Chief Learning Officer - June 2019

June 2019 | ChiefLearningOfficer.com

Nationwide 2019 Learning Organization of the Year

The 2019 LearningElite Top 10 - Learning-Focused Leadership - A Look at Leadership Styles Quest Diagnostics’ LeadingQuest Academy - What LearningElite Looks Like

Microlearning by the numbers Microlearning makes the transfer of learning

17%

more efficient Microlearning creates

58%

more engagement than traditional learning Microlearning courses can be produced in

300%

percent less time and

50%

less cost than traditional courses

When Less is More. Unlocking the Power of Microlearning.

Microlearning – What it is and Why it Matters Research shows that within 24 hours, the average learner has forgotten roughly 70 percent of new information presented to them. It’s critical that learning professionals overcome this toxic forgetting curve in order to create an impactful learning and development program. Enter microlearning.

Microlearning is a way of teaching and delivering content to learners in small, very specific bursts. This approach puts learners in control of what and when they’re learning. A microlearning approach can help avoid overloading a learner’s brain and ultimately help learners better retain information and beat the forgetting curve.

The task of developing this kind of effective training—training that’s interactive, engaging, and instructionally sound—can be challenging. That’s why we offer H5P course design and development services to help you create and scale your online programs quickly while meeting the highest level of quality and design.

Microlearning in Blackboard Our robust learning platform is built to facilitate rich learning experiences - both with microlearning and more traditional course - to deliver the right content to learners exactly when and where they need it.

Ready to Use Microlearning Content Through our partnerships, you’ll have access to hundreds of off-the-shelf microlearning courses – many of which include editable content enabling you to meet your specific company needs quickly and cost effectively.

Flexible Content Creation We provide maximum flexibility in creating course content making it easy for you to create bite-size versions of your existing and future content. You can author content natively in Blackboard or select to incorporate a wide range of content from almost any source.

Rich, Responsive Content H5P is a free and open-source content collaboration framework based on JavaScript that makes it easier to create, share, and reuse interactive HTML5 content. With H5P, you’ll get richer content that can be imported and exported with ease. The content is also responsive and mobile friendly, so your learners have convenient access on their device of choice.

Learning on the Go Learners can take everything on the go with Blackboard.

A learner may start learning on their computer, quickly switch to mobile during the commute, then flip open an ipad at home without ever missing a beat.

Maximum Interactivity Blackboard learners have all the right tools for social and interactive tasks keeping them engaged and active in learning. With discussion boards, blogs, journals, wikis, and quizzes your learners will have endless opportunity to interact in authentic and meaningful ways.

Our course development work: Follows proven corporate and educational practices Reflects recognized instructional design theories for successful online learning Focuses on industrystandard quality design models Aligns courses with ADA, Section 508 accessibility requirements

Visit us during ATD ICE at booth #1545 or visit blackboard.com/government

EDITOR’S LETTER

There’s No Insurance Against Disruption

I

f you’re rethinking your approach to employee learning, then Nationwide is on your side.

If you’re ready to take out the old in favor of something new, then Nationwide is on your side. If, in the face of rapid change, you’re simply not willing to sit still, then Nationwide is on your side.

That’s a bit of a strange place for a 93-year old insurance company to be. After all, the whole business is built on protecting people, property and businesses from the risk that comes along with an unexpected change in plans.

From their beginnings as a loose band of local traders to their evolution into full-blown global companies, insurers have sought to anticipate bad things that could happen, remove risk and promote stability.

Change? Well, that can be risky.

But this year’s top-ranked company for learning and development isn’t letting that get in the way. The actuaries, accountants and number crunchers at Columbus,

Doing nothing in the face of widespread change is the real risk.

ing the massive amount of data we create every day via our mobile and internet-connected devices to change the way insurance works. Harnessing the data from your car’s GPS or the fitness tracker on your wrist, they promise to tailor your insurance to your specific needs and save you money. Or charge you more if your idea of exercise equates to a trip from the couch to the fridge.

Add to that what Nationwide’s executives called the “Amazon effect.” Consumers want the shopping experience to be easy and costs to be transparent. They want the buying experience, whether it’s for paper towels or cars, to be as easy as shopping on Amazon.com. Buying insurance should be just as easy, too.

There’s comfort in relying on the old ways. Stability and the status quo are like a warm blanket. That applies to the centuries-old insurance business as well as the even older education business.

Learning organizations are risk-averse and slow to change, too. There’s comfort in falling back on a tried-and-true learning model. But there’s no insurance policy saying it will always be effective. At risk is your budget, your prestige and quite likely your job.

Learning organizations like Nationwide’s aren’t waiting to see what happens. Automation, technology and demographic shifts are reshaping the talent pool, shrinking the amount of available people in high-demand areas and dramatically expanding the expectations of those who are there.

To answer the call, Nationwide is infusing technology into the development of their 31,000 employees to drive greater agility and accountability. They’re giving learners more control and supporting leaders of those learners in developing core skills needed for the future.

And they’re ensuring that development is tied to the company’s direction at the highest level. Nationwide’s Talent and Culture Council is integrated into the governance structure of the company and accountable to CEO Steve Rasmussen and the board of directors.

What Nationwide’s example shows is that no matter the industry — traditional or emerging, global or local — the real risk in business is to do nothing. CLO

Ohio-based Nationwide have come to a conclusion — one that many others in business should listen to. In the face of widespread change, it’s more risky to do nothing.

Insurance has been around a long time. Ancient traders in China and the Middle East would split their wares across multiple shipments to avoid losing it all should a storm sink a ship or pirates pillage its prize. Lenders in Babylon and Greece offered to cancel the loans of traders who lost their goods in exchange for an extra fee up front.

The modern insurance company came into being in the 1600s and 1700s, spawning a legion of actuaries to calculate risk and offer protections against an increasing number of dangers including fire, property damage and untimely death.

For a long time, it’s been a good business. Profits are steady and customers appreciate the peace of mind insurance offers. But longevity does not equal stability. Past profit is no guarantee of future success.

It’s the law of averages. Any actuary can tell you that.

And that’s exactly the conclusion executives of Na- Mike Prokopeak tionwide have come to. A rising group of tech compa- Editor in Chief nies is aiming to upend that comfy business model, us- mikep@CLOmedia.com 4 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

GOLD

PROUD TO BE HONORED AS A LEARNINGELITE ORGANIZATION FOR A 9TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

PROUD TO BE AMONG 57 HIGH-PERFORMING LEARNINGELITE ORGANIZATIONS

PROUD OF PROVIDING ALL VI EMPLOYEES OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN AND GROW PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY

Our Remarkable Employees Vi makes a difference in the lives of our residents, and we are committed to making a difference in the lives of our employees.

Ahkira joined Vi in high school and has successfully progressed to achieve her certified nursing assistant certification, nursing license, and now leads staff development for care professionals in her community. As a graduate of Vi’s Management Development and Emerging Leaders Programs, Ahkira continues to learn and grow!

Bring life to your career Barry joined Vi as a server in high school.

Taking advantage of Vi’s Management Development and Emerging Leaders Programs, Barry is now his department’s dining room manager.

As a graduate of Vi’s Nurse Leadership and Breakthrough Leadership Programs, Faith has held a variety of roles at Vi and is now her Community’s Wellness Center Manager.

Learn more about exciting opportunities at ViLiving.com/careers.

JUNE 2019 | VOLUME 18, ISSUE 5 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER John R. Taggart jrtag@CLOmedia.com

EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES

PRESIDENT Kevin A. Simpson ksimpson@CLOmedia.com

Bethany Tomasian

VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER Clifford Capone ccapone@CLOmedia.com VICE PRESIDENT, EDITOR IN CHIEF Mike Prokopeak mikep@CLOmedia.com

Eva Mick emick@CLOmedia.com btomasian@CLOmedia.com VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH & ADVISORY SERVICES Sarah Kimmel skimmel@CLOmedia.com RESEARCH MANAGER Tim Harnett tharnett@CLOmedia.com DATA SCIENTIST

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rick Bell rbell@CLOmedia.com

Grey Litaker

MANAGING EDITOR Ashley St. John astjohn@CLOmedia.com

MANAGER

ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Christopher Magnus cmagnus@CLOmedia.com

EVENTS CONTENT EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Andie Burjek aburjek@CLOmedia.com EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Theresa Stoodley tstoodley@CLOmedia.com VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER Andrew Kennedy Lewis alewis@CLOmedia.com

glitaker@CLOmedia.com MEDIA & PRODUCTION Ashley Flora aflora@CLOmedia.com Malaz Elsheikh melsheikh@CLOmedia.com WEBCAST MANAGER Alec O’Dell aodell@CLOmedia.com EVENTS GRAPHIC DESIGNER Latonya Hampton lhampton@CLOmedia.com BUSINESS MANAGER Vince Czarnowski vince@CLOmedia.com

MARKETING DIRECTOR Greg Miller gmiller@CLOmedia.com MARKETING SPECIALIST Kristen Britt kbritt@CLOmedia.com REGIONAL SALES MANAGERS Derek Graham dgraham@CLOmedia.com Daniella Weinberg dweinberg@CLOmedia.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS David DeFilippo Sarah Fister Gale John Gillis Jr. Karen Hebert-Maccaro Elliott Masie Jack J. Phillips Patti P. Phillips Rosina L. Racioppi Ave Rio Carra Simmons Rocio Villaseñor

DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Kevin Fields kfields@CLOmedia.com DIGITAL & AUDIENCE INSIGHTS DIRECTOR Lauren Wilbur lwilbur@CLOmedia.com DIGITAL COORDINATOR Steven Diemand sdiemand@CLOmedia.com AUDIENCE INSIGHTS COORDINATOR Micaela Martinez mmartinez@CLOmedia.com LIST MANAGER Mike Rovello hcmlistrentals@infogroup.com BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Melanie Lee mlee@CLOmedia.com

CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Lisa Doyle, Head of Retail Training, Ace Hardware David DeFilippo, Principal, DeFilippo Leadership Inc. Tamar Elkeles, Chief Talent Executive, Atlantic Bridge Capital 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 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 Brenda Sugrue, Global Chief Learning Of ficer, EY Diana Thomas, CEO and Founder, Winning Results David Vance, Executive Director, Center for Talent Repor ting Judy Whitcomb, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Learning and Organizational Development, Vi 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., 150 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 550, 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 10 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.

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CONTENTS J

une

2019 10 Your Career Lynne Bamford of Northshore shares her journey to CLO; State Farm’s Carra Simmons says AI is the new frontier for learning; and people share what they’re reading these days.

36 2019 LearningElite Organization of the Year Sprinting Toward the Finish Line

Rick Bell At Nationwide, 2019’s No. 1 LearningElite organization, innovation is never an afterthought.

64 Case Study A Quest for Success

Rocio Villaseñor Quest Diagnostics is providing senior executive leaders enterprisewide leadership development.

66 Business Intelligence Elite Organizations Come in All Shapes and Sizes

Ashley St. John The best learning organizations are doing a lot with a little.

ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY ROBB McCORMICK

8 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

June 2019

CONTENTS

60

22

2019 LearningElite

34 36

Experts 16 IMPERATIVES

Embracing Change

Sarah Kimmel This year’s LearningElite organizations use learning and development to meet disruption head-on.

17 GROWING DIVERSE TALENT

The Top 10

56

Editorial Staff The best of the best in L&D are tackling change, empowering employees and pursuing excellence.

The final ranking of this year’s 57 top organizations for L&D.

Jack J. Phillips & Patti P. Phillips Intangibles and Talent Development

20 ON THE FRONT LINE

Features

60

Rosina L. Racioppi The Feedback Phenomenon

18 ACCOUNTABILITY

LearningElite Ranking

22

Elliott Masie Prompt, Push, Ping (But Don’t Pester)

David DeFilippo Rethinking Organizational Correspondence

70 IN CONCLUSION

The Power of Learning-Focused Leadership Karen Hebert-Maccaro Better learners are better leaders, and practicing learning-focused leadership can make better teams.

John Gillis Jr. How the World Cup Teaches Us Role Clarity

Resources

Leadership Styles: One Size Does Not Fit All

4 Editor’s Letter

Sarah Fister Gale Stop trying to figure out what kind of leader you should be, and focus on what kind of leader your people need.

There’s No Insurance Against Disruption

69 Advertisers’ Index

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Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

9

YOUR CAREER

Career Advice From

Lynne Bamford CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER, NORTHSHORE UNIVERSITY HEALTHSYSTEM

Lynne Bamford, chief learning officer for Northshore University HealthSystem, shares her career journey and how she came into L&D.

and passionate about. So, I kind of migrated slowly. I volunteered to do as much training as possible while I was still at Prudential. I got a little help with some coursework to make the transition. And then I moved into it, and I’ve never looked back or regretted it.

You made the transition from commercial real estate into learning. What led you into L&D? I was working for Prudential Insurance Co. and I was in finance after pursuing my MBA, and I just wasn’t happy. It just wasn’t a fit for my skills, my values, my interests. I was really kind of at a loss, and I thought — what am I going to do next? I was sitting in a training class one day as a participant, and watching the instructor and thinking, wow, that guy’s got a really interesting job. I wonder what that’s all about? And then, by the afternoon of watching him, I realized: I have those skills. I’m going into — what was then — corporate training. That was, I hate to admit it, 20 years ago. So, it was literally that epiphany of trying to figure out how I was going to find something that I was interested in

Merrill Lynch Capital 2003 – 2008: VP, manager of L&D

Hewitt Associates 2008 – 2009: Talent development consultant

2008 2003

10 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

2009

It’s been a long journey to CLO. What were some key formative experiences you had that allowed you to accelerate to where you are now?

I was working for a company that I loved, a small startup company within Merrill Lynch. It was an amazing, high-energy, really successful place, and worked closely with the executive team to cultivate this culture. As part of that experience, I realized the power of aligning culture with the values of the organization and educating people to make sure we were all literally going in the right direction. We were so phenomenally successful, and it was such a fun place to work, it made me realize how much companies would gain by focusing more on education and alignment with culture and strategy. I loved the company so much, and it was really growing, but I needed help because I couldn’t figure out how to take the organization to the next level. So I actually took myself back to school in 2004 and

CNA Insurance 2010 – 2011: Change lead consultant

2010

2011

2012

Aviva USA 2011 – 2012: Director, talent development

NorthShore University HealthSystem 2013 – present: Chief learning officer

2013 2019

SM

S E T I B ALL

ns. questio e r fi id p s our ra answer d r o f m a Lynne B

I went part-time for five years to get my second master’s in learning and organizational change. That just helped me bring frameworks and thinking to the job. So, that’s I think part of the story of trying to reinvent yourself as you need to, to figure out what it takes to get to the next level.

Were there particular figures who were instrumental along the way?

I met a lot of phenomenal people as part of the [Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change] program. [Instructor] Dorie Blesoff for helping me to understand what it really takes to be a consultant, which I think is a core skill in this role, and how to lead and manage change. I also had another instructor and mentor, John Bausch, who is a tough love kind of person, who said, “If you feel like you don’t have confidence, I don’t know what to say — just get over it.” There wasn’t much more advice in terms of how to actually do that! But there were a lot of people who stepped up and pushed me out there and said, you know, “Get out on the edge of that limb, and find a way to fly.”

What’s some of the best career advice you’ve received?

Besides “just get over it,” which is right up there, I had a gal pass advice on to me a few years ago that she had received: It’s hard to be strategic in the moment.

The message was: Create the time and the space that you need to think. If you want to be a thought leader and a strategic thinker, you’ve got to find a way to create some protected thinking time. And unfortunately that seems to fall off the list for so many people — they don’t make it a priority. CLO Know someone with an incredible career journey?

Chief Learning Officer wants to hear from you. Send your nomination to Ashley St. John at astjohn@CLOmedia.com.

CLOs: overrated or underrated?

Totally underrated!

How about gamification?

Underrated. This may just be my perspective since we’re just starting to use it now. I think it’s got tremendous potential.

Virtual reality?

I think it’s underrated. I think it could be phenomenal in introducing people to new cultures, new sights.

I got into the L&D space because: I love to learn — and I love to help people discover their strengths and pursue their passion.

One book that most influenced you as a leader?

William Bridges’ “Managing Transitions.” The work we all do, at the end of the day, is trying to change behavior. I love his really human approach to change and working through transitions: Meet people where they are. Honor the past. And try to figure out where you are as a leader.

Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

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YOUR CAREER

What Are You Reading?

An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization

By Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey The authors of this book break down exactly how to create a culture of ongoing learning by highlighting the journey of three DDOs: deliberately developmental organizations. Through great storytelling and case studies, readers are educated on the structure, processes and practices that create the environment for continuous learning and growth, where shortcomings are publicized and not a source of shame, and employees are supported by their peers, managers and leadership to reach their greatest potential at work and through their contributions.

— Heidi Collins, VP of people operations, 15Five

The Bellweather Effect: Stop Following. Start Inspiring.

By Lance Secretan

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph

By Ryan Holiday Our perceptions about what stops us are somewhat universal and yet so personal that we can be blind to the reality. The author finds excellent examples to demonstrate his points on this. Whatever we are currently learning, we have perceptions about our natural ability and our “blocks” to that learning, so I see this as quite relevant to CLOs. — Teri Johnson, founding partner and CEO, Personal Best Partners LLC

Part-Time Sales Management for Small Business Sales Teams

By Rene Zamora According to Rene Zamora, the two biggest challenges for business owners who do not have a sales manager are time considerations and know-how. What a surprise! CEOs, like me, are always juggling multiple projects and responsibilities at any given moment. Who has the time to take on sales management too? At first, I thought Zamora meant product know-how, but I came to understand he meant knowing how to manage and lead a sales team. The book is chock full of charts, forms and examples, but the real value comes from acknowledging that someone has to manage the sales team, and that person does not have to have a full-time presence.

