Chief Learning Officer - August 2016 by Chief Learning Officer

August 2016 | CLOmedia.com

➤ Mentoring Is a Two-Way Street at Ford ➤ How to Develop Global Leaders ➤ The New Face of Apprenticeships ➤ Hey Managers: It’s OK Not to Be Liked ➤ E-learning and Mobile Gaining Ground ➤ Ask Me Anything: The Power of Questions in Learning Ericsson’s

KUNTAL McELROY

EDITOR’S LETTER

The Right Time for Learning Y

our most important learning investment isn’t the LMS. While it may be the most expensive, the learning management system is no guarantee of effective learning. Your most effective learning tool isn’t a tricked-out, technology-rich smart classroom or a snazzy, high-powered simulation. It’s not user-generated video or an engrossing new game. While they may be the coolest, those tools are no guarantee of effective learning, either. The most effective learning tool won’t cost you a single dollar. The most important investment you can make is time. More specifically, it’s finding the right time. A well-timed lesson delivered at the moment of need is the most powerful learning tool there is. For most it’s a useful boost, providing a practical leg up on a knotty problem. Managers struggling to connect with a low performing employee can benefit from a well-placed course or video about having difficult conversations. For some, its effect can be more profound. Providing a high potential leader with rich opportunities to learn new skills or finding the right time to try out a challenging new role just might lead her to be your next superstar. The right time is a moment when interest, curiosity or need hits and the act of learning becomes effortless. More often than not, those teachable moments come when they’re least expected.

Consider teachable moments when building a learning strategy. As a case in point, my 4-year-old son recently learned to play chess. I don’t mean just moving pieces around the board. He’s legitimately beating adults. Well, he’s beating me at least. Granted, I’m no grandmaster but take my word for it, he’s getting pretty good. What sparked this development wasn’t me sitting my son down and telling him it’s time to learn to play. It didn’t come from taking each of the pieces out and explaining in detail how each moved about the board. Rather, his own natural curiosity took over when he spotted a chess board and asked what it was. The time was right for him to learn. The idea of the teachable moment has been around in education circles for decades but in recent years it’s been taken up by officials and politicians. Turn on the news after a tragic fire and you’ll hear the fire chief remind people to check that their smoke alarms work. Teachable moments are all around yet when it comes to 4 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

learning investment they’re marginalized at best, ignored at worst. Departmental staffing, classrooms and physical and online infrastructure gobble up the lion’s share of spending. What would your learning strategy look like if you built it around teachable moments instead? The LMS would continue to play an important role in making learning widely available. Instructor-led training would remain a powerful way to ensure crucial lessons are delivered and e-learning would continue to be the easiest way to widely distribute content. There would also be noticeable changes. On-the-job tools that bring learning to learners at the point of need would be much more prevalent. Performance support tools, job aids and microlearning via mobile devices and video vignettes would be used more widely. But the most important change wouldn’t be in making learning more accessible via a wider range of devices and approaches. It would be in holding learners accountable for their own development and surrounding them with others who are supportive. As any student of Buddhist philosophy or fan of kung fu movies will tell you, an old saying captures the essence of true learning: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Learners’ curiosity or need is critical but equally important is having a teacher prepared and ready when the moment of learning comes. And those teachers are all around, in places you’d think to look and places you might not. Teachers are, of course, your classroom trainers and instructional designers. But teachers are also their managers and colleagues. There are teachers in the cubicle next door. There are teachers in the satellite office halfway across the world. Teachers are older and experienced as well as younger and full of fresh perspectives. Teachers are not just people, either. They are your systems, processes and culture. Building strategy around teachable moments doesn’t just make pedagogical sense. Helping your people coach others and developing systems that allow them to do so is sound business, too. Change comes fast and furious. The right time for learning is all the time. CLO

Mike Prokopeak Editor in Chief mikep@CLOmedia.com

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August 2016 | Volume 15, Issue 8 PRESIDENT John R. Taggart jrtag@CLOmedia.com

COPY EDITOR Chris Magnus cmagnus@workforce.com

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CREATIVE SERVICES Gwen Connelly gwen@CLOmedia.com

EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Anna Jo Beck abeck@CLOmedia.com

VICE PRESIDENT, CFO, COO Kevin A. Simpson ksimpson@CLOmedia.com VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER Clifford Capone ccapone@CLOmedia.com VICE PRESIDENT, EDITOR IN CHIEF Mike Prokopeak mikep@CLOmedia.com

EDITORIAL INTERNS Sarah Foster sfoster@workforce.com AnnMarie Kuzel akuzel@CLOmedia.com VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH & ADVISORY SERVICES Sarah Kimmel skimmel@CLOmedia.com RESEARCH MANAGER Tim Harnett tharnett@CLOmedia.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rick Bell rbell@CLOmedia.com

RESEARCH ANALYST Grey Litaker clitaker@CLOmedia.com

GROUP EDITOR/ASSOCIATE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kellye Whitney kwhitney@CLOmedia.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Frank Kalman fkalman@CLOmedia.com James Tehrani jtehrani@CLOmedia.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS Lauren Dixon ldixon@CLOmedia.com Bravetta Hassell bhassell@CLOmedia.com Andie Burjek aburjek@CLOmedia.com

RESEARCH ASSISTANT Kristen Britt kbritt@CLOmedia.com MEDIA MANAGER Ashley Flora aflora@CLOmedia.com PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Nina Howard nhoward@CLOmedia.com VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS Trey Smith tsmith@CLOmedia.com EVENT CONTENT MANAGER Ashley Collins acollins@CLOmedia.com

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BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Melanie Lee mlee@CLOmedia.com LEAD GENERATION ADMINISTRATOR Nick Safir nsafir@CLOmedia.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Cushing Anderson Sebastian Bailey Josh Bersin Andie Burjek Fred Dedrick Michael E. Echols Randy Emelo Sarah Fister Gale Bravetta Hassell Shawn Milheim Jack J. Phillips Patti P. Phillips Mike Prokopeak Robert E. Quinn Lynn Schroeder Kellye Whitney

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John R. Taggart

Gwen Connelly

Kevin A. Simpson

PRESIDENT

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Norman B. Kamikow CO-FOUNDER (1943-2014)

CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Cushing Anderson, Program Director, Learning Ser vices, IDC Frank J. Anderson Jr., ( Ret.) President, Defense Acquisition Universit y Cedric Coco, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Lowe’s Cos. Inc. Lisa Doyle, Vice President, Learning and Development, Lowe’s Cos. Inc. Tamar Elkeles, Chief People Of ficer, Quixey Thomas Evans, ( Ret.) Chief Learning Of ficer, PricewaterhouseCoopers Ted Henson, Senior Strategist, Oracle Gerry Hudson-Martin, Director, Corporate Learning Strategies, Business Architects Kimo Kippen, Chief Learning Of ficer, Hilton Worldwide 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, Interim Chief Learning Of ficer, Baptist Health Alan Malinchak, Executive Advisor, Talent and Learning Practice, Deltek Universit y Lee Maxey, CEO, MindMax Jeanne C. Meister, Author and Independent Learning Consultant Bob Mosher, Senior Par tner and Chief Learning Evangelist, APPLY Synergies Rebecca Ray, Executive Vice President, The Conference Board Allison Rossett, ( Ret.) Professor of Educational Technology, San Diego State Universit y Diana Thomas, CEO and Founder, Winning Results Annette Thompson, Senior Vice President and Chief Learning Of ficer, Farmers Insurance David Vance, Former President, Caterpillar Universit y Kevin D. Wilde, Executive Leadership Fellow, Carlson School of Management, Universit y of Minnesota Chief Learning Officer (ISSN 1935-8148) is published monthly by MediaTec Publishing Inc., 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago IL 60601. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chief Learning Officer, P.O. Box 8712 Lowell, MA 01853. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals within the US and Canada. Digital free subscriptions are available worldwide. Nonqualified paid subscriptions are available at the subscription price of $199 for 12 issues. All countries outside the US and Canada must be prepaid in US funds with an additional $33 postage surcharge. Single price copy is $29.95 Chief Learning Officer and CLOmedia.com are the trademarks of MediaTec Publishing Inc. Copyright © 2016, MediaTec Publishing Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of material published in Chief Learning Officer is forbidden without permission. Printed by: Quad/Graphics, Sussex, WI

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TABLE OF CONTENTS AUGUST 2016

Features

18 28

Hey Managers: It’s OK Not to Be Liked Sebastian Bailey Managers have one of the most difficult yet important roles in company life — to deliver strategy through the workforce.

Are You Developing Global Leaders? Bravetta Hassell When it comes to developing leaders who can function effectively in a global business environment, learning leaders have to think holistically and granularly to create the right approach.

To Outsource or not to Outsource

Ask Me Anything: The Power of Questions in Learning

ON THE WEB

Andie Burjek That is the question. But there are certain factors leaders should consider when deciding what learning to outsource and what should stay in-house.

The Week That Was

Randy Emelo Any way people can get information quickly is the learning method of choice these days. But asking questions and putting some effort into figuring out the answers can be a boon for the employee and the company.

Each week, we compile a list of the top five stories on CLOmedia.com as well as the week’s top business and industry news so you can catch up on what your peers are reading.

The New Face of Apprenticeships

Look for this section in every Friday’s newsletter, or visit us on the Web and tell us what you’re reading.

Lynn Schroeder Apprenticeships, the old-school-ish training model once only common in construction and manufacturing, has spread into health care, insurance and many other industries.

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ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY JENNIFER BECK

TABLE OF CONTENTS AUGUST 2016

Departments

Experts 10 BUSINESS IMPACT

22 Profile When Learning Meets the Business, Success and Revenue Follow Bravetta Hassell At Ericsson, Kuntal McElroy emphasizes the need to understand the business to achieve meaningful results through learning.

48 Case Study Mentoring Is a Two-Way Street at Ford Sarah Fister Gale Ford’s mentoring culture benefits leaders as much as the employees they support.

50 Business Intelligence Learning Delivery — E-learning and Mobile Gaining Ground Cushing Anderson Target audience, learning content and delivery options are big choices for learning initiatives, but to have the most impact, the combination is often a unique blend of each.

Michael E. Echols What Agile/Scrum Can Teach Learning

12 PERSPECTIVES

Shawn Milheim There’s No I in Team — Innovation, That Is

14 BEST PRACTICES

Josh Bersin Wake Up to the New World of Learning

16 ACCOUNTABILITY

Jack J. Phillips and Patti P. Phillips To Deliver Results Start with Why?

54 IN CONCLUSION

Robert E. Quinn Don’t Be Afraid of Change

Resources 4 Editor’s Letter

The Right Time for Learning

53 Advertisers’ Index

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Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

BUSINESS IMPACT

What Agile/Scrum Can Teach Learning The learning process is fluid regardless of task or audience • BY MICHAEL E. ECHOLS

Michael E. Echols is principle and founder of Human Capital LLC and author of “Your Future Is Calling.” To comment, email editor@ CLOmedia.com.

was recently immersed in the world of Agile/Scrum during the development process for an online course. Scrum is basically an agile framework to help complete complex projects. Originally formulated as a development tool for software projects, it works well for most projects that are potentially innovative, and it has some interesting implications for learning executives. The deployment of the knowhow is an interesting case study in learning vs teaching. In many ways Agile/Scrum is a study in the learning process itself. Consider its original application for technology, software, specifically. Traditionally software has been developed under a methodology called “waterfall.” The important elements for the discussion here are how the waterfall method addresses complex development projects. The essence of the method involves detailed planning at the outset with extensive effort placed on the deliverables at completion. Increasingly this complex, comprehensive approach has come under scrutiny as the world becomes ever more dynamic, and rapid change becomes the norm rather than the exception.

