off in 2011 with a deceptively simple mission — to identify the world’s elite learning organizations. And for the past 10 years, the LearningElite has been a study in how the best learning teams help their organizations both adapt to and prepare for change. Since 2017, I would say that preparing for change has been the primary mission of most learning organizations. For the past two years, the topic of the LearningElite capstone evaluation has been learning and disruption. We have gotten a close-up view of how many of the top organizations have used learning to support their organizations and employees through unprecedented market, regulatory, labor and technological disruptions. But I don’t think any of us imagined that every organization in the world would be facing this current kind of disruption, on this level, all at the same time. Since we revealed the list of finalists back in February, our LearningElite organizations have spent
28 Chief Learning Officer • May/June 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
countless hours in a whirlwind of meetings, trying to respond to the new normal. With all hands on virtual deck, learning leaders have been disrupted beyond belief as they plan their organization’s strategy for surviving the COVID-19 pandemic. They have helped employees get needed resources to do their jobs remotely or in person, likely in ways they’ve never had to do them before. All of this has taken place under trying circumstances in which everyone is distracted, stressed and grieving. In the spirit of celebrating learning in the face of unprecedented disruption, it is important to recognize the outstanding work all our LearningElite winners did this past year to help their employees and organizations cope with change, learn and grow. And I am personally looking forward to reading next year’s applications, because I suspect that everyone will have remarkable stories to tell about what they are doing right now. CLO Sarah Kimmel is Chief Learning Officer’s vice president of research.