This book is an eyeopener in terms of inspiring leadership.

Secretan is a longstanding and revolutionary thinker in terms of leadership theory, and this book gets to the heart of many of the myths we surround ourselves with in the workplace when it comes to leading people. His key message is that inspiring leadership is driven from care, compassion and love in the workplace — a message often lost in today’s fast-paced, demanding work environment. The common-sense way in which he contrasts what we do with what people want is refreshing.

— Gerri Knilans, co-founder and president, Trade Press Services Chief Learning Officer wants to hear from you: What’s at the top of your reading list?

Send your submissions to Ashley St. John at astjohn@CLOmedia.com.

12 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

— Carol Leaman, CEO, Axonify

“

Attempt the end and never stand to doubt; nothing's so hard but search will find it out.” —Robert Herrick (1591-1674) Transform expert opinions into actionable insights The HCM Research and Advisory Group delivers thought leadership tailored to your business. Survey our highly engaged group of practitioners and create customized whitepapers and infographics based on our research. Work with us to gather and discuss strategic insight for the leaders of tomorrow and beyond.

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YOUR CAREER

Top of Mind The Next New Frontier By Carra Simmons State Farm Insurance Chief Learning Officer Carra Simmons says artificial intelligence is the next new frontier for learning.

W

Carra Simmons State Farm Insurance

hen Neil Armstrong took that famous first step, do you think he was wondering how it would impact learning at his organization? Probably not, but I would like to think someone at NASA was.

Lately, I find more and more of my discussions are focused on identifying the next new frontier for learning in the workplace — learning solutions that span industries; harness current customer, workforce and technology trends; and have a broad impact on business operations. As learning professionals, it’s important that we keep our eyes focused on the horizon, so we can help business partners see the learning possibilities that exist there.

As I look to the horizon, I see artificial intelligence as the next new frontier. And I am particularly excited about it because AI connects to learning in the workplace in a way that previous opportunities haven’t.

For example, solutions like virtual classrooms and online courses have been game changers, and maturing technologies like augmented and virtual reality show great promise. They often help by driving down the cost, or extending the reach, of familiar

According to

Carra 14 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

What is something you learned this week?

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the past year?

learning experiences. AI is different, though. AI is going to impact the businesses we support in ways that fundamentally change what is asked of us as learning professionals.

Today, performance support and learning in the workflow reduce the need for “just in case” in favor of “just in time” learning. Automation can reliably execute routine and rules-based work. AI and machine learning promise to broaden that impact by discerning and acting upon patterns too difficult to articulate and too complex to code.

The work that these technologies affect also happens to be the kind of work that training has focused on in the past. That historical need won’t disappear overnight, but we have to recognize now that it is on an inevitable and likely accelerating decline. The tipping point will be driven by an accelerating pace of change inside and outside our organizations, evolving expectations of employee learning experience, and technology that promises to disrupt not just how we learn, but the very nature of what learning is needed.

Is that scary? No, it’s exciting. It’s exciting because it brings into focus a new need, a new frontier, for learning. That frontier is to understand, embrace and advocate for these tools and technologies while preparing our workforce for the uniquely human work that remains (creative, empathetic, complex, cross-discipline).

Just as the moon landing represented a new frontier, one that moved hearts and minds to consider new possibilities, so, too, does AI for learning professionals. Where is your organization on the trip to this new frontier? CLO Chief Learning Officer wants to hear from you: What are you thinking about? Send your thoughts to Ashley St. John at astjohn@CLOmedia.com.

I was reminded of something very important this week — don’t lose sight of priorities.

When leading through large-scale change, be as transparent as possible but remember that transparency can have its own unique challenges.

IMPERATIVES

Prompt, Push, Ping (But Don’t Pester) Nudges belong in our learning design toolbox • BY ELLIOTT MASIE

I

Elliott Masie is CEO of The Masie Center, an international think tank focused on learning and workplace productivity, and chairman and CLO of The Masie Center’s Learning Consortium.

He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

magine gentle nudges coming to your employees. A text message. A collaborative system note (perhaps on Jive, Slack or Yammer). An audio whisper from Alexa or a ping from Siri on an Apple Watch. A projected phrase appearing on the dashboard of a vehicle.

The nudge is never coercive, angry, manipulative or judgmental. The nudge is a prod or reminder to pay attention or to complete a task.

In a letter to the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz by wellknown Israeli behavioral psychologist Maya Bar-Hillel, she wrote the following: “The meaning of the English word ‘nudge’ is a gentle push, not ‘pestering’ [nidnud].…

A nudge is [something that] inclines people in a given direction without constraining their freedom of choice.”

Let’s welcome, design, deploy, honor and even enjoy adding nudges to our learning programs and activities.

The spellchecker in Microsoft Word is my most appreciated nudge. As soon as I type a word incorrectly, it nudges (or prods) me by underlining the word in red.

The nudge alerts me to a potential misspelling, use of a nontraditional word or even a mistake in grammar.

The nudge usually prods me to reconsider what I’ve typed and to try something different with the hope that the red underline goes away. And, if the nudges continue, I can always right-click and get a workflow support suggestion of the correct spelling/grammar.

The nudge does not change my “spelling grade,” nor does it send me or my relatives a “bad speller” warning note. And, in a more machine learning-savvy version of Word in the future, the nudges would be less necessary, as the system would find and autocorrect my spelling screw-ups in real time.

Nudges belong in our learning design toolbox. We should be deploying nudges in every stage of learning, including assessment, content delivery, collaboration, project assignments, transfer and workflow. Nudges are digital friends or colleagues that can extend and stretch our memory and process recall — in a gentle fashion.

Nudges provide private support without becoming the “annoying uncle” who interrupts you to finish your sentence, or an obsessive colleague who hunts and taunts you about mini-mistakes you made in the project report.

Nudges can take on many flavors, formats and frequencies. Imagine if your enterprise used a system — that is not yet invented — called Nudge for Success.

Here are some potential design choices and options for personalization.

16 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

Who orders the nudges? Perhaps the learning producer or designer issues prompts based on difficulty of tasks; the manager of the learner nudges based on individual or group failure patterns; and help and support centers do nudges based on reported issues or system problems.

Nudges can take on many flavors, formats and frequencies.

What do the nudges look or feel like? These could consist of messages in SMS, Messenger, Slack, Jive or other social networks. They could be pop-up windows on screens or devices or audio whispers from mobile devices or smart speakers. Nudges are short and quickly actionable. For example: “Confirm the data security box,” “call the customer back for reorder today” or “include the late fee in calculations.”

What is the mission of the nudges? It could be to prompt recall, supply a hint for a complex task, highlight patterns of missteps or mistakes, accelerate learner success without discouragement or supplement a learning program.

Nudges can take on a range of personalities, rhetoric and even appearances — from the simple underlining of a word spelled incorrectly to a humorous meme that pops up. Nudges can have attitude, but let’s consider giving the learner a set of nudge control dials to crank up or down the type, format, frequency and even the vibe of the nudges.

Finally, there is the data side to consider. Your nudge system in the future will also be locked into a data mindset. Data from the learner’s behavior, background or talent file might be used to edit the nudge. (For me, an occasional nudge in either Yiddish or even Star Trek’s Vulcan language would be fun!) Nudges can also be driven by data from systems, business results and customer feedback. Finally, nudges will create an ecosystem of nudge data — who, when and how to nudge which employees, suppliers or customers — for gentle prodding.

Hope you appreciate this nudge about nudging! CLO

GROWING DIVERSE TALENT

The Feedback Phenomenon How insight promotes growth • BY ROSINA L. RACIOPPI

I

hear it over and over from talented women in our Women Unlimited programs: “My work should speak for itself.” Because they are exceptionally good at what they do, many women see no need to talk about themselves or their accomplishments. They presume others will notice and reward their outstanding performance with increased pay and position.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t usually happen that way, especially when it comes to career advancement. By letting their work stand on its own, women are abdicating control of the message their work should send. They are allowing a perception gap to take hold between how they see themselves and how others see them. They are leaving to chance how corporate leaders who make advancement decisions and provide growth opportunities will interpret their work.

For women to get past the “hard work fallacy,” they must embrace the power of feedback.

Also, by failing to speak up, women may be allowing their superior performance to backfire on them. They could be condemning themselves to a career of doing what they don’t like just because they’re good at it.

For women to get past the “hard work fallacy,” they must understand and embrace the power of feedback — the right kind of feedback. It requires taking specific steps to turn their performance into a true ally for their advancement.

Research tells us that women tend to get less effective feedback than their male counterparts. Usually they receive transactional feedback, which focuses on work completed, with perhaps a few suggestions on how to do things a little differently or a little better. Their male colleagues, on the other hand, receive more aspirational feedback, helping

them to better understand what’s needed for them to advance in the organization.

Since women often do not get the feedback essential for their career development, they need to seek it out. It is important for them to develop the habit of asking for specific feedback — and, specifically, asking for it from corporate leaders. Women should formalize a feedback strategy to learn how they can contribute to organizational goals with the skills they have and the skills they’ll need.

Of course, “May I have some feedback?” may sound like a great question, but it’s too vague and too easy to answer with generalities. Here are some examples of seeking out effective feedback: Women should approach corporate leaders for feedback that meshes with their career goals. For example: “I’m interested in someday leading research and development. I would appreciate your thoughts on what areas I need to focus on to get there.”

• Women can take advantage of a senior leader’s attendance at a presentation by saying: “I would like to know about one area that resonated with you and why.” In this way, a woman gains a greater understanding of what the leader values and can inform future opportunities accordingly.

• Here’s a question that has proven to be especially helpful in seeking out feedback: “What could I have done differently that would have made my project or presentation more impactful?” The result? Great insights, immediately applicable to structuring future projects or presentations.

• One of the biggest obstacles women often face in seeking out career-advancing feedback is fear of hearing negative news or fear that they will not be seen as capable of leadership positions. It’s often referred to as “imposter syndrome” and needs to be addressed by women themselves, their managers, their mentors and their organizations if women are to take full advantage of career-advancing feedback.

Feedback is a crucial strategy for women to achieve their career aspirations and to plant the seeds for advancement with corporate leaders and decision-makers. Feedback helps women understand how to recalibrate their skills to move up in the organization. It is an antidote to the hard work fallacy and allows women to realize that the skills that got them “this far” won’t get them “there.” CLO

Rosina L. Racioppi is president and CEO of Women Unlimited Inc. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

17

ACCOUNTABILITY

Intangibles and Talent Development

Seven steps to measure intangibles • BY JACK J. PHILLIPS AND PATTI P. PHILLIPS

A

Jack J. Phillips is the chairman, and Patti P. Phillips is president and CEO of the ROI Institute.

They can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

lmost every talent development program has a variety of intangibles connected to it in some way. For many programs, the intangibles actually form the basis for the program in the beginning. Intangibles are usually perceived to be soft, squishy concepts that are difficult to measure and even more difficult to monetize.

The difficulty in showing the connection of intangibles to a particular program is exacerbated by the fact that many intangibles are not formally measured in an organization. If they are not measured, how can they be connected to the talent development program?

First, we must dispel the myth that intangibles cannot be measured. Even if the intangible is a perception, and most of them are, it can still be measured. This is common in measures of customer satisfaction (or net promoter score), brand, job satisfaction, job engagement and approval ratings.

Perhaps it is helpful to define the intangibles. In our work with ROI Institute, we define a tangible measure as a measure that can be converted to money credibly with a reasonable amount of resources. Conversely, intangible measures are those that cannot be converted to money credibly with a reasonable amount of resources.

Talent development programs often provide a large number of potential intangibles in an organization, such as agility, burnout, communication, grit, happiness, trust and sustainability, to name a few.

Sample Data Collection Questionnaire Please indicate the extent to which this program has influenced the following measures: Intangible measure

1 No influence

2 Some influence

3 Moderate influence

Image Teamwork

Sustainability Engagement Stress

18 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

4 Significant influence

5 Very significant influence

The good news is that intangible measures can easily be connected to a talent development program by following seven easy steps.

Step 1: Identify. Have the talent development program planning team list potential intangibles that may be connected to the program with no restrictions on what goes on the list. Rank the list from “most likely connected” to “least likely connected to the program.”

Step 2: Design. The most likely intangible measures are provided to designers, developers and facilitators with instructions to design the program to influence these measures. If you have the opportunity, let participants know that these outcomes are expected. For example, if the program is intended to improve work-life balance, then it should be mentioned to the participants and stakeholders.

Step 3: Develop. A questionnaire, similar to what is presented in the figure, should be developed. This questionnaire provides an opportunity for a participant to respond to the connection of the program to a particular outcome. In this example, a 5-point scale is used with 1 representing “no connection” and 5 representing “a very significant connection.”

Step 4: Collect. The data about intangibles are collected from the most credible source, which is usually the program participants, generally about two months after program completion.

Step 5: Check. Make sure the data collection is completed in a nonthreatening and nonbiased way.

Step 6: Decide. A decision is needed about the minimum response (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) from participants to conclude whether the program had an influence. Some would select 3, indicating the program is connected to the outcome, which would mean 3, 4 or 5 would be appropriate answers for this connection. Also, you must decide on the cutoff percentage of participants in the program who connect the program to the intangibles. This could be 20 percent, suggesting that 20 percent of participants must connect the program to an intangible to be included on the list of intangibles related to the program.

Finally, step 7: Present. The data should be presented as a chart showing the intangibles connected to the program. CLO

One good cause.

Many great effects.

KPMG salutes the 2019 LearningElite organizations on the waves of positive change they are creating.

As we prepare for the January 2020 opening of the KPMG Lakehouse, our new world-class learning and innovation center, we are proud to be part of this forward-thinking community. Here’s to all of us! kpmg.com

© 2019 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. The KPMG name and logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of KPMG International. NDPPS 859443

ON THE FRONT LINE

Rethinking Organizational Correspondence Email alone isn’t cutting it • BY DAVID DeFILIPPO

G David DeFilippo is principal of DeFilippo Leadership Inc. and an executive coach at Harvard Business School.

He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

one are the days of the old-fashioned paper-based memo. Don’t get me wrong — I appreciate the speed and global reach that email provides with a click of the “send” button, but I fear we have lost something with the complete transition to this less tangible communication medium. If the major goals of communication in an organizational setting are to share information, influence others and take action, all of which are highly relevant to an organization’s effectiveness, then we should optimize every opportunity to correspond with one another.

Email started between time-sharing computers in the 1960s and was a synchronous communication method, meaning that users had to be logged into the same network at the same time to share messages. This system was then improved by computer programmer Ray Tomlinson in the 1970s as part of the ARPANET system, the precursor to today’s internet, so that users could asynchronously send mail to one another’s mailbox. In its current state, email, text messaging and social media are all part of our daily lives at work and home, which has led to concerns regarding information overload and the expectations that derive from being “on” constantly.

I recall my pre-email career when, as managers, we both wrote and received paper-based memos that were to be shared and discussed among our teams. These notes typically included updates to operational standards, leadership announcements and the evaluation of performance against our annual objectives. For managers these communications set the stage for team questions, discussions and input that ultimately led to agreement over next steps.

These conversations were extremely valuable because they were two-way exchanges where the context of the topic was clear and individuals were part of the interaction. With our stronger dependency on email, the intent and tone of messages are often lost or misinterpreted. Consider how many times we have read emails only to have a visceral reaction about the content, when I am sure that the sender had a different purpose in mind.

With the perennial challenges of employee engagement, effective organizational communication is a must to ensure company alignment and achievement of our enterprises’ aspirations. Accepting that change is an inevitable part of progress. Here are a

20 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

few ways that we can combine old practices with current ones: Write, then evaluate. Draft the message, read it back and then evaluate whether email is the most effective medium for the topic or action requested of the recipients. For example, a sign that I have received an email message that is ineffective is when I have to read it multiple times and then print the note to decipher the request.

employee engagement requires effective communication.

Structure the message. Once you decide that email is the best communication vehicle due to practical issues such as the geographic distribution of the participants or timeliness of the message, then structure the message using best practices. These practices may include: • Declare the message intention in the subject line, such as “FYI” or “action requested.”

• Provide the relevant background information about the topic in a succinct paragraph or in bullets.

• State the action or the request of the recipient.

• Clarify the response date as needed.

Meet after the email. To ensure alignment and understanding, hold a brief follow-up in person or a virtual meeting to discuss the content of the emails. By utilizing regular meetings as a communication practice and linking those to email communications, those messages can then be discussed, clarified and moved into action.

I have seen this combination of methods work well during an unplanned CEO transition that occurred over a two-day period where the lead board director sent an email to senior leadership and then to all employees, which was then followed up by teleconferences and in-person town halls to clarify the new organizational structure and roles and to answer questions.

Like many advancements spawned by the digital age, perhaps the best answers aren’t a full shift to new solutions, but instead a combination of both longstanding and contemporary approaches to yield the most effective results for our organizations. CLO

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22 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

THE POWER OF LEARNING-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP Better learners are better leaders, and practicing learningfocused leadership can make better teams.

BY K AREN HEBERT-MACCARO

T

he relationship between learning and leading is not a new idea. In a 1990 speech delivered to McKinsey & Co., John W. Gardner, Stanford professor and policy developer under the Lyndon Johnson administration, said the most pressing need for leaders was to focus on “personal renewal.” He urged leaders to be interested, not just interesting, and to seek out information and experiences that would help them continuously learn and grow. He put it best

Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

23

when he said, “We can’t write off the danger of complacency, growing rigidity, imprisonment by our own comfortable habits and opinions.”

