July/August 2020 | ChiefLearningOfficer.com
City of Detroit’s
Iris Ware
From Bystander to Upstander - How to Select Candidates for Coaching - Assessing Inclusively Shattering the Way L&D Sees Measurement - Lessons Learned From the Front Lines of COVID-19 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 1
EDITOR’S LETTER
The Rest is Still Unwritten
A
s I write, it’s been a little over six months since many of us rang in 2020 with a glass of champagne in hand and eyes set on a hopeful future. But this year has proved more difficult than any in recent history, with the COVID-19 pandemic humbling the human race and global economy and mounting civil unrest in the face of systemic racism and police brutality against the Black community. Following months of shelter-in-place orders, more than 100,000 deaths and upwards of 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, the country remains in varied stages of reopening. European countries that were ravaged by the virus early on are slowly recovering as cases rise in South America. Some areas of the world are seeing a resurgence of the virus. The future remains largely uncertain.
We are more agile, flexible, creative and resilient than we realized.
What can we learn from 2020? Certainly that we as humans are more vulnerable than we may have liked to admit. But also perhaps that we are more agile, flexible, creative and resilient than we realized. People who never had the opportunity to work remotely have managed to do so while also taking care of their families and dealing with the stress of social isolation. Essential workers and those on the front lines have put on a brave face day after day and put themselves in harm’s way to carry out their jobs. Organizations and people across all industries have come up with creative solutions and ideas to continue to perform their operations, serve their customers and stay afloat in an economic crisis. The learning and development space has certainly been no exception. Over the coming months and years, we look forward to hearing how your team was able to react, pivot and continue providing the best learning and education opportunities to your workforce. In the midst of these turbulent times, Chief Learning Officer is also undergoing some changes and honing our focus on how we develop and provide information and resources to the L&D community. As part of this effort, we will focus on expanding and improving our digital content offerings and events for the future. On a bittersweet note, this will be the final issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine this year. However, we are excited about what the future of CLO holds, and we remain dedicated to serving as an important resource for the workforce learning and development industry. We hope you enjoy this final issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine for 2020, and thank you to all of our wonderful readers, contributors and collaborators over the past 17 years. Whatever our “new normal” or our “next normal” ends up being, we look forward to continued investment in and dedication to the power and future of learning. CLO
At the same time, racial tensions continue to heighten. On May 25, the world watched in horror a viral video of white police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 45-year-old Black man, for almost nine minutes as Floyd gasped and begged for air until he died. His crime? Allegedly attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill. This latest act of police brutality against Black lives sparked protests and riots across the U.S., demanding accountability and change — and, once and for all, acknowledgment that BLACK LIVES MATTER. Many people have expressed a longing that things will finally “return to normal.” However, as Daniel Patrick Sheehan wrote in a June article for The Morning Call, “Normal … is part of the problem. When normal includes police killing civilians over misdemeanors and then tear-gassing protesters and the reporters covering the unrest; when normal includes a deadlocked government and bureaucracies caught flat-footed by a pandemic they were warned Ashley St. John would happen sooner or later — well, then normal Managing Editor isn’t something we ought to want to return to at all.” astjohn@ChiefLearningOfficer.com
4 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
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CONTENTS July/August 2020 10 Your Career Kelly Palmer shares her career journey, Jim Guilkey talks about transforming learning and people share what they’ve been reading.
28 Profile Motor City’s Resourceful Learning Leader
Sarah Fister Gale Iris Ware proves you don’t need a big budget to build a world-class learning program.
44 Case Study Lessons From COVID-19
Paul Meskanick While there’s still much ahead, learning leaders and their organizations have come a long way since the pandemic started.
46 Business Intelligence The Rise of E-Learning
Ashley St. John Based on the events of 2020 so far, it’s no surprise that e-learning is accelerating. But what does that mean for the future?