In many ways Scrum is a study in the learning process itself. So, the central question here is: How does Agile/ Scrum address the challenges organizations are facing not only in software development but with change in general? Though those who create the tools likely would never directly call the learning a methodology, I will make the presumption that yes, at its heart, the tool is a practical learning methodology that reaches far beyond the scope of a planning and control tool. During Agile/Scrum implementation there are three people who play major roles in the process: team members, Scrum master and product owner. Every morning at a scheduled time the team meets in a face to face Scrum for a maximum of 15 minutes. At that daily Scrum each team member shares what they did yesterday, since the last Scrum meeting, what they will do today and what may be impeding or blocking their progress. In addition to the daily Scrum, the team breaks its tasks down into modules called stories. Breaking down the complete project into modular stories is critically 10 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

important to the learning activity because chunks are easier for learners to digest. The team is challenged to show development to the product owner to get feedback and suggestions — teams are always self-organizing and autonomous, controlling how they get work down and the attendant results. So, unlike classical quality control where error correction is the primary goal, regular comments from the product owner operate as a feedback loop to guide future activities and priorities. The feedback becomes a kind of disciplined and digestible learning exercise that allows for rapid mid-course correction during the project rather than after the total project is complete. The learning elements of the methodology are very informative. Known for “head down” working practices, software developers interact person to person during the daily Scrum. This develops valuable interpersonal skills. Rather than being allowed to bury themselves in lines of code, team members are required to accomplish a very desirable set of personal skills such as become good problem solvers. Looking at and communicating various impediments forces team members to think critically about how to reach a goal. The fact that such impediments often involve other members of the team requires communications skills and further hones collaboration and facilitation skills. The Scrum meeting becomes a daily learning exercise on steroids, a vehicle for cultural change as well as problem resolution mechanism. So, while my first introduction to Agile/Scrum was in the context of software development where it is widely used, my perspective on it has broadened considerably. In the world of left brained, logical software development the methodology is most often referred to as a planning tool. But my interest here as a learning executive is focused on the communication skill development, problem solving and team building. These are all outcomes a learning leader would be proud to engage in. If the critical elements work for the highly structured software development environment, I would suggest the learning available there is a good framework for organizational change in any realm where real-time collaboration and project management are factors. Never omit good learning because it comes in an unfamiliar package or industry. CLO

PERSPECTIVES

There’s No I in Team — Innovation, That Is The right culture and leadership can change that • BY SHAWN MILHEIM

Shawn Milheim is head of GCP Quality Culture Programs at Pfizer Inc. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia.com. All contributors to Perspectives are current students or alumni of the PennCLO Program, the University of Pennsylvania’s doctoral program for senior-level talent and learning executives.

enior leaders and their teams, regardless of industry, ability to provide inspirational motivation, role remain under intense pressure to innovate. modeling and intellectual stimulation to teams to Take the pharmaceutical industry, for example. The paint a compelling vision for the future and motibarriers to get new drugs approved grow larger, more vate others to achieve it. complex and more costly. With evolving business 2. Empowerment: Explicitly making team memmodels, shrinking patent exclusivity, and patients bers accountable for project deliverables supports waiting, any way to get one step closer to a novel therinnovation. In the teams studied, empowerment apy addressing unmet medical need is worthy of purmeant recognition that the team and the team suit. Learning and development professionals can be leader shared risks, and it was acceptable for team catalysts for innovation. members to think about problems in a new way To help unlock innovation one must carefully exin order to innovate. amine the culture and leadership characteristics in 3. Team culture: Be aware that curtailing untoward cross-functional drug development teams. These small team member behavior and rewarding positive teams manage the company’s resources to move a sinbehavior promotes team goal completion and gle potential new drug from the laboratory bench to outcomes. A more positive team environment, the patient. How these teams form, set and operationwhere relationships, camaraderie and trust are alize a strategy, take risks, learn, handle conflict, reach built, also benefits team performance. consensus, and navigate organizational politics plays a 4. Project management: Thorough understanding part in the ultimate success or failure of the drug. of resources, budget, timeline and governance There is no shortage of literature devoted to leaderprocesses, enables them to effectively react to ship, culture and teamwork in the spirit of innovation. changing internal organizational, governance, An April Harvard Business Review article highlighted policy and procedure changes, or external envithe critical nature of leadership in shaping organizaronmental — study data, competitive landscape, tional culture and strengthening competitive advanregulatory changes — factors. tage. In her book Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Leaders tend to take a more macro view of innovaInnovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy, tion. It’s defined as primarily transformational or breakHarvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson details through in nature and requires rethinking and reinthe power teams have to propel organizations forward. venting of products, segments and markets. On the other hand, team members tend to view innovation as managerial, a function of efficiency and effectiveness. For them, innovation means thinking about a set of parameters such as time, cost and quality and being savvy with those parameters in order to meet goals. Learning leaders should help their leaders and teams build skills that drive innovation by: • Building relationships with team leaders and members, and understand their challenges. • Helping team leaders develop and communicate However, study of these fields within pharmaceutia shared vision for the future that includes increcal R&D teams is limited. My dissertation research on mental innovations along the way. biopharmaceutical teams and understanding how • Highlighting conceptual differences in what conleadership and organizational and team culture influstitutes innovation to help relieve tensions that ence innovation could give R&D teams an edge. might otherwise go unspoken. Through the qualitative research, four leadership • Creating deliberate pathways to inspire successful themes emerged that resonated with leaders working teams to share their success stories, their failures to foster team innovation. and how they overcame those failures to strength1. Transformational leadership: Specifically, the en a learning and innovation culture. CLO

To unlock innovation, examine the culture and leadership in crossfunctional teams.

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BEST PRACTICES

Wake Up to the New World of Learning Now employees are in charge • BY JOSH BERSIN

Josh Bersin is founder of Bersin, known as Bersin by Deloitte, and a principal with Deloitte Consulting. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia. com.

here’s a disruption taking place in learning and development: Employees today want to drive their own learning, and they aren’t going to be nice if you don’t give them what they want. People want to learn by finding what they need online, watch just enough of a video or webcast to learn what they need, then get back to work. Of course, there are times – during a career or job change, for example – when people desperately want fundamentals. But more and more employees drive these fundamentals: when they need it, how they want it, in the format that fits their learning style. As the percentage of formal instructor-led training has plummeted, the percent of people who learn on the job has gone from 4 percent in 2008 to 15 percent today. The percent who rely on apprenticeship has skyrocketed from 5 to 13 percent, and the percent who use online courseware or recorded events has exploded from 14 percent in 2008 to 39 percent today. It’s clear. Employees are now driving their own learning, and we need to give them the content, experience, and environment to make this happen. The situation is urgent. Consider how important learning is to your company’s employment brand. If you look at Glassdoor ratings for companies, and correlate an employee’s rating of whether they would recommend you as a place to work, the no. 2 brand driver is “learning and career opportunities,” slightly behind culture and leadership. When you look at people in the first 10 years of their career (i.e. millennials) it’s No. 1. The most common reason people leave a company is that “I just stopped learning and growing there” — again indicating people are no longer tolerant if you haven’t given them a place they can learn. Giving employees a rich, self-directed learning experience is complicated. It means updating all that online content you have and making it relevant and easy to find. It means putting in place software that makes your LMS easy to use. It means letting people create learning recommendations and comments for others. And it means creating a true culture of learning so employees can get help from peers, leaders, bosses and other experts.

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This considerable task also means learning leaders should practice design thinking. It’s not good enough to design great content. We have to listen to people, watch what skills they need, and empathize with their work life to understand what kind of content and experiences will help them the most. Yes, you can still do some great instructional design, but keep it to programs you know people want — don’t just build things and “hope they come.”

Employees aren’t going to be nice if you don’t give them what they want. Part of design thinking is reflecting on the broader context of learning at work. While formal training is not a bad thing, most studies show 80 percent or more of our actual learning experience comes from coaching , apprenticeship, meeting people, asking questions, and making mistakes. I’d suggest these most important learning experiences aren’t learning at all — they’re developmental assignments that often result in a mind-expanding awakening and discovery of your own strengths and weaknesses. Our job in learning and development today is to design and curate this environment: making learning a part of the employee experience at your company. This means managers have to spend time with you as coach, people have to be comfortable putting others into new roles, and the company as a whole must embrace the concept that new ideas and experimentation is positive. All these design elements are cultural, stretching the learning leader’s role. I’ve worked in many companies during my career, and I know how hard it can be for a fast-growing or large organization to slow down and take the time to create a compelling learning environment. Yet today this problem is more important than ever, as it is perhaps the most disruptive change learning and development has seen in a decade. CLO

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ACCOUNTABILITY

To Deliver Results Start with Why? Learning programs must be grounded in business • BY JACK J. PHILLIPS AND PATTI P. PHILLIPS

emonstrating the business value for learning is not a matter of providing more resources for measurement, evaluation and analytics. It’s a process that permeates the learning cycle, starting with why? Delivering business value from learning has 10 steps. Start with why. Too many learning and development programs are implemented without a clear business need. Most if not all of them should start with a business connection to improve measures such as productivity, quality, cycle time, cost reduction, retention, compliance, engagement, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, to name a few. Connect to the right solution. Too many programs are implemented for the wrong reasons. They may be requested by an executive team that thinks learning is the solution, or the request may be based on a trend or a new, best-selling book. While this may be interesting and insightful, it may not be necessary for the target audience. Connect the proposed learning program to a business need, and ensure it’s the right solution to drive that need. Define expectations. All stakeholders need to know what’s expected of them. This starts by setting objectives at different levels for reaction, learning, application, impact, even ROI when needed. It also involves setting expectations for designers, devel-

Jack J. Phillips is the chairman, and Patti P. Phillips is president and CEO of the ROI Institute. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia.com.

Too many learning and development programs are implemented without a clear business need. opers, facilitators, participants, participant managers, and sponsors who must know that learning is not successful unless it is applied and has an impact in the organization. Design for results. Design programs to deliver results; ensure there is appropriate focus on application and impact. Tools, templates, action plans and proper support at the right time, for the right individuals, must be in place to help achieve results. Create or acquire powerful content. The heart of any program is content. While the learning environment and experience are important, the content is more important to drive business value,

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but only if it’s something the participants will use. Deliver efficiency and effectiveness. Today’s workplace is focused on delivering learning with less cost, more convenience, in shorter time spans. While e-learning and mobile learning are necessary for convenience and cost, they also must be effective, delivering needed value. Effectiveness and efficiency measures must be considered hand-in-hand. Ensure learning transfer. Failure to transfer learning to the job has plagued the learning and development field for years. Although progress is being made, there is still much that needs to be done early and often in the process. It starts by examining the environment before developing a new learning solution to minimize or remove barriers, and ensure there are sufficient enablers to make it work. Measure results. At different levels, measure reaction because it is a good predictor of success later. Learning (Level 2) should be measured for 80-90 percent of programs and application (Level 3) should be measured for about 30 percent of programs. Business impact should be measured in about 10 to 20 percent of programs. Finally, for programs that are very expensive, important and strategic, the evaluation should be pushed to ROI (Level 5), usually in 5 percent of programs. The good news is these measurement targets can be achieved within most budgets. Communicate results to key stakeholders. Learning leaders often overlook how they communicate measurement results. Many groups need to see success and opportunities for improvement. For example, participant managers want to see success in application and impact. Top-executives who provide budgets need results for future funding decisions. Use results for optimization and allocation. Results are powerful, particularly evaluations at Level 3, 4, and 5. Data should be used to improve programs, so they can deliver more value in the future, optimizing the return on investment. Higher returns may reveal better ways to allocate funding for future programs. For example, our studies show that soft skills programs usually deliver high ROI values. When executives clearly understand this, they may allocate more to soft skills, and that is often what is needed. Evaluation leads to optimization, which leads to better budget allocation. CLO

10.