The danger of complacency may never be more relevant to organizational and individual success than it is right now. The average shelf-life of a skill has shrunk to five years, according to LinkedIn Learning’s “2017 Workplace Learning Report.” Organizations and individuals who aren’t constantly learning, upskilling and reskilling risk obsolescence.

According to the World Economic Forum’s “The Future of Jobs Report,” it is possible that more than 7.1 million professional jobs will be eliminated by 2020. New roles and jobs will emerge to take some

Why a Learning Focus Needs to Extend Beyond HR and L&D When leaders abdicate the responsibility for all employee development to human resources and learning and development groups, they are giving up an advantage. Leaders know their own team members better than HR, L&D or any other function. When they over-rely on HR and L&D, they risk having their needs met in purely episodic or programmatic ways. While periodic learning programs can be tremendously valuable, alone they are insufficient, especially since we know many employees prefer to learn in a performance-adjacent manner while they are working. Learning while in the process of working is not only efficient, it is efficacious. When we can gain frictionless access to relevant concepts and information and then immediately return to our workflow and apply the learning, we are far likelier to retain and recall that new concept or information in the future.

There is a role for HR and L&D departments.

Specifically, they can be enormously useful in partnering with front-line leadership to roll out a learning-focused leadership initiative, especially if that initiative is enterprisewide. By helping to develop learning-focused leaders, HR and L&D effectively create a mini-army of learning evangelists who can be conduits to increase programmatic relevance and employee engagement with learning experiences.

Further, if L&D and HR target products and experiences that allow for performance-adjacent learning, they can support a learning-focused leader’s work to create a learning culture.

— Karen Hebert-Maccaro

24 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

Learning-focused leadership is an approach, not a style, simply by virtue of being agnostic of style, and hopefully it is therefore more enduring. of those who are displaced, but in many instances they will be for positions that do not exist today. The same WEF report indicated that 35 percent of core job skills will change by 2020.

The nature of change in careers and organizations justifies the need to continually learn, but even without this need the value of learning-focused leadership exists. Recent research published in a Harvard Business Review article, “Good Leaders Are Good Learners,” found that leaders who were in “learning mode” developed better leadership skills than their peers not in learning mode. The researchers found that leaders in learning mode benefited by adopting a growth mindset (popularized years ago by professor Carol Dweck), experimenting with alternative strategies and approaches to problems, and through their committed use of after-action reviews and post mortems to learn from the results of their experimentation. These characteristics allow leaders to be more agile in adapting to changing environments as well as to think creatively about how to approach challenges.

An Approach, Not a Style Learning-focused leadership is not a leadership style. Walking down the business aisle of a bookstore or perusing an online book list quickly tells you that there are a plethora of suggested leadership styles, all with claims of relative efficacy and appropriate contexts for adoption. This body of work is thought to have started with Kurt Lewin, who in the 1930s and 1940s led a group of researchers toward the uncovering of three leadership styles: authoritarian/autocratic, participative/democratic and delegative/laissez-faire.

The primary differences in these styles is that the authoritarian leader makes decisions alone, the participative leader includes the opinions of others and the delegative leader lets workers make decisions while still accepting responsibility for the outcomes.

Based on the simple definitions of these three styles, still cited today in leadership research, it is clear

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Why Learning-Focused Leaders Embrace Learning Through the Work Learning-focused leaders must embrace and spread an expectation that taking on new challenges is part of the work.

When individual team members stay static for too long, it’s easy for them to become complacent. They may feel as though they know all they need to know. Varying the nature of their tasks or allowing a portion of a team member’s time to be dedicated to stretch assignments, riskier projects or experimentation enables learning through work. Learning through work ensures the learner is engaged in learning something relevant, and it usually involves more practical or applied learning, which leads to greater learning efficacy. In other words, when learning-focused leaders vary the nature of the assignments of their team members, they allow for appropriate risk taking and learning while doing, and they increase the likelihood that the learning itself is effective.

Taking on new challenges can come in many forms, such as rotational programs, cross-functional projects, relocations and special assignments. It can even be as simple as allowing team members to participate in meetings or discussions in which they don’t typically engage. These opportunities contribute to a learning culture by putting a real and meaningful emphasis on continual development, on potential and not just performance, and on experimentation and innovation.

— Karen Hebert-Maccaro

that a leader can be more or less learning-focused while also involving others in decision-making to greater or lesser degrees. Admittedly, the autocratic leader may have more of a hill to climb to adopt a learning-focused approach, but it is not inconceivable. When considering the wealth of other styles that have caught our attention since Lewin’s seminal work, we see a bias toward styles that are, in general, very aligned with a learning focus, such as transformational leadership, coaching leadership and strategic leadership.

Learning-focused leadership is an approach, not a style, simply by virtue of being agnostic of style, and hopefully it is therefore more enduring. It is an approach characterized by a set of behaviors and actions that are powered by core beliefs about the value of being learning-oriented, and it can be applied by leaders using a variety of leadership styles.

Values and Behaviors of Learning-Focused Leaders Learning-focused leaders, or LFLs, commit to a learning orientation. Having a learning orientation means you see value in learning new things, you seek out new challenges, and you see learning as key to your growth and success. LFLs also promote their orientation and way of viewing the world among others.

LFLs adopt growth mindsets. Dweck’s “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” describes a growth mindset as a state of believing that intelligence can grow and that you can get smarter through effort. She contrasts this to a fixed mindset, where there’s a belief the intellect is fixed, talent either exists or doesn’t, and intelligence can’t be changed with effort. Leaders with a fixed mindset are likely to struggle adopting a learning orientation — they won’t see the associated behaviors and actions as fruitful. Leaders with a growth mindset are inherently oriented toward learning.

LFLs also model learning-focused behaviors. Like any effective approach to leadership, leaders must be authentic. Authenticity comes, at least in part, by not just espousing beliefs or commitments but actually living them in your behaviors and actions. LFLs can do this by adopting several specific practices.

First, get into the habit of developing and sharing personal and professional learning commitments and goals.

Ask a lot of questions. Being inquisitive about others’ work and talents is a way to learn and to show others that you expect everyone to be both a teacher and a learner at times.

LEARNING FOCUSED continued on page 68

26 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

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Today’s Learner/Leader is Self-Directed and Intrinsically-Motivated

By Deb Jewell, senior director of lifelong learning, UVA Darden Executive Education In a study of working professionals who had recently undertaken non-degree professional development*, the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation’s Executive Education gained a deeper understanding of their motivations.

These statistics, taken together, paint a picture of a professional who wants to have control of their own learning journey, prioritizing professional development that meets the requirements of their personal career goals. They want to be more effective at their current roles and improve higher-order skills, possibly resulting in their growth within their current organization. They are willing to consider online learning as a convenient option that allows them to learn at their own pace.

Intrinsic drivers were more important to respondents than external inducements to pursue development. In response to a question about what motivates them to seek development, the most prevalent response was “self-identified opportunity to increase competence in current role” (75%) followed by “building competency for potential promotion” (70%), significantly higher than, “suggestion from manager/company leadership” at only 52%.

Similarly, once development has been considered, the most compelling factor to actually attend is the need to “acquire new knowledge and skills directly relevant to [their] industry” (82%), closely followed by their “individual career development plan” (79%), and “improving leadership and management skills” (73%), significantly ahead of “encouragement by executive leadership” (57%) and their “direct supervisor” (53%). The lowest named factor was “building a more extensive business network,” at just 43%.

* Study conducted by Hanover Research, 2018, n=468

Some of the top business skills professionals are interested in developing to forward their careers include strategic planning (27%), critical thinking (19%), data-driven decision-making (19%), communication (18%) and negotiation/conflict resolution (15%).

Which skills are you most interested in developing?1

Count

Column %

119

27%

Critical thinking

85

19%

Data-driven decision making

84

19%

Communication

79

18%

Negotiation/conflict resolution

69

15%

Strategic planning

Most working professionals (60%) would consider online delivery, due to the convenience and flexibility this format offers (81%), as well as the ability to go at their own pace (63%). As the efficacy of this approach continues to close the gap on in-person experience, we expect more professionals to develop a comfort level with digital means of development and this number to continue growing.

What delivery formats would you consider for a professional development program? 2

Count

Column %

Online classes

266

60%

Face-to-face classes offered in the evening (local)

203

46%

Hybrid mix of face-to-face classes and online classes

188

42%

Face-to-face classes offered on weekends (local)

131

29%

Face-to-face classes offered during the day (residential)

118

27%

88

20%

Face-to-face classes offered on weekends (residential) 1 Top 5 responses, sample size 446 2 Select all that apply, sample size 445

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Why would you consider online classes?3

Count

Column %

Online classes are convenient or flexible for my schedule

215

81%

I can go at my own pace

168

63%

I do not want to/cannot easily travel to campus

128

48%

Online classes are more affordable than face-to-face classes

76

29%

Ease of earning credentials, such as certificates and badges

64

24%

Better access to quality instructors in an online format

25

9%

2

1%

Other

Empowering leaders and managers to be in control of their own development path could create a more motivated and capable leadership team. Learning and development professionals can facilitate this effort with funding for individual development, curation of resources and experimentation with AI as a vehicle for providing guidance on skills development.

We are pleased to share results of this study to facilitate organizations collaborating with their employees to meet their development needs and help them attain their career objectives.

To learn more about professional development opportunities for your organization, visit darden.edu/org_development.

“

Professionals want control over their own learning journeys, prioritizing professional development that meets the requirements of their personal career goals.

Darden Executive Education is a top-ranked, global provider of professional development. Delivered by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation and taught by the Darden School of Business’ highly acclaimed faculty, Darden Executive Education prepares and inspires leaders to succeed in a global marketplace. Offering more than 30 open programs and partnering with leading organizations worldwide to develop custom business solutions, we provide personalized, transformational learning experiences at our locations in Charlottesville and Rosslyn, Virginia, online and around the world. Learn more at darden.edu/executive-education.

3 Select all that apply, sample size 266

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Getting Personal with Learning Building a Culture of Learning by Putting Learners in the Driver’s Seat

By Diane Belcher, Senior Director, Product Management, Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning In a world where change is continuous and happens at breakneck speed, organizations are contending with talent gaps. There’s a constant need to “reskill” and “upskill” employees, and the consequences of failing to do so can be dire. A recent PwC report addressed widespread CEO concern that a lack of key skills is hindering their organizations’ ability to innovate, causing their people costs to rise, and impacting their ability to provide an optimal customer experience.1 Providing the type of personalized, learner-driven experience that today’s learners are looking for is the key to building the culture of continuous learning that’s essential in today’s fast-paced and complex world.

nities are high quality, fresh, and relevant, they’ll make that time. A recent survey we conducted with Degreed found that learners are spending an average of 4.7 hours each week in learning mode— and 3.5 of those hours are leveraging learning outside of company-provided resources.

The fundamentals of personalized learning Making sure that there’s content available for learners to fit into their schedules is critical, but there are a few other aspects of personalized learning that are just as fundamental. To make it personal, learners need the following:

CONTENT THAT COVERS A LOT OF AREAS: • Whether they’re looking to get better at their

day-to-day tasks, want to help their organization out by acquiring a competency that’s just emerging as a need, or keeping their eye on a longer-range career prize, learners want access to content that covers a broad swath of topics, from evergreens like budgeting to newer concepts like design thinking.

THAT IS HIGH QUALITY, TRUSTED, • CONTENT AND CURRENT: From our recent survey with

What today’s learners expect—and need Jobs are more demanding, time is more crunched, and there’s more information competing for attention. And the needs and expectations of today’s learners have intensified. As a result, learning and development needs to take more of its cues from learners. Those learners want to drive both personal and career growth, but they also want to do it on their own terms. They have super-busy schedules and need to fit learning in where and when they have time. And if the learning opportu1. PwC. 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey. 2/2019.

Degreed, we found that 31% of learners rated credibility and trustworthiness as the most important attribute for their learning resources, while 34% most highly valued resources that are engaging and compelling.

LEARNING THAT’S RELEVANT TO THEM: How • material relates to what a learner is trying to

achieve is extremely important. One way to make sure that it’s relevant is to make sure it’s actionable. Learning that can be put to immediate use isn’t just relevant—it’s also going to go a lot deeper and stick a lot longer than something that’s “learned” but then put aside.

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ALL TYPES OF CONTENT TO CHOOSE FROM: • Sometimes learners need content—like a tip

A SOCIAL EXPERIENCE: For today’s learners, • learning is not just a personal experience. It’s

“

L&D can lead the charge

sheet—that they can absorb in a few minutes.

Sometimes they have the luxury of leisurely reading a long article. Some learners want the written word. And others may want any and all content, as long as it’s available as a video.

Content style and duration are personal choices that learners want to make.

Providing the type of personalized, learner-driven experience that today’s learners are looking for is the key to building the culture of continuous learning that’s essential in today’s fastpaced and complex world.

HELP KEEP LEARNING TOP OF MIND: Even the • best, most relevant of content can get lost in

the shuffle of a busy day, even with a Post-it® reminder stuck on a laptop screen. When learning is closely connected to personalized goals, and when it incorporates an occasional reminder, it stays top of mind. Yes, learners are committed to their personal learning paths, but they also still need a nudge now and again.

also a social one. They learn by sharing with their peers, their managers, their mentors, their teams, and their partners in L&D. And they learn by following others and seeing what they share in return. So they need their learning to be supported by social features: likes, comments, recommendations, and shares.

L&D is the department with the motivators and facilitators who enable employees to more effectively take control of their learning. And employees are looking for that guidance. In our survey, 61% of respondents said help in aligning learning to their goals or skill gaps is their biggest need. There’s a real opportunity here for L&D to lead the charge.

Who’s better positioned to determine which resources are the most credible? To help employees and their managers figure out how to close their skill gaps? To design learning experiences that provide the engaging, compelling, and personalized experience today’s learners crave? To build the culture of continual learning that’s essential for keeping up with constant change?

Employees looking to take more charge of their learning create a tremendous opportunity for L&D to provide the guidance learners are looking for— and to put those CEO concerns to rest.

Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning partners with Global 2000 companies to co-create engaging leadership development solutions that align with strategy. An affiliate of Harvard Business School, the company leverages faculty, Harvard Business Review, industry experts, technology, and a collaborative mindset to help clients discover something new and deliver dynamic learning experiences. Our newest product, Harvard ManageMentor® Spark™, provides a highly personalized, learner-driven experience, fueled by the latest and best leadership and management content. Learn more at harvardbusiness.org.

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The Invisible Drain on Your Company’s Culture

By Monica Moses Here’s a hard business truth: No workplace is free of the ravages of distrust. Anyone who’s ever held a job knows the frustrations that emerge when coworkers don’t trust each other – the miscommunications, rivalries, inefficiencies, morale problems, and turnover that, in the end, distract people from their work and make life stressful. And ultimately, research shows, cost money.

Dr. Mark Scullard, a PhD psychologist who serves as senior director of product innovation for Wiley’s Workplace Learning Solutions division, has studied distrust in the workplace and found its source: individual insecurity. It’s not insecurity itself that’s the problem, though; it’s our drive to cover it up. In a new eBook, The Invisible Drain on Your Company’s Culture, Scullard traces the spread of dysfunctional behaviors at work to the secret self-doubts that beset each of us and outlines a solution.

Even the most enlightened of us, Scullard argues, has vulnerabilities, emotional needs, and irrational tendencies. Each of us has dark moments when we worry that we’re not progressing fast enough, we’re not equipped for our jobs, we’re not good enough. Insecurity is natural, human, and universal.

And this inescapable human struggle, painful as it can be for individuals, is compounded in the workplace. Why? Because we hide it from each other. “Sure, I believe in this project,” we assure our colleagues. “Oh, yes, I appreciate Bob, too,” we say, when in fact he’s the competitor we fear most.

Toss a bunch of secretly insecure people together in an organization, and, almost inevitably, you’ll get pretense, territorialism, blaming, gossip, stalling, and a host of familiar workplace misbehaviors that breed distrust. Over time, what Scullard terms the “corrosive effects of unmanaged insecurity” choke operations, and the result is performance problems allowed to fester, crucial product launches derailed, digital strategy mired in conflict, and quarterly results that miss the mark.

How does unmanaged insecurity show up every day at work? Without being aware of it, we all devote time to mediating our insecurities and those of our colleagues. We tell our boss we’re confident we can handle a tough challenge because we don’t want to expose our fears. When we’re scheduling a meeting, we consider who can’t be left out because they might feel slighted.

We redo a colleague’s work rather than give them candid feedback. We add exclamation marks to our emails to make them seem friendlier. We take these tiny, semi-conscious actions to avoid acknowledging that we doubt ourselves and we sense others feel the same way.

Scullard is an expert not only on workplace insecurity but also on a respected set of solutions: the personality-based Everything DiSC assessments

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and learning tools. He led the research behind the assessments, along with their validation, and continues to guide the development of workplace learning experiences based on DiSC. And what he’s discovered is that assessments such as DiSC, accompanied by classroom training, allow people to recognize their own foibles, needs, and tendencies — and those of their colleagues.

When people can be open about their insecurities, they’re able to accept them. And they’re able to see their colleagues as complex, idiosyncratic human beings with their own foibles, needs, and tendencies. The workplace becomes a no-fault, no-judgment zone, freeing coworkers to look beyond the differences that, unacknowledged, breed distrust.

And when everyone’s flaws and needs are brought to the surface, insecurity is no longer a destructive force that stunts relationships, poisons culture, and undermines business performance.