ON THE COVER: ILLUSTRATION BY ZOË VAN DIJK
8 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
July/August 2020
CONTENTS
40 32 Features
18 32
From Bystander to Upstander Ashley Virtue Anti-harassment training is good. Anti-harassment combined with bystander communication training is better.
Leader Up!
36 40
36 Experts
14 GROWING DIVERSE TALENT
Rosina L. Racioppi Building Powerful Mentoring Relationships
15 IMPERATIVES
Elliott Masie My Pandemic Learning Lessons
Rick Koonce Here’s how to select candidates for executive coaching in your company.
16 LEADERSHIP
Shattering the Way L&D Sees Measurement
17 ON THE FRONT LINE
JD Dillon One model cannot solve the industry’s measurement problem.
Assessing Inclusively Elizabeth Loutfi Do strengths and skills assessments perpetuate gender bias and stereotypes? It’s a complicated question.
18
Ken Blanchard Inspired Leaders Do This David DeFilippo We Need One Hundred Million!
50 IN CONCLUSION
Julia M. Lewis Satov Agile by Fire
Resources Connect with us.
4 Editor’s Letter
The Rest is Still Unwritten
Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 9
YOUR CAREER
Career Advice From
Kelly Palmer CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER, DEGREED
Kelly Palmer, chief learning officer for Degreed, shares her career journey.
learning theory and education technology. It’s been my passion ever since. How did you get your start at Degreed?
What attracted you to learning and development? I’ve spent my entire career in Silicon Valley — mostly at tech companies. I spent a huge part of my career at Sun Microsystems first in product development (and actually working on online help systems for the Java platform). After about 10 years, I got a great opportunity to move into corporate strategy at Sun running the acquisition integration function. I enjoyed the experience, but after four years in corporate strategy, I realized I wasn’t doing what I was personally and professionally passionate about. I completely changed my career and went into the learning field. I was attracted to the industry because education and learning had the power to change lives and I really wanted a career where I could have an impact — where I felt purpose. I was incredibly fortunate to be offered an opportunity at Sun to lead a large learning organization — the leader then took a chance on me. It was the turning point in my career. I ended up going back to school to get my master’s degree and studied adult Sun Microsystems 1993-2010 Multiple roles
I was the chief learning officer at LinkedIn before I joined Degreed. While at LinkedIn, my team and I created an internal learning platform called LearnIn. It was an early version of a learning experience platform for our internal employees. At LinkedIn, I had a large organization that was responsible for all learning, leadership development, technical training, onboarding, employee engagement, talent management, inclusion and diversity. Ultimately, I was most passionate about LearnIn because I knew learning technology would dramatically change how people thought about learning in the corporate world. Technology was evolving dramatically with machine learning and artificial intelligence, and it was clear learning technology could help people build new skills — but, more important, it could transform lives. I was introduced to the Degreed CEO while I was still at LinkedIn. I joined Degreed was because I wanted to be part of a company that was fundamentally changing the learning industry and dramatically shifting the ways people learn, build skills and think about their careers. How have you seen technology shape workforce L&D? The intersection of learning and technology has really been my focus since I entered the learning field.
