September 2018 | CLOmedia.com
Nordstrom’s
Jesse Schlueter
The Training Technology Conundrum - Success Simplified - The Science of Connection Curated Insights: Value From Information - The Dark Side of Personality
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EDITOR’S LETTER
Moving Forward, Looking Behind
W
e recently moved into a brand new office. It’s still that magical time of uncluttered desktops and new carpet smell before the coffee stains blossom and papers and files inevitably pile up. While our new digs are just a short two-block hop from our old home in downtown Chicago, in some ways it is a journey of years. There’s nothing quite like a move to bring the passage of time into focus. Shortly after I started as editorial director at Chief Learning Officer in 2007, we moved into that recently vacated office. In the ensuing time we grew from primarily a magazine publisher into a full-fledged media company with events, conferences and original research serving the largest audience in the human capital management industry.
We’re alongside you for the ride as the role of chief learning officer continues to evolve to address the future of business.
make sure humans have the skills required to thrive in an environment where they are increasingly augmented by machines and robots. But there are also more complex, long-term and uncertain ways it’s all changing. That’s why the future CLO must be agile, responsive and open to new ways of working. Your role is more than skill development and training. Learning leaders have a hand in familiar areas like performance management, talent assessment and workplace culture as well as unfamiliar and evolving ones like nanotechnology, the “internet of things,” data management and security, artificial intelligence and user experience. What was once instructor in chief is now coordinator of strategy and harnesser of innovation. Content expertise and mastery of the instructional domain are augmented by business savvy, sophisticated consulting and diagnosis skills and the ability to advocate and influence others across the company, not just in the classroom. Chief Learning Officer is by your side and helping point the way as you chart that future. With that in mind, we’re excited to present the findings from a oneof-a-kind research study about the future of the CLO role in an exclusive keynote address at the Fall Chief Learning Officer Symposium. Sarah Kimmel, our head of research, will lay out the role as it is today and the path of its continued evolution. It promises to be filled with exceptional insights. That presentation is just one part of a retooled agenda for our premier fall event taking place Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at the Marriott Marquis in Houston. Over the course of three days, we’ll dive deep into the CLO role and talk about the ideas and practices that are the keys to future success. Not only must you develop the next generation of enterprise leaders but you also have to develop yourself for a role that is constantly changing. We’ll cap it all off with the presentation of our 2018 Learning In Practice awards, a celebration of the dozens of award-winning executives and companies. Their stories — and yours — are all part of the shared path we travel as we look back at where we’ve been and move forward to where we need to be. CLO
Just as our company evolved in those 10-plus years so has enterprise learning and development. A relatively simple classroom delivery model morphed into blended learning deploying a rich mix of modalities. It’s now increasingly a model that delivers learning and support at the moment of need in the flow of work using an array of sophisticated tools and technologies. The role of learning leader evolved along with it. Chief learning officers, who in some cases were a glorified trainer in chief, continued to develop into fullfledged business executives. We documented your stories as learning executives took on ever-growing roles and responsibilities at the forefront of business. And we watched as business changed around you and the future became a little less defined and quite a bit more complex. Some call it the Fourth Industrial Revolution — a time when machines and humans work together in synchrony and management is not merely about people and capital. It requires organizations to marshal all their resources in a coordinated fashion — human and machine, the individual and the collective. Mike Prokopeak Chief learning officers play a primary role in help- Editor in Chief ing organizations get there. To start, CLOs need to mikep@CLOmedia.com 4 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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A PUBLICATION OF
SEPTEMBER 2018 | VOLUME 17, ISSUE 7 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER John R. Taggart jrtag@CLOmedia.com
EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Aysha Ashley Househ ahouseh@CLOmedia.com
BUSINESS MANAGER Vince Czarnowski vince@CLOmedia.com
PRESIDENT Kevin A. Simpson ksimpson@CLOmedia.com
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VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER Clifford Capone ccapone@CLOmedia.com
VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH & ADVISORY SERVICES Sarah Kimmel skimmel@CLOmedia.com
VICE PRESIDENT, EDITOR IN CHIEF Mike Prokopeak mikep@CLOmedia.com
RESEARCH MANAGER Tim Harnett tharnett@CLOmedia.com
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rick Bell rbell@CLOmedia.com
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MANAGING EDITOR Ashley St. John astjohn@CLOmedia.com
MEDIA & PRODUCTION MANAGER Ashley Flora aflora@CLOmedia.com
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Christopher Magnus cmagnus@CLOmedia.com SENIOR EDITOR Lauren Dixon ldixon@CLOmedia.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andie Burjek aburjek@CLOmedia.com Ave Rio ario@CLOmedia.com EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Theresa Stoodley tstoodley@CLOmedia.com VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER Andrew Kennedy Lewis alewis@CLOmedia.com
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Nabeel Ahmad Ken Blanchard Agatha Bordonaro John Burge Bob Danna Sarah Fister Gale Sherrie Haynie Laci Loew Elliott Masie Lee Maxey Bob Mosher Dan Pontefract Cynthia St. John
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CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Cedric Coco, EVP, Chief People Of ficer, Brookdale Senior Living Inc. Lisa Doyle, Head of Retail Training, Ace Hardware Dave DeFilippo, Chief People and Learning Of ficer, Suf folk Tamar Elkeles, Chief Talent Executive, Atlantic Bridge Capital Thomas Evans, ( Ret.) Chief Learning Of ficer, PricewaterhouseCoopers Gerry Hudson-Martin, Director, Corporate Learning Strategies, Business Architects Kimo Kippen, President, Aloha Learning Advisors Rob Lauber, Vice President, Chief Learning Of ficer, McDonald’s Corp. Maj. Gen. Erwin F. Lessel, ( Ret.) U.S. Air Force, Director, Deloit te Consulting Justin Lombardo, ( Ret.) Chief Learning Of ficer, Baptist Health Adri Maisonet-Morales, Vice President, Enterprise Learning and Development, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Alan Malinchak, CEO, Éclat Transitions LLC Lee Maxey, CEO, MindMax Bob Mosher, Senior Par tner and Chief Learning Evangelist, APPLY Synergies Rebecca Ray, Executive Vice President, The Conference Board Allison Rossett, ( Ret.) Professor of Educational Technology, San Diego State Universit y Diana Thomas, CEO and Founder, Winning Results David Vance, Executive Director, Center for Talent Repor ting Kevin D. Wilde, Executive Leadership Fellow, Carlson School of Management, Universit y of Minnesota James P. Woolsey, President, Defense Aquisition Universit y Chief Learning Officer (ISSN 1935-8148) is published monthly, except bi-monthly in January/February and July/August by MediaTec Publishing Inc., 150 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 550, Chicago IL 60601. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chief Learning Officer, P.O. Box 8712 Lowell, MA 01853. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals within the US and Canada. Digital free subscriptions are available worldwide. Nonqualified paid subscriptions are available at the subscription price of $199 for 10 issues. All countries outside the US and Canada must be prepaid in US funds with an additional $33 postage surcharge. Single price copy is $29.99. Chief Learning Officer and CLOmedia.com are the trademarks of MediaTec Publishing Inc. Copyright © 2018, MediaTec Publishing Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of material published in Chief Learning Officer is forbidden without permission. Printed by: Quad/Graphics, Sussex, WI
Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
7
CONTENTS S
eptember
2018
22 Profile The Business of Development Agatha Bordonaro At Nordstrom, Jesse Schlueter is using her strong operational background to help the 115-year-old institution evolve and grow.
52 Case Study Moving on Up(ward) Sarah Fister Gale Tyson Foods invests in ESL and GED courses for frontline workers through its Upward Academy.
54 Business Intelligence A Budget Bonanza Mike Prokopeak Spending plans for 2019 indicate CLOs remain optimistic.
ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY DANIEL BERMAN
8 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
September 2018
CONTENTS
32 18
48
Features
18
Experts
The Training Technology Conundrum
10 IMPERATIVES
Sherrie Haynie The most effective learning strategy considers personality, allowing a diversity of employees to engage in various ways.
John Burge, Bob Danna and Laci Loew What is the missing link between content, insight and wisdom curation, and critical thinking?
48
Bob Mosher Context Beats Content
14 LEADERSHIP
The Science of Connection
Ken Blanchard Courage Is Vulnerability — and Learnable
Nabeel Ahmad We can leverage neuroscience insights to build trusted business relationships.
42
Elliott Masie Justify the Learning Ritual
12 SELLING UP, SELLING DOWN
32 Curated Insights: Value From Information 38
42
16 MAKING THE GRADE
Success Simplified Cynthia St. John Consider a single-model approach to developing effective, successful leaders and organizations.
Lee Maxey Higher Education: Late to Online Learning
58 IN CONCLUSION
Shining Light on the Dark Side Ave Rio Helping leaders identify and manage their “dark side” traits can actually produce positive results.
Dan Pontefract Slow Down to Think More Creatively
Resources 4 Editor’s Letter
Moving Forward, Looking Behind
57 Advertisers’ Index ARE YOU A PART OF THE CLO NETWORK? Follow us:
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Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
9
IMPERATIVES
Justify the Learning Ritual
Be ready to answer questions about your L&D practices • BY ELLIOTT MASIE
C Elliott Masie is CEO of The Masie Center, an international think tank focused on learning and workplace productivity, and chairman and CLO of The Masie Center’s Learning Consortium. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
LOs — be prepared! You and your team may be asked to justify some of your most familiar rituals with evidence and business data. Business leaders and even boards of directors are looking for radical shifts in approaches and processes — and learning and training are ripe targets to be examined. Here are a few learning ritual challenges from my conversations with senior executives in the past year, as well as considerations for responding should you be presented with similar challenges in your organization. Does leadership training actually create and keep better leaders — with better business results? If you are presented with this question, be prepared to examine the concrete skills, competencies and readiness levels that your leadership programs yield. Examine the six-month, one-year and three-year patterns of graduates of your leadership academies. Imagine running a three-level experiment with the next set of candidates: A third go through your current program, a third are given a grant to buy their own leadership programs externally and a third are not given any program. What are the differences in their performance? Consider the timing of when a leader is trained (upon promotion, early in their career as a high potential or perhaps one year into a leadership role). Additionally, ask whether you should separate the “induction” dimensions of welcoming people into the leadership ranks from more focused skill development aimed at observable shifts in competencies and readiness. Does tracking learning help learner engagement, and do we use the data to improve business results? At the Masie Center, our LMSs collect a massive amount of data about what every learner selects from our formal learning offerings. But we are not tracking most of the content, context, collaboration and resources that workers access from other sources. And most organizations are not using the data from the LMS to radically improve learning options, personalize learning for a specific employee or compare the impact of one program versus another. We track consumption but rarely use learning systems to monitor impact. It’s worth considering whether tracking the microlearning choices of an employee helps or hinders their natural curiosity. What if employees were aware that their bosses were looking at the web searches they did throughout each day? I would imagine more searches would be made from personal smartphones.
10 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Be prepared to defend or reframe the role that your LMSs have in driving business results. Do live webinars accomplish higher engagement and bigger business results? Most organizations have a default duration for live webinars, regardless of content or complexity. Most webinars are one hour long and have only a few activities that take advantage of the actual live presence of employees. What if we substituted asynchronous segments for live webinars? Durations could be stacked for overviews, basics or deeper content, allowing the learner to select their optimal timing and depth of material.
Learning and training are ripe targets to be examined. Also consider: If everyone had to answer a few predictive, quick questions to show understanding, how many hundreds of thousands of wage hours would a large enterprise save? Once again, imagine a split test project with three different versions of content: live webinar, asynchronous only and a blended model. Compare the participation, retention and actual business applications/results that each version yields. CLOs will likely be asked to respond to additional questions in the near future, as well: To what extent are our learning programs used by workers who are not meeting work expectations? Are many of our programs attended by motivated and already engaged workers? What are the demographics of those who participate versus those who don’t? How do we test for potential hires’ willingness to learn? What are our metrics for tracking the success (or failure) of line managers in supporting transfer of new skills to business practice? Who in the learning organization has the analytical data skills to drive shifts in assessment and follow-up strategy? How do we leverage the knowledge of retiring employees to impact business results? These questions are coming. Let’s be ready and open to answer them. CLO
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SELLING UP, SELLING DOWN
Context Beats Content
In workflow learning, shifting to a context-first mindset is key • BY BOB MOSHER
P
Bob Mosher is a senior partner and chief learning evangelist for APPLY Synergies, a strategic consulting firm. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
ersonalized learning, workflow learning, the Five Moments of Need, 70-20-10, informal learning — call it what you want, but moving learning away from events and into everyday work is one of the hottest topics in our industry right now. I speak with at least three to five learning leaders a week who are struggling with making the “transformation” (another hot topic) from a training department/university model to a performance-centric/workflow-oriented design shop. The journey is not an easy one. There’s a lot of history and, frankly, baggage to get past. When you’ve been designing for training first, shifting that focus is hard, but until we do, the transformation we want just isn’t going to happen. I recently observed a learning leader trying to pitch this reorientation to key stakeholders. I noticed he kept repeating the words “course” and “curriculum,” so, out of curiosity, I started counting. I finally stopped at around 20 within the first 10 minutes of his pitch. “Well, that’s just semantics,” you say? Nope — it’s a mindset! In the “old” days, content was king. Our orientation was to first build a course or, later, e-learning. All of our initial analysis and design were oriented toward that even before we met with our SMEs. This new transformation starts with a reorientation around outcomes and deliverables. Workflow learning assets are typically not training assets, though training assets are often in the mix. The most powerful assets often take the form of performance support, such as checklists, decision trees, videos, learning bursts, social platforms and a lot of user-generated content. These are the tools of the trade when it comes to designing for this brave new world. But how do you fundamentally make the shift? It starts with switching from a content-first mindset to one of context, and there are two types of context we need to better understand. The first is workflow itself, which by definition is the context in which our learners work every day. It amazes me how little we truly understand about the job tasks our learners perform daily. Workflow is made up of processes, tasks and the knowledge that supports the performance of those tasks, in that order. If you watch how training is traditionally designed, it doesn’t map to this sequence very well. This approach starts us on a journey toward the wrong outcomes. We need to start with the performance outcomes and context first.