The Invisible Drain on Your Company’s Culture outlines how Everything DiSC assessment and training fosters the understanding among colleagues necessary for good collaboration and ultimately good performance. The boss no longer seems like a jerk; instead, everyone knows he’s got

a D style, which means he’s driven to succeed and afraid of losing control. Suddenly, he’s a vulnerable human being his colleagues can empathize with.

And when he accepts his own insecurities, he can avoid giving in to his worst impulses. Where his inclination before might have been to yell, now he sees that that just scares people and makes them less likely to ask the challenging questions they need to ask to do good work.

In the 80-person office where Scullard has worked for 15 years, each person’s nameplate bears their DiSC style. “People go into meetings knowing their colleagues’ motivators and stressors,” he says. So if Jane resists a new idea, her colleagues don’t dismiss her as close-minded. They know she has a CS style and needs time to consider new approaches. Emotional needs are accepted as human, distrust is nipped in the bud, and everyone can get down to business.

Visit https://www.everythingdisc.com/April2019ebook/ thank-you.aspx to download “The Invisible Drain on Your Company’s Culture”.

Everything DiSC, with its award-winning Authorized Partner network, is a global leader in delivering personalized soft skills learning experiences that have an immediate and lasting impact on organizational culture and performance. To download the free eBook by Dr. Mark Scullard, visit https://www.everythingdisc.com/April2019ebook/thank-you.aspx.

Embracing Change This year’s LearningElite organizations use learning and development to meet disruption head-on.

BY SARAH KIMMEL

I

t’s been almost a decade since Chief Learning Officer first introduced the LearningElite, its annual learning and development benchmarking program. Over the years, we’ve heard countless stories from companies large and small about how organizations structure the learning function and tackle change. Of the hundreds of companies to apply to this year’s program, just 57 met our qualifying benchmarks in learning strategy, leadership commitment, learning execution, learning impact and business performance results. These five pillars form the backbone of the LearningElite, and without dedication to each dimension, a learning organization cannot perform at its peak.

Organizations hoping to qualify for the LearningElite submit answers to a robust set of application questions. A group of volunteer judges read and review applications according to a provided rubric. This year, more than 300 judges participated.

Many judges participate year after year. In fact, 24 have judged the LearningElite for five years or more.

To determine the final ranking, the top five organizations participate in a themed capstone presentation. Previous themes include customization, technology and perfect fit. This year’s theme is disruption and learning. What factors cause disruption in specific industries? How do leaders at the top five organizations address disruption? How does the learning team work with other parts of the organization to mitigate disruption? Each capstone consisted of a 45-minute presentation on the topic, followed by a Q&A session with Chief Learning Officer editors and members of the Human Capital Media Research and Advisory Group.

34 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

The Nationwide team. Photo courtesy of Nationwide.

Nationwide, our 2019 LearningElite Organization of the Year, is no stranger to exemplary learning and development practices. They’ve been a top 10 organization since 2016. Over the past several years they’ve modernized their L&D strategy and not only kept pace with disruption but leaned into it, meeting disruption head-on.

Disruption is one of the biggest threats to any business. Uncertainty permeates every industry. Digital processes open new markets and close older revenue streams. Workforce disruption affects an organization’s ability to maintain institutional knowledge and a healthy talent pipeline. Disruption isn’t going away anytime soon, and the best learning and development organizations realize this. Many of the following articles and success stories demonstrate how LearningElite organizations address disruption in their industry or field. CLO Sarah Kimmel is Human Capital Media’s vice president of research. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

Nationwide Chief Learning Architect Diane August, left, and Kathy Smith, vice president, talent management and development.

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Sprinting 1 Toward the Finish Line At Nationwide, 2019’s No. 1 LearningElite organization, innovation is never an afterthought.

BY RICK BELL

A

s former football great Peyton Manning and country music crooner Brad Paisley banter back and forth on television commercials telling viewers and customers alike that “Nationwide is on your side,” it wouldn’t be a stretch for the pair to riff off the popular jingle by adding that the insurance giant is also on the side of its 31,000 employees when it comes to learning and development.

Learning methods are shifting at lightning speed, and organizations like Nationwide are discovering new and better ways to shift L&D within organizations. What worked just a decade ago has likely seen better days.

“We’ve moved from the traditional training of eight to 10 years ago. Enabling learning is much more a part of everyone’s role here,” said Diane L. August, chief learning architect at the Columbus, Ohio-based company.

Many learning leaders once felt they were the keepers of all L&D content through their learning management systems, August said. Much of that has changed with such innovations as content curation, playlists and sprints.

“Now it’s much more of a push-pull relationship,” August said. “You find what they need. You can’t rely on building it all yourself. The speed of change and knowledge is so rapid that it could be obsolete by the time it goes to market.”

Nationwide exists in the heavily regulated insurance industry, and while competition is fierce, innovation often may be seen as an afterthought.

Nationwide, however, relies on its decades of innovation to separate it from others in the industry.

Nationwide’s recent hiring of a chief innovation officer offers tangible evidence of not relying on tried-and-true methods. The company last year piloted a modernized learning delivery strategy to hone in on enabling learning and performance rather than a traditional delivery method. It also shows how Nationwide’s learning leaders are transforming the delivery approach from a focus on in-person and virtual classrooms to digital, on-demand learning.

Over the past three years Nationwide also has focused on bolstering its organizational culture with talent development being a key component.

36 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

SNAPSHOT:

Nationwide Nationwide built embedded learning into its next-generation cloud-based HR system to prepare 31,000 associates.

More than 90 percent of learners completed their first-time use of an HR process against the vendor benchmark of 82 percent. Cost savings compared with previous system deployments was significant.

Company size: 31,342 Location: United States

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That learning culture is still evolving with innovation playing a vital role.

One new venture is the innovation learning sprint.

Launched earlier this year, the sprint is a team-based action learning experience offered to all teams during which they practice key actions of innovation and utilize design-thinking innovation (think problem-solving process) to solve a real-world problem in a unique, creative way.

Technology, of course, is a cornerstone of Nationwide’s innovation push. In fact, Cornerstone has supplied Nationwide’s learning management system since 2015.

That now includes the playlist feature, which allows a leader or subject-matter expert to create a list of learning objects that can be shared with colleagues. In another pilot project, Nationwide unveiled multiple playlists with an employee focus, including Grow Your Career Through Modern Learning.

Nationwide’s employees can also learn through internal social networks; online learning with virtual courses; interactive job aids; flipbooks; mobile platforms and community project websites.

Nationwide has taken an innovative approach to implementing a next-generation cloud-based HR system, which drives operating efficiency and allows associates to have more time to focus on capability development related to their role.

This approach uses a digital adoption tool and embeds learning in the system allowing for on-demand, in-the-moment learning while completing the HR process required. The approach saved thousands of hours of productivity; 94 percent of learners successfully completed their first-time use of an

HR process against a vendor benchmark of 82 percent successful process completions for users with embedded learning. Cost savings were also high in that far less virtual or faceto-face learning needed to be designed and delivered compared with past technology implementations.

All this innovation, however, doesn’t occur in a vacuum.

There are metrics and reports to be filed. Transparency with the executive team regarding the impact and value of such initiatives is key for Nationwide’s learning leaders.

They report the metrics to the senior vice president of talent, diversity and organization effectiveness, and share learning metrics with Nationwide’s chief human resources officer and HR executive team monthly, and with the CEO and the board at least annually.

Having a new chief innovation officer on board will only help improve learning, said Kathy Smith, vice president, talent management and development.

“Because we’ve had a successful, innovative company for over 90 years, naming a chief innovation officer helps us place an even heavier strategic focus on innovation and the shifts required by our changing customer expectations,” Smith said. “In learning, we are embracing design thinking and agile approaches along with new digital capabilities to provide dynamic solutions for our associates with the goal to increase impact while reducing cost.”

Whether a catchy on-air jingle or an innovative L&D program, it’s clear that Nationwide is on employees’ side. CLO Rick Bell is Chief Learning Officer’s editorial director. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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2

A Fixed Gaze Toward the Future

AT&T has created a culture of continuous learning, empowering employees to be future-ready.

BY ASHLEY ST. JOHN

W

hen it comes to AT&T’s learning strategy, future readiness is the name of the game.

“At the heart of everything we do, it comes down to our people,” said Dahna Hull, AT&T’s senior vice president of human resources. “We’ve created a culture at AT&T of continuous learning for all of our employees. We invest about $200 million a year in our internal training program, and we provide about 16 million hours of training a year. We also provide more than $24 million annually for tuition assistance. All of that heavy investment and being really transparent with employees about the need to be future-ready contributes to that culture.”

AT&T University, or TU, is the genesis for all of the organization’s learning and development programs. It comprises three departments: TU Operations, TU Leadership, and TU Shared Solutions.

TU Operations works with AT&T’s numerous business units to provide onboarding training, compliance training and reskilling for all employees. The main goal of the TU Leadership team is to align all employees with AT&T’s vision and strategy. They curate training that aligns with core values by focusing on leadership development, well-being, culture and strategy. AT&T’s flagship leadership development program, Leading with Distinction, allows the organization to keep everyone aligned on business priorities in a very short amount of time, according to Hull.

“Everybody from our front-line teams all the way up to our executive management goes through the LWD program,” she said. “It’s a highly effective way of keeping everybody aligned around our strategies and our priorities and keeping folks engaged.”

TU Shared Solutions supports the delivery of new training by running the company’s virtual studios and supporting augmented reality and virtual reality technology. This team also owns AT&T’s Personal Learning Experience.

“The PLE is a single place where employees can go to plan, access, view, manage and track their learning,” Hull said. The PLE is entirely competency based. An employee can go in and see what competencies are currently applica38 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

SNAPSHOT:

AT&T AT&T took its journey to be future-ready beyond company walls with AT&T Learn. This initiative helps underserved people in AT&T’s communities prepare for success in jobs, careers and life. Within two months of launch, 350 people are already engaged in this reskilling.

Company size: 250,000 Location: United States

2019

ble to their job title and can also search for jobs that they may be interested in, see what competencies are aligned to a job title, and then easily access training to develop those competencies.

The Shared Solutions group also works alongside AT&T’s business units to ensure they are identifying emerging technology areas, Hull said.

“We want to stay one to three years ahead of what those business units are needing from a skills perspective,” she said. “As we continue to engage in those close partnerships, we are able to stay aligned with the needs of the business and work to create that content. We’ve been ahead of the curve now for many years and we absolutely plan on staying ahead of the curve.”

As a tech company, AT&T strives to leverage the technology it currently has and also to make sure it is creating new technologies to make training as effortless as possible, Hull said. Virtualizing all content has been a priority. Currently, more than half of their content has been virtualized, and 100 percent of retail training is completely virtual.

Hull attributes AT&T’s successful environment for its virtualization efforts to two specific technology elements.

“The first one is our T Virtual Campus,” she said. “Think of it like a MOOC platform. This allows employees to complete self-paced training anytime, anywhere. They can also engage and collaborate with other learners through a social functionality.”

The other element is AT&T’s T Virtual Studios.

“Our studios broadcast over 400,000 hours of live student training each year,” Hull said. “The experience isn’t just like a webcast — it’s very interactive. The instructor is able to see all of the students. It has many creative elements to keep the students engaged, whether that be through sound, video, graphics or other animations.”

According to Hull, they are now innovating a solution called T Virtual Go, which is like a mini T Virtual Studios.

They will be able to deploy it to their instructors who are out in the field so that they too can move away from traditional classroom environments into a more virtual environment.

AT&T measures its L&D efforts in a number of ways.

According to Hull, virtualization alone has delivered about $22 million in cost savings in their training budget and reduction in travel expenses. Additionally, 90 percent of their employees are engaged in skills transformation by completing one or more future-ready courses. More than 3,000 employees have earned nanodegrees; 5.2 million skills transformation courses have been completed since 2016; and more than 700 employees have enrolled in advanced degrees in computer science, data analytics, data science and cybersecurity.

“We’ve gotten our employees to the point where they don’t even think about it anymore,” Hull said. “When we introduced skills transformation, probably about 7 years ago, we

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were calling it Workforce 2020. Now we refer to it as Future Ready. It took a little time to get going, but by being transparent with employees and by providing them the tools like I talked about with the PLE, they really are engaging in this.”

Additionally, Hull said, internal applicants who’ve completed training as part of their reskilling effort are 50 percent more likely to get a new job within the company.

So, what’s in store for this future-focused company?

“We’ve done some investing in virtual and augmented reality, and we are seeing success there,” Hull said.

They are also working on something that they’re calling Real-Time Training, Hull said.

“It’s all about using data to identify and target real-time performance training content exactly when it’s needed,” she said. “Perhaps I have data around a technician’s performance, and I know that the technician is on his or her way to go take care of a customer. I can deliver training to that technician, real-time, based on data analytics, to help improve the performance right before they walk into that customer’s home.”

According to Hull, the future of learning at AT&T will be all about building on what is currently in place.

“It has to continue to be 100 percent mobile. And I really believe that when we think about machine learning, artificial intelligence — I think we’re going to see amazing things happen in that space.” CLO Ashley St. John is Chief Learning Officer’s managing editor.

She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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Building a Better Working World

At EY, learning is prioritized as a key differentiator.

BY ASHLEY ST. JOHN

B

uilding a better working world — this is EY’s ultimate purpose, one it works to espouse through its Vision 2020 strategy launched in 2013. At the heart of this strategy is having the highest-performing teams provide exceptional client service worldwide.

Recognizing that high-performing teams drive competitive advantage and that workplace learning is a key differentiator between businesses that thrive and those that do not, EY leadership hired the company’s first global chief learning officer, Brenda Sugrue. Sugrue has led the charge the past four years in developing and executing EY’s learning strategy. Key to that strategy are developing the highest-priority skills, providing an exceptional learning experience, and business impact and external recognition. Last year, EY launched LEAD, a new approach to career development and performance, which is threaded throughout the learning team’s work.

Developing the highest-priority skills is crucial, as companies across all industries are struggling to upskill their talent to prepare for the future, and competition for professionals with specialized skills is high, particularly those with analytics, cyber and automation-related skill sets. According to Sugrue, some of the ways EY is overcoming these challenges is through the use of EY badges, digital fluency programs, location-specific and service line-specific programs, and the development of a scalable process to rapidly develop priority skills globally.

EY launched EY Badges in November 2017, which enables people to earn digital credits in skills that differentiate them in the market, such as data visualization, AI and information strategy, to name a few. According to Sugrue, the badges are wildly popular, and colleagues even meet after hours for badge “study halls.” They share their badge achievements on LinkedIn and celebrate successes in conversations across EY Yammer sites.

The EY learning team deployed Let’s Talk Digital e-learning to all EY people in response to a mandate from EY’s global executive board to become digitally fluent across the organization. Achieving digital fluency in its most

40 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

SNAPSHOT:

EY Over the past four years, EY transformed its learning technology, processes and content, generating dramatic increases in efficiency and effectiveness. Annual learning hours went from eight to 13 million, while costs stayed flat.

New and redesigned programs doubled business metrics, including revenue and client satisfaction.

Company size: N/A Location: United Kingdom

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literal sense, according to Sugrue, is the ability to approach at least one client to discuss new EY digital opportunities.

Let’s Talk Digital explores the essentials of a digital conversation through authentic interviews, case studies and resources applicable to every service line, sector, function and seniority level. The 50-minute mobile experience engages learners through photographic, person-centered imagery.

Under Sugrue’s leadership, EY also has implemented SuccessFactors Learning, a new global LMS. SuccessFactors was launched to 170,000 EY people in July 2018 as the first phase of implementation, and it went live to an additional 90,000 in March 2019. SuccessFactors has enabled EY to create guided blended learning journeys that bundle physical and virtual classroom, e-learning and performance support materials into a single learning experience.

All of these efforts have not been without challenges.

Global scope, scale and complexity are an issue — EY has hundreds of thousands of people in 150 countries who speak close to 200 languages and serve 200,000 clients in nearly 20 sectors. Meeting the organization’s skill development needs is a tremendous battle; last year, they provided 13 million hours of formal education.

Additionally, EY member firms are fully independent entities, and there are no top-down, required corporate mandates. Therefore, adoption of global initiatives requires extensive socialization to gain buy-in. Similarly, EY’s more than 1,000 learning team members operate across 25 region-based teams in four geographic areas; they, too, are not bound to the central learning organization.

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EY’s extensive learning efforts require senior leadership engagement, which EY achieves through a fourpronged approach — by demonstrating business impact, business alignment through governance, program sponsorship, and engagement as learners and facilitators. EY’s top executives visibly prioritize learning and development, starting all the way at the top: Global Chairman and CEO Mark Weinberger personally sponsors EY’s most strategic initiatives, including EY Badges and LEAD. Leaders from across the organization participate in two annual programs — New Manager and Assistant Director, and New Senior Manager and Associate Director — which are delivered to 12,000 people worldwide. And, incredibly, EY leaders committed more than 1 million hours of time facilitating programs during the past fiscal year.

It’s been four years of great transformation within EY, but the journey isn’t over. Looking toward the future, Sugrue said they plan to maximize the benefits of their new SuccessFactors LMS by adopting available functionality and enhancements, scale up their evidence-based design and delivery of high-impact learning solutions through a new global Learning Design Center of Excellence and ramp up analytics through a data science upgrade to their measurement strategy.

A better working world is definitely within EY’s reach. CLO

Ashley St. John is Chief Learning Officer’s managing editor.

She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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4

Small, Yet Mighty

Vi delivers big results on a small budget.

BY AVE RIO

A

mong other corporate giants in the top five LearningElite, such as Nationwide Insurance, AT&T and KPMG, there’s Vi, a Chicago-based company that runs 10 luxury senior living communities across the country. With fewer than 3,000 employees and a fewer resources than larger companies, Vi is able to compete with huge learning organizations nonetheless.