Yahoo! 2010-2012 Vice president of learning
LinkedIn 2012-2016 Chief learning officer 2010
1993
10 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
2012
Degreed 2016-present Chief learning officer 2016 2020
When I first got into learning, the learning management system was the only technology people were using and it supported antiquated corporate learning models: lecture-based, instructor-led training and compliance training. That’s what most corporate training organizations were focused on, but there’s a huge shift underway. In the past five years, the world of work has dramatically changed, and technology plays a huge part. Now the foundation of learning technology includes machine learning and AI to dynamically create an amazing learner experience in the flow of work. But for Degreed, the vision has always been bigger than self-directed learning. The strategy is focused on creating a dynamic talent and career strategy where the learner is at the core of the experience. We help people understand what skills they have and need, create a skills profile, tie learning to skills so they can fill their skill gaps and then help people match their skills to projects and opportunities inside their companies. This evolution in learning and career technology is happening at the perfect time — when the most urgent need we have is upskilling our workforces and keeping skills in sync with constant change. How do you encourage a culture of continuous learning at Degreed? We are a learning/talent company, so it’s clear up front when you join Degreed that learning is one of our core values and we highly encourage all our employees to carve time out in their day for learning. We want learning to become a daily habit. We also have a feature called Flex-Ed, where we give all our employees $100 a month to spend on whatever learning they choose. We use our own platform to upskill our employees so they can rate their skills, identify skill gaps, access learning to fill gaps — and now we have the career marketplace to tie skills to opportunities. What’s your favorite piece of career advice? For people early in their careers, there is so much pressure to get a great job and be on a career path and to move up quickly. Instead, look for experiences that will help you build skills. Don’t focus so much on promotions and the job that pays the most. Those things can come over time, but if you get experiences that show you have and are learning skills that are critical to the future of work, that’s what is going to help people be successful in the long run. CLO Know someone with an incredible career journey? We want to hear from you. Send your nomination to Elizabeth Loutfi at eloutfi@ChiefLearningOfficer.com.
SM
S E T I B ALL
stions. fire que id p a r ers our er answ lm a P y Kell
The most important part of learning is: Having a sense of accomplishment that you are becoming better at what you do and gaining some mastery and expertise, which gives you confidence, which helps you succeed in your career!
The most overrated trend in L&D is: Unlearning to learn. It’s a nuance in the learning cycle and the more important thing is to have the curiosity and motivation to always be learning new things.
Learning is essential to an organization because: I’ll use the old quote by Peter Senge because it still applies and has never been more true: “The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.”
The biggest L&D industry misconception is: Learning shouldn’t be seen as a service – it should be part of your company’s business strategy. As companies see the urgent need to upskill the workforce, it demands an upskilling strategy and not just “requests” for training. Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 11
YOUR CAREER
What Are You Reading? The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever By Michael Bungay Stanier [Stanier’s] approach to leadership and coaching is light and upbeat, but offers serious advice and wisdom. In addition, what he teaches is easy for managers to apply in their management practice. Highly recommend this book. — Laura Sukorokoff, founder, C-Change Learning and Development
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries By Safi Bahcall The title more or less speaks for itself, but for this audience, the book speaks to our role in helping organizations be simultaneously innovative and profitable. Powerful stories showing how different types of learning might be required in order for organizations to remain relevant. Also quite timely given the discussion of curing disease. — Scott Hammerl, director of learning and development, commercial services, Hilton
Out of the Maze: An A-Mazing Way to Get Unstuck By Dr. Spencer Johnson It’s the sequel to “Who Moved My Cheese?” These times call for different thinking and this 79-page book offers exactly that. Plus, if you read the earlier book and wondered what happened to the Hem (who did not change and adapt), then this is a must-read. — Susan Kiamba, learning and development consultant, corporate trainer, Nuwav Consultancy
Everything Is Figureoutable Working to Learn: Disrupting the Divide Between College and Career Pathways for Young People By Dr. Noel Anderson and Dr. Lisette Nieves The book provides a roadmap for accelerating learning and development while creating a more inclusive economy. An excellent read for business executives and HR professionals alike! — Jesse Jackson, chief learning officer, JPMorgan Chase
Chief Learning Officer wants to hear from you: What’s at the top of your reading list? Send submissions to Elizabeth Loutfi at eloutfi@ ChiefLearningOfficer.com.
12 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
By Marie Forleo Tons of great lines; one of my favorites is, “I win or I learn, but, I never lose.” In short, the book is about a life philosophy that says no matter what the situation is, big or small, you CAN figure it out. So timely for me. My 10-year goal is to build a world-class learning culture at my company. Most days I feel like it isn’t happening. But I’m reassured that I am figuring it all out along the way. — Thomas Shayon Harrell, learning and talent development manager, Master Electronics
Top of Mind Virtual Learning: The Future of Classroom Training By Jim Guilkey Jim Guilkey, founder and president of S4 NetQuest, says we need to think critically about how we transform learning for a post-coronavirus workplace.