12 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
When the workflow is identified and even designed for, missing the second type of context can also get us into trouble. For example, I was recently asked to evaluate a workflow portal a company designed. They had done a great job with their workflow analysis and, according to the learners, had clearly outlined the job context they worked in every day. Once the portal was launched, utilization spiked in the beginning, but it quickly began to drop off. When they took a deeper look into why, they discovered the learning and support assets that had been made available within their workflow design were overwhelmingly seen as random and inconsistently designed across the portal.
This new transformation starts with a reorientation around outcomes. This particular learning team had been pulled into the “if you build it, they will come (and consume)” phenomenon. Even though the workflow mapping aligned, once learners tried to access the best type of learning and support asset based on their performance need, the choices were not presented in a way that made the most effective option apparent. Learning and support assets have a contextual component as well. Even though the asset is “correct,” meaning the information can be found somewhere within it, the way in which it supports the need makes or breaks its effectiveness. Some assets are informational while others are instructional. One may take 15 minutes to consume while another takes 30 seconds. One may go into great detail when only a high-level overview is needed. Each of these contexts matter and can make an asset helpful and effective or overwhelming and confusing. When we move learning and support into the workflow, context at every level is king. A poorly designed job aid can trump a perfectly written lesson if it fits the context and need at the time. Let’s set courses and curriculum on the shelf and start speaking the language of context. CLO
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LEADERSHIP
Courage Is Vulnerability — and Learnable Vulnerability is a key leadership trait • BY KEN BLANCHARD
I Ken Blanchard is chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Cos. and co-author of “Servant Leadership in Action.” He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
f you’ve seen Brené Brown’s TED talk — and with more than 34 million views, you probably have — you know the research professor and corporate trainer makes a strong case for the power of vulnerability. In a recent podcast, Brown discussed the connection between vulnerability and a key leadership trait: courage. Based on everything I’ve learned over a half century of working with people and organizations, I agree with what Brown said in that podcast: Leading takes courage — and courage requires vulnerability. At first the two appear to be opposites. Isn’t courage all about being tough and invulnerable? Not at all. An act of courage — starting a new product line in your business, for example — entails risk, uncertainty and emotional exposure. There’s no guarantee your idea will succeed and you risk the uncomfortable emotions that accompany failure. The power of vulnerability even applies to the most traditionally tough occupations. For example, Brown recently spoke to the leadership team for special operations at Fort Bragg. She asked the top brass to name one example of courage in the line of duty that does not require vulnerability. They couldn’t. It’s a myth that courage and vulnerability are not linked. And if you pretend you know it all in an attempt to appear invulnerable, you’re not fooling anyone. Back when my son Scott was a new assistant manager at the InterContinental Hotel, he found this out the hard way.
crew had to work until 6 a.m. the next morning to get the space ready. The next day Scott went to his boss and demanded that everyone be fired. His boss laughed and said, “You need to learn how to manage.” It was a powerful lesson in vulnerability: “I realized that people don’t care about your position; they care about how you treat them,” Scott said. “You need to show people you’re with them. As a manager, the way you relate to your employees will become a topic around their dinner tables at night.” It’s also a myth that a vulnerable leader can’t get strong financial results. A great example is Alan Mulally, the CEO who brought Ford Motor Co. back from the brink of bankruptcy. When Mulally joined Ford in 2006, the organization was in deep trouble. That year it reported a $12.7 billion loss — the biggest in its 103-year history. The company’s debt was rated seven levels below investment grade and all its assets were mortgaged. To the consumer, Ford had become synonymous with “Fix or Repair Daily.” Mulally understood that turning the company around would require courage. He would need to be open to people’s emotions and understand how those emotions would affect their behavior. He would need to accept difficult feedback. He would have to be comfortable with risk and facing an uncertain future. He would have to be vulnerable. Taking the risk of transparency, Mulally and the company’s CFO and operations executives sat down with union officials and shared the books. Labor leaders became convinced that if the company was going to save Ford, management and labor would have to save it together. The leadership team and union collaborated to reduce Ford’s employees from 100,000 to 45,000 through retirements and voluntary buyouts. One night he and his team had to get a large space Mulally’s courageous vulnerability worked. By the ready for a big convention. His direct reports started time he retired in 2014, Ford had posted 19 consecuto complain about working late. Not sure what to do, tive profitable quarters. Under his leadership, one of Scott used his position as a manager to come down on America’s iconic 20th century companies weathered them — hard. the tumultuous changes of the early 21st century. “Tough cookies,” he told them, but not in such nice Colleen Barrett, president emerita of Southwest Airlanguage. “I don’t want to stay late either. But after lines, taught me that “People admire you for your skills your break, you all need to get back in here and work.” but love you for your vulnerability.” I would add that Still grumbling, his team members headed for the vulnerability is a skill — and a learnable one. By demonbreak room. When they didn’t report back, Scott went strating a willingness to fail in service to something you into the break room and discovered every single one care about, you, as a leader, can show others the power had clocked out — which meant he and a skeleton of vulnerability. CLO
Demonstrate a willingness to fail in service to something you care about.
14 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
MAKING THE GRADE
Higher Education: Late to Online Learning For CLOs, that’s a good thing • BY LEE MAXEY
I Lee Maxey is CEO of MindMax, a marketing and enrollment management services company. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
n his book “Thank You for Being Late,” Thomas Friedman analyzes why the world seems to be accelerating away from us at a remarkable pace. His explanation: Humans are adaptable, but no generation has experienced technology, globalization and climate change at the rate we are seeing. As an example, Friedman suggests that if advances in microchips had instead occurred in cars, today’s successor to the 1970s Volkswagen “Bug” would cost 4 cents and have a top speed of 300,000 miles per hour. The book’s title comes from a remark Friedman shared with a friend who was late arriving for their scheduled meeting. The extra few minutes gave the author time to actually think before diving into yet another in a string of meetings. Sometimes being late is a good thing. I believe that’s the case for higher education. Being late to the world of online learning has positioned universities to take advantage of technology that’s now far less expensive than it was when originally conceived in the 1990s. All one has to do is compare the array of applications and devices for mobile learning available today with concepts like performance support and clunky, unfriendly software such as learning management systems. Twenty years ago, companies were investing millions of dollars trying to define, build and tag knowledge and map it to a worker’s needs. Now a high school student with a smartphone can get an immediate contextually suitable result from a search engine of their choice or even by posting a question to their preferred social network. Higher education has begun to embrace the fluidity of learning and the realization that each person in the workplace isn’t the sum of their experiences leading up to a given situation. More and more colleges and universities are realizing that learning isn’t necessarily comprised of all the things we did to prepare ourselves for a job along the way, but the ability to access resources in the moment to solve problems. A neophyte on the job has the ability to perform at the same level as a veteran if the rookie knows how to immediately access contextual information via technology. Just-in-time learning and tacit knowledge that was so elusive even 20 years ago is more accessible than ever before, and this access to
16 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
on-demand know-how bridges the boundary between companies and higher education. Huntington Lambert, dean of Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education, said, “By providing world-class, affordable credentials ranging from open-access courses to certificates to degrees, we enable our students to enrich their careers. … Now is the time for higher education to maximize our practical and creative capabilities … as we continue to transform into an information-based global economy.”
A neophyte can perform at the same level as a veteran if given access to contextual information via technology. The practical and creative capabilities Lambert speaks of are a model of shared know-how at the precise time in your career that you need it. Even today, companies still try to create “systems” for taking know-how from workers and putting learning into a knowledge base instead of drawing on a fluid network of people who respond as they are queried for help. CLOs are the stewards of knowledge and human capital. They need to work with universities because institutions of higher education have access to a treasure trove of expertise and data that can improve a company’s production, processes and profit. Instead of corporations and universities developing employees and students in two separate silos, there needs to be a fluidity of learning that mirrors how workers and students want to learn. According to Lambert, “This leads to increased potential for economic mobility and equips citizens with the tools they need.” CLO
IT’S TIME TO TALK TALENT DEVELOPMENT
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THE TRAINING TECHNOLOGY CONUNDRUM
18 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
The most effective learning strategy considers personality, allowing a variety of employees to engage in a variety of ways. BY SHERRIE HAY NIE
B
y the early 2000s, human resources developed a reputation in some circles as being a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, no-fun-allowed department, its trainings a necessary distraction from “real work.” This image of corporate training was popularized by characters like Toby the HR guy on the sitcom “The Office,” who constantly foiled the well-intentioned but often legally and morally dubious shenanigans of management. How true this image of training is probably varies from company to company, but many HR departments are taking steps to deliberately depart from it. Learning tools and strategies are increasingly focused on what can be done to make work more enjoyable and engaging. As Josh Bersin, founder of Bersin by Deloitte, pointed out in his Forbes article, “The HR Software Market Reinvents Itself,” HR software has experienced a renaissance during the past few years. As a result, HR and learning and development departments have more training options than ever before and the chance to do something important: make learning relevant. However, rapid evolution in the way companies deliver training (and even changes in the content and availability of those trainings) can leave some employees who liked the old way of doing things feeling left out in the cold. This may be more than simple resistance to change — it might actually be linked to personality.
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The numerous tools available to facilitate virtual and on-demand webinar trainings complicate things further. What new features will make which employees happy? Do people prefer to sit at their desks alone and watch a webinar or do they really crave the classic conference room presentation? We may be abandoning many aspects of Toby-style HR and training, but are there employees who will miss them? As the job market heats up and high-potential employees face more and more options, questions like these are important. In the race to adopt learning technologies, learning leaders must take care not to simply adopt solutions because they have fancy new features. Rather, they need to develop a strategy for learning that allows a diversity of employees to engage in a variety of ways. Bersin by Deloitte breaks the continuous learning technology stack into four groups — education, exposure, experience and environment — which is a good starting point for thinking about how learning can be applied to individuals with varying preferences. Following is a look at how emerging training tools can be applied based on personality using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI, framework, which provides a model for understanding how individuals think, gather information, and act or behave. Knowing your workforce’s preferences is critical for delivering next-generation (and traditional) training tools that they’ll be naturally inclined to engage with, which will maximize their chances for gaining knowledge and skills that will bring their talents to fruition.
The Perfect Learning Cocktail Companies are wisely beginning to focus HR and L&D on creating an environment that maximizes both the individual and collective talents of their workforce. Indeed, in a few (notably high-tech) industries, there’s a strong management-led emphasis on building a culture that allows employees to enjoy their work lives. One image this may evoke is the fun tech company with beer taps and a pingpong table in the office and flexible work-from-home policies.
People’s learning styles are as diverse as their personalities. This focus on temporal flexibility together with remote collaboration tools makes it possible for employees to attend trainings from anywhere. It also gives employees access to a much wider range of trainings that would be difficult and expensive to attend in person. Common sense indicates that training tools that people actually want to engage with — those that leave 20 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
them feeling empowered as opposed to overwhelmed or confused — will deliver a more effective experience that also benefits retention. But it turns out that delivering such an experience is tough even with the most cutting-edge tools because people’s learning styles are as diverse as their personalities. While fantastic advancements provide many new opportunities, they also raise a number of questions: Which employees will benefit most from and take greatest advantage of virtual training? How can virtual training be adapted to best serve all employees? Are there employees for whom virtual training will never quite cut it compared with conventional in-person training? Are there ways in which virtual training can be adapted to the needs of individuals regardless of whether or not they are inclined to gravitate toward virtual learning environments? In most cases, the perfect “cocktail” will likely require a mix of virtual and in-person training. Online learning software has enabled companies to scale learning like never before, reaching more employees at lower cost, so it’s no surprise that there’s a tendency today to leverage such tools to the hilt. Yet, a study conducted earlier this year by CPP, The Myers-Briggs Co., of 1,632 training participants who completed the MBTI assessment as part of their program revealed that while HR and training culture seems to be changing rapidly, the vast majority of employees still prefer either in-person training alone or a combination of virtual and in-person training. In fact, very few workers appear to prefer a completely virtual training environment. What this finding reveals is that while new technology and a focus on employee flexibility and happiness would seem to go hand-in-hand, the reality is that the full spectrum of personality preferences aligns with a combination of new and old ways of delivering learning.
Introversion and Extraversion Individual preferences for learning are expressed in a number of ways. When it comes to the question of preference for virtual versus in-person training environments, assessing how employees take in energy — whether through introversion or extraversion — may be one of the most critical considerations. It’s important to note that introversion is often confused with shyness. However, these two shouldn’t be conflated, as shyness often denotes nervousness or timidity and may not actually reflect any innate preference (and can stem from a number of issues in one’s environment). People with a true preference for introversion derive their social energy from time spent alone in contrast with those who prefer extraversion and derive their energy from interaction with others.
Logically, perhaps, introversion would align with virtual tools that allow more self-directed training experiences. Indeed, more people preferring introversion than people preferring extraversion would select virtual training over other options, but their numbers are still in the minority overall — even most of those preferring introversion do not prefer entirely virtual environments. In addition, extraversion has been associated with a slightly higher preference for using video chat as part of virtual training, though, again, those reporting that video chat is an important feature were in the minority overall. One area where introversion and extraversion preferences diverge more sharply is in the desire for including group discussions in virtual training. As might be expected, most of those preferring extraversion cited group discussions as an important facet of virtual training. In tailoring learning for people who prefer either introversion or extraversion, there are other areas to consider as well. According to Donna Dunning’s “Introduction to Type and Learning,” those who prefer extraversion like to learn through interactivity, to roll up their sleeves and jump straight into the work. They also like to switch things up, changing learning topics, tasks and activities relatively frequently. Those preferring introversion, on the other hand, like to understand material by reflecting on it and by having the ability to access additional information and study a topic in depth. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision how a learning environment that is perfect for someone with a preference for introversion would be maddening and frustrating for someone who prefers extraversion.