Judy Whitcomb, senior vice president of human resources and learning and organizational development at Vi, says one way the company is able to do that is by uniquely leveraging their business partners as true learning leaders.

“We recognize we can’t do everything here,” she said. “We look to find partners in education and talent development to partner with us to ensure we’re developing and delivering high-quality solutions that drive business results.”

Whitcomb said their corporate, business and functional partners are key in helping the company develop and execute on its learning programs. Leveraging “leaders as teachers” is a core part of Vi’s learning strategy to engage leaders in learning across the company. For example, Vi uses former program participants from leadership and management programs as virtual teachers, mentors and study group leaders.

Vi also invests in teaching learning leaders to design curriculum and provides leaders with professional facilitation and design classes to support their development, Whitcomb said. By using and leveraging Vi’s business partners and teachers as leaders in learning, the company has leveraged its strength as a small organization.

Whitcomb said the second major aspect that makes Vi’s learning organization unique is the explicit and high level of executive support. “The executive support goes well beyond kicking off a program,” she said. “The level of ownership for our learning culture really extends beyond our learning and development department. It’s every leader’s responsibility.”

At the end of the day, a learning organization can’t just exist for itself — it must drive business outcomes, according to Whitcomb. She said the learning team always knows that it’s strategically aligned with the business and the 42 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

SNAPSHOT:

Vi Collaborating with Vi’s corporate/field nursing leaders, Vi’s learning team developed a career ladder/training program for Vi’s certified nursing assistants contributing toward the company’s strategy of retaining talent and contributing to high levels of resident satisfaction and quality care. Vi has reduced CNA attrition from 18 percent to 12 percent.

Company size: 3,000 Location: United States

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company’s goals because of its learning council. The learning council is comprised of all of the functional executives across the company, as well as members of the executive management team.

Every year, the council comprised of different leaders puts together a plan based on business needs. Whitcomb said the council looks at business problems and needs around care, service, quality, safety, financial results, sales, retention and employee survey results.

“Our field leaders provide their input, our business partners at the corporate office put together their input — and then we develop a learning strategy,” she said. “We look ahead, but we look annually, and we put together our business objectives and align that for training and development.”

Whitcomb said the goal is to focus on quality. “There might be a specific area of quality, and we’ll work with that specific business partner,” she said. “We get that alignment through this learning council.”

The learning council also helps the learning team prioritize. “There are times we have to reevaluate,” Whitcomb said. “We don’t have unlimited resources, so it helps us from a timing standpoint. What comes first? How do we evaluate it? How do we involve people?”

Whitcomb said Vi’s ability to deliver on its brand promise is contingent on its ability to have engaged employees and to deliver quality care and exceptional customer service, which includes having a consistent employee with each resident every day. Therefore, retention is key.

“If we don’t have high levels of retention, it’s going to have a huge impact on our financial performance and on resident satisfaction,” she said. “On top of that, being a luxury brand, that’s what our residents expect.”

About 18 months ago, Vi focused on building an infrastructure to support internal mobility, improving the competencies of its culinary and nursing leaders, the two areas

with the highest turnover, by creating career ladders for those roles.

“It’s allowed us to expand our outreach to high schools and community colleges and amplify our talent pipeline,” Whitcomb said. “Now we’re able to go to market and say, ‘You can build a career at Vi.’ ” In less than a year, Vi has seen 24 percent of its certified nursing assistants progress through the career ladder and it reduced CNA turnover from 24 to 17 percent. Whitcomb estimated that the savings alone on turnover is more than $1.1 million in labor costs. “The average time to fill a CNA position is more than 65 days, so that drop in attrition is huge for us,” Whitcomb said.

As for the culinary leaders, 24 percent of cooks progressed through the career ladder and attrition dropped from 26 to 22 percent.

Whitcomb said developing this talent pipeline has been a huge focus during the past year and she is looking forward to continuing to develop similar programs and experiences for all Vi employees. CLO Ave Rio is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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What Happens in the Classroom Doesn’t Stay in the Classroom

Continuous learning and a revamped measurement philosophy are helping KPMG develop a future-ready workforce.

BY ANDIE BURJEK

A

regular on the LearningElite list since 2013, this year KPMG cracked the Top 5.

A key aspect of KPMG’s learning strategy has always been to continually raise the bar, said Corey Muñoz, chief learning officer of KPMG. The professional services organization needs its talent to be on top of their game. Amid constant changes, constant improvements are necessary — both for professional services consultants and the organization itself.

Learning plays a key role in that continuous improvement, and KPMG’s L&D strategy is going in a direction unique to organizations in this increasingly digital world. The organization is building a learning, development and innovation center called the KPMG Lakehouse in Lake Nona, Florida, a campus that will open in January 2020, Muñoz said.

Most organizations are headed in the digital direction, but learning must be more multifaceted, according to Muñoz. “Not everything is a video you can watch. You can know something, but to actually do it, that takes time and that takes feedback and actual space where you can practice and learn,” he said.

Employee feedback was an important source of inspiration for this new center, Muñoz said. KPMG conducted interviews and focus groups to pick employees’ brains and help figure out how to create the experience of being at the KPMG Lakehouse. This translated into what Muñoz calls the three layers: experience, environment and ecosystem.

Experience refers to how the center facilitates the learners’ discovery of key takeaways in the classroom. Environment refers to how the center itself is designed to promote positive learning behaviors like reflecting on what you’ve learned and networking with colleagues. For example, the center has outdoor spaces designed to help facilitate group work, and it has exercise facilities and walking paths to encourage employees to take a break and work out their body as well as their mind.

44 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

SNAPSHOT:

KPMG In 2018, KPMG launched the Experience Disruptors and Trends series. These innovative, technology-enabled simulations challenge teams of participants to perform in the role of their clients and navigate a shifting business landscape. Ninety percent of participants agreed the program helped enable richer client conversations.

Company size: 40,974 Location: United States

2019

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Finally, ecosystem means that everything a learner picks up at the center should impact them during the 51 weeks of the year they’re not there, Muñoz said. Learning isn’t an isolated incident. How it impacts one’s everyday working life matters.

“What happens in the classroom doesn’t stay in the classroom,” Muñoz said.

As mass amounts of data become available for teams in basically any business unit, the L&D function of any organization relies on data to support its business impact. The way KPMG does this is unique. Rather than create a program and then analyze its impact on the bottom line, the organization “started with the bottom line,” Muñoz said.

“We start with the business problem and the business outcome that we’re striving for, and then we back into the learning, the curriculum and the courses, versus the opposite of what sometimes happens. You create a course and then think about, ‘What kind of outcomes could this impact?’ ” Muñoz said. “We’ve flipped that measurement perspective on its head so that we could really get very specific with what we’re measuring, how we’re measuring it and how we tell our story.”

For example, tax staff training needed to be revised while the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was evolving. This required the learning function to be agile and make real-time adjustments to courses and on-demand learning resources to prepare tax professionals for the changes in tax law.

Agile learning is especially important to KPMG, as one of its key metrics is retention. Retaining top talent is so vital to a professional services organization whose “product” is the knowledge, skill and experience of professionals, Muñoz said.

KPMG has also created an internal department of measurement experts, the Performance Measurement Group. Members of this department have advanced degrees in areas like industrial psychology, instructional design and business.

Learning is more than what someone consumes at the moment, Muñoz said. It’s also the impact of something less structured, like informal learning. That’s why having a team of measurement specialists and experts in valuable.

The soon-to-be-open KPMG Lakehouse is a major part of the company’s future of learning, but there’s a lot more to be excited about, Muñoz said. For example, partners and senior leaders in the firm sometimes teach in L&D programs. Now, they can go through an accreditation process to help build their skill set and pass on what they know to learning professionals at the center.

Muñoz is also excited about moving forward with intelligent automation. There are many manual processes that could be automated, but one of the implications of the “start with the bottom line” measurement philosophy is smart tech investing. Rather than finding a trendy tech solution, investing in it and then finding a problem for it to solve, KPMG does the opposite.

“One of the things I’m very passionate about is that I want our learning strategy to drive what technology investments we make versus technology driving what we do with learning,” Muñoz said. “It’s technology with a purpose.” CLO Andie Burjek is a Chief Learning Officer associate editor. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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Permanente Elite Learning Performance

Kaiser Permanente’s Health Plan Institute brings Bitmojis to the table.

BY BETHANY TOMASIAN

T

he Health Plan Institute has been a steady fixture on the LearningElite Award winners list since 2015. Responsible for designing and delivering the learning and development programs that support the marketing, sales and business development functions of Kaiser Permanente’s Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, HPI is led by Executive Director David Livingston, who has been guiding the institute’s direction for the past six years.

Livingston attributes the success of HPI’s programs to the foundation on which they are set. The pillars of HPI’s programs — maintaining strategic alignment with business objectives, offering a wide variety of robust learning content, focusing on the importance of performance analysis, and developing strong assessment and evaluation tools — have been their formula for success.

The elite quality of HPI’s programs all stem from these fundamental pillars, according to Livingston.

Human performance within the business has been a key indicator of program effectiveness. This has involved delving into performance issues to identify learning solutions. That’s where strong leadership matters for HPI. “By involving leadership at all levels and engaging with the business frontline and middle management, we can deliver the best solution,” Livingston said. Those solutions are what brings maximum value to Kaiser Permanente’s customers. The oversight of HPI’s leadership through learning, performance support, change management and communication has been key to providing those solutions.

“Our goal is to create multimodal approaches to learning,” Livingston said. This goal is reflected in the wide variety of technological tools that HPI incorporates into its overarching framework. Livingston identified that learners needed to be able to engage with “just in time” materials accessible on all devices. This need led to innovations in HPI’s program design and the use of technology to maximize the effectiveness of its programs.

One such technology was rolled out in 2017, when HPI introduced a learning portal called KP&Me. The portal targets specific business functions and

46 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

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ealth Plan Institute, H Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente recently launched Brainshark to support video sales coaching, practice and feedback. Sales managers are asking their teams to practice everything from value proposition and handling customer objections to report and renewal delivery. Teams can practice anywhere and receive detailed manager feedback without a face-to-face meeting.

Company size: 180,000 Location: United States

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gers, n Rot on. a l l A : left ingst From David Liv

roles to create a more streamlined, tailored experience. Users of KP&Me can also engage socially online with colleagues, managers and learning partners.

“Our most notable use of the portal is in our onboarding program,” Livingston said. Through the portal, new employees can access all of their onboarding materials. Progress through this platform is measured in milestones that illustrate a clear-cut learning path.

Another perk for new employees is the social function of KP&Me, which they can use to connect with each other through learner profiles and discussion groups.

The key to the organization’s learning strategy has been engagement, according to Livingston: “Engage employee hearts and minds beginning with onboarding.” Continuing from initial proficiency on the job to skilled mastery and advancement, Kaiser Permanente’s learning programs are intended to explicitly connect employee skills and performance to the organization’s mission and strategy. An objective woven into all programs is to reaffirm employees’ decision to build a career at Kaiser Permanente and to inspire everyone’s sense of purpose and desire to make an impact.

Research shows that email has an open rate of about 20 to 30 percent, whereas text messaging has an open rate of 98 percent. When Livingston learned about these statistics, it fueled HPI’s desire to update its engagement methods.

In September 2018, HPI piloted virtual coaching technology to connect with class participants in its Grow Coaching program. The tool utilizes a chatbot that sends two to three text messages per week to participants. What makes this tool unique is its ability to reach users more effectively and to offer microlearning opportunities. The coach’s personality is expressed through witty dialogue and a custom-designed Bitmoji character. It texts class participants “food for thought,” pop quizzes and microreinforcement videos, and it even reminds them of tasks they need to complete. The ultimate goal of this chatbot is to connect with learners in a way that doesn’t feel like training.

Tech innovations are only one part of the larger elite learning strategy at work at HPI, according to Livingston. While the formula for success remains the same, the organization has demonstrated its ability to adapt to the competitive pressures of an ever-shifting market. All members of staff, from tenured employees to new faces, participate in development activities.

Looking forward, Livingston anticipates further exploration of learning technology and tools. “We believe technology has huge potential to reinforce learning,” Livingston said. CLO Bethany Tomasian is a Chief Learning Officer editorial associate. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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An MHS Employee’s Education Is Never Done

To keep up with the changing health care landscape, Memorial Health System strives to create a culture of continuous learning.

BY BETHANY TOMASIAN

T

he ever-shifting nature of the health care industry can be tricky territory for organizations and their learners. Not only do providers have competitive pressures, but they must also continuously evolve learning strategies to keep up with objectives.

Despite these challenges, Memorial Health System remains unflinching. The health care provider’s mission is simple: to improve the health of the people and communities they serve. MHS’ mission is reflected in its learning strategy, which is dedicated to continuously educating employees and the communities around them.

As evidence of the organization’s commitment to learning, an annual employee engagement survey conducted in 2018 measured employees’ response to the statement: “In the past year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow.”

Survey results place MHS in the 100th percentile among a peer group of more than 394 health care systems with more than 1.5 million respondents.

“That was really exciting to see,” said Aimee Albritton, vice president of organization development and chief learning officer at MHS. “What we all want for the organization is continuous development of our employees. I want to know that it’s a culture of continuous learning.”

Albritton believes that what makes MHS’ learning strategy elite begins with the four key principles of their learning strategy: integration, competency, partnership and outcomes. The strategy is a key driver of business outcomes, and the culture of learning and continuous improvement is a competitive advantage.

Organizational leadership is integrated and on board with the learning strategy. Having leadership involved at all levels of MHS’ education and initiatives streamlines the efficiency of the learning model, according to Albritton. “When a new project or new effort, change and transformation happen, we’re right there,” Albritton said. Leadership is even present in the classroom and in educating employees. The senior executive team has logged almost 2,000 hours inside the classroom, which Albritton said is evidence of their commitment to supporting a culture of learning. “It’s different when the chief nursing officer is in every other week with the nursing team onboarding presenting and sharing in-

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emorial Health M System MHS launched the social, mobile, learning and communication tool “Workplace by Facebook” in 2018. This has allowed streamlined communication, strengthened working relationships, engagement and culture, increased knowledge sharing, and improved agility and decision making. Ninety-five percent of employees voluntarily joined the platform.

Company size: 6,917 Location: United States

2019

, ritton e Allb tnut. e m i left: A udra Ches From A

formation,” Albritton said.

“That is backing up what [we] believe in with our behavior. We ask that of all our employees.”

MHS’ dedication to a continuous learning environment is also shown through its partnerships within its local communities. “We don’t, as a learning function, try to provide all of the education that people need,” Albritton said, “Instead, we partner and we integrate with other organizations.”

MHS has maintained a strong partnership with Southern Illinois University School of Medicine along with partnering with other organizations around the community. Organizations include the American Heart Association and the Illinois Hospital Association. And it all happens inside MHS’s facilities.

“About 25 percent of what happens here on any given day is related to the SIU School of Medicine and about 25 percent of it is related to the community,” Albritton said. “We have all these different things happening here that aren’t just employee education — they are community education.”

MHS’s market share for SIU’s School of Medicine has increased from approximately 50 percent to 75 percent in the past five years. “That’s a pretty dramatic shift,” Albritton said.

One of the strongest elements of the organization’s learning strategy is its 127 learning initiatives. For fiscal year 2018, employees completed an average of 38.9 hours of learning. In order to ensure that their programs are continuously adding to an effective learning culture, MHS also measures their no-show rate. “If people feel like they don’t want to be there or they have to be there, then you tend to see higher no-show rates across the industry,” Albritton said. “We watch our no-show rate, which is 2.1 percent, comparing that to the

health care industry, which is about 20 percent.”

From the beginning of the onboarding process and onward, an employee’s education is never complete. Even as employees achieve positions of leadership, MHS has invested in approaches to coach those leaders. “That environment says that we are here to help you and we don’t expect you to have all the answers,” Albritton said. “We’re here to help you as you learn and identify those answers.” CLO Bethany Tomasian is a Chief Learning Officer editorial associate. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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Telus Makes Learning Personal

At Telus International, people learn and grow from beginning to end.

BY EVA MICK

F

or Telus International, learning is not an option — it is a requirement. Employees at the international telecommunications company are a part of the learning process beginning with their first steps into the organization.

“Our program is a very robust and comprehensive program,” said Michelle Braden, executive director of TI’s learning and development program. “It moves from the minute somebody joins the company until they become CEO. We prepare people for each level that they move through.”

Six years ago, TI had no L&D organization or budget. Learning opportunities were limited, and low employee engagement and high turnover were impacting profitability and customer satisfaction. After hiring Braden in 2012 as its first CLO and launching its first leadership development program, TI formed its Global Learning Excellence organization in 2015. The GLE deployed a progressive, four-level career path for all call center employees, called the Learning@TI Roadmap. The road map is complemented by TI’s Learn and Grow programs, which provide continuous learning through diverse content and modalities.

While many other companies practice discontinuous development, where employees only reach certain levels at different points in their careers, TI believes in a different approach.

“Here we have annual leadership forums for our top leaders. We have 360s that we do for our top leaders with individual development plans,” Braden SAID. “We have a full blend of learning that’s a blend of instructor-lead, e-learning, microlearning, coaching and mentoring. It’s all-inclusive, and it’s really comprehensive.”

Part of the impetus for TI to develop its learning program back in 2012 was an identified need for the company to learn globally.

“We support global companies in multiple geographies, and they want to know that we’re developing our team members and our leaders the same way anywhere in the world, so we can do something that is impactful globally and is standardized globally,” Braden said. “And it’s going to have not only an impact on our business results but also on our employee engagement.”