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OK HEY MANAGERS:

It’s

Not to Be Liked Managers have one of the most difficult yet important roles in company life: deliver the company strategy through their people. BY SEBASTIAN BAILEY

he main reason people leave a company is because of their boss. But it’s also the main reason why they stay, learn, grow and make extra effort. Getting this relationship right is an essential part of being an effective manager. “Managing ourselves is tough enough these days,” said Soni Basi, vice president, global talent at The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. “Managing others requires us to dig deeper within ourselves, developing patience and courage to allow the team to deliver in their own way.” Of course, there are numerous challenges to being a manager. One particular aspect matters more than all the others: the ability to create, strengthen and manage relationships of all types. We see a whole range of direct benefits if we get the manager-employee relationship right: acceptance of change; acceptance of performance feedback; increased performance; increased satisfaction; greater innovation; and higher productivity. Research shows that when the relationship between a leader and the person they manage is strong, coaching and critical feedback is likely to be successful. But when the relationship is weak, exactly the same coaching will have no effect at all. “A weak manager has the power to do significant harm in a very short period of time,” Basi said. “A good manager can return sustainable results year over year if they are trusted, inspire others and empower their teams.” As a manager, the personal tension between who you are and what you need to achieve can result in numerous potential dilemmas such as: do I need to like someone to have a good working relationship with them? How do I balance being liked with being respected? How can I avoid inadvertent favoritism? How can I be part of the team but at the same time be the leader? How do I have a performance conversation with someone I view as a friend? While the benefits of internal promotions have a big upside, Emily Robbins, Enterprise Learning Manager at the Hanover Insurance Group said it can be tough for someone to manage employees who were once their peers.

Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

“Establishing a different kind of working relationship is critical to continued success,” Robbins said. The trend toward authentic leadership can skew which behaviors are right for managers and lead to too much openness and a lack of appropriateness. Having total transparency about how everyone is feeling in the office all the time is dangerous. Added to which, millennials particularly want an informal management style that can blur boundaries and make it unclear what an effective working relationship should be. “Spending more time with some employees, or following some of your team members on personal social media profiles (and vice versa) can disrupt balance on the team,” Basi said. “It is often recommended that managers apply the same principles for conversations and social media usage inside and outside the organization.” In highly sociable work cultures, tough performance conversations may not happen because there’s a perceived risk to relationships. Friendliness without friendship should be the approach. Naturally, we connect with some people better than others but as a manager, we must be equal, even-handed and work in a fair way with a variety of people who may be fundamentally different to us. The role of the manager is that of a tightrope walker. Constant readjustment is required to find the comfortable balance in working relationships between too close and too distant. And it’s not an easy balance to find — after all, levels of intimacy are highly subjective. One person’s perception of being attentive can be perceived as interfering to another. Selective sharing with one colleague might feel like you are being guarded to another. The more explicit we can be about how we’re managing relationships, the more likely we are not to stumble. There are four ways for managers to get it right. They are: 1. Remember why you’re here. Focus on the job you have to do. It’s not about being liked; it’s about delivering FIGURE 1: CREATING BOUNDARIES results. It’s easy for managers to Managers must strike the right balance. spend their time Too close The right range Too distant trying to be liked Feedback Descriptive Only praise Overwhelmingly and trying to be critical Poor Ignore and Raise, discuss, Draw generalized popular that they performance move on forgive conclusions lose sight of the Manager’s Selective Indiscreet Guarded personal life end game – the Team Impartial Colluding Uninterested result they are dynamics trying to deliver Availability Accessible Interfering Absent for the business. Sees themselves Manager Friend Boss The darker side as … of 360 feedback Source: Mind Gym Inc., 2016 is that it becomes 20 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

a competition to be liked rather than a measure of effectiveness. 2. Set the boundaries. You are in control of creating the boundaries between yourself and your team. The ability to navigate the intimacy and involvement that a manager has with the people they manage is a vital part of forming a successful relationship. Managers who are too distant can be motivated mainly by the result and getting the job done. Those who are too close focus solely on having good relationships with their team and nurturing these. The appropriate balance is to focus on the outcome: getting the best result while sustaining the relationships with your team (Figure 1). When it comes to feedback, the too distant manager probably gives none, doesn’t notice things, and doesn’t engage in performance conversations. Whereas the manager who is too close is likely to lavish their employees with praise. The appropriate manager will give descriptive feedback on what was done and what impact it had. 3. Keep emotional self-control. Self-regulation trumps all. In those moments when you want to explode, learn to control it. Emotional tripwires, a phrase coined by psychologist Guy Claxton, are provocations that trigger behaviors that break relationship boundaries. For some, a tripwire is being patronized. For others it’s a colleague dominating a conversation. The challenge for managers is to be able to spot things that could aggravate them, to recognize the moments they begin to feel out of control and learn to keep their cool. Reinforce and repair boundaries if they break. Take responsibility if things go wrong with someone on your team, assess what’s happened and re-engage. When a relationship faces a rupture: pause (take a moment to consider your approach), contain (be concise, put the issue in the past tense), playback (describe your understanding of what happened, challenge the behaviour but never the person) and reassure (be clear, honest and considerate). These tactics can be used to get the conversation and relationship back on track. Robbins adds “Boundaries create a safer, more collaborative environment for all involved. Understanding their value helps with achieving the right balance — it’s a constant exercise in setting and re-establishing.” Managers must work to build long-term trust with their teams. And there are three aspects that are critical: Connectedness: The key is to maintain the right level of connectedness over time that is appropriate for the individual, the organization, and task in hand. So that managers have enough emotional connection

with their team members to be empathetic and to be warm, but not so much that they are too open, too disclosing and inappropriate. “Managers must know their employees better than acquaintances,” Basi said. “Their role is to understand them — their motivations, their challenges, their strengths, their aspirations and what may hold them back.” Above all, Robbins said listening makes the difference. “Managers can build excellent relationships by taking the time to listen. Listen to your employee’s passions both personal and professional. Listen for development opportunities and how you can help.” Credibility: Managers have to add value and to consider carefully the actions they take to build their credibility for the longer term. Ultimately, we all gain professional respect by doing a good job and inspiring others to follow us. Consistency: Whatever adversity the company or team faces, managers must maintain a high level of consistency in how they behave, over time, with every member of their team. This is vital to ensuring that every employee knows where they stand at all times. So, do managers need to be liked? Perhaps the answer is they need to be liked enough to achieve the goals necessary to succeed. But more important is the approach managers take to connecting with their

teams, setting and maintaining boundaries, building their own credibility, and being utterly consistent in all their interactions. Danielle McMahan, vice president, global talent development at American Express Global Business Travel said that leaders need to be “liked enough.” “What’s most important is that they’re trusted and respected” McMahan said. “Respect is a two-way street. Leaders need to give respect to get respect. To be trusted, they must demonstrate to employees that they believe in them and will support them if they fail. When leaders are respected and trusted, they create a culture of engagement.” Too often we promote people with the right technical skills and experience but don’t give them the training or insight to be highly successful managers. Sometimes we’re lucky and they happen to be good at it, but more often they’re not. Give managers the support and skills they need to be effective and the business benefit is immeasurable. CLO

Sebastian Bailey is co-founder and president of Mind Gym Inc. and author of “Mind Gym: Achieve More by Thinking Differently.” To comment, email editor@ CLOmedia.com.

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PROFILE Kuntal McElroy

When Learning Meets the Business, Success and Revenue Follow BY BRAVETTA HASSELL

At Ericsson, Kuntal McElroy emphasizes the need to understand the business to achieve meaningful results through learning.

ome people might see Kuntal McElroy’s story as being an immigrant coming to the United States with only a few dollars in her pocket, working her way through school to an executive-level position at a leading multinational networking and telecom company. And to a degree it is. But it is her business savvy, how she’s used her degree in statistics and her experiences in business and academia to strategically align learning with the business that makes her so instrumental in the story of learning at Ericsson. In 2014, for instance, the company saw a glaring business challenge within its North America market. With the rollout of its LTE 4G wireless broadband technology complete, sales went flat. There was an add-on sales incentive program in place meant to drive revenue, but it wasn’t gaining any traction. McElroy, the head of learning and development for Ericsson North America, met with a senior business leader who proposed an ambitious goal: Let’s train 10,000 employees in upselling to double the unit’s revenue in a six-month period. It was an aggressive task as well as among the first big requests for McElroy as learning leader after taking on the role in 2013. “In those discussions we were able to talk about how learning could be a critical part of it because in order to drive the type of difference he wanted, it really

22 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

required learning to be at the table,” McElroy said. The solution would need to be web-based and accessible to both internal employees and contractors —engineers who had a highly technical background.

“It’s one thing to put a strategy together, and it’s another to get it executed; my learning consultants play a key role in getting some of these visions executed.” ” — Kuntal McElroy, head of learning and development, Ericsson North America While at client sites, the solution architects needed to be able to — after digging deep within the customers’ networks — offer opportunities to bring them additional value. McElroy pointed out that these employees were not trained sales people. Add-on selling can be seen as a pushy sales ap-

PHOTOS BY JENNIFER BECK

Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

PROFILE Kuntal McElroy

proach, said Corin Birchall, founder of retail and marketing consultancy Kerching! Making Your Till Ring. As a result, staff often shy away from introducing it into their customer interactions. This resistance to upselling is partly due to people’s own experiences as customers who are inundated with add-on sales attempts from retailers, airline cabin crews, fast food restaurants and post office counters. Kuntal McElroy, head of learning and development for Ericsson North America, stands in the Ericsson Experience McElroy said whatever Center in the company’s North America corporate office in Plano, Texas. In addition to the company’s use of the program was created would center to showcase proof of concepts and demonstrations as part of its sales cycle, the learning function uses the room to enhance the new employee orientation – giving new hires the chance to experience Ericsson’s need to address the soft products, services and networked society vision firsthand. skills related to being consultative and having value discussions. Among other place where add-on sales was pre-programmed raththings the training program also would need to be er than an afterthought. By year’s end, several thoupractice-based. Because of how Ericsson’s size — it em- sand people had completed the program. The addploys roughly 116,000 people worldwide — it’s easy on sales program increased revenue for the business for the engineers to become siloed. For example, if unit, which saw a 1,453 percent return on investsome are doing consulting systems integration work, ment. Prior to the training, add-on sales perforthey might not know much about radio access net- mance skewed toward one account; now the results work (RAN) engineering or network rollout. With the are more evenly distributed. primary opportunities to provide these value consulta“If we had gone ahead as a learning organization of tions lying within one of those three areas, it was criti- the old days and just heard, ‘Oh, they need soft skills cal that engineers extend their technical knowledge to for 10,000 employees’ and we had built the training, successfully navigate conversations across those spaces. we would not have produced the same training,” These were just some of the important business in- McElroy said. sights William Huggins, Ericsson’s vice president of business development, would bring to the table that Shaped by Strategy would aid the learning team in designing a program McElroy said a learning leader needs to have busithat was effective and would subsequently increase ness acumen to have conversations with other leaders add-on sales performance. The business unit’s deep to use learning and development strategically. She understanding of the target audience’s work would translated Huggins’ proposal into black-and-white, bring a much needed authenticity to the educational objective mathematical variables. “From a business content. With a respect for that knowledge, as well as acumen perspective, you know that you need ‘y’ peran understanding of Huggins’ business goals, McEl- cent of those employees to change their behaviors. roy’s team would use its expertise to properly package You’re not going to change all 10,000, but you know and deliver the training. you’re going to be able to change at least a few,” said “It was really strategy execution for (Huggins), but McElroy, processing the business opportunity in a way learning was an integral part of it,” McElroy said. that comes natural to her. The training had to be dynamic, something close Her doctorate is in probability and statistics, and to the engineers’ real-life experiences, easily consum- having spent 15 years in financial services, she said the able in the field, and something that, in spite of being industry doesn’t matter; business acumen matters. mandatory, was exciting. Above all, the training Before being recruited to lead Ericsson’s learning couldn’t have the engineers come off like they were on function, McElroy spent four years directing strategy the clock at a used-car lot. execution for the company. She helped build the comIt was February with rollout set for June. The clock pany’s long-term plan, and from a strategic perspective ticked on. got a look at the regional market challenges the comHuggins said part of his and McElroy’s plan was pany faced and what parts of its portfolio needed to to use the training to shift the company’s culture to a grow. By the time she met with Huggins, she had a 24 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

thorough understanding of what he needed and what he meant by doubling his business’s revenue. Add-on sales can generate tremendous additional revenue since there is no customer recruitment costs involved, Birchall said. In addition to revenue generation, add-on selling also can reduce return rates, enhance product enjoyment and cut technical support inquiries.