I
f there is one thing the coronavirus has taught us, it’s that training as we know it is neither resilient nor flexible. In-person, instructor-led training that requires facilitators and participants to travel and pack into a classroom is no longer an option. But as organizational leaders consider replacing current programs with virtual training, do they understand that simply “converting” existing materials is not effective or efficient? Organizations have never faced a crisis like this one. We can’t simply convert, but must instead “transform” the classroom for effective virtual distribution. Classroom Conversion vs. Classroom Transformation What is a training conversion, and why is it not the answer to our current challenges? Conversion means trying to duplicate what you previously did in the classroom. If you used slides, convert those for use in WebEx. If facilitators lectured, have them lecture virtually or record them for learners to watch. Companies convert because it’s fast and efficient. But it’s both boring and ineffective. Another conversion approach is to teach facilitators “tips and tricks” for virtual facilitation. Although facilitators need to understand the capabilities of their particular software, true learning effectiveness requires redesigning the content for virtual distribution. Transformation means improving the learning outcomes. It takes existing content and uses a blended approach to produce effective virtual learning. The new blend involves four major components: • Digital self-paced micro-modules — for foundational knowledge. • Interactive learning activities — redesigning content for engaging, highly effective learning. • Performance support tools — providing learners with tools that support self-paced learning activities while promoting application of knowledge. • Learning communities — allowing participant
According to
Jim
What is the best way to support learners amid disruption?
collaboration for learning and applying skills and knowledge. Blending for Effective Virtual Learning The key to effective virtual learning is creating the right blend of components. Although you should attempt to utilize all four, content will drive the percentage of each you should incorporate. The first component is digital self-paced micro-modules. Not the old e-learning “page-turners” where learners read, then take a test; rather, an engaging learning component. Digital self-paced modules should be short and contain foundational knowledge. They can be incorporated at the outset of a virtual program and prior to introducing new content segments. Classroom content must be redesigned as interactive learning activities to maximize effectiveness for virtual distribution. Using a problem-based approach to virtual learning activities promotes engagement and interactivity. Performance support tools should be created for learners to apply knowledge and skills. These tools can be used for interactive learning activities. For example, you could have an evaluation tool that participants could use when watching a sales presentation video. Allowing learners to collaborate and complete designated learning activities within a learning community results in higher levels of learning: application and correlation rather than rote memorization of facts. Completion of activities within a community can be done collaboratively or as guided by a facilitator.
Jim Guilkey S4 NetQuest
The Future It is my belief that virtual learning is here to stay. When designed correctly, it can be as effective, if not more effective, than traditional classroom instruction. In addition, virtual learning provides resiliency and flexibility for unforeseen future events. CLO Chief Learning Officer wants to hear from you: What are you thinking about? Send your thoughts to Elizabeth Loutfi at eloutfi@ChiefLearningOfficer.com.
First, don’t reduce their training. Second, put the impetus for learning on the learners. Don’t lecture to PowerPoint slides. Create learning communities and associated activities that promote learner collaboration and engagement.
Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 13
GROWING DIVERSE TALENT
Building Powerful Mentoring Relationships Women must be intentional with the relationships they create • BY ROSINA L. RACIOPPI
I Rosina L. Racioppi is president and CEO of WOMEN Unlimited Inc.
n the course of my career, I have been privileged to interact with a variety of amazing thinkers and doers who, like me, share a passion for helping women across all organizational levels create and nurture career- advancing relationships. After much thought and reflection, I realized (and was helped to realize by my own network) there was value in sharing these proven approaches. As a result, I have condensed and crystallized a wide range of relationship strategies in my newly released book, “Relationships Matter: How Women Use Developmental Networks to Step into Their Power and Influence.” In this column, I’ll share my thoughts and those of other business leaders on how women can successfully develop mentoring relationships.