TI’s learning program supports continual development for employees. They give leaders an opportunity to teach and spread their knowledge across the globe

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Telus International Telus International must use client-provided new hire training, regardless of quality. In response, Telus turbo-charged facilitator training, offered facilitators performance-based bonuses, and began selling clients training services. New-hire learner satisfaction and performance increased, attrition dropped to industry-leading lows, and Telus generated $579,000 in revenue.

Company size: 30,000 Location: Canada

2019

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by working with the learning team and creating videos, which Braden said resemble TED Talks.

“One of our objectives is to focus on engagement,” Braden said. “We’re always looking at activities like that because we know the company has a high target for engagement. We are always looking at learning that will help drive that engagement and help team members feel like it’s worth staying here and continuing to grow.”

At TI, learning does not feel mandatory, but essential and necessary, she said. They take a personal approach with their employees and, in turn, it reciprocates engagement.

“Yes, we address the competencies, but we’re focused truly on the learner and trying to ensure that that person not only stays engaged in the course learning but that they feel more productive and they feel like a higher performer once they go back to the job,” Braden said.

Leaders at TI, including the CEO, are all supportive of the learning program and continuously participate in forums that allow them to share their expertise and knowledge.

“We maintain that leadership commitment. Every year when we put in for our budget request since we’ve launched our strategy, they’ve never touched our budget,” Braden said.

“Other budgets get cut. Ours has never been cut.”

TI has incorporated many different methods and modalities into its learning program. From videos to whiteboard animation, the learning team has worked hard to make sure the best tools and technologies are available to

employees to help them learn. Braden said one thing that people have responded exceptionally well to is a self-directed online tool with a 98 percent satisfaction rate and a 97 percent completion rate.

A couple of years ago, TI recognized there was little to no interaction between senior leaders and their extensive network of countries and employees. So they built video catalogs with interviews of top leaders and combined it with whiteboard animation.

“People love those because they feel like they’re getting advice and guidance and learning more about these different leaders,” Braden said. “We had never seen anyone use live video and whiteboard animation. We’ve seen whiteboard animation. We’ve seen live video. We decided to make it more interesting. We combined the two, and it turned out to be an awesome solution.”

TI is now growing by 20 percent year after year, which Braden said could not have been achieved without the organization’s now robust learning strategy. Braden said their employee engagement keeps growing, rising from 70 percent before the program launched to 86 percent now.

“We’ve gone out and done surveys, and when team members are asked, ‘What is the most important thing, the thing that keeps you here that you love?’ It’s learning,” Braden said. CLO Eva Mick is a Chief Learning Officer editorial associate. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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Learning Is Change

Texas Health Resources pushes innovation and change within learning.

BY EVA MICK

T

exas Health Resources, a faith-based nonprofit health care organization serving 7 million people in 16 countries, understands that sustainability and growth mean being open to — and even welcoming of — change. To remain the leading provider of health and well-being in North Texas, THR initiated the particularly big change from a transactional health care framework to a transformative model.

This change led THR to update its vision for the first time in its 21year history. The new vision, “partnering with you for a lifetime of health and well-being,” coincided with the launch of THR’s comprehensive 10year plan, Vision 2026, which is focused on transforming the patient experience. And in alignment with this new vision and strategy, Texas Health Resources University has implemented a complementary strategy focused on transformational approaches to learning and relationship building — they have moved away from “checking the box” to viewing learning as change.

To embrace this transformational learning journey, leadership buy-in and commitment were key.

One of the ways THRU was able to get that commitment was by establishing a Learning and Education Cabinet, an interprofessional team that collaborates to determine where, when and how to use corporate learning resources. The cabinet, which includes C-suite and other key officers for the organization, established clear goals for learning, including systemizing solutions and avoiding one-off transactional training interventions; optimizing existing resources; maximizing the use of technology; and reducing time spent in required learning.

The core technology used to support learning at Texas Health is MyTalent, the organization’s learning management system. MyTalent houses learning resources made available to more than 35,000 users consisting of employees, contractors, students and volunteers. It provides access to tools

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T exas Health Resources Texas Health Resources became the first hospital in the world to implement Resuscitation Quality Improvement, a pioneering approach to maintaining CPR skills. This innovative training program drives patient outcomes by increasing cardiac arrest survival rates 21 percent and saves the organization $250,000 annually in staff training.

Company size: 25,000 Location: United States

2019

for performance development, 360-degree evaluations, goal management and succession planning.

Another area where Texas Health is maximizing technology in learning is through its Resuscitation Quality Improvement Program. The program checks employees’ skills in CPR through the use of technologically advanced, voice-assisted high-fidelity “manikins,” said Meera Ananthaswamy, senior director of clinical learning.

“Previously, when you got checked off, there was no quality assessment done regarding the depth of compressions,” Ananthaswamy said. “You didn’t really know if what you were doing was going to be successful. Having RQI-enabled clinicians is a way to make sure that the compressions have the good outcome that we need, and their skills are kept updated on a quarterly basis.”

One of the key pillars in Texas Health’s learning strategy is value creation. That value is measured by their value equation, defined as quality over cost. The Learning and Education Cabinet aimed to reduce the time spent in training to achieve cost avoidance, said Jonathon Bailey, manager of continuing medical education.

“We quantify our savings in costs we avoided around $256,000,” he said. “We continue to find opportunities to reduce employee time spent in training. That’s an ongoing effort.”

THRU continues to find ways to develop and improve its learning programs, integrating new initiatives into programs that focus on identifying essential needs and how to address them adequately. One of the ways they are doing so is by improving how they view measurement across all of Texas Health, said Daniel Gandarilla, vice president and CLO. “Looking at how we can use data better, we’re working on a project that can help us identify confidently held misinformation,” Gandarilla said. “We can identify it down to the individual level … so, using that data then to inform how we could provide people customized individualized solutions. All of that relies on data and understanding data.”

Instead of targeting a whole unit or department and reeducating everyone, the program can target refresher training or education to individuals or groups that have the misinformation. Educating the entire department is repetitive and cost defective, Ananthaswamy said.

With so much change happening at Texas Health, collaboration is critical for successful outcomes. “We put ourselves in the middle of a problem and identify who might be impacted and pull as many people together as possible to solve the problem,” Gandarilla said. “We really

try to understand the issue and work our way through the issue with the people who are being impacted.”

“When we collaborate, we try to figure out solutions and strategies that are innovative,” Ananthaswamy said.

“We actively strive to do that collectively. It’s a unique characteristic of our organization. We intentionally collaborate, and we intentionally seek innovative solutions.”

Gandarilla sees change continuing to be driver in learning in the years ahead.

“One of the first principles that we have is learning is change, and that’s a message we’ve been reinforcing now and will continue to reinforce to close the line from when we learn to actually changing mindset, behavior and attitude,” he said. CLO Eva Mick is a Chief Learning Officer editorial associate. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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Better 10 Together Through a partnership between its information security and learning functions, Accenture is preparing and educating employees about cybersecurity threats.

BY AVE RIO

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ithin global management consulting firm Accenture’s information security, or IS, corporate function, a behavior change team is in charge of increasing IS awareness and nurturing secure behaviors across the company. That’s where learning comes in. Through its IS Advocate program the behavior change team meets its objectives through employee completion of custom immersive learning activities.

Steve Zutovsky, managing director of internal IS at Accenture, said the training programs use the latest in learning technology, such as gamified environments and role-specific elements. “These features increase our learners’ willingness to participate because they feel the activities are fun and entertainment more so than learning,” he said. “I’m always intrigued by what the team is going to come up with next so that things don’t get stale.”

Zutovsky said the cybersecurity training program has three tiers: bronze, silver and gold. The tiers are released in bite-sized components over the course of the year and involve competition among employees who want to receive virtual badges. “By creating these different levels and competition, it allows us to stay engaged with our population and it gives us an excuse to reach out and touch them,” Zutovsky said.

They now have a personalized mailing list of about 375,000 people out of the 475,000 Accenture employees who have taken part in the cybersecurity trainings. “We can reach out to them directly every time there is new content available,” he said. “It allows us to maintain an ongoing relationship over the course of the year and keep the topic front and center.” He added that if there is a new security threat, they can respond directly and quickly.

Zutovsky said they use several strategies to ensure learners get the IS education they need. Those strategies include bite-sized continuous learning, immediate targeted feedback, embedding the IS Advocate program dashboard into Accenture’s internal website, gamified and role-based learning, real-time collaboration and leaderboards, use of Accenture’s multiple digital channels, the 54 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

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ccenture A (Information Security) Accenture’s Information Security Advocate program uses gamification and incentives to encourage core curriculum completion. Participation in this voluntary program exceeded 85 percent with more than 360,000 employees becoming Information Security Advocates enterprisewide.

Company size: 459,000 Location: Ireland

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“anytime, anywhere” approach and leadership sponsorship.

The behavior change team also works closely with Accenture’s cyber-intelligence research teams to understand and incorporate the latest threats to make sure the learning activities keep them ahead of the cyberthreat curve. Since the team was formed about three years ago, the IS Advocate program has grown, with more than 85 percent of Accenture employees becoming IS advocates in the past year.

Zutovsky said the cyber-intelligence research teams play big roles in driving the pipeline of learning assets and activities. “We work with these teams to identify trending and emerging threats to decide what behaviors to focus on and what assets we develop,” he said. “We then work with our creative agencies to make sure we are using the most ‘real’ and immersive techniques to simulate scenarios and environments that reflect the way our people work, live and learn.”

Zutovsky said the program aligns with Accenture’s overall business strategy and objectives, which means getting buy-in from senior leaders is easy. First, the program drives employee adoption of smart cybersecurity behavior across the company and with clients. Second, it brings a new digital learning journey to employees — designing and delivering compelling and cutting-edge learning activities. And last, it fosters a culture of employee-motivated continuous learning that applies to Accenture’s “culture of cultures.”

The support helps model the desired behavior and ensure accountability, Zutovsky said. “We regularly brief our senior management, all the way up to the board of directors, on our progress according to some key dimensions,” he said. “We rely on our learning team to help us keep that progress.”

Cybersecurity is top of mind for senior leadership, according to Zutovsky. In fact, Accenture’s COO sets the target for business units around what they need to achieve in terms of IS training. “You can’t get much more support

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than that when you effectively have our No. 2 guy in Accenture telling all of our geographies that he has a certain expectation of the number of people to take this voluntary training,” Zutovsky said. “It’s clear to the people who are expected to complete this training that it is part of their leadership’s agenda.”

Zutovsky said the team is constantly encouraged by the program’s success and positive feedback. “One of the things that we’re proud of from our learning organization is that they are always looking for new tools and mechanisms to deliver what can be fairly dry training,” he said. “We frequently get positive feedback around the quality and the level of engagement that our training provides — that it’s not the standard typical dry corporate training, but that it’s appealing and interactive and engaging.”

Zutovky added that the learning programs are data driven; they use data to identify the biggest areas of need, which then defines the path forward and the areas of priority.

“We’re rigorous about trying to measure the impact of the training we’re providing to make sure it is effective,” he said.

“In all our key dimensions, we’re continually improving scores around the things we measure that shows that it’s effective.”

So far, results show that through the learning activities, employees are 50 percent less likely to experience a security-related incident compared to employees who do not complete any learning activities. Zutovsky said the trained employees also have significantly better scores in the biannual global behavior survey that helps assess people’s practices of social engineering, handling of sensitive information and reporting incidents. CLO Ave Rio is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

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11 Department of Veterans Affairs Acquisition Academy In response to identified skills gaps, VAAA launched the Senior Acquisition Leadership Training program to develop critical leadership competencies among VA’s senior contracting workforce. Its goal is to build leaders with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to transition from technical expert to strategic leader.

14 MTM Inc. MTM Training implemented a four-month training series titled Set it Best! aimed at reducing costs by 6 percent in 2018. The program saved a total of $3 million, reducing costs more than 6 percent, and achieved a Kirkpatrick Level 4 result of 13 percent increase in net revenue.

Company size: 360,000 Location: U.S.

12 Tata Consultancy Services

Company size: 2,600 Location: U.S.

15 Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Inaugurated by CXOs, TCS’ Global Learning Week 2018 (designed to foster a spirit of learning and sharing) created a unique platform with games, quizzes, webinars and virtual conferences, allowing more than 25,000 employees to interact with more than 40 global leaders and become aware of all the learning avenues available.

HPE’s L&D led the digital transformation of learning democratization. Business impact evaluations reflect a 5x improvement in learner engagement. HPE’s annual employee voice of workforce survey positioned HPE 14 points above industry in terms of employee satisfaction with access to learning and development experiences.

Company size: 395,000 Location: India

Company size: 60,000 Location: U.S.

13 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina In 2018, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina worked with its claims area to improve claims payment processes and reduce errors and process flows that resulted in $9 million of savings in late payment interest.

16 CareSource CareSource University’s Functional Facilitator program teaches facilitation skills to departmental subject matter experts throughout CareSource. Participants completing the program can support effective technical training within their department, which has resulted in a 93 percent reduction in scheduling and deliver time.

Company size: 4,200 Location: U.S.

Company size: 4,700 Location: U.S.

17 G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. Chief Learning Officer recognizes the following organizations for Best Small Company, Best Midsize Company, and the highest scorers in each of the five dimensions considered: Learning Strategy: AT&T

’S EDITOR CHOICE S AWARD

G4S is committed to the internal development of talented individuals. To support this effort, the G4S NA role leader program was implemented in 2017.

To date, 42 employees have participated in the program with an impressive 98 percent retention rate and six promotions to senior leadership roles.

Company size: 59,000 Location: U.S.

18 Mountain America Credit Union At 90 days post-training, newly trained FSRs are opening accounts with an average of 4.0 products and services, as compared to longer-term employees who are achieving 4.3 products and services per new account. Their job performance contributes to MACU being 5 percent above its year-to-date goal.

Company size: 2,300 Location: U.S.

Leadership Commitment: Vi

Learning Execution: Nationwide

Learning Impact: KPMG

19 FIS LEAD, FIS’ global leadership experience, develops leaders to enable growth.

Business-nominated participants take part in self-directed and peer learning, along with a three-day boot camp including a simulation and business challenge presentation. Mobility for participants is 7 percent higher than nonparticipants.

Company size: 53,000 Location: U.S.

20 CVS Health Keeping Learning Alive activities are short (five-10 minute) informal trainings and provide ongoing refreshers to colleagues in a fun way that helps them retain what they’ve learned. To date, CVS Health has delivered 245 KLA activities, with more than 121,000 completions.

Company size: 240,000 Location: U.S.

Business Performance Results: EY

Best Small Company: Vi

21 Sidley Austin In 2018, Sidley Austin revamped its approach to meeting a significant professional qualification requirement for trainee solicitors in England and Wales.

The new format reduced business disruption, increased relevance by tailoring the learning content to the firm’s needs and eliminated 120 days of lost productivity.

Company size: 4,000 Location: U.S.

22 Janssen Best Midsize Company: Memorial Health System

Janssen consolidated six learning platforms to develop a unified learning road map.

The mobile, open API enabled tool provides learning experiences to more than 6,000 commercial employees. Savings are forecasted to be $705,000 in annual costs and avoidance, achieving $2 million in total value realization by 2020.

Company size: 9,000 Location: U.S.

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ERS WINN E CIRCL

2018 Organization of the Year: Accenture 2017 Organization of the Year: Defense Acquisition University

23 Siemens Siemens enabled employees to adopt a mindset for digitalization through training and development starting with their top leaders and including all employees utilizing a variety of programs and experiences.

2016 Organization of the Year: Vanguard

Company size: 372,000 Location: Germany

24 ManTech International Corp.

In 2017 ManTech set out to become the employer of choice in its sector. It achieved significant gains through aggressive hiring, a new cyber-certification and degree program with Purdue Global that advances employees’ capabilities and careers, and investments in systems to enhance productivity.

32 Enterprise Holdings A new customer service training curriculum resulted in overall service quality score increasing one point from 2017 to 2018. This new program highlights excellence as central to every stage of customer service and is designed to meet the needs of Enterprise’s global customer base.

Company size: 7,800 Location: U.S.

25 OptumRx OptumRx implemented Learning Relations and Oversight, an evaluation program designed to align and calibrate training delivery between trainers supporting six lines of business at 26 locations. In the first year, system access delays were reduced by 67 percent and learner time to proficiency was improved by 50 percent.

Company size: 100,000 Location: U.S.

33 Buckman In 2018, Buckman revamped a sales program, saving $41,142 globally per year. Buckman’s sales team is dedicated to learning but also to maximizing their time in the field. The revamp resulted in two fewer days of classroom time without compromising the intent of the program.

Company size: 19,900 Location: U.S.

26 FDIC Corporate University The Contract Oversight Manager curriculum expanded from one to four instructor-led courses. The FDIC converted the training to a blended web-based/virtual solution. The first replacement course reduced training time from 16 to 6.5 hours. This allows more oversight managers to be trained faster.

Company size: 1,800 Location: U.S.

34 Erie Insurance Group In 2018, Erie’s L&D group implemented a 27-week underwriter training program.

The program included commercial and personal lines disciplines, insurance industry and proprietary curricula, and a learner-centric delivery model. Featuring group and individual mentoring, a total of 103 SMEs and facilitators provided direct support.

Company size: 6,100 Location: U.S.

27 AAA/Automobile Club of Southern California In 2018, AAA’s team of 145 L&D professionals served more than 15,000 learners across the U.S. and delivered an average of 62 hours of formal learning per employee. This was done through support and guidance from AAA University’s advisory board — made up of executives from around the organization.

Company size: 5,500 Location: U.S.

35 DaVita Inc. DaVita created multiple exam preparation options for teammates preparing for dialysis technician certification. Tools include a review class, self-study workbook, online study guide and more. In 2018, DaVita assisted more than 13,000 teammates earning or renewing their certification.