A Big Picture Strategy

learning organizations across the network learn from one another. After McElroy’s team concluded it didn’t have an extant solution for Huggins’ request, it validated the need for this training in other regions of the world, as well. So, when developing the program, designers worked with global scaling in mind. They combed content for regional bias and made sure whatever was described, especially the key fundamentals the engineers had to get — “we made sure it could be described exactly the same way across the board.” McElroy said she knows this exhaustive approach might be frustrating for some of her learning consultants, but she uses these experiences as opportunities to further develop them. With all the elements analyzed through a strategic lens, the team can make stronger, more effective business decisions. In today’s fast-paced world, McElroy said learning is “moving into an environment where you need to create best in class learning that is good enough. It doesn’t have to be a Rolls Royce. It can be a Fiat, and we can still deliver incredible business results.”

As head of learning for the company’s North America market, McElroy leads a team of learning consultants nationally and in Canada. They are a mix of people with business expertise and technical and nontechnical strengths with a majority of the team in Ericsson North America’s regional office in Plano, Texas. McElroy said she considers herself fortunate to have hired extremely talented people who continuously work together to develop and run the business-focused learning programs. “It’s one thing to put a strategy together, and it’s another to get it executed; my learning consultants play a key role in getting some of these visions execut- The Professorial Change Agent ed,” she said. She credits her work in Ericsson’s learning function McElroy’s team is part of a larger global network with not just her financial services and strategy backthat consists of nine other learning organizations for ground but also her work in academia. She taught their respective regions. This broader learning orga- mathematics at the high school and university levels. nization works with the Teaching was how she belief that there are elepaid for college at Lehigh ments of learning that University, once she need to develop within moved to the United the business, but there States from India after has to be a strategy on finishing high school. how to use learning at A scholarship wasn’t the right time to address enough. “I came to the multiple areas. Three U.S. with 20 bucks in key areas include em- — Kuntal McElroy, head of learning and my pocket, so I had to ployee engagement, cafind a way to go to school development, Ericsson North America and live and be able to reer development and business results. provide for myself.” The general rule of thumb is when the learning orHaving been born and raised in India where, ganization identifies a learning need, it first checks to McElroy said, education can be the differentiator in see if a solution is available. Or, whether multiple solu- living a meaningful life, education is central to her tions may be combined to create a new product. This thinking. She took on learning at Ericsson as a growth way, the function isn’t building something from opportunity, and she said she loves everything about it. scratch every time a fresh need arises. When learning is running the way she leads Ericsson’s In the case of the upselling training product, Erics- North America learning organization — in a manner son already had many soft skills training offerings; it where business and functional area expertise complewas important for learning to — with the help of the ment and advance one another forward — learning business unit — see if any of those products were ap- can really touch every part of the business, she said. propriate for Huggins’ need, as well as his budget. The “That’s what learning and development does, it process saved the business tens of thousands of dollars makes a difference in your achievement.” CLO in cost avoidance, which added to the training’s ROI, McElroy said. Bravetta Hassell is a Chief Learning Officer associate In taking this “first look in-house” approach, the editor. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia.com.

“That’s what learning and development does, it makes a difference in your achievement.”

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a d v e r t i s e m e n t

BEST PRACTICES IN TECHNOLOGY

Protecting Your Most Valuable Assets Crafting a cybersecurity strategy to guard against internal and external threats B Y T IM H A R N ETT

Today’s interconnected world has caused massive shifts in how technology affects the workplace. New technologies allow objects to talk to each other. BYOD policies (in place at 75 percent of all organizations 1) are popular, increase productivity and bring personal familiarity into work. Yet interconnectedness also comes with risks. “Technology is embedded in everything — both at home and at work,” says David Shearer, CISSP and CEO for (ISC)². “But new vulnerabilities arise as the devices we use between our personal and professional lives begin to blur. Everything that is attached to the web and comes into an organization is a potential cybersecurity weak spot.”

protect their devices, so they don’t make themselves vulnerable at work or at home.

Yet, while cybersecurity attacks cost companies an average of $7.7 million 2 , not all risks are outside threats — or even malicious. In fact, according to IBM, 95 percent of all cybersecurity incidents involve human error 3. “There’s two parts to this equation,” Shearer says. “First, modern convenience is an area ripe for exploitation. However, cybersecurity breaches can come just as easily from upstanding employees making honest mistakes. Crafting a cybersecurity strategy lets organizations take a holistic look at how they can take the appropriate steps to protect data.”

Gather support. “Is the head of your organization committed to cybersecurity?” Shearer asks. “Your top leaders should demonstrate buy-in and be both aware of what your organization needs and take a holistic approach to cybersecurity across the enterprise. Once you have commitment, next ask yourself: Do you have the IT expertise in-house to set the right IT security policies for your organization? Does your IT team have the training and certifications it needs to properly protect your organization from a cyberattack? And, what should you look for when hiring cybersecurity personnel? Hiring officials should examine what will give them the highest level of confidence; whether that’s someone with a certification, real-world experience or both.” Research confirms that people who possess a certified cybersecurity credential are better prepared to address today’s security issues. “We see formal education

How can organizations prevent cybersecurity breaches? Shearer suggests evaluating current practices, securing leadership buy-in and engaging all employees — including IT and beyond. And it’s essential your IT team has the knowledge and certifications to effectively teach all employees how to

Take stock. When crafting a cybersecurity strategy, first assess your current situation. What are your most valuable assets and are they adequately protected? “Leverage your expertise to see what your organization already does well, and identify potential weaknesses,” Shearer says. “With so much technology, there are many vulnerabilities that cybersecurity professionals have to address. When purchasing new software or crafting a new BYOD policy, evaluate how you will secure your data. Don’t wait until after the fact to have that conversation.”

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

BEST PRACTICES IN TECHNOLOGY

“Hiring officials should examine what will give them the highest level of confidence; whether that’s someone with a certification, real-world experience or both.” – David Shearer, CISSP and CEO for (ISC)² and certification as complimentary,” Shearer says. “Having both formal education and certifications gives cybersecurity professionals more expertise on the most current technology, and builds that lifelong commitment to learning. With that knowledge, cybersecurity personnel can train your end-users about technological risks and expectations.” Engage end-users. “To be viewed as a business enabler, cybersecurity professionals should study how people interact with the technology,” Shearer says. “User-awareness training should examine the human aspects. Content should engage and excite the enduser as part of the overall strategy. Be active in raising awareness of the user’s responsibility to be vigilant

against cyberattacks.” One way to do this is through interactive material, proven to engage employees in cybersecurity awareness4. “Most cybersecurity issues come from employees not understanding the implications of how they interact with technology,” Shearer says. “Interconnectedness comes with a price: If your employee uses their s m a r t p h o n e t o o p e n t h e i r g a r a g e d o o r, t h e n somebody else can too. If the employee then brings that device to work, what else can the other unknown person do? Innocuous technology permutations can and are being exploited. With a smart cybersecurity strategy, organizations can minimize both internal and external threats.”

Tech Pro Research. (2015). Wearables, BYOD and IoT: Current and future plans in the enterprise.

2015 Cost of Cyber Crime Study: Global. Ponemon Institute.

Howarth, F. (2014). “The Role of Human Error in Successful Security Attacks.”

Lohrmann, D. (2014). “Ten Recommendations for Security Awareness Programs.” Government Technology.

COMPANY PROFILE (ISC)2 is an international nonprofit membership association focused on inspiring a safe and secure cyber world. Best known for the acclaimed Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®) certification, (ISC)2 offers a portfolio of credentials that are part of a holistic, programmatic approach to security. Our membership, over 115,000 strong, is made up of certified cyber, information, software and infrastructure security professionals who are making a difference and helping to advance the industry. Our vision is supported by our commitment to educate and reach the general public through our charitable foundation – The Center for Cyber Safety and Education™. Visit www.isc2.org.

Are You Developing

GLOBAL

LEADERS? In today’s diverse and complex marketplace, charismatic and innovative leadership isn’t enough. Leaders must be agile, inclusive, culturally competent and global. BY BRAVETTA HASSELL

28 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

o remain competitive in a global economy, organizations must determine the best way to position their business and people for success; that requires strong global leadership. Whether the organization is large or small, all companies are affected by global events and need leaders savvy in both business and cultural affairs. “Unless you have an interest, ability — competence to understand the world and understand your business that way, you won’t be able to have any kind of real leadership on the business or on the talent within that business,” said Juan-Luis Goujon, president and CEO of BPI group, North America. It’s why learning leaders and executives at companies like L’Oréal and PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business said it’s critical that they place a high value on developing global leaders. Today’s leaders — and tomorrow’s — have to be capable of understanding the world and navigating its complexities.

The Problem with Global Leadership Goujon said there’s no getting around the impact of world events and conditions on business. Advances in technology have hastened globalization.

Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

Companies aren’t isolated to one region like they were in decades past, he explained. And increasingly, organizations not only provide services and products to global markets, they employ global staff and collaborate with global partners. In its 2015 report on global leadership, the Institute for Corporate Productivity and the American Management Association declared the era of national companies was over. But only half of businesses considered developing global leaders a priority, and only a third of respondents believed their global leadership development initiatives were effective. Reasons for this failure run the gamut. Some point to a lack of soft skills development. Others blame outdated development strategies or a shortsighted view of who should be developed. But the world won’t wait for businesses to figure things out. Without effective global leaders, businesses shouldn’t count on experiencing much success abroad. The i4cp paper reports that top-performing companies are often 14 times more likely than their low-performing peers to report strong business results in the global marketplace — results attributable to leaders who possess the ability to drive performance in a global business environment. “Companies that want to be successful globally need to have global leaders,” said BPI Managing Director of Leadership and Talent Practice Michael McGowan. But what exactly does it mean to be a global leader? It’s part of the learning leader’s job to figure that out. But jotting down a list of key competencies they should possess oversimplifies the issue, said Scott Beardsley, dean of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. A global leader’s functional role will drive the skills required for success. After researching the topic, James Clawson, Darden’s Johnson and Higgins Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, laid out 11 key characteristics for a global business leader. Beardsley said these skills and traits — including overseas experience, sensitivity to cultural diversity, humility, presence and cautious honesty — are valuable to leadership at home and critical to success in the global environment. “The global leader needs to be more things to more people, as compared to their domestic counterpart,” he explained. “They have more alternatives to consider, factors to weigh, risks to assess.” Effective global leadership takes strong leadership skills to the next level, said Goujon, who has worked with and managed teams in different parts of the world for much of his life. This next level leadership includes global strategic thinking, intellectual curiosity and strong self-awareness. Cultural intelligence is also critical to a global leader’s success. A person 30 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

Reader Reaction What’s missing in global leadership development?

Michelle Braden:

Global leaders need skills/knowledge such as cultural competence, virtual leadership, global marketplaces, etc...not to mention in depth knowledge of their domain and international business, and by far the most important - exceptional communication skills. They need to understand and have experience dealing with complex environments that include people of different cultures and diversity in ways they may have never imagined. Additionally, they need to be able to support others, no matter how different, or where they are located,what language they speak, or what generation they belong to. And support means they need to empathize, actively listen, help develop their team members and position them for success. Finally, they need to be resilient, flexible, accountable, and have humility.

Evelyn Lager: The vast majority of global leaders were educated in a predictive analytic model where the primary responsibility of leadership was to mitigate risk for the corporation. Mitigating risk is contingent on predicting the future. While, short of a crystal ball, prediction is rarely a sound basis for considering growth opportunities, it permeates the mindset of most leaders. Unfortunately, during times of uncertainty, complexity, and market turbulence, there are no predictive analytics that can fully mitigate risk. As a result, too often, preventing or minimizing risk results in preventing or minimizing opportunity capture. The ineffectiveness that we see is a function of these misguided, but understandable, attempts to maximize cash in safe environments. The unhappy truth is that in the current global scene there are no such environments, and opportunities abound but are ignored.