‘Mentors are all around us’ There are many definitions of mentoring, but this one from Amy Gonzales, vice president of learning and development at WOMEN Unlimited Inc., rings especially true: “Mentors are all around you. They are the people who engage in conversations that help you think about things differently, who are available to answer your questions, can act as a sounding board, give advice, or provide ideas and insights that are different from your own.” Tony Hunter, a former CEO of Tribune Publishing, sums up successful mentoring relationships this way: “Don’t just rely on one mentor. Be greedy. Get many.” How then do women make themselves continually open to creating a developmental network that matches their career goals and ambitions? What’s the game plan?
her current organization or move on to a different company or industry? The makeup of her network will vary significantly depending on her career plans. Enlist potential developers: The next step is for women to enlist the support of people who can help advance their careers, based on the defined “career context.” These mentors and networks can come from senior management, peers, professional and industry organizations, and from those who are sources of both formal and informal learning. It is also important to connect with younger and less-senior employees for a well-rounded perspective.
Savvy women invest in building key relationships with key people. Regularly reassess and readjust: Finally, Kram and Higgins point out that networks are fluid, not static. As a woman’s career or career goals change, she needs to look at her current developmental relationships and assess which changes are in order. It isn’t exclusively about finding new networks or new mentors. It’s also about assessing current relationships and how to make interactions more productive, based on a new situation or a new career goal.
Being Intentional: The Cornerstone of Success
Underlying all of the proven strategies laid out by Kram and Higgins is a viewpoint that has been proven for over 25 years in our WOMEN Unlimited programs. In their article, “A New Mindset on Mentoring: Cre- in order for developmental relationships to be productive, ating Developmental Networks at Work,” Kathy Kram women must be intentional about them. They must be and Monica Higgins do an excellent job of laying down flexible. For example, they can accommodate time and four important steps. distance constraints by interacting with their mentors Know yourself first: Research proves that the both in person and virtually. Women themselves must makeup of a developmental relationship determines its be the catalyst who makes the relationship happen, who value. To get that makeup right, it’s crucial for women makes it work and who makes it grow. to first know their strengths and weaknesses, talents, As I point out in the book: “Savvy women invest in goals and professional and personal vision for the future. building key relationships with key people inside and Know your career context: Once a woman has a outside the organization … It provides the pathway to good sense of herself, she must then decide how she discover any gaps between how they desire to be seen as wants her career to go. Does she want to advance within a professional and how others see them.” CLO
4 Steps to Successful Developmental Relationships
14 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
IMPERATIVES
My Pandemic Learning Lessons 10 takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic • BY ELLIOTT MASIE
R 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.
ecently, I’ve been asked the question: “Elliot, what lessons about learning are you discovering during the coronavirus pandemic?” The answer? A lot. Here are 10 of the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far. 1. Digital learning is exploding. I had 86 global early adopters for the start of e-learning at a meeting in the early 1990s. The pandemic expanded that number to more than 1.8 billion workers, students and patients globally who had to suddenly become digital learners. 2. Learning tools must be simple. We watched Zoom meetings become the dominant connection, collaboration and knowledge-sharing video tool around the world. Zoom became dominant because it is an easy-to-use tool. While there are few learning-focused features in Zoom, its simplicity made its use viral. Watch for redesign from WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Facebook and Google’s Meet. They will “zoomify” their interfaces rapidly in the coming months. 3. Learning deserves design. Connecting to learners is just the first step. The design process is essential but predictably ignored in the pandemic crisis reaction. Teachers poorly ported their classroom lesson plans to online delivery, without creative design. College students forced to learn online were often bored. Home-based workers were flooded with webinars galore. Design is even more important with distributed and digitally connected learners and expertise. 4. They want to be supported workers, not students. Your workers, at home or in changed workplaces, want to be supported. But they don’t want to be students. They want expertise, advice and feedback in order to be more effective; yet, they don’t want to be placed in the student role. Organizations have changed online courses to become more focused interactive briefings, lectures have been shifted to Q&A sessions and webinars have been overscheduled. 5. Empathy is a key “E” in e-learning. Your workers are under stress, with uncertainty and unclear pathways to the future. They are often sharing home offices. They are balancing changes in every aspect of their lives: work, home, community and family. The key word that’s emerged is empathy. Our workers need empathy: connection, communication and authenticity. Empathy is not counseling or coaching. It is respect for the different realities of your workforce. Give them content, context, collaboration and empathy.