Company size: 14,600 Location: U.S.

28 Bankers Life Bankers Life noticed that Medicare supplement customers lack coverage for assisted care at home, in hospitals and in nursing homes. Through an intensive training program, it created a short-term care task force that increased short-term care sales by 106 percent while serving its customers’ best interests.

Company size: 59,800 Location: U.S.

36 Rosendin Electric Rosendin’s Foreman’s Development Program helps bridge the gap between electrical skills taught through the apprenticeship program and the business skills needed to successfully lead a project. As a result, 98.7 percent of field leadership openings are filled internally.

Company size: 1,300 Location: U.S.

29 Emory University Emory University implemented a new leader orientation program in 2018 for newly promoted (or externally hired) people managers. Incorporating seven online modules, two classroom training days and an online job aide, it is the first noncompliance training required of all new leaders in the university’s history.

Company size: 5,900 Location: U.S.

37 EDP Energias de Portugal SA EDP is supporting the EDPX Project by shaping and training all employees to become digital masters. This is a digital acceleration program working across three streams — customers, assets and operations, and enterprise — with the purpose of developing a common vision within the EDP Group.

Company size: 33,000 Location: U.S.

30 Paycor Inc. In 2018, Paycor’s associate attrition for the Client Service Organization decreased by 9.2 percent year over year. Also, terminations of client service associates with less than one year of tenure saw a 70.26 percent decrease from 2017 to 2018.

Company size: 11,700 Location: Portugal

38 BKD Recently, BKD’s L&D team incorporated virtual pre-learning into instructor-led sessions, thereby eliminating the need for an additional day of live training and saving approximately $40,000 in hotel, meeting room, instructor, travel and entertainment costs.

Company size: 1,600 Location: U.S.

31 ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd. ICICI Lombard launched the Saksham program for external agents, which led to agent base growing by 53 percent. Agent activation was up by 12.5 percent and licensing (a regulatory requirement for agent operations) went up by 21 percent in the north of India and 61 percent in the west.

Company size: 8,300 Location: India

Company size: 2,800 Location: U.S.

39 Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. The Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. created a global onboarding experience for all those new in their roles, which improved employee experience, reduced time to competence and full performance, and improved retention rates in the first six months.

Company size: 29,300 Location: Switzerland

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2019

40 New York Life Insurance Co.

49 Siemens Healthineers

In 2018, New York Life completed the rollout of its new digital learning platform, the New York Life Learning Exchange, as its primary channel for learning delivery. Since launch, learners have completed more than 65,000 content objects organized into more than 180 pathways topics.

In 2018, Siemens Healthineers put their customers in control with PEPconnect/ PEPconnections, providing a vendor-agnostic solution with the ability to upload content and a focus on leveraging third-party partnerships to satisfy all needs, in collaboration with future innovation to remain an industry leader in education.

Company size: 11,400 Location: U.S.

41 C enter for Development of Security Excellence, Defense Security Service, Department of Defense On Sept. 19, 2018, the CDSE hosted the DoD Virtual Security Conference for Industry to provide its Defense Industrial Base partners relevant information to bolster partnerships and foster cooperation.

Company size: 45,000 Location: Germany

50 Caterpillar Financial In 2018, Caterpillar Financial globally piloted its leadership experience program, a comprehensive program with the following defined pathways to continually develop leaders: Emerge, Immerse and Accelerate. It also continued to improve its global approach to job-role-based learning curricula, using microlearning in local languages.

Company size: N/A Location: U.S.

42 D epartment of Veterans Affairs, Office of Information and Technology, Talent Management Office

Company size: 2,200 Location: U.S.

51 Love’s Travel Stops

In 2018, the Talent Management Office expanded the program by designing the Future Supervisor Academy program for senior managers and executives to deliver locally for approximately 150 high-potential employees per year.

In 2018, Love’s learning and development team deployed a completely new SuccessFactors LMS, overhauled training, invested in AR and initiated certified trainers in training stores of excellence while creating mobile video training labs for the field to use.

Company size: 8,000 Location: U.S.

Company size: 22,000 Location: U.S.

43 TTEC

52 Data#3

TTEC created a leadership program to develop essential competencies, driven by a social and gamified learning environment, allowing employees to collaborate, compete and rate content. eNPS jumped 70 points, with rational engagement, emotional engagement and intent-to-stay all rising between 24-32 points.

Data#3 has grown its full suite of learning offerings this year and further aligned programs to prepare its people and business for the digital age. Data#3 has seen a 45 percent increase in engagement with learning and development programs across all levels of the organization.

Company size: 49,700 Location: U.S.

44 PJ Lhuillier Inc.

Company size: 1,100 Location: Australia

53 SAC Wireless

PJ Lhuillier requires supervisors and officers to pass an exam to be promoted to these roles. By implementing a holistic approach that includes an interview and supervisor assessment in addition to an exam, the L&D team hoped to ensure candidates had all the skills necessary to succeed in their new roles.

In 2018, SAC revamped its construction onboarding program, saving $500,000 in costs and improving quality of training, employee engagement and new hire speed to competency.

Company size: 2,300 Location: U.S.

Company size: 7,600 Location: Philippines

54 Smith

45 Law & Policy Group, Intel Corp.

In 2018, the Legal Practice Excellence group delivered 92 educational programs with 3,561 attendees delivering 242 hours of customized CLE credit for its attorneys, as well as provided 35 curated toolkits and introduced a social collaboration platform that connected a worldwide team of more than 500 individuals.

In November 2017, Smith launched its first e-learning platform with 43 courses.

Continuing to expand, they now offer 250 serving global employees. Online introductory courses are now required for all in-person trainings, resulting in a 40 percent cost reduction while increasing the quality and outcome of trainings.

Company size: 450 Location: U.S.

Company size: 600 Location: U.S.

55 Bayada Home Health Care

46 Sysco In 2018, Sysco deployed MA Accelerator 2.0, impacting the entire United States Broadline sales force. More than 7,000 marketing associates and front-line leaders attended these L&D events on top of Sysco’s regular programs.

In 2017 Bayada integrated workforce planning sessions and role-based leadership programs to increase the promotability of high-potential managers to director-level positions. The intentional development of promotable workforce has led to an 8 percent increase of internal promotions over external hires into the director role.

Company size: 18,000 Location: U.S.

Company size: 67,000 Location: U.S.

47 Nemours Children’s Health System In 2018, Nemours Physician Leadership Development Program contributed to a 4.7 percent improvement in physician engagement. A strong majority of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the topics covered were relevant to their work and that they would recommend the program to a colleague.

56 Tarrant Regional Water District Over the past year, TRWD introduced learning technology to its employees in the form of the BizLibrary LMS. Where all previous training was tracked manually or outsourced, the launch of learning technology saved TRWD almost $130,000 last fiscal year.

Company size: 350 Location: U.S.

Company size: 7,800 Location: U.S.

57 North Highland

48 Tennessee Valley Authority In 2018, the L&D function delivered more than 50 continuous improvements to existing programs driving outcomes of reduced cost, improved learning and behavior change, and improved participant experience.

Company size: 11,000 Location: U.S.

North Highland’s transformation of talent development generated impressive results.

More than 95 percent of the workforce participated in a learning versus less than 65 percent and consumption hours doubled, generating a 250 percent increase in learning efficiency and a 65 percent improvement in career development scores.

Company size: 1,100 Location: U.S.

58 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

Collected, organized and tailored to your needs.

WORKFORCE DATA FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

AN ANALYTICS SERVICE FOR TALENT

thetalenttracker.com

Leadership Styles: One Size Does Not Fit All

Stop trying to figure out what kind of leader you should be, and focus on what kind of leader your people need.

60 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

BY SAR AH FISTER GALE

W

hen high performers move into leadership roles, one of the first choices they need to make is what kind of leader they want to be — and there are a lot of options to choose from.

Some imagine themselves visionary leaders, ready to guide their teams through rough waters, or democratic leaders who want to encourage collaboration and team decision-making. Others will lean toward transactional leadership, where delivering results is the measure of success.

The truth is all leadership styles can be good choices — in the right situation. Conversely, none of them work all the time. “Trying to label yourself with a single leadership style feels like ’60s-era thinking,” said Greg Githens, a strategic thinking coach with Catalyst and Cadre LLC in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. “Leadership is much more complicated than that.”

“The most successful leaders are able to adapt their leadership style to the situation,” agreed Robyn Benincasa, CEO of World Class Teams and a seasoned firefighter in San Diego. “They become the person their team needs them to be in that moment.”

Situational Leadership While an inspirational and collaborative leader might be exactly what the team needs if a project calls for creativity and group effort, it can be destructive in situations where decisions need to be made quickly. “If I pull up to a building on fire,

the last thing I want to hear from my captain is ‘let’s collaborate on how we should approach this fire as a team,’ ” Benincasa said. In cases of crisis, teams need decisive leaders who can make decisions for the group and inspire their people to follow them.

Leaders who are fluid in their approach are also better able to meet the needs of individuals on the team and their ability to address the tasks at hand, said Ken Blanchard, a columnist for Chief Learning Officer, best-selling author and founder of The Ken Blanchard Cos. “You can’t use one leadership style with every person and expect positive results.”

Imagine, for example, that a leader needs someone to manage the budget for a large project.

An “enthusiastic beginner” may require a direct leadership style from a manager who tells them exactly what they need to do to succeed, whereas a “disillusioned learner” may need a supportive leader who is willing to coach them and give them the confidence to make decisions. And a “self-directed achiever” who already has financial experience will benefit from a leader who delegates and trusts them to deliver results.

The lesson, said Blanchard, is that when leaders understand the needs and development levels of their people, they can adapt their leadership style to give them what they need.

Which Way Do You Lean?

This doesn’t mean leaders shouldn’t aspire to a certain style or adopt it as their core strategy. “Every person has a natural leadership style that they

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61

grew up with,” Blanchard said. That style — whether it is commanding and assertive or inclusive and affirming — lays the groundwork for the type of leader they are likely to become.

He noted that the DISC personal assessment tool, which assesses users based on personality traits (dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness), can be a good indicator of a person’s inherent leadership style. A company’s mission statement, values and the leader’s own personal point of view can also provide clues, he said.

Although it’s not enough to simply pick a style or to wait and see what emerges naturally. Most leaders benefit from training or mentoring to help them transform their raw leadership skills into a more deliberate approach. Unfortunately, most high performers get little formal training until they are well into their management careers, Blanchard said.

“MBA programs don’t teach much about how to be a leader.”

That means many leaders go it alone, adapting their style through a combination of instinct, experience and casual research on the leadership styles that promise the best results.

That’s where some leaders can be drawn astray.

While we all have an underlying urge to lead one way or the other, the latest business trends can sway the way you lead — or at least how you think you do. Most leaders today will tell you that their approach is democratic or transformational, and that their primary focus is on collaboration, empowerment and giving their people the space to thrive.

It’s a noble description that melds well with current data suggesting employees — especially millennials — seek out collaborative and supportive leaders, and that they aspire to embrace these qualities in their own careers. According to “The Millennial Leadership Survey” conducted by Virtuali and WorkplaceTrends.com, nearly 50 percent of millennials define leadership as “empowering others to succeed” and 63 percent define their own leadership style as “transformational,” which is defined as “wanting to motivate teams to achieve their full potential.”

However, it’s likely their perception is aspirational.

“People want to imagine that they are great diplomatic leaders who aim to serve,” said Karlyn Borysenko, an organizational psychologist and chief science officer at RallyBright, a performance management software company. But in reality she estimates that this description only represents about 25 percent of leaders.

Borysenko also noted that people who display diplomatic or service leadership traits on the DISC assessment — which she refers to as “freakishly accurate” — are less likely to be promoted to leadership roles. “It is ironic because they make great leaders,” she said. However, in conventional business settings, people who demonstrate commanding leadership styles are more often viewed as successful.

Be the Leader Your People Need Instead of trying to become something you are not, our experts suggest leaders find the leadership style that they are most comfortable with — then look for opportunities to stretch their style when the situation calls for it. This can feel uncomfortable, but it’s the best way to see how different styles deliver different results.

When leaders see the business value of trying new leadership styles they are more likely to adopt them where appropriate, Borysenko said. For example, a transactional leader who is always focused on outcomes may have trouble empathizing with a team member who isn’t meeting their goals. Telling them to be more supportive and nurturing isn’t going to change their behavior, she said.

“They need to see how paying attention to that person’s emotional needs generates quicker results and greater buy-in.”

For leaders who aren’t sure what kind of leader their team needs, Blanchard made the bold suggestion to just ask them. “A lot of leaders learn a leadership approach but they don’t tell their people what they are doing,” he said. He sees this as counterproductive.

When teams learn leadership styles together and discuss the pros and cons of different approaches, it creates a leadership culture for the team that benefits everyone. Blanchard recalled working with a company that was struggling with extremely high turnover rates. When they started interviewing leaders in the company they found every manager was losing team members but one. When they asked that manager what he was doing differently, he said he spent 1530 minutes every week talking to every member of the team about the challenges they faced and their goals for the month. It made a huge difference for employee engagement, he said. “Employees just want you to talk to them.”

They also want to know that you have their

All leadership styles can be good choices — in the right situation.

Conversely, none of them work all the time.

62 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

back — in good times and in bad, said Sean Sandona, CEO of Doorage, a storage company in Chicago. Sandona considers himself a “push leader.” It is his own description for what many leadership consultants would call a visionary or transformational leader — he sets big organizational objectives and then works side-by-side with his people to achieve them. “I don’t tell my people what to do; I get into the trenches and show them,” he said.

While Sandona has a general description for his leadership style, his approach shifts depending on the needs of the client, the task and the team. In the day-to-day workplace he is encouraging and supportive, offering advice and celebrating individual and group success. But when crises hit, he expects his people to follow his lead, even if it means working extra hours or doing unpleasant tasks. For example, Sandona, who also runs a property management company, recently had a condo association client with a broken sewage pipe. “There was two feet of sewage in the basement of the building,” he said. At first his team balked at the idea of cleaning it up, but when Sandona was the first person to walk down those basement stairs, they followed him. “Your people need to know that you will never put them in a situation that you aren’t willing to tackle yourself,” he said.

Similarly, last summer his team wanted to start posting video content to the company website, but nobody knew how to do it. So he and the team stayed late three nights in a row watching every video editing tutorial they could find on YouTube until they figured it out. “It’s a lot easier to say ‘do this’ when I’m doing it too,” he said.

Regardless of the type of leader you are — or aspire to be — the lesson is that there is no single style that will work for everyone and every scenario. “Stop trying to figure out what kind of leader you should be, and focus on what kind of leader your people need,” Blanchard said.

Our experts offered these tips on how to do it.

• Show your team respect and loyalty. If they feel like they can trust you to do the right thing, they will follow your lead, Sandona said.

• Pay attention to what your people need now — not what they needed in the past. “Leaders often confuse experience with expertise,” Githens said. Just because you’ve done something the same way over and over doesn’t mean it will work again or in every situation. “If you are sharp-eyed enough to notice what’s going on, you will recognize what the situation requires.”

• When times are good, get out of the way. “You don’t always need to be out in front to prove you are a leader,” Benincasa said. On good days, she urges leaders to focus on coaching, mentoring and enabling the team to develop their own leadership skills. But on bad days, she noted, you need to take back the reins.

• Leadership is about actions, not titles. “Effective leadership is a journey,” Blanchard said. Regardless of what you call yourself, it is how you respond in different situations that defines who you are as a leader. Being self-aware of your behavior and the effect it has is an important part of that evolution. CLO Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in Chicago. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

Leadership Styles: A Primer Every leader leans naturally toward a specific leadership type, though each of these styles can be beneficial in the right situations.

Democratic leadership: These leaders are collaborative, respect the contributions of team members and encourage participatory decision-making. This leadership style is especially popular with younger employees who want to be a part of the decision-making process. It is an ideal approach in creative environments and when problem-solving or innovation is the goal.

Servant leadership: These leaders are big on communication, coaching, encouragement and inspiration. They strive to effect positive change in individuals and for the benefit of the organization. One of the primary characteristics of a transformational leader is their desire to help the people on their teams achieve personal and professional success.

Transactional leadership: These leaders tend to focus on goals rather than the needs of individuals. They rely on the promise of reward (or risk of punishment) to motivate teams and closely monitor performance as a measure of success. This is not always a popular leadership style, though it can be effective in a crisis and is often deployed successfully on teams where results lead to bonuses.

Strategic leadership: These future-focused leaders set strategic goals for the team and use those goals to motivate, encourage and coach their people. They are highly involved with the team, though they don’t micromanage. They are keen to delegate tasks, especially when it allows team members to stretch their skills. When done right, these leaders inspire loyalty and deliver great results.

Autocratic leadership: Autocratic leaders are the caricatures of every cartoon boss. They make decisions without asking for input, demand total subordination and punish those who don’t comply. This style may work well in the military, but it rarely goes over well in a business environment.

— Sarah Fister Gale Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

63

Case Study

A Quest for Success

BY ROCIO VILLASEÑOR

E

nhancing a company’s growth begins with its leaders.

At Quest Diagnostics, a Fortune 500 health care company that provides diagnostics testing and clinical laboratory services worldwide, CEO Steve Rusckowski recognized that their senior leaders needed to break out of their functional roles and broaden their understanding of the organization’s value chain.

Rusckowski, who joined the company in 2012, said he noticed Quest was not growing and “didn’t have the structure and culture to be successful.” He determined there was a need to provide enterprisewide leadership development to Quest’s 400-plus senior executive leaders that aligned with the company’s vision, goals and strategy.