Punya Upadhyaya: Three reasons: A) People do country based work; their operating modes do not enable global perspectives, and they do not gain global scale in vision and possibility. B) The pervasive spread of best practices stifles the ability to create new business models; without new models leadership is ineffective, even if you listen and have emotional intelligence etc. C) The performance centered approach to managing loses heart. As leaders learn to be authentic again, connected to purpose and care, they free their wellsprings of leadership and become powerful. What do you think? Join the discussion at tinyurl.com/ MissinginGlobalLeadership, follow us on Twitter @CLOmedia

Traits of a Global Business Leader

lobal leadership can’t fit in a box, said University of Virginia Darden School of Business Dean Scott Beardsley. A standard list of what skills and competencies are required of global leaders will never be exhaustive when one considers the unique needs and objectives of their organization as well as the different cultural nuances of the global markets in which they work and interact.

Still, there are some traits and skills that serve leaders well at home and are exponentially critical to their success in the global landscape. Beardsley cited 11 Key Characteristics of a Global Business leader, authored by James Clawson, Darden’s Johnson and Higgins Professor Emeritus of Business Administration. 1. Overseas experience 2. Deep self-awareness 3. Sensitivity to cultural diversity 4. Humility 5. Lifelong curiosity 6. Cautious honesty 7. Global strategic thinking 8. Patiently impatient 9. Well-spoken 10. Good negotiator 11. Presence

—Bravetta Hassell

with cultural intelligence can juggle all aspects of leadership in different cultures, leveraging differences to the group’s advantage.

What Does Global Leadership Development Look Like? Kathy Kavanagh, managing director of leadership development at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the company has undertaken some large scale projects in the past several years to ensure the multinational auditing and tax services company focuses on global leadership in earnest. The company looked at extant programs and considered how to generate greater value from them so that wherever PwC is in the world, development efforts would achieve the same goals. Kavanagh said PwC’s learning organization looked at business objectives and the firm’s future goals first. “We started with why are we here in the first place?” PwC’s purpose statement — to build trust in society and solve important problems — was central to developing a leadership model. “The world is getting more complex — changing at the

speed of light and then some,” she explained. “More and more, people and clients are looking for people they can trust to help them maneuver through these complex times.” PwC’s employees are key to how the company brings value to clients. Creating its leadership development framework required a deep dive into the key things people need to be able to do and in what context so they can deliver on the company’s goals, Kavanagh said. The organization landed on five areas: whole leadership, understanding the business, relationships, technical capabilities and global acumen. Kavanagh said the framework reflects the company’s move away from programmatic leadership development. It embeds the identified values in learning and development efforts at all levels and is progressive. When it comes to developing global acumen, employees can take self-assessments around that or one of the other four dimensions to understand what areas need strengthening, and then use learning maps aligned to the respective areas to hone their skills with related readings and videos. Employees also can develop their skills through online and experiential learning that can happen within a team or for a particular group. For example, Genesis Park, a leadership development program for high-performing senior managers and directors, brings together groups from different parts of the world for working sessions. Leaders learn to appreciate cultural differences, different working styles and languages, as well as other things people may bring from local jurisdictions related to laws and practices. McGowan said some of the skills and characteristics global leaders need they either have already or other skills like cultural intelligence can be developed. Before concentrating on specific skills, however, it’s important that learning leaders examine their company needs and goals, and define what success will look like for global leaders. He said the following questions can guide efforts to build a global leadership development framework: • What are the key skills necessary to be successful in any given global leadership position? • What are the strengths these leaders need? • What are the experiences (e.g. overseas) they will have to have? • What are their motivators? • What are some key personality traits they might need to have? • What are some derailers that person will need to watch out for? Answers to these questions can help determine whether a person has global leadership capabilities GLOBAL LEADERS continued on page 52 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

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GLOBAL LEADERS continued from page 31 for a particular organization. Further, when learning leaders engage business leaders around global leadership development needs, they can create a model that understands the nuances — and meets the unique business needs — of their company. “The company’s business leaders will know what is needed and what is not to be successful,” McGowan said. He said companies should take a look at best practices in other industries or in comparable companies but hesitate before adopting their models as the gospel, as each company and its culture is different. Effective global leaders may need a combination of functional skills, sector skills, the ability to role-model values, or specific craft and job-related skills that need to be assessed at different points in their career. Organizations need to blend these considerations into a leadership development architecture, Beardsley said. General leadership skills can be easily transferred into a global leadership context, but that doesn’t mean an effective domestic leader will be equally as effective in a foreign setting. Consequently, it’s important for those leading global leadership development to assess individuals on both general leadership skills and the competencies needed for success in a global environment.

Delivering Global Leadership Education Now more than ever global leaders need to work from a place of empathy, curiosity and humility, said Maeve Coburn, vice president of learning and transformation at L’Oréal. These skills aren’t easy to teach, she explained, but “we don’t want anyone to walk around without the right skills.” Whether a leader works in a different country or L’Oréal has hired a leader from the outside, it asks both to complete a culture profiler assessment. A coach decodes their responses to a set of questions to give leaders an external view of their presence and how they can improve. “It’s a wonderful tool for leaders to push the pulse button when a challenge comes up and see how they can see things different,” Coburn said. The feedback offered in this setting and others is important in developing global leaders. L’Oréal also develops its leaders through a program piloted three years ago in the United States. In it, every new department head embarks on a six-month learning period that includes leader assessments and a developmental intervention. McGowan said organizations can use a variety of approaches in addition to in-person learning experiences to develop effective global leaders including overseas deployments and rotational programs for emerging leaders. If an overseas learning experience is not a possibility, he said there’s value in having leaders manage a global team, giving them responsibility for people working in different regions or countries. Fur52 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

ther, high-potential employees not serving in a leadership capacity can build critical global leadership skills while working on a virtual team where they collaborate with colleagues from around the world and report to a global leader. Essentially, developing global leaders has to go beyond a PowerPoint lecture, McGowan said. Through action-based or experiential learning programs, people can practice important skills needed for the global environment. For instance, get different colleagues from different countries to come together on a small team to work on a real business problem with global implications. Or, employ a global-simulated case problem. The bottom line is people should receive a tangible problem to work on in a safe environment where they can practice key leadership skills. During this time, learning leaders also can infuse other leadership skills into the initiative to reinforce the learning employees need to be successful. Leaders said in order for this type of development work to make a substantial impact, it has to start early and be available to an audience broader than those typically tapped for this leadership work. Despite a 2014 study by Harvard Business Review that showed the average age of entrants in company-sponsored leadership programs as 42 years old, Kavanagh said starting early allows PwC to build more leaders and not have to retool people later on. An i4cp study confirms this, finding strong negative correlations in global leadership development effectiveness when organizations prioritize mid- and senior-level candidates. Further, since global leaders aren’t defined by title or role but by a set of behaviors everyone needs to demonstrate, organizations can’t relegate their global leadership development work to just a select few. That’s why PwC tries to line up learning and development closely with employees’ daily work across employee levels. Kavanagh calls it “real-time development.” But these efforts are all for naught, or perhaps are an impossibility altogether, if organizations haven’t decided what is and what isn’t globalization, Goujon said. Agility is the biggest difference and so is an inclusive approach. Global companies have a wide bandwidth in terms of how they approach issues. They don’t scale what worked in some areas, they think globally from the beginning, and their leadership reflects this. “This isn’t about exporting, it’s about knowing your market, knowing your customers, seeing your talent as global and being able to deploy accordingly,” Goujon said. CLO Bravetta Hassell is a Chief Learning Officer associate editor. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia.com.

OUTSOURCE

NOT TO OUTSOURCE

That is the question, but there are certain factors leaders should consider when deciding whether to outsource or keep learning in-house. BY ANDIE BURJEK

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utsourcing in learning and development has an inconsistent reputation. Full-time employees can lose their jobs; control over certain aspects of the business can be lost; or it ultimately cost more to outsource rather than to keep learning in house. While there’s some measure of truth to those protests, an effective L&D outsourcing program can have a positive impact on an organization. Chief Learning Officer connected with learning leaders to discuss when they know to outsource learning and development and how they choose the correct partner. In fact, 53 percent of enterprises outsource at least some portion of their learning, according to an IDC survey from March. The study surveyed over 190 members of Chief Learning Officer’s Business Intelligence Board about their attitudes about and plans to outsource learning. The study also found that 94 percent of those surveyed reported being

satisfied with their outsourcing providers. Chief Learning Officer connected with learning leaders to discuss when they know to outsource learning and development and how they choose the correct partner. What financial or strategic factors do they take into account while making decisions? What defines a successful relationship with a vendor? And how can a vendor satisfy an organization’s needs without taking over too much of the learning function? There are several aspects that should never be outsourced, according to Doug Teachey, director of learning and development at the Coca Cola Co.: learning strategy, vision and leadership. Outsourcing, he said, should occur when a company needs someone with a specific skill set for a short period of time and when the organization is going through changes. In the case of changes within the organization, it may be uncertain whether something is a short-term or long-term need, so it’s wiser to hire a contractor than hire a full-time

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employee who may end up being laid off a few months later. Teachey leads the training and development effort for Coke One North American and heads a team of seven instructional designers who each have an area of focus. Whenever Coke has a big release, Teachey will add to his team’s capacity by bringing in a contractor with a different skill set — such as finance. A full-time position can be added in the future if necessary. “A few years ago, I had three instructional designers and six contractors [on my team],” he said. “But as we got further down the path, I saw I could add these fulltime roles here because the scope was clearer and we knew this was a longer term need.” Justin Lombardo, chief learning officer of Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, agrees that core competencies should never be outsourced. By outsourcing something connected to core business processes, you risk losing connectivity to your people, leadership and culture. The more generic the better, Lombardo advised. In health care you could outsource strategies for infection control for nurses, which is fairly straighforward. But something more specific to the organization — like nursing policies around patient experience or how to create the best patient experience — should remain in house. “The closer it is to core functions of the business and the closer it is into your role as a provider of culture and dimension, the less you should outsource,” he said. Tim Bray, vice president and global head of human resources operations, training and Asia Pacific at Quintiles, sees great value in outsourcing parts of the learning function. Many companies can’t afford or aren’t willing to invest the money it would take to stay current on new tools or technologies in, for example, instructional design, he said. He asks himself two questions when making this decision: Am I getting the innovation I need from the existing training organization? And, can I scale the existing training organization to constantly changing needs in the business? “Frankly, these days it’s hard, with technology changing like it is so quickly, to keep an in-house training organization up to speed on innovative things,” he said. And keeping up with new technology is increasingly important. In fact, compared to previous years companies are more focused on adopting new technologies, according to Deloitte’s “Global Human Capital Trends 2016” study, which surveyed more than 7,000 business and HR leaders. The survey found more business leaders are embracing advanced learning tools, such as massive open 36 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

online courses, or MOOCS. And tools like this are one of many that can be outsourced to an outside vendor.

Maintain a Strong Partnership Like any business relationship, choosing the right partner is key in the learning leader/vendor partnership. “If you’re going to outsource, make sure to pick the right vendors early on so that you can stay with them long term,” said Lombardo. “Moving them from vendor to partner is critical. You can’t be flitting around and buying on a project base that’s lowest cost.” In picking the right vendor, Lombardo prefers to hire smaller organizations — boutiques or individuals — that are more cost-effective and provide better connectivity with the people working for him. Also important in choosing a vendor, he said, is selecting one with a depth of knowledge about L&D and learner-focused technologies. Too-generalized vendors sometimes lack the depth to be efficient in specific areas. When you know a vendor’s cultural values and competencies matches your organizations values and needs, you have the basis for a strong partnership. A trusting partnership is especially important so that both parties care about the outcome, said Teachey. “If [my business partners] don’t have some investment or input in the design, if they don’t have some financial accountability or input in it, then it’s just my baby. It’s not a true collaborative partnership,” he said. “I’m the single parent. And they’re the other mom at the park criticizing my kid.” When he hires a contractor, he said he interviews them as if hiring them as part of his team. Since they’re representing his brand, he wants them to fit in the team he’s already built. A major concern of outsourcing learning is losing institutional knowledge, he added. You go through a lot of effort to find the right vendor, invest a lot of time and money in that contractor just like a full-time employee, and when they eventually leave the company, they take all that institutional knowledge with them. The organization also has missed opportunities for internal growth and development as well. Teachey finds it useful to rely on pre-existing relationships. Have a few reliable venders that specialize in a certain area and go back to them whenever possible. “You have to think about it all the time if you don’t already have a contractor in place; for Coke, it could take a couple of months,” he added. “Once you have it in place already, boom, we’re rolling!” Company cultures that mesh is just important to the vendor as it is to the client. “If there have been any glaring failures in the world

of learning solution outsourcing, it is typically due to that problem, in that someone had a hammer, and everything looked like a nail,” said Tracy Cox, director of performance consulting and director of global development at Raytheon Professional Services. “And they didn’t bother with adapting.” Adapting to a company culture is key as a vendor, he added, and it’s important to run a diagnostic on the client up front and understand its core values, goals and aspirations. From their, the vendor should tailor its approach to fit said culture.