Using Personality to Guide Content The other side of the virtual training coin is the potential to offer a wider range of training content than would otherwise be available, even for training on the same topics. While personality preferences across the board look for a healthy dose of in-person training, virtual training can allow employees to select training content and delivery that matches their preferences more closely. According to Dunning, here’s how personality type breaks down along other preferences: • How we take in information — sensing versus intuition: People who prefer sensing often favor “hands-on” learning, like using visual aids, and tend to place the first focus on memorizing facts and details of the material. Meanwhile, those preferring intuition like to explore concepts and find patterns. They use theoretical frameworks, associations or abstractions to represent ideas. • How we make decisions — thinking versus feeling: People who prefer thinking tend to explore logical
Classic in-person training shouldn’t be replaced by virtual tools but, rather, integrated with them. consequences and implications, appreciate clear criteria for evaluating their performance, and enjoy debates, questioning and critiquing the information presented. On the other hand, those who prefer feeling tend to focus on the effects of ideas and information on people and enjoy collaborating and connecting with other learners as well as having the opportunity to mentor. • How we process the outer world — judging versus perceiving: Those who prefer judging tend to enjoy structure and sticking to a schedule or plan, while those who prefer perceiving value flexibility and spontaneity and tend to like to keep their options open so they can take advantage of last-minute learning opportunities. These preferences can play out in a variety of ways for both structuring and delivering content. For example, MBTI types that include S (sensing) and T (thinking) like getting practical information in their trainings delivered succinctly and logically. For these types, training options not too heavily laden with nonpractical information would be better received. On the other hand, types including S and F (feeling) appreciate kind, people-oriented delivery and would benefit from more relationship-building content. Types that include N (intuition) and F gravitate toward information that’s both abstract and warmly relational — quite different from the down-to-business, practical orientation preferred by ST types, for example. Types that include N and T appreciate the same abstraction but with less need for it to be colored with a personal relationship.
Integration is Key For the time being, classic in-person training shouldn’t be replaced by virtual tools but, rather, integrated with them. Where the real value of virtual comes in is as a platform that can allow employees to tailor the content and delivery of their training. New technologies offer the possibility of developing different kinds of training to suit different preferences in a way that would be impractical for in-person training. Combinations of in-person and virtual training could take this a step further and deliver content choice alongside widely appreciated in-person modules. CLO Sherrie Haynie is director of U.S. Professional Services for CPP Inc. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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Profile
The Business of Development At Nordstrom, Jesse Schlueter is using her strong operational background to help the century-old company evolve and grow. BY AGATHA BORDONARO
H
ow does someone who went to college to become a high school math teacher end up leading learning at Nordstrom? The answer is simple: She loves
teaching them in a classroom. We strive to provide our employees with the resources they need to succeed in their roles.”
finding solutions. Jesse Schlueter, vice president of learning and leadership for Nordstrom, leverages her passion for numbers in her role managing the development of the retail giant’s 72,000 employees. With a bachelor’s degree in sociology and statistics, a master’s in organizational psychology and a work history rooted in operational development, Schlueter is able to take a decidedly business-first approach to L&D. “Jesse is a very business-oriented leader,” said Christine Deputy, chief human resources officer at Nordstrom and Schlueter’s direct supervisor. “She starts with really understanding what’s happening with the business, what’s happening with the customer and what the strategy of the organization is … and then build[s] out the function in order to achieve those aspirations and those business objectives. She’s highly operational.” “What I love about Jesse is that she takes a step back and looks at the overall picture of the business, in terms of where we’re going and what we want to achieve, before throwing out solutions,” added Lisa Price, senior vice president of human resources at Nordstrom. “She takes a holistic approach.” That also means continually assessing the needs and preferences of Nordstrom’s diverse workforce — from the executives in its Seattle-based corporate headquarters to the sales associates in its 370 stores across 40 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and Canada. “We are learning all the time about our evolving workforce — what matters to them and what helps them do their best work,” Schlueter said. “We are very focused on staying agile and building experiences that meet people where they are — mobile first, for example — and hosting discussions where people are versus
Schlueter’s business-centric approach has been well-suited to helping a longtime institution like Nordstrom navigate through an industry sea change.
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Navigating a Changing Sea
“We are learning all the time about our evolving workforce — what matters to them and what helps them do their best work.” — Jesse Schlueter, vice president of learning and leadership, Nordstrom Technology — the ability to shop online and by voice command, thanks to apps such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Voice — has changed retail, trimming the number of brick-and-mortar stores while transforming the physical act of shopping into a unique and personalized customer experience. Nordstrom has been around for more than 115 years, so adapting to this new economic climate requires not only an operational update but also a culture shift. As a result, Schlueter has been tasked with “changing some things that are very deeply seeded in the organization in terms of the way we’ve done things historically,” said Farrell Redwine, vice president of human resources at Nordstrom. Some might balk at the potentially choppy waters ahead, but Schlueter revels in such challenges. “Retail is really exciting given its dynamic nature,” she said. Indeed, it’s no surprise that someone who says she loves L&D because the field itself is “always changing” is an expert at leading organizations through periods of transformation. From 2003 to 2014, Schlueter helped
PHOTOS BY DANIEL BERMAN
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Profile Dunkin’ Brands — which comprises Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins — transition from a private to a public company, revamping its franchisee training program and redesigning Dunkin’ University. After that, Schlueter took over as vice president of learning for Cablevision during a time when the telecommunications company was undergoing a series of layoffs and in talks to be sold to European conglomerate Altice (a deal that went through in June 2016). Schlueter’s track record of success with leading companies through organizational change is partly what motivated Deputy, who was also Schlueter’s former boss — Christine Deputy, CHRO, at Dunkin’ Brands, to imNordstrom mediately think of Schlueter when she was looking to create a new, centralized L&D department at Nordstrom and needed someone to build and lead it. “She can create clarity where there’s complexity,” Deputy said. “She’s unafraid to engage with her team and provide direction. She’ll make decisions so she can continue to move things forward. Those things are key leadership principles for many organizations, but in particular right now at Nordstrom those are things that we’re focused on and value because we are in an industry that’s going through massive change.” Her ability to build relationships is also critical to her success in this arena, her colleagues say. “She’s extremely collaborative. She engages key stakeholders and really leverages her partners, both in the business and in other parts of the HR function,” said Redwine.
“She can create clarity where there’s complexity. She’s unafraid to engage with her team and provide direction.”
“She has a definite ability to connect with all different people and backgrounds and levels in our pyramid,” added Kerry Price-Duffy, vice president of human resources at Nordstrom.
Pivoting to Learning Growing up near Madison, Wisconsin, Schlueter exhibited an interest in leadership from an early age. She was actively involved in her high school’s student government and represented her peers as student council president during her senior year. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, she deepened her knowledge of human behavior with her double major, ultimately landing her first job as a market research analyst for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue in 1999. “I really enjoyed learning about customers and what motivated them; humans in general are fascinating to me,” Schlueter explained during a 2017 Chief Learning Officer Breakfast Club in Seattle. However, she added, “While market research was definitely interesting and connected to the business, I knew that I could help support the organization differently if I moved into the HR space.” So in 2003, Schlueter pivoted into organizational learning and development at Dunkin’. She credits one of her first bosses in the field, who at the time was the vice president of strategy at Dunkin’, for giving her opportunities “way above my pay grade” that helped inspire and shape her approach to L&D. Her big-picture thinking may also be a result of the numerous roles she’s taken on, from senior director of field learning to director of corporate social responsibility, both at Dunkin’, to her current position at Nordstrom, which she assumed in early 2016. “A lot of learning people are obsessed with facilitation of classroom learning or are very focused on a playbook, no matter what the actual organization or business culture or norms are,” Deputy said. “Jesse is not like that. She is technically capable. She understands adult learning principles; she understands learning management systems; she understands how to drive, execute and create an operational system.” “She has this vision of what things can be in an end state and then lays out the steps to get there along the way,” Price-Duffy said. “She’s been able to have that very clear picture all along and brings others with her. Her energy and optimism, and her ability to motivate and share that vision with the team, are really impactful.”
Building Something New
Nordstrom Vice President of Learning and Leadership Jesse Schlueter finds retail and learning and development exciting thanks to their dynamic, always-changing nature.
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When Schlueter joined Nordstrom, each business unit was handling its own training programs. She quickly moved to centralize L&D under one roof and built a new team of both talent and learning professionals that is now about 100 strong.
Profile
Schlueter is adapting the Nordstrom culture for today’s business.
“Her ability to come in and very keenly assess where the organization was, introduce an operating model for her team, and set up and build a function to support the organization on an enterprisewide scale — she was able to do that in her first few months,” said Redwine. “The work she’s done in such a short period of time to support our business evolution and organizational transformation and our talent management philosophy and performance approach has just been amazing.” Indeed, in less than two years on the job, Schlueter has introduced a new competency model to, as she described it, “give managers tools to support their teams and employees a guide to support their development”; implemented a consistent new-hire experience “to help support our store managers in providing the best onboarding for new team members”; and instituted a new performance management approach called Grow@Nordstrom, which was soft-launched with senior officers last year and is currently rolling out to the rest of the corporate center. “It’s a quarterly conversation that’s much more informal, led by the employee versus the manager. There are no ratings,” said Price-Duffy, who has also worked with Schlueter on shifting to a more on-demand learning model, which includes increased digital learning capabilities. “That was a really, really significant change. Like many companies, we previously did biannual, very formal structured performance reviews with ratings systems that were not super effective. We started to test [Grow@Nordstrom] out and had incredible feedback, both from managers and employees.” Schlueter and her team heard that managers felt less pressure to write long, detailed performance reports while employees felt much more empowered in terms of their career development and growth.
“I sit in on our talent reviews, and I hear people say, ‘Well, in my quarterly connect,’ or, ‘in my Grow conversation.’ It’s so quickly become incorporated in our language,” Price-Duffy said. “For it to be sustained and to become a part of the culture, in a company that has been around a long time and has a pretty established culture, [is impressive].” “There is a level of engagement that I would say hasn’t been there in the past,” Redwine said of the response to Grow@Nordstrom. “And there’s a real sense of shared ownership around everyone’s success.” “We have a strong feedback culture and check in with our managers and employees both formally and informally,” Schlueter said. “We’re hearing that we’re headed in the right direction.” Nordstrom SVP of HR Price has worked with Schlueter on multiple projects and says one of the things that stands out about her work is her ability to seamlessly instill learning and development into employees’ work lives. “She thinks about how to roll out our new programs in a way that doesn’t feel like a separate, one-off training but rather is embedded and reinforced in other key initiatives,” she said. Schlueter is also aware that much of an employee’s leadership development happens in the context of doing their job, and is “excellent at calling out and acknowledging when either she, her team or we collectively as an HR leadership team are learning on the job,” Price said. “Jesse has a common phrase, ‘hashtag development (#development),’ because development comes in a whole host of different ways. She’s very keen to call out the journey that we’re on — and that journey is about developing and becoming better and stronger leaders for the organization.”
Looking Ahead Schlueter is currently working on launching Nordstrom’s first-ever leadership development program, Lead@Nordstrom, with the intent to provide managers with tools and resources so they are able to create an environment where their teams can do their best work. Schlueter seems an ideal person to create and implement such a program, considering her colleagues unanimously praise her ability to inspire and motivate those around her. “Her optimism and enthusiasm and energy are infectious,” Deputy said. “People want to be around her. She’s generous with her time and her efforts and her support of her peers. I think that’s a huge part of why people want to work with her.” CLO Agatha Bordonaro is a writer based in New York. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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industryinsights 10 Design Thinking Tools By Jeanne Liedtka, United Technologies Corporation Professor of Business Administration
Jeanne Liedtka is a faculty member at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and former chief learning officer at United Technologies Corporation, where she was responsible for overseeing all activities associated with corporate learning and development for the Fortune 50 corporation. At Darden, Jeanne focuses in the areas of design thinking, innovation and leading growth. Her passion is exploring how organizations can engage employees at every level in thinking creatively about the design of powerful futures.
Visualization Visualization is not about drawing; it’s about visual thinking. It pushes us beyond using words alone. It is a way of unlocking a different part of our brains that allows us to think nonverbally and that managers might not normally use. When you explain an idea using words, the rest of us will form our own mental pictures. If instead you present your idea to us visually, you reduce the possibility of unmatched mental models. Journey Mapping Journey mapping is an ethnographic research method that focuses on tracing the customer’s “journey” as he or she interacts with an organization while in the process of receiving a service, with special attention to emotional reactions. Journey mapping is used with the objective of identifying needs that customers are often unable to articulate. Value Chain Analysis Value chain analysis examines how an organization interacts with value chain partners to produce, market and distribute new offerings. Analysis of the value chain offers ways to create better value for customers along the chain and uncovers important clues about partners’ capabilities and intentions. Mind Mapping Mind mapping is used to represent how ideas or other items are linked to a central idea and to each other. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas to look for patterns and insights that provide key design criteria. We do this by displaying the data and asking people to cluster them in ways that allow themes and patterns to emerge.