At the end of 2014, Rusckowski initiated the call for the LeadingQuest Academy.

LQA’s Inception Executive Director of Organizational Effectiveness Tovah Stroud and Jeff Shuman, former senior vice president and chief human resources officer, who is now retired, were tasked with developing LQA into a comprehensive, effective program. To help with the meta-design options for LQA’s development, Stroud brought in Pete Cuozzo, founder and president of Cuozzo Enterprises, a management consulting firm specializing in leadership development, individual and team coaching, and organization development.

An early consideration was how in-depth the program was going to be. “I presented Quest with four meta-design options on how they could realize their vision of LQA,” Cuozzo said. “Senior management decided to adopt the one-week in-residence option with 42 participants per session, along with an action learning component focused on strategic, enterprise-wide business opportunities.”

Additionally, based on conversations around experiential learning and the need to build financial acumen, Cuozzo turned to Tom Conine, professor of finance at Fairfield University in Connecticut and president of TRI Corp., which designs and delivers business simulations and executive development 64 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

SNAPSHOT Senior executive leaders are receiving enterprisewide leadership development through Quest Diagnostics’ LeadingQuest Academy.

programs. Conine presented Quest with a business simulation and TRI-Leskin 360 assessment, developed by TRI and Barry Leskin of Talent Management Consulting, that would be the core of the fiveday residential program. Those five days in residence would be the centerpiece of a larger 18-month program encompassing pre- and post-assessments and individual action-learning projects.

The first LQA program was scheduled to launch in April 2015 at an offsite conference center in New York.

Pre-Program Assessment A month before participants arrived for the fiveday residential LQA program, they took the TRI-Leskin 360 assessment.

In the case of Quest, there were 12 general manager-level competencies that cut across three domains of the LQA leadership model: strategy, people and results, according to Cuozzo. “It also provided two open-ended questions,” he said. “On average, participants received feedback from 18 to 25 raters including their managers, direct reports, peers, and both internal and external customers.”

Quest wanted a simple assessment that was not long, Stroud said. The TRI-Leskin 360 assessment took participants five to 10 minutes to complete and aligned with Quest’s leadership capabilities framework. “The qualitative write-in comments were the part augmented for Quest’s needs and the most valuable because people got feedback versus just getting quantitative ratings,” Stroud said.

A consolidated feedback report was generated based on the outcome, and a series of scores were provided to participants. The results of the assessment were strictly confidential; only the participant and Cuozzo received a copy. However, par-

ticipants were encouraged to share a summary of their feedback with both their managers and their direct reports.

Ali Kiboro, vice president of finance-commercial, participated in LQA’s inaugural class. According to Kiboro, the feedback was “the most comprehensive I have received and from people who knew me very well.”

Other aspects of pre-work included participants completing a Quest Management System proficiency quiz (on statistical tools that would be applicable to the team projects), select tri-corp critical equations for business leaders on pricing, variance analysis and cash flow, and simulation readings.

“There is a competitive business simulation that is threaded throughout four of the five days in the program,” Conine said. “Participants are assigned to a team, and there is prework reading on their assignment to give them all the background information on the business conditions of the team they are joining.”

Sessions, Simulations and Growth Opportunities The first day at LQA was spent in a series of sessions to prepare and introduce participants to the action learning projects. TRI’s competitive Leading the Business simulation then ran intermittently from day two to day five. “It is the capstone activity during the in-residence portion of the program,” Conine said. “It is designed with all objectives in mind and correlated to Quest’s five-point strategy.”

The simulation focused on a balance of hard and soft leadership skills, enhancing participants’ business acumen and financial knowledge. Roleplay was an important part of the simulation, according to Conine. Participants were grouped into cross-functional teams of six or seven and tasked with transforming a failing health care business over six quarters.

“During the simulation, the teams can call from their breakout rooms to our control room, where we run the simulation from, and they can speak to characters played by myself and my team,” Conine said.

“For example, they can call their customers to find out what’s relevant in terms of their priority of needs, they can call their suppliers and negotiate. It’s one of the ways that we differentiate our simulation.

Through that role-play, you can glean competitive advantage, at least in the short term.”

According to Conine, the simulation helps participants learn to deal with time pressures, scarce re-

sources, divergent opinions and — above all else — limited and uncertain information.

Twice during the simulation, the teams are asked to present where they are in the process. Quest executives serve on an operations review panel, representing the owners of the failing health care business. “During the first op review, teams make commitments and a budget for the next year that they have to deliver on in year two because they meet those same op reviewers again the second time,” Conine said.

“In our decades of executive education, we have never seen the same level of C-suite involvement and engagement.”

— Tom Conine, president, TRI Corp.

“The participants tend to get a little nervous knowing that the real CFO of the company is going to be there to listen to their team present their results,” Cuozzo added. “It adds a flavor of pressure, in the good sense of the word. As much as this is a simulation, there are a lot of real-world elements.”

Throughout the program, Rusckowski and senior executives led various sessions targeting key workplace skills. There also was a highly interactive session where a real customer came in to talk about their experiences with Quest. Additionally, each LQA participant attended a one-on-one coaching session with Cuozzo that focused on the results of the TRI-Leskin 360 assessment and generated a customized 12-month development plan for the participant.

Cuozzo advised participants to discuss key feedback and insights with their managers within two weeks of the conclusion of the program and with their direct reports within four weeks. “That spacing enables the participant to gain perspective, provides an opportunity for them to digest the data and creates a forum to thank those who provided the feedback,” he said.

Kiboro found the coaching session extremely helpful. “The time spent with [Cuozzo] was invaluable in understanding what was good, what was an opportunity for improvement and what I was missing,” he said.

After 18 months the TRI-Leskin 360 assessment was re-administered to measure participants’ growth CASE STUDY continued on page 68 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

65

Business Intelligence

Elite Organizations Come in All Shapes and Sizes The best learning organizations are doing a lot with a little.

O

rganizations ranging from a couple hundred to hundreds of thousands of employees are represented each year among Chief Learning Officer’s LearningElite, the magazine’s annual list of high-performing learning organizations. The companies span industries and the globe itself, and each year is a reminder that there is no one formula for becoming an elite learning function.

A look back at several years of data shows organization type, size and budget vary, but many critical learning priorities are shared — specifically, supporting engagement, reskilling efforts and developing a use case for all tech initiatives.

Since 2011, the LearningElite has ranked and benchmarked organizations that employ effective workforce development strategies with demonstrable business results. Developed by Chief Learning Officer editors and members of the LearningElite Advisory Board, the program evaluates organizations based on learning strategy, leadership commitment, learning execution, learning impact and business performance results.

LearningElite data show an increase in representation of companies with less than 10,000 employees — in fact, as of 2018, they comprised nearly half of all LearningElite organizations (Figure 1), their greatest representation since the program’s inception. Companies with between 100,000 and 200,000 employees continue to trend downward in representation and saw their lowest percentage in 2018.

The cost of learning varies among LearningElite organizations, as well, though it has remained fairly consistent historically. At more than half of all organizations, L&D makes up less than 1 percent of the

66 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

total operational budget, which is consistent from year to year (Figure 2).

When it comes to average spend per learner, the majority of organizations (66 percent) spent less than $1,000 in 2018, and nearly 50 percent of those organizations spent less than $500 (Figure 3). Only 20 percent spent more than $2,000 per learner, which was a slight drop from closer to 25 percent in the past few years. Clearly, budgets are tight, and learning leaders are being asked to do more with less.

Case in point: For the second year in a row, LearningElite organizations reported offering learning to 100 percent of their internal employees (Figure 4). Additionally, while the number of organizations offering learning to customers remained similar to 2017, there was a big boost in those offering learning to clients (Figure 5). In fact, this segment has doubled since 2016, the first year this question was benchmarked. However, other worker segments saw their representation dwindle.

This all ties back to the critical learning priorities mentioned earlier of supporting engagement, reskilling and making a case for tech initiatives, particularly the latter two. Unemployment is low and the war for talent is real — reskilling current employees to fit new roles solves many business objectives and reduces onboarding costs. Additionally, tech shouldn’t be used simply for its own sake. Costs must be considered, and it’s not necessary for organizations to constantly reinvent the wheel when it comes to their learning programs. CLO Ashley St. John is Chief Learning Officer’s managing editor. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

Figures’ source: LearningElite 2018 “Best Practices and Benchmarking” report.

BY ASHLEY ST. JOHN

FIGURE 1: ORGANIZATION SIZE 100k-200k

10k-100k

0-10k

Percentage of respondents

200k+

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

FIGURE 2: PERCENTAGE OF OPERATIONAL BUDGET 1–5%

< 1%

Percentage of respondents

> 5%

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

FIGURE 3: SPEND PER LEARNER $1,000 - $2,000

$500 - $1,000

< $500

Percentage of respondents

> $2,000

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

FIGURE 4: LEARNER TYPE (A) External Partners

Franchisees

Suppliers

Other

Percentage of respondents

Internal Employees

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

FIGURE 5: LEARNER TYPE (B) Clients

Percentage of respondents

Customers

2016

2017

2018

Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

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CASE STUDY continued from page 65

LEARNING FOCUSED continued from page 26

and adherence to their development plan. “We held a subsequent 30-minute coaching session during which we discussed progress against the participant’s original action plan, as well as next steps,” Cuozzo said.

“This is all part of our philosophy that leadership development is a process, not an event,” he added.

Since the initial LQA program, there have been nine additional cohorts. Cecilia McKenney, head of human resources at Quest, said each LQA cohort is sponsored by a Quest senior management team member who provides individual support throughout the in-residence program and post-program action learning projects. This allows participants to develop a more personal relationship with one of Quest’s most senior executives, which in turn allows those executives to have direct access to the company’s most promising potential leaders.

Make sure annual performance review and goal-setting processes include the consideration of opportunities aligned with team members’ growth goals and personal aspirations. Hold them accountable to these as you would a performance goal.

Design learning agendas for your team. This can be as simple as mapping strategies to initiatives and team skills. Not only does this give you a snapshot of what your team’s relative strengths and weaknesses are vis-a-vis the project or goal, but it can serve as a prompt for conversation about how to build skills and identify team member interests that align with the gaps.

Prompt regular 360-degree communication.

This process requires the encouragement of all points of view, enabling dissent and disagreement, and listening to risky, contrary and new ideas. It helps if leaders focus on data-driven conversations whenever possible to avoid conversations that feel judgmental. Successful 360-degree communication occurs when the leader fosters a relationship among the team members that actually promotes divergent thinking and professional disagreement, because this is where you find the most creativity and growth. In a 2017 Harvard Business Review article, “True Leaders Believe Dissent Is an Obligation,” author Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company, says leaders must adopt an “obligation to dissent.” This is critical to the process of establishing the practice of 360-degree communication.

Embrace failure as part of the learning process.

The failure-tolerant leader is someone who can discuss reasonable failures without blame and help others learn from them, according to Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes’ Harvard Business Review article, “The Failure-Tolerant Leader.” To do this, leaders must cultivate a culture of reflection. One practice that allows for this type of reflection is after-action reviews. This type of analysis takes complex results and explores the successes and failures within them to see what can be learned for the future.

Finally, hire for a growth mindset. Look for team members who have a learning orientation and place value on that characteristic in the hiring process.

Benefits and Outcomes Following the in-residence program, participants continue the action learning projects they initiated for six months. According to Stroud, Quest’s CEO and C-suite select the team-based action learning projects as strategic opportunities for the company — they are customized to a specific need of the organization. Following cohort No. 5 until today there is still a nomination process for the projects, but they are not as strategic anymore, according to Stroud.

They focus on fixing real business challenges, opportunities for efficiency or effectiveness, she said.

According to TRI, since LQA’s inception, the team-based projects have generated tens of millions of dollars in present value for Quest. These projects have served as best practices and helped in several investment opportunities.

“The projects have proven immensely valuable in helping our leaders address everyday challenges,” Rusckowski said. The support of a wide range of Quest leaders is “ultimately driving toward the principle of ‘leaders teaching leaders.’ ” Conine and Cuozzo emphasized the tremendous value of Quest’s C-suite involvement in the program.

“The best is the total support and involvement from the senior-level management at Quest. They were actively involved in all aspects of the program,” Conine said. “In our decades of executive education with some of the leading companies in the world, we have never seen the same level of C-suite involvement, engagement and support.”

With the completion of its 10th program in the fall of 2018, all of Quest’s approximately 400 senior executive leaders have completed LQA. CLO Rocio Villaseñor is a writer based in Chicago. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

68 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

Learning-Focused Leaders are Good for Business Research conducted by Bersin & Associates in 2010 found that companies with learning cultures were 30 percent more likely to be market leaders. Learning cultures only take root when learning-focused leadership is in place. Unfortunately, that same study revealed that only 10 percent of the organizations that participated had a successful learning culture and only 20 percent of

employees exhibited effective learning behaviors at work. Learning-focused leadership may be overdue.

While there are countless definitions of “learning culture,” the following from a 2015 Society of Human Resource Management article, “How to Create a Learning Culture,” is useful in this context: “A learning culture consists of a community of workers instilled with a ‘growth mindset.’

People not only want to learn and apply what they’ve learned to help their organization, they also feel compelled to share their knowledge with others.”

The concepts of continuity and openness are also worth adding to any learning culture definition. Specifically, the desire to learn and then apply and share learning must be a continuous and open process to cultivate and sustain a learning culture.

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Regardless of definition, one can see how LFLs can accelerate the creation and support of an organization’s learning culture. LFLs can magnify the impact of a learning culture by ensuring it is aligned with the important and strategic work of the organization.

Learning-focused leadership is a way to supercharge your ability to lead. It can make you and your team adaptable and flexible enough to meet the changes of the fastpaced technological and business landscapes in which we all work. It isn’t a mystical concept.

It can be cultivated and practiced. If you choose to do so, it will magnify your impact and make work more engaging, more fulfilling and more productive for you and everyone you lead. CLO

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69

IN CONCLUSION

How the World Cup Teaches Us Role Clarity It’s the key to developing a winning team • BY JOHN GILLIS JR.

A John Gillis Jr. is a management consultant with LeadershipX. He recently co-authored “Powerhouse” with Olympic gold medalist and world champion soccer player Kristine Lilly and business school dean Lynette Gillis.

He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.

s we watch women from all over the world compete this June at the World Cup in France, I am reminded that it’s the 20th anniversary of the United States’ historic win over China in 1999 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

In front of 90,000 screaming fans, Brandi Chastain scored the fifth and final goal for her team to beat China, a shot that would change their lives forever.

Chastain spontaneously took off her jersey in celebration and dropped to her knees, flexing her arms with fists clenched. While this is very common in men’s soccer, for a woman sans jersey in a sports bra, it was novel. The goal Chastain scored brought relief and complete happiness. Yet, it wasn’t about Chastain and her individual achievement. She had played a role, as did each of the 20 players on the team.

Before this penalty kick shootout, the game’s regular time ended with the teams tied. They went into overtime when a Chinese player headed the ball toward the top left corner of the goal. If it went in, they would have won the game. However, Kristine Lilly’s role on corner kicks was to stand on the goal line and cover the right post. Lilly jumped as high as she could and headed the ball off the goal line to keep the U.S. in the game. It was role clarity for her, knowing exactly what the plan was for her positioning and her responsibility in that situation. In an incredible victory, the U.S. women’s national soccer team won the World Cup championship!

In our recently released book, “Powerhouse,” which I co-authored with Lilly and Lynette Gillis, Lilly shares amazing soccer experiences like this one to provide readers with 13 key tactics they can use to transform their businesses using gold medal teamwork. In the case of the 1999 World Cup championship game, the lesson about team chemistry boils down to role clarity.

When teams have their own consciousness to hold each other accountable to established expectations, the team member dynamics energize performance toward achieving stretch goals. To accomplish tasks, each team member needs to know their specific role. It is not just what they do, but truly understanding why they do what they do. This structure of assigning tasks creates a clear expectation of role responsibility and job expectation. Team members know where to focus and prioritize their efforts. Instead of guessing what is important and being displeased with team workflow, they

70 Chief Learning Officer • June 2019 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com

know what effort is required to accomplish which task by a specific due date. Team members know what to do as well as what not to do. Yale Divinity Professor H.E. Luccock captured the concept of the interdependence of roles when he said, “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.”

Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.

This cross-functional understanding also provides purpose and motivation to team members as they see how their efforts contribute to the larger collective goal. Co-workers need to understand what each person’s role really involves; otherwise, they will not understand how to most effectively work together. Once a team member completes their task, they need to support others in their execution of tasks. With this commitment to their team role, they are contributing to the team’s success.

In addition, by having each team member’s role delegated based on their strengths, a team will be able to balance one member’s weaknesses with another’s strengths. These complementary skill sets, experiences and personalities strengthen the overall team.

For example, a team needs a strategic thinker as well as a team member who is strong in execution.

Without both, or with neither, the team will not be as effective. Team members appreciate when their individual strengths are utilized to optimize team performance. Not using a person’s strength, especially when the team needs it, hinders team performance and individual contribution and work fulfillment.

When roles are clarified, this also minimizes the possibilities of conflict, because tasks are coordinated to reduce confusion on who is responsible. “Stepping on toes” and “overstepping boundaries” become less common, improving the team’s performance. The team members know how to work together in a compatible manner. As the popular saying goes, “Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.” CLO

Evolving our industry.

Equipping our people.

At AT&T, we’re committed to improving the lives of our employees. That’s why we’re proud to receive the LearningElite Gold Award and the Editor’s Choice for Learning Strategy Award for our dedication to providing learning opportunities to our employees and the communities where we live, work, and play. Learn more at att.com/jobs.

© 2019 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. All marks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

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