The Impact of Outsourcing Learning When a company’s learning department and its vendor have formed a strong partnership, both sides can benefit. A company can use outsourcing to create new learning competencies in full-time employees, for example. “When you outsource, you get people who are current on the latest trends of learning, understand different aspects of populations and different modalities, and they can really force your internal team to up their game, said Lombardo. This is true in health care, he added, where he as a learning leader will adopt a new system before he has the chance to create new competencies in the learning staff. Here’s where working with professionals, experts who have advanced degrees in learning, comes in handy. Outsourcing may also help learning professionals know what’s trending in innovation and how people want to learn, said Bray. “Where we’re getting innovation now is instructional design where they’re bringing in different points of view on how to onboard and train people — giving them bite-sized bits rather than giving them the whole load the first day,” said Bray. Part of problem is employees are overwhelmed, he explained. The employee experience, especially with millennials, is such an important thing and you have to pay attention to how people are receiving training in a way that makes it simple and fun. Learning material frequently is being delivered to people’s phones and tablets as opposed to all-desktop-oriented training. Choosing the wrong vendor can have disastrous effects, said Teachey, who has fired vendors for not being focused enough on the project or burning through the budget halfway through a project. Teachey added that when companies look at outsourcing from a cost rather than a value perspective, they get what they pay for. Going for the cheapest vendor might result in low-value instructional learning, whereas a company has a better chance of seeing positive results by forming a partnership with a quality vender. With a strong, culturally compatible, strategic relationship, a company can grow its learning function beyond in-house capabilities that also provides the vendor with deeper knowledge and more experience in a particular specialty. CLO Andie Burjek is a Chief Learning Officer associate editor. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia.com. 38 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

What Do Learning Leaders Outsource?

hen learning leaders decide what to outsource, they focus on four areas, said Edward Trolley, senior vice president of consulting and advisory services at NIIT.

What they all have in common is scalability, in that they allow expertise in areas a company can’t build internally. There’s also variable costs – in that companies pay for what they need when they need it rather than a fixed salary associated with full-time employees. • Custom content development: “It requires a fair amount of investment to stay abreast on the latest and greatest happenings in custom content development,” said Trolley. A lot is happening in the custom content space — gamification, smartphone training, simulations. • Learning administration: This includes back-office activities like event management, booking rooms, getting materials out and scheduling instructors. Leaders normally choose to outsource this when the company is going through some sort of internal transformation, said Trolley, or when the company is looking to reduce costs on critically important tasks with little business impact. • Delivery: This includes the instruction or delivery of training. If clients have the resources to do this themselves, said Trolley, they sometimes choose to outsource it when it takes a lot of energy to manage. A full-time employee may have other tasks to focus on other than instructing, but outsourced instructors are focused entirely on the task. • Vendor management/strategic sourcing: This is a hot area today and appeals to companies that rely on too many third-party providers. A contractor hired in strategic sourcing will look for duplications or redundancies among vendors, because it’s not uncommon to see 10 vendors utilized for the same kind of training. Ultimately, he added, what drives a company to outsource an area of training comes down to three things: reducing costs, which alone is an insufficient reason; getting access to specialties and capabilities the company doesn’t have or doesn’t have the resources to build; and getting the best-in-class training in an area that is not a core competency.

—Andie Burjek

Ask Me Anything:

The Power of Questions in Learning Getting information quickly is the learning method of choice these days. But favoring quick hits over asking questions and putting some effort into figuring out the answers is detrimental for the employee and the company. BY RANDY EMELO

etflix viewers spend 60 seconds – 90 seconds for those strongwilled enough to keep scrolling – searching for a movie or television show to watch before giving up and moving on to something else. Just one minute, that’s all the time people give to searching for entertainment. Now think about how long people would search for information and answers at work so they could do their jobs. It likely won’t be much more than 60 seconds. We have become an impatient society that expects everything to be available with the click of a mouse or the swipe of a finger. We can become quite indignant when this doesn’t happen. Worse, our impatience is inhibiting our ability to learn. Yes, people can quickly click, swipe and search for an answer — and typically they will scrounge up a suitable answer fairly fast. Unfortunately, when people go and find an answer, they don’t actually engage their minds in the learning process. When answers are simply given to people, they don’t learn how to solve the problem themselves, what factors to consider, what process to follow, or any other number of actions they might need in the future to solve the problem on their own. “The process of thinking has a huge impact on the decisions we make,” said Phil Antonelli, senior learning strategist at Xerox Learning Solutions. “Testing truth, evaluating how two plus two gets to four, and the recognition that our answers and ideas are held together by individual or group belief systems—there is a lot going on underneath the surface that we hardly ever consider. Unfortunately, there is so much going on around us that can distract us, and the need to produce results causes us to focus more on the outcome than the process.” Therein lies the biggest roadblock to learning in the modern era. Meaningful learning occurs when people understand how they arrived at the answer or solution, so they can apply that understanding again in other situations. “The flaws in our thinking only become evident when examining our mistakes, so it is important to take the time to explore the assumptions and emotions that govern our thinking,” Antonelli explained.

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IMAGE COUTRSEY OF RANDY EMELO

In order for meaningful learning to take place, people have to focus on process-oriented conversations and learning activities, rather than just outcome-oriented efforts. Put another way, we have to go beyond just getting the answer and put some effort into figuring out how we came about finding the answer. Learning leaders must create an environment for thoughtful reflection and deep thinking so that people can begin to understand how they go about building and applying new knowledge. One way to accomplish this is to shift attention from outcome-oriented conversations to more process-driven conversations that focus more on asking questions.

Channeling Our Inner Child One of the most common — and vexing — experiences for any parent with a young child is when the child asks why – incessantly. Just thinking about this type of scenario can bring on an eye twitch, but it actually provides a great example of how children embrace a wonderful curiosity for and openness to learning – something people seem to outgrow as they age. “It is unfortunate, but in most cases, corporate learning is focused on performance related to business outcomes, rather than the thinking skills that underlie the performance. It is so much easier to observe and measure action than reflection. In most cases, questioning skills are only taught when directly related to the business outcome,” Antonelli said. Companies that want to foster curiosity in their employees should encourage them to become inquisitive learners. “In collaborative and group learning, often it is not the first question where the most profound learning occurs, but the questions that follow that have a deeper impact, when we probe our answers in greater detail. ‘What does it really mean when we say X? What are the implications of Y?’,” said Donald H. Taylor, chairman of The Learning and Performance Institute. Asking the right questions can drive action, help to influence others, support more meaningful developmental dialogue, and create more consequential learning activity. Understanding why an idea failed or why a hypothesis proved true can help employees address a similar situation in the future. They will have a broader method with which to attack problems, one they can adapt to different situations they may face. Experimentation plays a profound role in learning through asking questions. This practice thrives in collaborative learning environments such as mentoring groups, where people can bounce ideas off of one another, share their experiences, and provide guidance to their cohorts. Asking questions in the context-rich environment of social and collaborative learning helps to connect learning and thinking skills, according to 42 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

Xerox’s Antonelli. Questions play a primary part in creating a generative learning environment. Think of it like an iceberg. Answers sit above the surface and account for the little bit of the iceberg that people can see, but underneath the surface is where the bulk of the iceberg — additional insights and skills — sits. Questions drive thinking below the surface and into the biggest part of the iceberg where people gain more complex understanding of the topic or issue at hand (see Figure 1). Some questions that can help people dive below the surface and into deeper thinking about various topic areas include: • What are the interrelationships between elements in [fill in the blank with the topic or area being discussed]? • What core assumptions make up this practice area? • What are some of the critical implications of applying principles related to this topic? • What are the various points of view that come into play? • What are some of the core areas of logic or reason that support this practice or thought area? • How relevant are these concepts? • How much consistency, accuracy and precision can be gained from deploying this practice? Within a collaborative learning or mentoring group, questions play a critical part in leading people to higher levels of thinking. People can begin to move beyond just remembering something they’ve already done or gaining new levels of understanding about a topic. Instead, they can apply new understandings in a practical way, analyze the impact of that application, evaluate the larger implications of the application and

Want Purposeful Learning? Start with a Question

nstructional design isn’t a facet of learning and development one would immediately associate with measurement. But when it comes to creating successful programs, it likely should be. Chief Learning Officer spoke with Will Davis, an instructional systems designer for Scitent, an e-learning company based in Virginia. Davis said not only should learning leaders start with measurement in mind, they should ask the right questions to determine what end result they require, essentially what problem are we trying to solve? Only by engaging adult curiosity can one promote active learning. How do questions form a foundation of learning? Because “what gets measured gets done.” Measurement provides the means to assess success. In designing instructional courses and content, we should begin by establishing our measurement and asking ourselves, “What do I want the learner to be able to do or perform at the end of the course?” This initial questioning is the foundation of all learning. For learning to be purposeful, it must begin with asking the right question.

Which came first, the question or the answer? Of course, the question. As adults, we consciously seek out information, knowledge or skills to solve problems and to provide the answers to our questions. Questions define our tasks, and answers are the solutions. When we can provide an answer, we consider the problem solved. It is important to remember this because most on-the-job learning content is either conceptual and/or performance-oriented. However, asking ourselves first not about the concept but rather “What do I know about, or how well can I complete a particular task?” incites the curiosity necessary to learn and remember the answer. How do we typically formulate questions in e-learning? Typically, we use pre-assessments to determine what the learner already knows and post-assessments to gauge their growth and the success of the content. These assessments are important; however, the foundational learning via problem solving is absent in this approach. To create really purposeful learning, we must enhance the typical pre- and post-assessments by designing courses around problem solving to promote active learning. Start by designing the content with these questions in mind: “What problem are we try to solve?” and “How will we measure success?”

— Kellye Whitney

analyses that occurred, and create new processes or practices as a result.

Creating the Right Environment Taylor said the trick to creating this sort of collaborative learning is not so much asking the right questions, but creating the environment in which they can be answered honestly, usefully, and without fear. Real questions and answers — and with them true, deeper learning — come from a workplace where true discussion is valued, individuals are respected, and all are prepared to sacrifice their own opinions to demonstrably better answers. “Those characteristics are what make up a true culture of learning, something essential for any organization today, and something that can only be built from the top of the organization,” he explained. To help set the right environment for collaborative learning, organizational leaders need to demonstrate their openness and be good role models for this type of question-driven learning process. When meeting with a group of learners to begin exploring a new topic area, start by getting everyone to answer the question, “Share a time when you…” This will give everyone a chance to speak and will allow people to share their current common experiences. Afterward, build on that by asking questions like: • How would you summarize the new things you’re hearing? • What new practices or insights are you gathering from the resources being shared or from the experience of others within the learning group? • What would result if you applied these new thoughts, practices or concepts? • What conclusions could you draw from these actions that we’ve taken? • What is your opinion of what we’ve discovered and discussed so far? • How could you improve this process? • What new process or practice could you invent that would demonstrate a certain result? “We learn when someone answers a question we have, such as when an idea or new piece of information fills a latent gap in our understanding,” said Taylor. Learning leaders can take advantage of this by using a four-step dialogue model and asking questions at each step to help people reflect, envision, explore, and act. During the first step, people reflect on what has already occurred to learn lessons from the past. Learning leaders can help spur dialogue in this area by asking: • What is your current understanding of…? • What bothers you most about your present situation? POWER OF QUESTIONS continued on page 53 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

THE NEW FACE OF

Apprenticeships BY LYNN SCHROEDER

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Apprenticeships, the old-school-ish training model once only common in construction and manufacturing has spread into health care, insurance, and many other industries thanks to its workforce cultivation benefits.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADOBE STOCK

ost would associate apprenticeships, a teaching model that combines on-the-job training with classroom instruction, a development strategy for the construction industry. But apprenticeships are sporting a new face thanks to a host of industries such as insurance and healthcare that are giving it a fresh look. Companies such as Aon and Zurich point to benefits that range from a more loyal and better-trained workforce, to students emerging with training relevant to the needs of the market and no education-based debt. These companies recognize that apprentices represent a valuable investment in the skills that can put a worker on a proven path to success and get the job done for employers and businesses looking to grow and expand. According to the Department of Labor, the number of registered apprentices jumped from 375,425 in 2013 to 447,929 in 2015, and of those more than 200,000 workers became new apprentices in 2015. The apprenticeship model also received a big boost under President Obama, who in 2014, set a goal to double the number of apprenticeships between 2014 and 2019. There has even been support from Congress. Sens. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, and Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, have introduced S. 574 – Leveraging and Energizing America’s Apprenticeship Programs Act, a bill which would allow employers to claim a tax credit for participating in qualified apprenticeship programs.