Rapid Concept Development Rapid concept development assists us in generating hypotheses about potential new business opportunities, and getting customer feedback as soon as possible. In the first stage, we take the design criteria, the customer personas and their pain points, and the value chain insights we have unearthed in our research to generate new ideas. In the second stage, we assemble the ideas into a manageable number of interesting concepts. Finally, we elaborate on the business design behind that handful of concepts. Assumption Testing Assumption testing focuses on identifying assumptions underlying the attractiveness of a new business idea and using available data to assess the likelihood that these assumptions will manifest. These assumptions are then tested through thought experiments, followed by field experiments. Once you have determined which assumptions are most critical, identify the data that allows you to conclusively test key assumptions. Figure out what it would take to get that data quickly, then design your thought experiment, paying special attention to the data that could prove you wrong. Rapid Prototyping Rapid prototyping techniques allow us to make abstract new ideas tangible to potential partners and customers. These include storyboarding, user scenarios, experience journeys and business concept illustrations — all of which encourage deep involvement by important stakeholders to provide feedback. Prototyping is all about minimizing the “I” in ROI. The cost of a simple 2-D prototype could be as low as a pen and
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some paper. Business concept prototypes generally take visual and narrative forms: images and stories. Play with your prototype; don’t defend it. Let others validate it — not the people who created it. Customer Co-creation Customer co-creation incorporates techniques that allow managers to engage a customer while in the process of generating new business ideas of mutual interest. They are among the most value-enhancing, risk-reducing approaches to innovation. In our Six Sigma world, which values perfection, we tend to get anxious about showing customers unfinished “stuff.” Get over it. Innovation is about learning, and customers have the most to teach us. The sooner we get something in front of them that they can react to, the faster we will get to a differentiated value-added solution. Learning Launches Learning launches are designed to test the key underlying value-generating assumptions of a potential newgrowth initiative in the marketplace. In contrast to a full new-product rollout, a learning launch is an experiment conducted quickly and inexpensively to gather marketdriven data. We call them launches because they are meant to feel real to both launchers and customers. Only then can they yield reliable data. They are an extension of the co-creation process, but we are asking customers to put
their money where their mouths are. The only true test of the value of an idea for customers is their willingness to part with cold hard cash. Storytelling Storytelling is exactly how it sounds: weaving together a story rather than just making a series of points. It is a close relative of visualization — another way to make new ideas feel real and compelling. Visual storytelling is actually the most compelling type of story. All good presentations — whether analytical or design-oriented — tell a persuasive story.
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industryinsights A Learning Opportunity Why today’s economy favors an evolving role for L&D By Adina Sapp
The talent market is the tightest it has been for many years, with record low unemployment. This is leading CEOs to focus even more acutely on attracting, retaining, developing and promoting talent. Adding fuel to the fire is the strong economy along with the windfall for businesses provided by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This provides opportunities for learning and development (L&D) leaders to take advantage of a willingness to invest and respond to this new reality. And while some organizations are using extra cash for one-time bonuses and pay increases, Patrick Donovan, senior vice president of education advisory services at EdAssist (a division of Bright Horizons), argues for a different approach. Donovan notes that investing in employee education has more long-term organizational impact than pay raises, pointing to recent research showing that lifelong learning investment increases employee engagement by 64 percent and retention by 43 percent.¹ And for younger generations in particular, personal development is critically important. Both millennials and Gen Zs tend to prioritize their own development over other job components, and many feel they aren’t getting the support they need from the formal education they completed before starting their career. A recent survey shows that 65 percent value tuition assistance as one of the best benefits offered by employers, and 79 percent would choose a job with strong development potential over one with pay increase potential.² But what is the best way to provide educational solutions which generate excitement for today’s employees and address business priorities? The first step is to take a fresh look at learning and development.
An Evolving Role There are many reasons to develop employees, and most of them aren’t new. “What is changing, however, is the role of L&D in the organization,” Donovan says. “There is a blurring of the lines as L&D changes fundamentally from training delivery to resource curation.” Leading L&D
teams are increasingly focused on providing a mix of internal and external learning options that are specifically targeted to distinct employee roles. “L&D leaders should know their business and talent needs, both present and future, and they should know the priorities their company attaches to different learning modalities, programs and academic institutions,” Donovan says. “There are literally thousands of education choices when you calculate the different institutions, degrees, courses and education methods, and that scale of choice is frightening for most people. By presenting a smaller subset of the choices and organizing them into more manageable pathways, along with ideas about how employees can navigate them, they can present just the right learning options at just the right moment.”
“It’s important to provide a high level of confidence that if busy employees commit to an external program there will be a reward for them at the end of it.” — Patrick Donovan But even if you help them better navigate educational choices, many employees remain reluctant to invest time, money and effort in going back to school if there is no materially higher probability of a job or promotion at the end of the route they choose. This is where learning experts come in. Educational coaching can guide employees to choices, whether internal or external, that align closely with career paths and upcoming availabilities at the organization. “It’s important to provide a high level of confidence that if busy employees commit to an external program
EdAssist® helps organizations transform education assistance programs into strategic investments that drive skills, recruitment, employee growth, retention, and engagement. Our tuition management and loan repayment solutions include intuitive self-service, expert advisors, and powerful reporting. Through EdAssist, employers receive policy design best practices that make sure education investments support business objectives, and employees gain personal support and significant tuition savings from 200+ accredited educational institutions. Visit EdAssist.com to learn more.
there will be a reward for them at the end of it,” Donovan says. The employer also benefits from the lower costs of internal hiring versus external recruiting.
Tuition Reimbursement Programs Along with the shift to resource curation, there is a need to broaden the range of programs covered by tuition reimbursement programs. At many organizations, reimbursement is still limited to degree-based programs. However, the need to acquire job-specific skills more quickly is driving a shift in value from traditional degrees to certificates and certifications, as well as newer education formats such as MOOCs. “Increasingly we are seeing organizations becoming less rigid about the education choices they’re willing to underwrite for their employees, because they see the business impact,” Donovan says. By liberalizing education benefits and supporting these shorter, lower-cost education programs, organizations
will save education dollars and deliver skills more quickly. This impact is strengthened when these programs are integrated into a tuition reimbursement program with expert educational guidance to help employees take full advantage of these new options. Organizations that choose to take advantage of a strong economy and tax-cut dollars to invest in employee education will see a positive impact on critical business metrics such as retention, talent acquisition, job performance and employee engagement. Funding education is a tangible way to demonstrate commitment to employee development, which will address the talent shortage, further organizational goals and ultimately improve the bottom line. A division of Bright Horizons, EdAssist manages tuition programs for leading employers and provides expert advice to employees regarding learning opportunities. Learn more at edassist.com.
AACSB (2018). To Empower Learning Over a Lifetime. ² Eliot Masie (2016). Is It Working? The Bottom Line Business Impact of Your Investment in Learning.
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Planning for an Ever-Changing Future How L&D and Succession Planning Work in Tandem By Adina Sapp
Traditionally, succession planning has been a lengthy process: identifying top talent early, grooming candidates for promotion and then moving employees through jobs to prepare them for future opportunities over many years. Today’s workers, however, may be unlikely to remain with a company long enough for a slowpaced succession plan to succeed. According to a 2018 Deloitte study, “Among millennials, 43 percent expect to leave their jobs within two years if given the choice; only 28 percent expect to stay beyond five years if given the choice. Employed Gen Z respondents express even less loyalty, with 61 percent saying they would leave within two years if given the choice.”¹ Plus, thanks to the digital disruption affecting every industry, succession planning must account for the reality that the future may be entirely different than the present. Between employee turnover and market shifts, organizations are changing so rapidly that a decadeslong succession plan may not fit the ultimate direction of the business. How can organizations plan for filling future leadership positions in this environment of fast change and job mobility? Is traditional succession planning a thing of the past? Professors Richard Wagner and John Dibenedetto of Capella University explored this interesting topic with Chief Learning Officer. Their expertise in a variety of fields and decades of combined leadership experience offer insight into how succession planning has changed over the years, how to weigh the risks of promoting from within versus hiring externally and how L&D contributes to organizational success. Through all the changes that have happened in the workplace over the past several decades, and regardless of whether or not you follow a long-term succession plan, something that has stayed the same is the need to develop
employees. According to Deloitte, 83 percent of millennials and 80 percent of Gen Z believe that business success should be measured in terms of more than financial performance, including priorities such as ”job creation, career development and improving people’s lives.”¹ “You cannot undervalue the need for professional growth and development,” Dibenedetto says. “When you look at the succession management process, that plays a huge role.” AACSB research suggests that investing in employee development increases employee engagement by 64 percent and retention by 43 percent.² However, there is inherent risk in investing time and money in employees who are likely to leave. “Just looking at exit interview data shows it’s a big problem and there is high risk in the groomed employees leaving,” Wagner says. “It’s different in each industry, but it’s rampant, particularly in the younger generations, because they have expectations.” The reality is that many emerging leaders may move to other companies, and sometimes the best choice is to hire externally. This can yield great results: hiring externally brings in new perspectives and can prevent stagnation of thought within an organization’s talent pool. “One of the things I’m finding today is there is more and more movement of people across industries,” Wagner says, “and sometimes that’s incredibly successful because they bring those core competencies of leadership and emotional intelligence with them.” On the other hand, when you develop people for those future leadership positions, younger people become more likely to stick around because they see they have potential to grow. Internal development of talented employees is a great way for organizations to groom leaders who understand and fit the company’s culture, and it also sends a good message to the rest of the
An accredited online university, Capella University offers bachelor’s, master’s/MBA, doctoral, and certificate programs designed to take you to the forefront of your profession. Our competency-based curriculum delivers both foundational knowledge and real-world skills, so that what you’re learning in your courses is immediately applicable to your career goals. For more information, visit www.capella.edu.
team that the organization is committed to their future. According to Deloitte, “Companies and senior management teams that are most aligned with millennials in terms of purpose, culture and professional development are likely to attract and retain the best millennial talent and, in turn, potentially achieve better financial performance. Loyalty must be earned, and the vast majority of millennials are prepared to move, and move quickly, for a better workplace experience.”¹ Whether hiring externally or promoting internally, the Capella Applied Leadership Series can speed up the succession planning process by equipping new or emerging leaders with the skills necessary to be successful. The program emphasizes engaging program participants
1 2
Deloitte (2018). 2018 Deloitte Milennial Survey AACSB (2018). To Empower Learning over a Lifetime
with the leaders in their own company, which helps to ensure the new leaders understand the culture and fit the organization’s expected leadership style. The Capella Applied Leadership Series is designed to support a 70-20-10 learning model. The series provides tools and best practices which support 70 percent of learning through applying and practicing new leadership skills at work. Participants’ peers and leaders have the ability to give meaningful feedback, which is 20 percent of the series, and the remaining 10 percent is leadership content focused on developing new skills and ways of leading. Visit capellaleadership.com to learn more about how the Capella Applied Leadership Series can support the development of emerging leaders with a tailorable, scalable, and measurable online platform.
CURATED INSIGHTS: Addressing the missing link between content, insight and wisdom curation, and critical thinking.
The Human Side of Extracting Business Value from Information
BY JOHN BURGE, BOB DANNA AND L ACI LOEW
C
ontent curation is not a new phenomenon. For decades, employees have attempted to collect and sort information, and management has sought to derive associated quantitative business value — largely to no avail. The challenge has always been how to separate the signal from the noise or, in other words, the actionable 2 percent from the rest. But how do you meet that challenge? Insight curation may be the answer.
Overlooked Aspects of Insights Insights have been referred to as the new currency of business, and today’s economy is often referred to as the insight economy. Consultancies and think tanks have made it clear: To compete today, companies must rely on critical-thinking experts sharing insights. In fact, insight-driven organizations are growing at an average of more than 32 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
30 percent annually and are on track to earn $1.8 trillion by 2021, according to “Insights-Driven Businesses Set the Pace for Global Growth,” a 2017 report by Forrester Research Inc. As such, we must implement and operate networks of insights. Big data and business intelligence are not enough. The path to action lies in insights, and insights come from human expertise. What does this mean for the average employee? What is the human aspect of extracting business value from information? Is their role limited to setting up the processes and machines that spit out numbers and charts, or do we rely on the minds of humans to form the insights as a result of information they consume? If insights are to be digitally shared with peers for assessing them, collaboratively determining actions or making decisions, or increasing business valuation, does a person need to reduce their insights to writing?
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The answer is yes — and that means they need the skills to author effective, high-quality insights.
Value Starts With Critical Thinkers Creating high-quality insights requires critical thinking. Leaders everywhere seek critical thinkers. Advertised job postings have doubled since 2009 according to analysis by Indeed.com, and a 2016 Davos World Economic Forum report lists critical thinking as No. 2 (behind only problem-solving — a requisite critical thinking skill) in the top 10 skills for the global economy in 2020.
FIGURE 1: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN AND TECHNOLOGY
To succeed in business, we must do better than consume content. We must contemplate, evaluate, synthesize and apply the content we consume. In other words, critical thinking is no longer just “nice to have” — it is a business differentiator. What separates high-progress organizations (those that get better business results than their lower-performing peers) will be the extent to which their employees are purposeful about questioning the status quo, igniting wonder, creating insights and sharing their wisdom across the enterprise. Insights will be the new measure of business success — the new “currency of business,” according to Forrester Research.
Info rma tion
sys tem s
Em plo yee
bra ins
What Makes Insights Actionable? Actions and decisions driven by knowledgeable processing of Insights information.
Knowledge
Content
Data
Education, expertise and lessons learned. Electronic documents, web content, videos, etc. Text and numbers that machines can understand.