The Ultimate Learning Job Apprenticeships help people upgrade their skills and keep pace with the demands of the 21st century. Today, in part thanks to strong cooperation between labor and management, 87 percent of apprentices find employment after completing their programs, and their average starting wage is more than $50,000.

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Over the course of their lifetimes, workers who complete an apprenticeship may earn hundreds of thousands of dollars more than their peers who do not. The return is good for employers, too. They see increased productivity, reduced waste and greater innovation. Apprenticeships also increase the number of highly skilled workers in in-demand industry sectors, and they create opportunities for workers to gain professional credentials. According to the Department of Labor, apprenticeships produce highly skilled employees. Once established, apprenticeship programs also reduce turnover rates, increase productivity, and enhance safety in the workplace thanks to training curriculums that are specifically created to meet the organization’s needs. For example, many electric power companies have strong apprenticeship programs to help them address a looming workforce shortage. Common stats suggest nearly one-third of utility workers are eligible to retire in the next five to seven years. Utilities across the country partner with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning’s (CAEL) initiative the Energy Providers Coalition for Education, (EPCE) a collaboration of utility employers, education providers, associations, and labor working together since 2001 to develop, sponsor, and promote efficient and cost-effective online education and training solutions geared to build and enhance energy workforce capacity. [Editor’s note: The author works for CAEL] EPCE provides online education that is accredited, industry-backed and leveraged into apprenticeship programs and is working to bring awareness of the importance of apprenticeships in building a welltrained, well-skilled, ready-to-work labor force. EPCE also partners with the National Energy Center of Excellence at Bismarck State College (BSC) to provide apprentices with a core set of skills and competencies, as well as a foundation in electrical systems, transformers and electric components. EPCE supports the coursework development through a national curriculum committee made up of representatives from major utilities and industry organizations. Further, based on core training standards established at Westminster, Colorado-based wholesale electric power supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, EPCE helps enhance its four-year, blended learning apprenticeship program using selected online courses from BSC’s Electric Power Technology Program.

In this blended learning apprenticeship model, apprentices take online college courses developed by EPCE employers’ industry subject matter experts as part of their required related technical instruction. These online college courses are specifically tied to the on-the-job learning competencies and objectives, and are delivered in concert with each level of the registered apprenticeship program. Employers benefit from the program in a variety of ways. First, it reduces the employer’s training burden because the staff can focus resources towards the hands-on training requirements. Further, apprentices are ready and knowledgeable for each level of their apprenticeship program. They demonstrate and apply their knowledge from the online related training instruction to journeyman while completing their on-the-job learning. Apprentices also understand the career benefits. Less than 10 percent of apprentices drop from the program, and more than 90 percent successfully complete the online college courses aligned to the apprenticeship program. Upon successful completion of the apprenticeship program, apprentices have college credit and are on their way to earning an associate’s college degree.

Employers, educators and elected officials are joining together to increase funding for apprenticeships.

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Apprenticeships Gaining Popularity Perhaps the most unexpected growth in apprenticeships can be seen in industries such as insurance that typically don’t use the model but are now embracing it to help cultivate a more talented and diverse workforce. Aon, a global risk management, insurance and human resources solutions company, is building an apprenticeship model in the U.S. that mirrors the success of its longtime apprenticeship work in the UK. According to Aaron Olson, Aon’s chief talent officer, to launch its apprenticeship program, the company is partnering with City Colleges of Chicago’s Harold Washington College to offer students the opportunity to earn their associates degree while getting on-the-job experience. Students in the apprenticeship program will spend 20 hours in the classroom and 20 working each week over a two-year period. They will be paid for their work, and their education will be subsidized. Aon will launch its U.S. apprenticeship program in January 2017. A member of Business Champions for Credential Completion, a group of top companies across the United States working together to encourage credential

Apprenticeship Models Branch Out Sectors like information technology, financial services, logistics and health care are now embracing apprenticeships. For example, Central Iowa Works, or CIW, in Des Moines, Iowa, is working with a national financial services company to equip workers with basic numeracy, industry knowledge, and customer service skills, and prepare them for entry-level jobs in the region. After classroom instruction and hundreds of hours of work experience, apprentices would be highly trained for their roles and ready to take advantage of the bank’s extensive training and development opportunities to grow within the company. “With apprenticeships, businesses are giving a compelling offer to potential candidates: ‘Come work with us, and we’ll not only provide you a job with great advancement opportunities but also pay you while you learn your role and our industry,’ ” said Pat Steele, executive director at Central Iowa Works. With Des Moines’ regional unemployment rate at 3.5 percent, the apprenticeship program allows the financial services firm to recruit new candidates, offer specialized training programs, and help to develop a culture of continued learning that will allow them to retain and grow these individuals for years to come. Based on models in other industries, retention of apprentices has been estimated to be from 85 to 95 percent, meaning the bank’s initial investment will pay significant dividends in higher retention, lower turnover, and better-trained, more effective employees. The expansion of apprenticeships to new industries has not been limited to Des Moines. Communities in Boston, Philadelphia and Wichita are developing new apprenticeship models in hospitality, childcare and information technology respectively. Further, Central Iowa Works and other communities expanding apprenticeships have had little trouble translating the model to new industries. With clear skill needs outlined and structured and successful internal training programs already in existence, financial service and information technology companies are perfect for apprenticeships. Expanding the apprenticeship model is a critical opportunity for businesses to generate highly trained workers with skills catered to their companies. It can offer an attractive new path for individuals looking to secure highly sought skills while getting paid. As the demand for trained workers continues to rise, if companies want to attract and grow high-quality talent they will need to offer flexible and industry-specific training. The apprenticeship model can fill this need.

— Fred Dedrick is executive director for National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

completion, Aon leaders believe that apprenticeship programs also can help close the projected worker shortage gap. In a study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the nation is currently on track, by 2020, to have a shortage of 5 million workers with postsecondary credentials. Apprenticeship programs can deliver a steady stream of skilled talent who understand both the culture and needs of an organization. Aon is so committed to the apprenticeship model it has been calling for other major employers to create apprenticeship programs as well. Senior executives from the company, Zurich North America and Deputy U.S. Secretary of Labor Chris Lu recently met with senior executives from a variety of Chicago-based insurance and financial services companies to discuss the benefits of developing an industry-wide apprenticeship program. At the meeting, Chicago-area leaders from 15 major firms including JPMorgan Chase, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Mesirow Financial, among others, discussed working together to establish an apprenticeship model for the financial services and insurance industries, starting in Chicago. The jobs created by apprenticeship programs like the one at Aon lead to long-term. Olson said some of the Chicago-meeting attendees said they started out in their careers as apprentices. “It is true that the apprenticeship model creates jobs. But over time what you’re really looking at is a system that holds the promise of delivering long term, well-paying and highly satisfying careers.” There’s good news for smaller organizations interested in pursuing an apprenticeship program but perhaps lacking the financial resources needed to create it. According to the Department of Labor, Federal workforce and education funds can help many businesses undertake new investments in apprenticeships, encourage more employers to provide high skilled training opportunities for apprentices, and assist educators and intermediaries in strengthening the tie between training and employment through apprenticeship. A new day is dawning for this time-tested, apprenticeship training programs. They can help to cultivate a pool of talent equipped with the organization or industry-specific skills and training, who are already well versed in an organization’s culture. At the same time, learning leaders can create a powerful opportunity for a student who will receive a post-secondary education and full-time work experience that could lead to a satisfying life-long career. CLO Lynn Schroeder is vice president of client relations for Council for Adult and Experiential Learning. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

CASE STUDY

Mentoring Is a Two-Way Street at Ford BY SARAH FISTER GALE

ew brands are more iconic in this country than Ford Motor Co. The global automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, put its first car on the market in 1903 and turned a profit almost immediately. Today the global company is the fifth largest auto manufacturer in the world with nearly 200,000 employees across the globe. Ford’s leaders attribute their ability to weather recent economic turbulence in part to the company’s strong corporate culture where mentoring plays a key role in spreading values and breaking down silos that can disrupt innovation. While many companies have mentoring programs, Ford takes a different approach than most, said Gale Halsey, CLO and director learning and organization development at Ford headquarters. Rather than the traditional model, where elder experts guide the next generation of employees as they find their footing, Ford views mentoring as a two-way opportunity. “Reverse mentoring can be a very powerful learning experience,” Halsey said. Most of the formal mentoring programs are driven by regional leaders, or by one of the company’s employee resource groups, or ERGs, comprised of employees who share similar characteristics working together to build networks and provide professional development to their members.

ERGs Mentor the Next Generation Steve Lewis heads the Ford African Ancestry Network, or FAAN, one of the original ERGs at Ford. The group was established in 1994 to help members become better people and better employees through per48 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

SNAPSHOT Ford’s mentoring culture benefits leaders as much as the employees they support. sonal development and networking and now has more than 2,500 members. A key component of being a part of FAAN is the opportunity to work with a mentor, Lewis said. FAAN members introduce the program to new employees during onboarding and host regular lunch and learns to spur conversations and create networking opportunities. At the end of each session, the hosts ask if anyone is interested in having a mentor. Sometimes employees will have a particular manager in mind as their mentor, and other times FAAN leaders will help connect employees with someone one-to-two salary grades above them so they can grow together over time. The mentor will then meet with the mentee to get to know them and make a mentoring plan that may include development needs, establishing a career path, and helping them build a stronger network.

Mentoring From Afar Other mentoring programs are led by corporate leadership teams to link high-potential employees with executives. These programs pair employees from different divisions or regions as a way to help both participants develop their network and expand their understanding of the business. Halsey for example is mentoring Irene Tang, HR director for Ford Asia Pa-

cific in Shanghai, through a leadership program called COMPASS that is designed to foster local talent, particularly in Asia Pacific’s emerging markets. The two were paired in 2013 when Tang took an entry-level HR management position supporting an IT team. Initially it was only meant to be an 18-month mentorship to help her develop her leadership development skills, but the two continue to work together today, meeting monthly via phone and WebEx, or whenever Tang faces a challenge and needs support.

ticipation. “I look for will, commitment and the ability to communicate,” he said. Then he brings the group together for monthly meetings. Two weeks prior to each meeting, Yanes sends everyone an agenda that usually include readings and an assignment to bring a story related to a specific aspect of leadership in which they didn’t do their best. In the meetings they share their stories and discuss strategies to improve performance in the future. “We learn more from these kinds of stories than from sharing our successes,” Yanes said.

‘Reverse mentoring can be a very powerful experience.’ —Gale Halsey, CLO, Ford Motor Co. (pictured on right next to Irene Tang, HR director for Ford Asia Pacific in Shanghai) They met face-to-face for the first time in April. Despite never being in the same room together, Tang said she has come to rely on Halsey. “Gale as my mentor not only gives me advice and coaches me on work related issues, but she also gives me advice on personal matters,” she said. Tang now has three mentees of her own. Working with Tang has helped Halsey in her own career by giving her a more global perspective on her leadership style. Tang is not a native English speaker, which made communication difficult at first, and caused Halsey to be more aware of the language barriers that exist across the employee base. As a result, she has focused on ensuring all training materials and communication receive natural language translations and that leadership training programs address the unique cultural differences managers need to be aware off. “Our leaders make decisions that have a global impact, and they need to have a global perspective.”