Source: Laci Loew & Co. and Pandexio Inc., 2018
Why the urgent and growing need for critical thinking? In an interview with Forbes for a 2017 article, “How to Hire and Develop Critical Thinkers,” William T. Gormley Jr., professor at Georgetown University, said: “Today’s global and interconnected society is exposing us to more different people, with different views and mounting amounts of new information. We need tools but also the human capability to sift through it all and evaluate everything coming into our lives. And it’s not just about assessing this or that argument. We also need critical thinking to help set priorities and be adaptable to all the change coming at us.” Critical thinking may also be the key to closing the wisdom gap in business today. In a 2014 HuffPost article, “Thinking Matters: Critical Thinking Is Crucial for Success,” James Martin from Oxford University said, “A serious problem right now is the gap between our skill and our wisdom. Today, deep reflection about our future circumstances is eclipsed by the rush to build faster, cheaper, smarter, more-efficient gadgets. Society’s best brains are saturated with immediate issues that become ever more complex, rather than reflecting on why we are doing this and what the longterm consequences will be.” 34 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Insights reflect complex thought processes, which means they are not synonymous with raw data or information but rather are the output of critical thinking. As such, humans are necessarily involved in forming insights. While data, information and content often come from machines and computers, only humans are capable of complex thought processes for the foreseeable future, notwithstanding advances in artificial intelligence (see Figure 1). Thus, information and content fuel the formation of insights in the minds of employees but in and of themselves are not insights. Insights are actionable when they are aligned, contextual, relevant, specific, novel and clear. •A lignment: Insights are more likely to drive action when they are closely tied to key business goals. Aligned insights have a direct relation to business performance metrics (growth of intellectual capital, employee engagement, financial return, sales growth, customer satisfaction, talent turnover, productivity) that you control and influence. •C ontext: Insights shaped by experience, background, benchmarks or other comparison data generally promote action. Ample supporting evidence ensures the insight does not morph into opinion, unwarranted skepticism or objection and encourages action, innovation, creation and problem solving. •R elevance: Insights are actionable when readily accessible and consumed by the right people in the right amounts when needed. If insights are buried in knowledge repositories or traditional learning management systems or learning experience platforms and not accessible via digital workplace platforms and devices that enable critical thinking, they may never make it to those in need. •S pecificity: Succinct, explicit insights that offer “why” with evidence to prompt more inquiry drive immediate action.
Change isn’t optional. Disruption is.
In the most successful organizations, resilient people know how to thrive, even in disruptive times. That’s why our change solutions make sure people stay highly engaged and productive throughout change. Our change solutions are people-focused, because every individual processes change in their own way.
Visit insights.com/change to download our latest eBook and learn more about people-focused change management. Insights for your people, breakthroughs for your business www.insights.com
•N ovelty: Innovative and provocative insights that stand out beyond the 24/7 information flow with which employees are overwhelmed are compelling. Insights that gain the curiosity of those who should be paying attention and challenge the human mind get acted on much more frequently than those that simply reinforce what we may already know. •C larity: Clearly communicated insights expressed in a single tight, cogent sentence with empirical reference pave the pathway for action. The more insights line up with these attributes, the more actionable they will be and the greater the value they will offer your business.
Authoring Actionable Insights Authoring and sharing actionable insights are long-overdue critical thinking skills that are essential for the future workforce. We spend more than $150 billion per year training employees on routine information and manual tasks. However, when it comes to insights — the most basic building block of critical and systems thinking and among the top skills needed for the future workforce — we provide little enablement, if any. In fact, until now, few have even thought about curated insights, focusing instead on content curation, which often does not produce a single insight. FIGURE 2: AN EVIDENCE-BASED MODEL FOR WRITING ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS Algorithm looks for key analytical verbs. (e.g., assets, builds, clarifies, creates, frames, presents, shows, states, suggests, verifies.)
Algorithm looks for key numbers and symbols. (e.g., %, $, #, 1/2, 1/4, <, >, =, ~.)
Algorithm looks for key action verbs.
Analytical Reflects analytical thinking about the evidence and how it informs action.
Factual Reflects integration of key facts into the insight itself.
Actionable Reflects some form of action or application, the “result” of the insight.
Contextual Reflects context and commitment level for application.
(e.g., deliver, design, enhance, execute, improve, integrate, organize, plan, study, teach, etc.)
Algorithm looks for key modal verbs. (e.g., our clients, HR team, marketing function, you, we, etc., should, would, could, shall, might, will, can, must, etc.)
Source: Laci Loew & Co. and Pandexio Inc., 2018
The writing of actionable insights is a critical thinking skill that matures with practice and generally occurs over four phases: 1. C onsuming content to fuel thinking. 2. Identifying relevant and specific nuggets of evidence aligned with a problem to be solved (the beginning of critical thinking). 36 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
3. Collecting the evidence nuggets at a topical level, ensuring contextual appropriateness (an intermediate level of critical thinking). 4. Connecting the evidence nuggets and sharing a clear, innovative and informed insight in a cogent sentence to accelerate problem resolution (expert critical thinking). Fortunately, authoring actionable insights can be learned. Writing effective insights starts with understanding the foundation on which they are built. There are three foundational elements of every great insight: evidence — information nuggets one encounters (content consumed); knowledge — the things one knows (education, expertise and lessons learned); and context — what one is paid to do (role, function, company purpose). An evidence-based model (Figure 2) has been developed for incorporating these foundational elements into an algorithm for scoring digitally curated insights for actionability. A baseline factor in the model is length, with the Twitter limit as an upper bound for scoring. In addition to length, there are four components representing specific word types that reflect insight actionability based on the foundational elements: analytical thinking about the evidence, application of the evidence, integration of empirical evidence, and context and commitment level of the application or action.
Measuring Business Value Following are examples of high-quality, high-scoring actionable insights that incorporate empirical data/facts, analytical verbs, modal verbs and action verbs — the word types used by the insight value algorithm. These words are italicized. • A 20 percent rate of IT turnover suggests our HR group might examine flight risk in our IT department. • The 25 percent increase in harassment allegations implies our leadership should rectify existing violations. • The finding that 30 percent of worker tasks can now be automated requires us to re-evaluate our 2018 staffing plan. To present easily understandable feedback to insight authors, the model reduces algorithm results to a point-based scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 being the least actionable and 5 the most actionable. Algorithm weighting factors are optimized by manually comparing the perceived actionability of more than 100 insights to their scores (selected from a database of several million insights based on permissions). Insights are then rewritten and rescored based on the INSIGHTS continued on page 57
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We can leverage neuroscience insights to build trusted business relationships.
“L
BY NABEEL AHMAD
ast year, when I was working the phones, a woman called, trying to return some boots. The sad story turned out to be that she had bought them for her father, who had since died. I told her not to bother returning them; that we would refund her money and she was free to give the boots away instead of returning them. And after the call I felt moved to send her some flowers — just one of the 380 gifts of flowers you can see on the board that we sent out last year. Sometime after that, she sent me a letter and a photo of her father.” This story was told by a Zappos employee and quoted in a June 2017 Forbes article, “Tony Hsieh Reveals the Secret to Zappos’ Customer Service Success in One Word.” But its lesson isn’t about flowers. It’s about the phone.
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Zappos encourages phone calls 24/7. It enables in-depth conversations with customers. This creates social connection to build lifelong customers. “It’s how we build a personal connection, primarily on the phone,” Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, said in the Forbes article. And the conversations customers have with Zappos phone workers aren’t just about products. They are about “whatever friends would talk about,” according to Hsieh. Can we be sure that what Zappos does actually helps form deeper connections with customers? Fortunately, we can now — using neuroscience. For years, “soft” sciences such as psychology have assessed human relationship behavior. Now, new technology enables “hard” science to provide more evidence into how our brains work. And we can leverage that insight to build trusted business relationships, both internally and externally.
The Relationships Business Soft skills, such as communication and negotiation, form the core of relationship building in business and can help develop deep and trusted relationships with clients, engaging on a human level. Last year at KPMG, we endeavored to discover whether we could leverage evidence-based research from neuroscience to better inform how best to develop trusted relationships with our clients. Granted, that goal may be achieved differently by different individuals. Yet we wondered if hard science might uncover any universal insights to better inform our practice. If so, we could then use such findings to update our client-engagement methodology in coaching our people working with clients. What we ended up doing was a bit different.
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We partnered with renowned neuroscience professor Michael Platt, who leads the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania. Platt is an expert who has spoken at the World Economic Forum and NATO and has worked with numerous industries to apply his lab’s neuroscience research to practical needs. With Platt’s help, we looked to determine the strength of our client relationships and those within KPMG and what we could do to improve them. One result that came out of the partnership was an instructional program on applying practical insights from neuroscience to build trusted relationships.
Initiating a Relationship Recent studies of human brain imaging strongly suggest that our brains are wired to be social. To build good relationships, we need to understand how to tap into that “social brain” network to maximize connectivity between two individuals. How do you do that? Interestingly, it’s not by remembering everything told to you or by taking thorough notes. The key to initiating a strong relationship is perception. Because the brain is wired to be social, it seeks so-
We need to tap into the “social brain” network to maximize connectivity between two individuals. cial cues — the real-time behaviors that display connection. When you make eye contact with a new acquaintance, smile at them and pay close attention to them, their social brain registers along with yours. Failing to look and listen reduces that information flow into the social brain, limiting the potential for building connections, establishing trust and working together. Initiating a relationship well is the critical first step in building a collaborative dynamic between individuals. Paying close attention — and thus tapping into the social brain — improves your ability to do that.
Engaging Emotionally Once you’ve established the connection, your next order of business is, strangely enough, not to do business. After the initial greeting and connection, refrain from immediately discussing your meeting’s business objective. Instead, a growing body of scientific literature indicates that you need to first promote “shared feelings.” This emotional connection is why many cultures build in time for individuals to get to know 40 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
one another socially before talking business. Even in more results-oriented Western cultures, it’s customary to precede the official business meeting agenda with social small talk: sharing a conversation about the weather or the local sports team. This seemingly unimportant behavior is tied to the activity in the social brain circuit. During successful communication, the speaker’s and listener’s brains exhibit temporarily coupled response patterns, or brain synchrony. These shared feelings create similar processing in the brains of those participating. As this occurs, the activity in the brain circuits of the two individuals becomes synchronized. As the corresponding circuit activity of the two brains begins to match, it allows information flow to become more effective than if the two circuits were not so coordinated. Even more important, brain synchrony also leads to physiological synchrony, as shown by brain imaging and heart rate studies. When brain circuits match, so too do heart electrocardiogram rates. Common heart activity has consistently been found to improve trust and liking between individuals, creating a higher likelihood of successful relationship outcomes. This coordination of brain and heart between individuals can be sparked by common auditory and visual connections. For example, physical mirroring increases emotional engagement. When two people’s postures are in sync, it sends signals to both their brains that create a sense of shared feelings. That said, mirroring must appear to be natural and not obviously manipulated. Such techniques, whether visual, auditory or both, help create the emotional connection that produces brain synchrony. This in turn also activates synchronized physiology, resulting in increased mutual liking, understanding, empathy, rapport, helping and a more successful working relationship.
Engaging Cognitively A trusted relationship also depends on cognitive connections. These connections happen when people say, “We’re on the same page,” or “I feel we have shared goals.” This feeling of a common objective activates the social brain, amplifying trust and understanding between individuals. How can you achieve that? By thinking and acting more “pro-socially” — in other words, trying to understand the goals and motivations of the other person. It’s a skill that can be learned. One way to exhibit cognitive connections is through perspective-taking. When communicating with another person, aim to “walk a mile in their shoes” and see things from their vantage point. Activating perspective-taking engages the social brain, which enhances your ability to develop understanding and helps to achieve common goals.
Highlighting Similarities, Reducing Differences Relationships flourish when we focus on commonalities. The typical business commonality that drives collaboration and cooperation is the shared goal of the team or firm. Common commitment to a team’s shared work goal activates the social brain, which improves motivation to perform well together and helps drive collaboration. A clear, common goal that everyone on the team understands and supports is key to a successful outcome. You probably already know that. What you may not know is that even small perceived differences can reduce activation within the brain’s social network. This is associated with reduced attention to others and, ultimately, reduced empathy and understanding for those with whom you interact. What might these “perceived differences” be? They could be something as basic as differences in age, gender, ethnicity, or even socioeconomic or social status. Any perceived difference between individuals will lessen social brain activation — sometimes enormously. One powerful way to rescue empathy and mutual understanding is to highlight the perception that our similarities far outweigh our differences. In other words, we are on the “same team.” You see this at sporting events, where people of different ages and ethnicities come together to root for the same team. For those few hours together, individuals with different backgrounds and even those who speak different languages share a common feeling of oneness about their team. This lessens the focus on differences and increases the focus on commonality and mutual connection. To build relationships, highlight similarities and minimize perception of differences by identifying mutual interests. This may include sharing common music, film or reading interests, discussing similar educational backgrounds or sharing favorite travel experiences. Doing so helps build empathy, engagement and greater collaboration.
Flexing Your Relationship Muscle Our relationship-building ability is like a muscle. We improve our social fitness the same way we do our physical fitness: The more we use it, the better it gets. Consider monkeys, for example, which have the same social brain networks that humans do. Among the things we have learned by studying monkeys and other primates are the actions we can take to better develop our own capacity to connect with each other. In a recent set of experiments, scientists scanned the brains of naive monkeys to measure their baseline social-brain-network health. These monkeys — which had limited prior social interaction — were each placed
Any perceived difference between individuals will lessen social brain activation — sometimes enormously. into different-sized groups. One monkey was placed in a living environment with one other monkey. Another was placed in an environment with two other monkeys. One was placed with eight other monkeys, one with 20, one with 32, and so on. After these monkeys lived in their respective environments for several months, the scientists rescanned the original monkeys’ brains. The scientists discovered that the social-brain networks of the monkeys in the larger-sized groups had grown significantly larger than those who lived in the smaller groups. Therefore, they concluded that having to connect and negotiate an environment with many other monkeys caused greater development of “social brain muscle.” What does that mean for us? It means that when we engage our social brain — by connecting beyond family, fellow employees and our normal network of friends — it gets stronger. Consider getting out of the house this weekend and making some new connections, perhaps at your local farmers market or a neighborhood gathering. These activities grow your social muscle, which can help you build better relationships with clients and colleagues. And better relationships grow trust, inspire rapport and lead to greater business outcomes.
Isn’t This Obvious? It probably seems obvious; of course being more social helps build relationships. Although you already likely know this from anecdotal or personal experience, recent neuroscience findings not only help confirm such intuitive insights but also detail how the mechanism of our brain’s social network informs the initiation and development of human relationships. The next time you’re about to begin a business meeting or conversation, consider starting with how that local sports team of yours is doing or the unusual weather you’re experiencing or “whatever it is that friends talk about,” as Hsieh noted. By doing so, you may discover you’re improving your opportunity to create a more trusted and lasting relationship. CLO Nabeel Ahmad is head of L&D for market development and industries at KPMG. He can be reached at editor@ CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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Success Simplified A single-model approach to developing effective, successful leaders and organizations. BY CY NTHIA ST. JOHN
C
ountless valuable works contribute to our understanding of leadership and organizational effectiveness. There are well in excess of 100,000 books on leadership alone. Factor in those on organization development and change, and your reading list expands exponentially. This raises some questions for learning leaders: Is it possible to synthesize and simplify the myriad leadership models into a single, understandable leadership system? If such a system is possible, how can one use it to consistently develop effective leaders and organizations? Rather than create yet another nuanced approach, what if we could integrate the two huge and historically distinct fields, distill them to the most essential elements, and use those elements to offer one overarching framework for leadership and organizational excellence? In short, how might we simplify success and make it systematically achievable? Achieving simplicity by recognizing and extracting only what’s essential requires starting with a broad view. Figure 1 is a parsimonious look at more than 100 years of theory for the two disciplines. From here, we can focus on understanding the essential elements and build a solid, simple framework for leader and organization success.
From Theory to Practice The two traditionally distinct domains have many parallels. Both fields are interested in understanding and improving performance — one targeting individual leader effectiveness and the other aimed at overall organizational effectiveness. Both have led to distinct measures and methods that, when boiled down, address similar content at different levels. But two key themes stand out as particularly valuable. First, both domains began with a strong task or process focus, later recognizing the importance of the human factor and ultimately arriving at a more balanced perspective. At the organization level, this is seen in the transition from classical to neoclassical and humanistic theories. At the leader level, the distinction between task and relationship factors was introduced by the behavioral theorists. This shift occurred at approximately the same time, from the 1950s to 1960s, in both domains. Second, both had an early emphasis “inside” the leader or organization, later moving to external impacts, including environmental in42 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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fluences and creating change. In the leader domain, the inner qualities and attributes of the individual (great man and trait theories) expanded to behaviors in various environments (behavioral and contingency theories) and shifted from maintaining or incrementally improving the status quo to influencing transformation (transactional/transformational theory). FIGURE 1: A HISTORY OF LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY General time frame
Late 1800s to early 1900s
1940s to 1950s
1950s to 1960s
1960s to 1970s
Leadership theories:
Great man
Trait
Behavioral
Situational and contingency
Posits that leaders are special people possessing innate qualities that make them “born” to lead.
Suggests certain personality traits and attributes are common among great leaders.
Focuses on how successful leaders behave and can be “made.”
Recognizes that different behaviors demonstrate success in different situations.
Classical
Neoclassical
Humanisitic/ human resource
Modern
Focused on maximizing production through specialization and division of labor.
Reaction against minimizing the human element in the classical theory’s view of organizations as machines.
Belief that organizations and people need and benefit each other; “fit” between the two is key.
Modernization of structural organization theory; increasing emphasis on systems and environment/ context.
Organization theories:
always be the starting point. It’s ground zero and is numbered as such. This is where the organization’s mission, vision, values, core competencies, strategic challenges and advantages are defined, refined and constantly reviewed relative to decisions and actions in all the other areas. The essential core also must include the leadership team’s definition of success and how it will be measured. This is often done using key performance 1980s and beyond indicators addressing financial considerations, quality, customer Transactional/ service/engagement, workforce transformational and other core measures. An effective measurement system is necesEmphasizes the sary to select, collect, analyze and leader-follower relationship in report results to inform leaders achieving and guide action. outcomes. Without these key factors in place, the leader and organization lack focus and cannot adequately Postmodern develop or refine the skills and systems needed for sustainable high From power and performance and competitive adpolitics to organizational vantage. When well defined, a culture and strong core anchors and aligns all change; a focus the other elements and creates on influences to greater differentiation between exdrive outcomes. cellent and average performers.
Similarly, modern and post-modern theory brought attention to the organization as an open system within a changing environment, increased emphasis on strategy, and emphasized organizational culture and culture change to support new levels of performance. These themes represent the two critical dimensions for creating a robust yet simple framework for both leader and organization development. The first dimension is task and relationship; the second is running versus changing the business. Figure 2 shows a resulting two-by-two matrix and the five essential elements that are created at the intersection of these two dimensions. In the two-by-two framework, each of the four quadrants show relevant leadership skills and organizational systems to be tackled. The essential core contains key factors that make the model uniquely relevant to each leader and organization. Numbers represent process sequence. Collectively, the core-plus-four framework represents a unified leadership system designed to transform individual and organizational results.
Establish Direction
Essential Core
Engage
The center of the core-plus-four leadership system represents the most foundational factors and should
Following the diagonal arrow to engage, we’re now at the intersection of run the business and relationship.
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At the intersection of change the business and task, you’ll find establish direction. As a critical responsibility of leaders, establishing a desirable and competitive strategic direction requires a solid understanding of the business, new ways of thinking and quality decision-making. These skills, when supported by an organizational strategic planning system, ultimately lead to the development of strategic objectives and related action plans to advance the new direction. The core factors of vision/values, strategic challenges/advantages and meaningful measures serve to inform the strategic plan and its ongoing refinement to ensure intended outcomes are achieved and the organization is sustainable. Both the numbering system and solid arrows in Figure 2 imply a strong bidirectional relationship between establish direction and engage. Depending on the culture and core of the organization, its leaders may initially lead off with either; however, a disciplined seesaw approach between the two will ensure the needed input and alignment of each are achieved.
Driving toward a task (including the strategic direction) without attending to people can undermine your efforts and outcomes. Effective leaders use their skills to build collaborative relationships, attract and leverage top talent, and maintain a keen awareness of their own attitudes, behaviors and impact. This includes but is not limited to role-modeling the company’s core values and building trust internally and externally. At the organization level, parallel systems associated with relationship management include governance and societal responsibility, customer/stakeholder focus, workforce focus and supplier-partner-collaborator interactions. When the leadership skills and organizational systems come together, there is effective communication and engagement with all essential groups — including balancing the various needs and expectations of each — aligned around core requirements. Returning to sequence, and the previous seesaw-by-design discussion with establish direction, a key portion of engage is focused on acquiring and retaining customers, workforce and other stakeholders through relationship management. This includes defining your key customer/stakeholder groups, obtaining information to identify their needs or requirements, and determining their satisfaction and engagement. As noted, this can either be the starting place for, or serve as key input to, the strategic planning system associated with establishing direction.
Evolve Completing the circuit in the upper right quadrant, we begin and end with a strategic change the business focus, now with a relationship orientation. Whereas engage addressed understanding customer/stakeholder needs and expectations, as well as building collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships, evolve inspires and transforms. Here, the leader’s skills move from engaging to influencing others toward a shared vision, challenging the status quo and leading change, as well as developing others while demonstrating your own adaptability and continuous development. At an organization level, evolving requires effective systems for workforce and leader development, collecting and transferring organizational knowledge, performance improvement and innovation. When fully integrated, these skills and systems collectively and directly target advancement of the organization’s essential core, maximizing long-term competitiveness and minimizing random acts of improvement. FIGURE 2: THE CORE-PLUS-FOUR LEADERSHIP SYSTEM Task Change the business
Establish direction
Evolve (4)
(1or 2)
Essential Core (0)
Execute Moving to the left, retaining a run the business focus while shifting from relationship back to task, is the execute quadrant. Even the best-designed plans, with clear direction established and key stakeholders engaged, are of little value if not well-implemented. Highly effective leaders get results by demonstrating action and accountability, aligning and directing work, and eliminating barriers. Corresponding organizational systems include service/product and process management, data and information management, and performance management. When these leadership skills and organizational systems are in place and aligned, leaders create an environment for success and a focus on action to achieve the company’s core mission and KPIs. Related to sequence, strategic plans and operational processes are generally first developed, executed and then measured for learning and improvement to occur. Reviewing actual performance relative to initial plan and intended outcomes (in addition to environmental influences such as competitor performance) informs the nature and direction of change. The organization can then do more of what worked and modify what didn’t. The needed changes, addressed in the evolve quadrant, may be incremental or transformational.
Relationship
Run the business
Execute
Engage
(3)
(2 or 1)
Although evolve appears last in the leadership system flow, the open arrows and adjoining boxes indicate there is always a sense of fluidity between the elements. While evolution and revolution (incremental improvement and transformational innovation) often follow execution as a result of intentional learning, revolutionary change can also precipitate it. This may especially be the case in high-tech organizations or high-disruption industries. For example, strategic direction should be based not only on known needs of your target customers (via engage) but also on potential solutions to problems your customers may not even be aware of yet (evolve). Treat the arrows as a general guide while recognizing the fluid nature of the five essential elements. Address all elements in the sequence that works best for your organization. CORE continued on page 56 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
45
Alanna Corrigan Senior Director of Customer Service Training Design & Transformation Air Canada Anil Santhapuri Director of Learning and Development Altisource Blaire Bhojwani Senior Director, Learning Innovation Hilton Brenda Sugrue Global Chief Learning Officer EY Brent Boeckman Global Learning and Development Manager Malwarebytes Charles Atkins Vice President Dell EMC Education Services Chris Bower Global Director of GM Center of Learning General Motors Chris Hall Assistant Commissioner U.S. Department of Homeland Security U.S. Customs and Border Protection Damodar Padhi Vice President and Global Head of Talent Development Tata Consultancy Services
David Sylvester Principal of Leadership & Development Booz Allen Hamilton
Judith Almendra Vice President of Human Capital TTEC
Natasa Prodanovic Group Talent Director Coca-Cola HBC AG
Edward Bell Director Dell EMC Education Services
Kathleen McCutcheon Vice President of Human Resources Tokio Marine HCC
Elizabeth Collins-Calder Director of Leadership Development Suffolk
Laurie Jeppesen Global Assurance Learning & Education Leader PwC
Parimal Rathod Senior Vice President & Head of Business Impact Group and Learning & Development Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company Limited
Elizabeth MacGillivray Strategic Learning Leader Mercer Helen Rossiter Senior Talent Development Specialist West Marine James Mitchell Vice President of Global Talent Management Rackspace Jim Whiteford Executive Director Ally Joe Ilvento Chief Learning Officer Commvault John Kusi-Mensah, AVP Distribution Capability Center of Expertise MetLife
Lisa Druet Senior Manager, E. & J. Gallo Winery Mariam Kakkar Chief of Talent Development Unit United Nations Development Programme Meredith Oakes Global Head of Campus Strategy & Pipeline Development BNY Mellon Meriya Dyble Director of Learning Reimagined ATB Financial Mike Blanchette Senior Director of Sales Acceleration Veeam Nancy Robert Executive Vice President of Chief Product and Marketing Officer American Nurses Association
Patricia Aquaro Managing Director and Head of Risk and Professional Excellence BNY Mellon Paul Lutmer Global Commercial Learning Leader GE Corporate Ross McLean Global Program Manager Veeam Scott Hammond Senior Manager of Industry Programs Autodesk Tim Tobin Vice President of Franchisee Onboarding and Learning Choice Hotels International Walter Davis Global Learning Systems & Delivery Manager Aggreko
Companies Alamo Colleges Bank of New York Mellon C3 CoreAxis Consulting, LLC D2L Davenport University Dell EMC
E. & J. Gallo Winery Easygenerator General Motors GP Strategies HT2 Labs Impact Learnlight
Litmos NovoEd Paychex Penn State Smeal College of Business/ Penn State Executive Programs Raytheon Professional Services LLC Rite Solutions
Scrimmage Sidley Austin LLP STRIVR SweetRush The Presentation Company The Regis Company TTEC
Shining Light on
the dark side Everyone has a “dark side.” Helping leaders know and manage their less desirable traits can produce positive results.
I
BY AVE RIO
n 1992, Robert Hogan identified 11 dark side characteristics, including being bold, mischievous, leisurely, colorful and reserved (Figure 1). According to research conducted in the 1980s by organizational psychologists, one reason that otherwise successful and talented leaders fail is because of the prevalence of their dark side characteristics. However, new research by Hogan’s eponymous personality assessment company found that these characteristics can be recognized and even leveraged in the workplace. Hogan Assessments CEO Scott Gregory calls the set of 11 personality characteristics “dark side derailers.” These characteristics, according to the research, can get managers in trouble by impeding their ability to build and sustain teams, engage people, communicate effectively and manage performance. There are clusters of characteristics that tend to go together, but Gregory said in general, people can have strong characteristics in a variety of categories that can contribute positively to outcomes in some roles or settings. However, those same characteristics can become particularly problematic when people are stressed or feeling pressured or simply when their guard is down and they are not self-monitoring like they usually would.
48 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Zsolt Feher, managing director at Hogan Assessments Europe, said that while these dark side characteristics can appear in everyone, they are most visible in leaders. “Obviously everybody’s looking at the leader and if that leader is behaving in a different way, that’s going to be visible and quite disruptive for the organization,” he said.