Circle Up Jose Yanes, sales director for Ford Mexico in Mexico City has had a similarly positive experience as a mentor in Ford’s Mentoring Circles Program, which began in 2013. The Circles program is a yearlong mentoring relationship that pairs several high potential employees with a single senior level manager to work together on skill-building and goal-setting. Yanes is leading his third circle, which he begins by first interviewing each potential mentee one-on-one to understand their career path, goals, and expectations for the program, and to set expectations for their par-

Every session ends with a “feed-forward” discussion about what they will cover in the next meeting. Like Halsey, Yanes also found the mentoring experience to be valuable to his own development process. The mentees challenge him to be a better leader, he said. “It’s not what I say that influences them, it is what I do.” It caused him to become a better communicator, and to work harder at building trust with his people. It also helped him in his relationship with his own boss, who has a more emotional approach to leadership and was recently struggling to convince the sales and marketing team to embrace a new initiative. He turned to Yanes for advice on how he might sway them, and Yanes talked with him about how to listen to their concerns and discuss the project in terms of what is best for the business rather than any one leader. “It worked,” he said. “He was able to convince them and now they are aligned on the best route to take.” This kind of reverse mentoring is common at Ford, Halsey said, noting that CEO Mark Fields regularly meets with new employees and often talks about the lessons he learns from the next generation. “Everyone has something to teach or an experience to share,” Halsey said. And while Ford doesn’t measure financial returns on mentoring programs, Halsey’s team believes the mentoring culture at Ford helps drive engagement, retention and productivity. “Our ROI is knowing our people are learning from each other and that our leaders understand the employee experience,” she said. CLO Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in Chicago. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Learning Delivery — E-learning and Mobile Gaining Ground BY CUSHING ANDERSON

Target audience, learning content and delivery options are the big choices for learning to have the most impact, but the combination is often a unique blend of each.

wo years ago, CLOs reported for the first time that self-paced and instructor-led e-learning courses were used more often than classroom-based instruction content and tools continue to evolve. Classroom-based training is still quite common for many content areas and covering far more learners. However, e-learning has its advocates who describe scenarios or situations where e-learning – either instructor led or self-paced – is a more effective option. Chief Learning Officer magazine’s Business Intelligence Board research has shown a steady increase in the use of self-paced and instructor led e-learning, and the generally sophisticated choices CLOs make. This year’s research shows e-learning overall is used more often than classroom training. And instructor-led training remains the common form of form of instruction. CLOs shift their learning delivery based on audience and content and a small increase in synchronous e-learning or instructor-led e-learning. Every other month, IDC administers a web-based survey to the Business Intelligence Board on a variety of topics to gauge the issues, opportunities and attitudes that make up the diverse role of a senior training executive. This month we look into the appropriate mix of learning delivery.

The Current Mix Continues to Shift Last year, CLOs reported using slightly less synchronous and asynchronous e-learning than classroom based training, consistent with several years of slow gains and small retreats for both forms of e-learning. This year classroom training was slightly lower than the combined e-learning offerings, again suggesting the CLOs are choosing methods that work for their initiatives. Overall, results show a decline in classroom-based training since 2010 and a slow but inconsistent increase in synchronous and asynchronous e-learning. 50 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

The long-term decreased emphasis of classroom training suggests CLOs accept the convenience, viability and quality of other modalities (Figure 1). CLOs adjust their use of various modalities because of effectiveness, but convenience and cost play a major role. When organizations increased their use of classroom-based instruction, CLOs based their decision on effectiveness. On the other hand, when organizations reduced their classroom-based instructor-led training they most often based that decision on cost. The combination of cost and value of the student/teacher interaction consistently drove the increased use of instructor-led (synchronous) e-learning. This coming year, CLOs expect classroom-based instructor-led training to represent a declining portion of the delivery portfolio primarily because of cost. Both synchronous and asynchronous e-learning will continue to gain portfolio share in reaction to continued pressure on training and development budgets, and the greater flexibility in scheduling and delivery. CLOs are also expressing an increased interest in video-based instruction. Thanks to the near ubiquitous availability of video-on-demand services and sufficient bandwidth to ensure a high quality learner experience. Some of the interest in video also comes from peer-topeer knowledge sharing.

Matching Modality to Message CLOs and their staffs adapt the right delivery option for the content, audience and environment. One way the message can be defined broadly is by content type: Business skills courses or IT content. More CLOs describe classroom-based instructor led training, C-ILT, as the primary delivery modality for business skills training (37 percent) than describe C-ILT as primary for IT skills training (24 percent) (Figure 2). Business skills courses generally lend themselves to

face-to-face experiences with instructors and peers. E-learning, however, is consistently seen as appropriate to deliver IT skills content. About 44 percent of the enterprises select at least one form of e-learning as the primary delivery method for IT skills training compared to 35 percent who selected it as their primary modality for business skills training. In 2010, only 15 percent of CLOs considered e-learning a “primary” delivery modality for business skills. For new-hire training, the preference for C-ILT also remains strong but declining (34 percent of CLOs describe C-ILT as the primary modality of new-hire training, down from 47 percent in 2014). Compliance training is the only business skill content domain where C-ILT is not considered the primary delivery modality. With compliance training, most enterprises prefer self-paced elearning (58 percent) to C-ILT (12 percent) – the same distribution as last year. In spite of continued emphasis on social media to support learning, the most significant types of informal learning aren’t technology based at all. On-the-job experiences, mentoring, and discussions and networking with other professionals are very traditional, lowtech forms of instruction and are considered among the most important forms of informal learning.

It’s About Consumption The most dramatic finding of this year’s survey is the increase in the amount of training delivered to mobile devices in 2016, which is increasing significantly over 2015 (Figure 3). One out of every three CLOs delivers compliance training to mobile/smart devices. About that same percentage deliver technical skills training to mobile devices. Some CLOs are anticipating a broad shift in their responsibilities in corporate education – shifting from content creation and delivery to a greater role in identifying appropriate informational and instructional material and making it conveniently available to the relevant populations. With that shift comes and increased focus on ensuring content gets consumed. One CLO suggested the changing workforce might require a change in delivery priorities: “Adjusting methods and delivery to align with changing demographics as we expect continued rapid increase among millennials in the next five years.” Not every training program will shift to e-learning delivery, but if it makes sense for the message and the audience, the delivery medium will shift toward convenience. Trends suggest that e-learning, mobile and video learning will continue to be a bigger part of the mix. CLO Cushing Anderson is program director for learning services at market intelligence firm IDC. To comment, email editor@CLOmedia.com.

FIGURE 1: TRAINING DELIVERY PORTFOLIO Respondents provided a percentage breakdown of their organization’s current training.

26%

Classroom Synchronous e-learning Asynchronous e-learning Formal/informal on-the-job Other

34%

27%

Source: IDC's Learning Modality survey, 2016

FIGURE 2: PRIMARY DELIVERY MODE For each content domain, what is the primary training delivery method? 37% 26%

24%

30%

26% 27% 17% 9%

Classroom

Formal/informal Asynchronous on-the-job e-learning

Synchronous e-learning

Note: “Other” was excluded. Source: IDC's Learning Modality survey, 2016

FIGURE 3: MOBILE DELIVERY Which content areas are delivered to mobile devices in your organization? Compliance training

28% 37% Technical skills

14% 33% Onboarding/new hire training

14% 30% Business skills training

16% 28%

Core competencies

6% 22%

Leadership development

8% 17%

Current & likely to be delivered Current delivered

Note: “Other” was excluded. Source: IDC's Learning Modality Survey, 2016

Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

POWER OF QUESTIONS continued from page 43 • What are your current assumptions about…? • During the second step, people envision what they want the future to look like as a result of their dialogue and collaboration. Questions to ask during this phase include: • What is the highest result you can hope for? • What could you accomplish if you had no limitations or restrictions? • What current trends will likely influence the future of….? • The third step of the model urges people to explore possibilities, options and solutions. Learning leaders can dig into this area by asking: • What have others done in similar circumstances that has worked or not worked? Why? • If you did nothing, what would change regardless? What would get worse? • What is most important to you or non-

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negotiable? • The last step of the model has people act on a chosen solution or option. To help get people to this point, learning leaders can ask: • What are some steps you could take? What should you do first? • Can you commit to this course of action? Are you comfortable with it? • What elements are controllable versus uncontrollable? “Mentoring groups and collaborative learning offer a good opportunity to connect learning and thinking skills, as they encourage dialogue and information exchange while providing a way to teach and learn deeper questioning skills,” Antonelli said. CLO

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IN CONCLUSION

Don’t Be Afraid of Change You won’t get great performance by pursuing incremental investment • BY ROBERT E. QUINN

Robert E. Quinn is a chaired professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, one of the co-founders of the Center for Positive Organizations and author of 18 books including “The Positive Organization.”

he chief learning officer is often tasked with accelerating organizational learning and then must illustrate how doing that improves the bottom line. Deciding to accelerate learning sounds fairly innocuous, but it’s laced with perceived and real risk. My daughter recently shared an experience that illustrates the primary barrier that keeps CLOs from achieving their goals: “I worked in a consulting firm that specialized in strategic engagement for seven years. I often suspected that our sales teams were giving clients what they wanted, not necessarily what they needed, but I wasn’t adept enough to help clients recognize their true needs. I hadn’t thought much about this until recently while on a call with several experienced people, including an accomplished consultant and a CLO. “The consultant listened carefully to what the CLO had to say. He then began to suggest ideas that would meet the need expressed in company feedback, but were a departure from the CLO’s initial plan. Everyone on the call seemed to recognize the value of the new idea except the CLO.

Even when people ask for something different, the risk of change, of doing something new, can be terrifying. The suggestions were not particularly risky, but they did suggest doing things that had not been done before. The client’s reaction was clear. He was a little concerned with the potential learning and change that could occur and greatly concerned with how he might be seen by higher-level executives. At the first opportunity he challenged the validity of the data he had shared at the outset of the call and proposed that the same thing be done that was done the previous year. “It was all very transparent and embarrassing. The consultant read the situation and offered some ideas that would align with the strategy of repetition. The client said, “I love that idea!” 54 Chief Learning Officer • August 2016 • www.CLOmedia.com

“While this is not an unusual story, for me it was a high impact event, one consistent with my experience at the consulting firm. I had just never seen the dynamics so transparently displayed as in this conversation. Even when people have feedback in front of them, asking for something different, the risk of change, of doing something new is terrifying.” Hierarchies give rise to fear. Fear continually triumphs over pursuit of the collective good, and learning acceleration, and organizations remain trapped in what they know. This is true in almost all organizations. Most of us seek quantum leaps in our performance levels by pursuing a strategy of incremental investment. This strategy simply does not work. The land of excellence is safely guarded from unworthy intruders by two fearsome sentries – risk and learning. The keys to entry are faith and courage. Faith and courage come with personal and organizational purpose. Senior executives eventually, often painfully, learn how to live and create purpose. Clarifying our purpose empowers us and immediately fills us with positive emotions. These emotions give rise to positive thoughts and new ideas, and faith. We can say, “This is who I am, this is where I am going, and I will endure what I must endure in order to go there.” We are filled with courage because we believe deeply in our path. Those positive emotions are contagious. Others are lifted by what we feel. On the other hand, the fear of embracing change, as illustrated by the CLO in my daughter’s story, is disempowering. The positive energy was deflated when those on the call felt his fear, and the give and take came to a halt. There are five strategies that can open you, and those around you, up to faith and learning. They are: creating a sense of purpose, having authentic conversations, orienting people to the reality of possibility, embracing the common good, and trusting the emerging process. Leaders who can do these five things build trust. By building trust people can do things they were previously afraid or unable to do. You can accelerate learning, change your organization and even improve your bottom line. More importantly, you will go to your job every day feeling empowered, and empowering. CLO

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