Dark vs. Bright Gregory said he often sees a key upside to each derailer that is linked to the requirements of certain roles. For example, highly diligent people are often quality oriented, thorough, precise and produce detailed and highly accurate work. Their work may be slow and not suited for roles such as a social worker or nanny but more suited for roles such as an attorney or accountant.
Gregory pointed to an experienced successful attorney in a large global corporation who scored high on the diligence scale. Leaders with this derailer often have difficulty letting go, delegating and changing rapidly as circumstances change, Gregory said. He said the high diligence of this attorney, on the one hand, helped keep his corporation from violating international trade regulations, which are complex, detailed and constantly changing. “He was exceptionally thorough and up to date on trade regulations,” Gregory said. “He had installed a strong
compliance process that allowed few mistakes to slip through the cracks at his organization.” On the other hand, Gregory said the attorney tended to annoy his coworkers. “When they needed a strategic answer from him — rather than a 10-page analysis — or when policies needed to change quickly, his attention to detail slowed down that process,” Gregory said. On the bold scale, high scorers Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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are often described by others — particularly their teams if they are leaders — as seeming arrogant, self-focused and unreasonably demanding, especially when they’re under pressure or stressed out, Gregory said. However, in one research study on stock traders, high bold scores predicted success in that role. “In this case, if an individual wasn’t highly competent, very decisive, or willing to make bold demands and take bold actions, he or she wasn’t as successful as those who showed more constraint,” he said. Particularly for leaders, though, Gregory said the downside often outweighs the positive because the derailers get in the way of engaging the team and helping others to be successful.
State Farm Insurance CLO Carra Simmons said self-awareness is a huge component to helping leaders reach their full potential. “No one is ever done developing themselves, no matter what level you achieve,” she said. “It’s really knowing innately naturally what I’m good at and what skill sets do I have.”
Know Your Weaknesses
She said she sees an enormous value in taking personality assessments to inform people who they are, how they are wired, how they work best with others and how their tendencies impact others to bring out the best work in others and in themselves simultaneously. She also said it’s great if individuals can be matched into roles for their strengths, but part of development is moving people into different roles. “It’s not like it’s a one-and-done,” she said. “We may have a good match for you based upon your strength, but people don’t want to stay there forever. So how do we continue to improve and move that needle?”
Gregory said the most important way learning leaders can help with these dark side characteristics is to help leaders understand that how they think about themselves is not important — rather, the importance is how other people view them. “From our perspective, personality and reputation are the same thing,” Gregory said. “It’s about how these things impact other people, not whether I think my high-bold is a great quality because it makes me confident. It’s about if others see me as being unrealistically demanding or arrogant.” Gregory said step one for CLOs is finding a way to get that kind of reputation feedback in a leader’s hands. Step two is helping leaders become aware of their dark side characteristics. “You need some organized measure to do that, but the focus on these dark side characteristics can be built into almost any L&D effort,” Gregory said. “I have worked with executive education organizations to build feedback into experiential learning or action learning projects, which can be particularly valuable.” Erica Desrosiers, head of accelerated development at Johnson & Johnson, has used the Hogan assessment for nearly 20 years in her talent roles at PepsiCo, Walmart and now Johnson & Johnson. She said it’s not the kind of tool to be used on the entire workforce. Rather, she has always used it specifically for leadership development. “It’s a really useful tool to help leaders enhance their self-awareness and to understand where they might need to modify their behavior to be more effective as leaders.” Desrosiers said for self-aware leaders, the assessment usually confirms what they already know about themselves and sometimes helps explain it. But for others it can be an aha moment. “It’s been this kind of enlightening, valuable set of insights that really helps them understand themselves in a way they haven’t reflected on before,” she said. “The feedback typically resonates a lot.” 50 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
To truly grow and change less-desirable traits takes a lot of time and intentionality.
Once You Know Them, Don’t Ignore Them Strengths-based leadership and management styles are a growing trend, such as motivational speaker Marcus Buckingham’s popular approach that focuses on what people are good at and encourages people to “work around weaknesses” because other people on the team will supposedly have strengths to counter those weaknesses. But Simmons said people cannot ignore their weaknesses or developmental opportunities. She said it’s rare to find a team that has perfectly compatible strengths and weaknesses. “There’s always a changing team dynamic; somebody leaves, somebody new is brought on, you shrink your team,” she said. “I don’t think you ever have that perfect harmonious balance.” Damodar Padhi, vice president and global head of talent development at Tata Consultancy Services, said most average people focus on developing strengths rather than eliminating weaknesses. “It is fun, less risky and instantly gratifying,” Padhi said. “Fixing weaknesses, on the other hand, is not so easy, could be frustrating [and the] reward may be elusive.” But Padhi said people can only go so far if they focus solely on strengths and turn a blind eye toward
weaknesses. “Eventually our weaknesses will act as brake pads in our growth,” he said. “At the same time, we know focusing too much on weaknesses can be quite time consuming and draining.” Padhi said average people try to build on their strengths, but successful people will always keep a limited number of weaknesses to be sharpened as well. Desrosiers agreed that weaknesses can’t always be ignored. “Some weaknesses will derail you from what could otherwise have been a very successful path,” she said.
Build Awareness, Give Feedback Simmons said ideally leaders have a coach to help them understand the results of any personality assessment. “People can put their own spin on it and some people are very self-critical and can get stuck in some of that,” she said. “So you really must have a quality coach that knows the assessment and can realistically help someone through that.” That’s what happens at Johnson & Johnson. Desrosiers said they train coaches to interpret the assessment and be able to give feedback on it. “In the full report there are dozens of scales and subscales, so it’s
hard to make sense of that by yourself,” she said. “But when you sit down with the trained facilitator or coach who walks you through it and can explain all the nuances, it helps bring the insights to life.” Once the awareness is there and leaders know what they need to work on, it becomes a matter of creating the conditions for development to occur. “I have to be able to think about some alternative behaviors and have a chance to try them out,” Gregory said. “And then I have to be able to get feedback from other people about them.” Hogan Europe’s Feher added that CLOs should encourage leaders to ask their co-workers for feedback as well and be open to constructive criticism. “We can change your behavior, but we cannot change your personality,” he said. Desrosiers said after the awareness is there, the next steps depend on the leader, the leader’s goals and the specifics of the situation. “It could go anywhere from sitting with them through the creation of a development plan to leveraging the results through a one-onone executive coaching engagement,” she said. DARK SIDE continued on page 56
FIGURE SOURCE: HOGAN ASSESSMENTS
FIGURE 1: DARK SIDE CHARACTERISTICS Dark side scale
Why is it dark?
Bright side of dark side
May be problematic in these roles
Beneficial for
Excitable
volatile, unpredictable
enthusiastic, passionate
therapist, doctor
coach, actor
Skeptical
negative, cynical
insightful, perceptive
preschool teacher, school counselor
journalist, lawyer
Cautious
risk-averse, fearful of failure
deliberate, careful
business owner, stockbroker
accountant, financial analyst
Reserved
indifferent, socially withdrawn
independent, objective
sales personnel, customer service
archivist, scientist
Leisurely
passive-aggressive, stubborn
cooperative, agreeable
HR manager, feedback coach
freelancer, cook
Bold
entitled, arrogant
assertive, confident
secretary, paramedic
entrepreneur, artist
Mischievous
manipulative, tests limits
charming, interesting
law enforcement, child care worker
sales, adventure seeker
Colorful
dramatic, distractible
entertaining, outgoing
auditor, programmer
politician, radio/TV host
Imaginative
eccentric, impractical
innovative, creative
data analyst, bank teller
designer, photographer
Diligent
inflexible, micromanager
hardworking, detail-oriented
social worker, nanny
pharmacist, copywriter
Dutiful
conforming, ingratiating
supportive, loyal
inventor, president
nurse, waiter Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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Case Study
Moving on Up(ward) BY SARAH FISTER GALE
T
yson Foods got its beginnings during the Great Depression when founder John Tyson began delivering chickens from Springdale, Arkansas, to buyers across the Midwest. Nearly 90 years later, Tyson has become the second largest processor of chicken, beef and pork in the world, with more than 100,000 employees across the country and nearly $40 billion in annual revenues — but it still operates that first plant in Springdale, and it’s still deeply invested in the local community and its people. Springdale is made up largely of immigrants who came to Arkansas in search of a better life, and the company wanted to be sure it was meeting their needs. In 2015, Tyson conducted an employee satisfaction survey of frontline plant workers at Springdale and discovered that many of them were interested in English language learning programs. In response, the employee social responsibility team rolled out a small pilot program offering English as a second language training at the plant. “We thought 10 or 15 people might show up,” said Kevin Scherer, senior manager of the ESL team. So he was shocked when 128 employees of the 300 total staff attended the first class. “We realized the survey was trying to tell us something important,” he said. After the first program was launched at the Springdale plant, Scherer’s team got permission to institute it at a larger plant in Arkansas. Again, they were worried nobody would be interested. This time, 250 employees out of 1,100 signed up. “It wasn’t a fluke,” Scherer said. “The rest is history.”
Government-Funded Training While English language skills are obviously important for plant communication, Scherer’s team wanted Upward Academy, as the employee education program came to be known, to focus on more than just workplace productivity. “We wanted to help them with their lives outside the plant,” he said. So they decided they needed a learning program that would help employees navigate everything from renting an apartment and scheduling doctor’s appointments to figuring out transportation and talking to their kids’ teachers. When Scherer presented the idea to the executive 52 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
SNAPSHOT Tyson Foods invests in ESL and GED courses for frontline workers through its Upward Academy.
team, they were immediately on board. “Community is a big part of what Tyson is all about,” Scherer said. They also suspected that helping employees navigate challenges outside the plant would result in a more productive, loyal and engaged workforce. “Stable team members drive more stable workforce metrics,” he said. Rather than attempting to build the program inhouse, Scherer’s team began looking for community partners with expertise in ESL and related training. They eventually partnered with the Ozark Literacy Council, a local nonprofit that already offered ESL and citizenship classes. “We were excited to help people gain literacy in the workplace,” said Patty Sullivan, executive director of OLC. Tyson and OLC were also able to tap funding from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act to cover most of the costs. WIOA is federal workforce development legislation designed to promote adult basic education, which requires organizations like OLC to partner with local businesses to provide training. However, it can be hard for the nonprofit to connect with corporate partners. “When we came knocking, it was a great match,” Scherer said.
Break Room or Classroom In the week leading up to the first class, representatives from the council came to the plant before and after every shift to talk about the course and to help people sign up. The representatives spoke employees’ native language and brought coffee and donuts, said Emily Hackerson, program consultant for Upward Academy. “Having someone who could speak to them in their native language was important,” she said. When an employee showed interest, the reps walked them through the application and gave them a brief test to assess their needs. “Having the representatives there helped them establish trust, and it showed them that
this wasn’t just some check-the-box initiative,” Hackerson said. “We think it is one of the reasons Upward Academy has been so successful.” Upward Academy classes are held at the plant before and after shifts, with instructors coming as early as 4:30 a.m. for some classes and returning late in the evening for others. This allows participants to have the most access possible without missing a beat at work, said Donna Davis, program consultant for Upward Academy. “They also feel safer learning here with their peers.” The plants weren’t designed for daily classes, so instructors have had to carve out learning spaces in breakrooms, meeting rooms and anywhere else they can find free space and chairs. “At first we thought it would be distracting, but it actually turned into an opportunity,” Sullivan said. When other employees are able to see the classes taking place, it peaks their interest. “They see how much everyone is talking and laughing and they want to get involved,” she said. That has helped keep enrollment high and has become a powerful grassroots tool to market the program. The instructors interact with staff outside of class to ensure their content addresses the needs of workers inside and outside the facility. Sullivan noted they keep a running list of plant-specific vocabulary words, including pallet, forklift and HVAC, which they incorporate into the lessons and flash cards. “We are delighted to adapt the classes for [the] plant environment,” she said.
Big Benefits Today, Upward Academy has more than 1,000 participants in 26 locations across four states. Tyson’s team has partnered with eight different literacy councils and nonprofit groups to provide the training, which now includes beginner and advanced ESL classes, citizenship training, financial literacy classes and GED programs for employees who want to get their high school diplomas. Tyson also began offering health care and back-to-school events for Upward Academy participants’ children in 2017 to expand the program’s reach. Last year alone, the program delivered more than 40,000 hours of training. In 2018, 15 new locations will be added, and over the next five years the company plans to provide the entire Tyson plant-footprint with Upward Academy classes. “One thing that makes this program unique is that it is ongoing,” Hackerson noted. “Students set their own education goals and they participate until they feel ready to move on or to set new goals.” Twila Corter is one of the many Tyson employees who has benefited from Upward Academy. Corter has worked at Tyson’s Springdale plant since 2000 doing
inventory and providing maintenance support. Last October, she saw a sign for a GED course in the plant break room and was intrigued. Corter quit school in 10th grade, but she saw the classes as an opportunity to go back. “I wanted to better myself for my job, and I wanted my kids to be proud of me,” she said. Corter also teaches a teen Sunday school program, where one of her students dropped out of high school. “When I have my certificate I want to show him that if I can do it at my age, he can do it at his,” she said.
“This isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also good for the business.” – Kevin Scherer, senior manager, Tyson Foods’ employee social responsibility team Within a day of seeing the flyer, Corter was participating in her first GED classes. She now studies history, U.S. government, economics and other courses two to four days a week with six other employees, and she hopes to be ready to take her GED soon. “It has been a long time since I was in school, but if I have problems my teacher helps me,” she said. The classes have already helped her improve her performance at work, and she said she is grateful to Tyson for making the program available. “A lot of companies probably wouldn’t do this, but I think it’s wonderful,” she said. “It shows they care enough about their employees to actually give them the tools to make themselves better.” The primary goal was to improve employees’ quality of life, though the program is also having a positive impact on the business. After the first six months, Tyson found retention among Upward Academy students was higher than the rest of the workforce, and more than 62 percent of those enrolled recorded an educational gain from October to December 2017. The training is also helping to create a more engaged and satisfied workforce, Scherer said. In a survey of students at 16 plants, 86 percent say they have improved their communication skills at work and in the community, 85 percent say they are happier in the workplace and 77 percent feel more loyal to the company. “Workforce metrics are very important to Tyson, and these numbers demonstrate a positive ROI for this program,” Scherer said. “It shows this isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also good for the business.” CLO Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in Chicago. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com. Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
53
Business Intelligence
A Budget Bonanza Spending plans for 2019 indicate that CLOs remain optimistic as they enter budget season.
W
hen trying to get to the bottom of something, it’s always a good idea to follow the money. Talk is cheap but cash speaks volumes. And if learning investment plans are any indicator, learning executives are feeling pretty good about the future. Investment plans for 2019 show learning executives are confident entering budget planning season. According to a survey of the Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board, a solid majority (65 percent) say their outlook for next year is more optimistic than last year and a quarter (25.5 percent) report feeling about the same as they did last year (Figure 1). The Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board is a group of 1,500 professionals in the learning and development industry who have agreed to be surveyed by the Human Capital Media Research and Advisory Group, the research and advisory arm of Chief Learning Officer magazine. This survey was conducted in May and June 2018. This year’s results fit a multiyear pattern of optimism. Since 2015, a majority of learning leaders have reported positive feelings about their spending plans. After a slight dip in 2017, when 59 percent reported a more positive outlook, this year’s level of optimism has risen once again. In 2016, 62 percent of CLOs were more optimistic than the previous year and 9 percent less optimistic. In 2015, 65 percent were more optimistic and only 4 percent were less optimistic. Much of this rosy outlook comes from the bigger economic picture. The U.S. is experiencing one of the longest periods of economic growth in history. Starting in June 2009, the economy has grown for 108 straight months (as of July 2018). The looming threat of a global trade war seems to have been offset by the continued bull market and corporate tax cuts that have goosed the bottom line. That optimism translates to an anticipated increase in cash for learning departments in 2019 (Figure 2). Only 12 percent of survey respondents expect a decrease in spending and about one-third (28 percent) 54 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
say their spending will stay about the same. A majority (57 percent) expect they will increase their spending next year, a significant uptick from the prior year when 49 percent reported an increase. Where will that cash go? The priority is L&D strategy, with a majority of learning executives (60 percent) saying it is either an essential or high priority (Figure 3). This result matches last year’s report when 55 percent reported it as their top priority. The accelerated pace of change and proliferation of sophisticated learning tools has made the need for a targeted, well-orchestrated learning strategy aligned with business priorities an essential part of a high-functioning learning organization. Other top priorities include content delivery and learning technology but both remained essentially unchanged in importance year over year. Learning technology was listed as either high or essential priority by 43 percent of respondents this year compared with 44 percent last year. Content delivery was listed as a top priority by 49 percent this year and 48 percent last year. Perhaps most interesting, investment in L&D personnel moved up the priority list. Compared with last year when just under one quarter (23 percent) reported staffing as a top priority, nearly a third of learning organizations (30 percent) plan to spend on people in 2019 to staff the increasingly sophisticated roles required to run a learning organization. That finding is backed up by changes in expected investment in 2019. Thirty-six percent of learning organizations plan to make significant changes to their investment in learning personnel (Figure 4) compared with 29 percent in 2017. Learning strategy, technology and content development all also remained top areas for increased investment in 2019. Barring a significant economic event, CLOs are feeling pretty good about the budget picture. CLO Mike Prokopeak is vice president and editor in chief at Chief Learning Officer magazine. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
Figures’ Source: Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board, N=500. All percentages rounded.
BY MIKE PROKOPEAK
FIGURE 1: LEARNING OUTLOOK FOR NEXT 12-18 MONTHS
More optimistic
Same
FIGURE 2: SPENDING PLANS FOR NEXT 12-18 MONTHS Increase
Less optimistic
57%
9.5%
No change 26%
28%
25.5%
Decrease
24%
31%
12%
65%
32%
Don’t know
20%
3%
FIGURE 3: INVESTMENT PRIORITIES Essential
High priority
Medium priority
38%
36% 31%
Low priority 37%
37%
33%
33%
33%
33%
26% 22%
22%
22%
21%
25%
24% 21%
21%
20%
16% 12%
13%
12%
10% 8%
8%
7% 5%
Strategy
Technology
Content delivery
Content library
Performance consulting
L&D personnel
Learning administration
59%
58%
FIGURE 4: INVESTMENT CHANGE IN NEXT YEAR Increase
No change
Decrease 53%
52%
51%
52%
50% 43%
42%
40% 36% 31%
30%
30%
17%
8%
10%
11%
Content development
Learning personnel
12%
12%
5%
Learning technology
Learning strategy
Outsourced learning services
Performance consulting
Learning administration
Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
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CORE continued from page 45
DARK SIDE continued from page 51
Putting It in Place
Gregory noted that some derailers make it more difficult for people to absorb feedback. “High-bold scorers are often unwilling to listen to others’ council and can be enormously difficult to provide feedback to because they really believe they’re better than you,” Gregory said. “If they’re better than you, why would they ever want to listen to your feedback?” On the other hand, a highly dutiful person is often overly willing to agree with the boss and the feedback, Gregory said. Simmons has seen those who fight the feedback and won’t change and those who embrace the feedback like a sponge and are willing to do all that they can to improve themselves. “We love it when people seek the feedback, take it to heart and work on it,” she said. “It’s a moment of pride when you see them really having evolved from listening to the feedback.” Gregory said informal mentoring and coaching, especially in a moment-to-moment, on-the-job way, can be especially powerful in identifying and fixing dark side characteristics. Gregory often recommends that leaders ask their spouses or significant others to describe them when they are at their worst. “It is a really good strategy because we typically are not very self-monitoring and our guard is almost always down when we are around our loved ones,” Gregory said. “As a result, they see these dark side behaviors much more clearly and readily then people at work typically do.” At work, if an individual can find someone who sees them in action and who will give them open and honest feedback, that is a gift, Simmons said. “But what’s key to that is you have to want to hear it,” she said. “If you don’t want to hear it, if you’re not ready to hear it, I’m not sure you’re on the right journey here.” Simmons said to truly grow and change less-desirable traits, it takes a lot of time and intentionality. “The busier people get, no matter how much development we provide, people often slip back or default into their natural tendencies,” she said. “They know they shouldn’t be doing these things that they’ve been coached on, but under stress, people default to where they started from. And if we can stop that, that really is key.” Gregory said since these derailers are so stable in adults, even if awareness is built and alternative habits are produced, the dark side will never truly go away. “L&D shouldn’t be in the business of trying to fix them, but should be in the business of trying to help people become more aware and more capable of managing them,” he said. CLO
To move the model from paper to practice in your organization, begin with the following steps: 1. Assess and prioritize the practices. Assess your current essential core, leadership skills and organizational systems to discover your unique strengths (gifts) and opportunities for improvement (gaps). Identify and prioritize the key gifts and gaps most directly influencing your present and desired performance. Engage relevant individuals and groups in this process. 2. Develop a customer plan. Every leader and organization will look different based on the assessment and resulting set of priorities. It’s therefore important to create a targeted development plan focused on what’s needed and when to advance essential gifts and address key gaps. Use this plan to establish the direction for accelerating your leadership and organizational success. 3. Follow the plan and reassess. When the first two steps have been done well, you will see clear value in the development plan. You will also be able to see this is not add-on work but rather the new normal for how work gets done more effectively. Now take disciplined action to implement your prioritized core, skills and systems, measure their performance and modify as needed (execute and evolve). These steps follow the overall leadership system and, as a result, this becomes your first cycle. Think of the leadership system as an annual cadence. Through subsequent cycles, the organization systematically addresses how it both runs and changes the business while balancing tasks and relationships. As an added bonus, routinely covering the four essential elements protects you from the most common performance-busters.
Putting It in Perspective When working with clients, I see three common reasons why their performance is not where they want it to be: They are often doing the wrong things, doing things the wrong way, or doing things the same way. The core-plus-four model addresses each of these performance-busters. By effectively defining and aligning an organization’s core and established direction in a way that engages key customers and stakeholders, your leaders create clarity around the right things and can make decisions and act accordingly. The core-plus-four leadership system can streamline your path to high performance. It provides your leaders a single, integrated approach built around the leadership skills and organizational systems necessary for success. CLO Cynthia St. John is founder of Chiefology and former vice president and chief learning officer for Texas Health Resources. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com. 56 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
Ave Rio is a Chief Learning Officer associate editor. She can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
INSIGHTS continued from page 36 model and manually compared a second time to assess perceived actionability based on revised scores. This scoring system seeks to achieve four outcomes. The first two are short-term, focused on improving human performance: (1) identification of the most actionable, well-formed insights for better-ordered search results facilitating the surfacing and sharing of expert insights and knowledge, and (2) offering feedback to insight creators to help them create more effective and actionable insights going forward. The third and fourth outcomes are more long-term, focused on leveraging the digital power of insight curation and critical thinking platforms. As countries around the world transition from knowledge-based economies to the era of the expert and the insight economy, it is increasingly important that we develop systems and methods for (3) scaling human expertise, and (4) delivering evidence-based content to a wider community via the coming together of humans thinking critically and technology enabling the sharing of human insights.
ADVERTISING SALES
The scoring system is not intended to rate insights as valid or invalid but rather as more or less actionable. If people do not clearly understand an insight, why it is important and how it can help them, the insight will be overlooked and forgotten. Writing insights effectively is important to their adoption, fruition and use. As cognitive systems continue to strip away routine knowledge work, expert critical thinkers will play an increasingly valuable role in driving business actions and decisions. A key to enabling this value is the curation and sharing of well-crafted insights. Such insights represent intellectual capital that increases overall business value. CLO
Clifford Capone Vice President, Group Publisher 312-967-3538 ccapone@CLOmedia.com Derek Graham Regional Sales Manager 312-967-3591 dgraham@CLOmedia.com
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IN CONCLUSION
Slow Down to Think More Creatively Mental overload squelches creative thinking • BY DAN PONTEFRACT
W Dan Pontefract is chief envisioner of Telus and author of “Open to Think: Slow Down, Think Creatively, and Make Better Decisions.” He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
hen we were babies, every day was an opportunity for exploration. The journey seemed endless. First, we explored our crib. Then we graduated and began to circumnavigate the floor. Eventually, we discovered that kitchen drawers were full of items to examine with our hands and mouths. As we started to walk there was more to explore: the velvety sand at the beach, the soft grass in the park, the glistening snow in a field. It was endless exploration. We were constantly learning. We did so because we had the luxury of time. Aside from a schedule of naps and snacks, no one was telling us to complete a task by day’s end. No superiors were badgering us to “do more with less.” Every minute was not accounted for by overtaxing schedules, inane meetings or rushed deadlines. Social media was as foreign to us as those objects we popped into our mouths. We were free to think creatively and were unafraid to do so. Today, we know there is a conflict between our desire to be explorers and the reality of being exploited. Moshe Bar, a neuroscientist at Bar-Ilan University and a professor at Harvard Medical School, found in 2016 that creative thinking is the default cognitive mode we employ when our minds are clear. However, there is a problem: The research that Bar and his peers conducted found that an occupied mind diminishes any chance for exploration. Further, our brains have become overly occupied, which is the very reason we resort to exploiting our time, not exploring it. When our minds are overburdened with tasks or we have to put up with a high mental load, we consistently and effectively deliver what we already know. When we become too busy, we choose the predictable. As a CLO, this can have dire consequences. After all, you are responsible for your organization’s learning ecosystem. If employees are unable to learn or do not have the time to do so, where does that leave their creativity? Where does that leave the organization’s next big idea? If our mental load exhausts us, any chance for increased creativity diminishes. Ultimately, we dull down and desensitize ourselves. It is the crux of spending more time exploring versus exploiting. The balance between reflection and taking action has never been of more significant concern. Consider the following: • How do you spend your free moments? • How often do you fill moments of free time aimlessly scrolling through social media?
58 Chief Learning Officer • September 2018 • www.CLOmedia.com
• Even when you do have free time, are you too stressed or tired to think creatively? • How much time do you dedicate to letting your mind wander? • How much time do you spend in meetings versus creative thinking?
An occupied mind diminishes any chance for exploration. Now ask those same questions with your team in mind. When stress or busyness sets in at work, quality can suffer. If you (or your employees) fail to invest the time to enrich knowledge, how do you formulate new ideas? If we overprogram every second of the workday, we will eventually exhibit strain and fatigue. When we become too tense to dream and too dispirited to choose a new path, it can lead to low reflection and stagnant action. It can lead to a lack of dreaming. Ultimately, this indifferent behavior affects creative thinking, and the consequences can be far-reaching. As Bar pointed out, “The mind’s natural tendency is to explore and to favor novelty, but when occupied it looks for the most familiar and inevitably least interesting solution.” “Big ideas take time” was the general motto of Bell Labs and a sublime example of instituting creative thinking as an organizationwide trait, something CLOs may want to consider. Bell Labs employees were renowned for exploring their time (and creativity) when delivering such Nobel Prize–winning advances as the laser beam and the transistor. John Maeda, former president of Rhode Island School of Design, once wrote that creativity “can be rekindled in people — all children are creative. They just lose their capability to be creative by growing up.” Truer words may never have been written. Perhaps we should look back to the days of being a baby crawling around the floor: It’s a reminder to take time to induce creative thinking, both for the health of your organization and for your professional success. CLO
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