6. Digital learners need breaks. Learning from home requires more breaks. I watched people drop off at about 45 minutes into a multi-hour-long session. They want bio breaks, or just mental breaks — time to get up and walk around. Breaks also give learners opportunities to process new content and frame up questions.
Give your people content, context, collaboration and empathy. 7. Online learners want office hours. Think about a teacher’s behavior in a face-to-face classroom session. Some of the best conversations with teachers happen when there is a coffee or lunch break. Learners come up and ask questions or share stories. Online learners need the same one-to-one conversations. Consider a time when learners can sign up for 10-minute slots in digital office hours with experts or teachers. 8. Digital learners need support and job aids. Make sure there are job aids, infographics and workflow support for your digital learners. They will need reminders, refreshers and “moment of need” support as they transfer new knowledge into workplace action. 9. Social issues matter. The pandemic intersected with the racial injustice that has surged during these unprecedented times. I believe the pandemic “tenderized” society to watch/react to the murder in Minneapolis and large-scale demonstrations. Social issues will be part of the conversations our learners and workers are having now. 10. Let’s get data from pandemic learning. Much of our recent digital learning did not “hit” the LMS, but we need to gather data about those formal, informal and collaborative learning activities. Let’s look at what we are collectively “learning about learning” from almost 2 billion learners. On a personal note, I turned the fun age of 70 in May. This birthday was more of a virtual celebration with hundreds of friends and colleagues online. Turning 70 has triggered my need to be a more active learner and learning advocate. I look forward to the next decade of learning innovation with you. CLO Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 15
LEADERSHIP
Inspired Leaders Do This 6 ways to build meaningful connections • BY KEN BLANCHARD
I
Ken Blanchard is chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Cos. and co-author of “Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster.”
’ve been known to say “The best minute of the day is the one you invest in your people.” Why do I believe that? Because leaders who invest time in their direct reports build meaningful connections. Those connections create inspired people and leaders who work together to form great relationships and achieve great results. It’s a winning combination for workers, leaders and organizations. So what makes up the mindset of leaders who partner so well with their people? A few qualities come to mind. Inspired leaders take time to understand their people. Leadership is not about you. It’s about the people you serve. The more you understand your direct reports, the better you’ll be able to help them achieve their goals. One of the best methods to get to know your people is through regular one-on-one meetings. You schedule the meeting and your direct report determines the agenda. There’s no better way to show you care about each individual than by setting aside time to chat about anything — their job, family, favorite books, hobbies, etc. It’s a great opportunity for direct reports to speak openly or ask questions and for leaders to listen and share without interference or judgment. This fosters trust, respect and accountability on both sides.
sales force. That will take care of your company owners or shareholders and the financial side. Leading with care and compassion causes a domino effect that brings about loyalty and commitment. Inspired leaders are authentic and open. My good friend and co-author Colleen Barrett, former president of Southwest Airlines, is a perfect example of an authentic leader. In our book “Lead with LUV: A Different Way to Create Real Success,” she says: “People admire your strengths, but they respect your honesty regarding your vulnerability. I think when you’re vulnerable, people realize that you, too, are human. And, perhaps even more importantly, they love your ownership of your personal positive and negative characteristics.” Contrary to what most top-down leaders believe, when you are open about both what you do and don’t know, it does not make people question your leadership skills. Believe me — people already know their leaders aren’t perfect. Bring your team together for a brainstorming session once in a while and use some of their suggestions. They want to help — and they’ll appreciate a give-and-take relationship where they can contribute. Inspired leaders always see potential. If you’re like me, you hire two kinds of people: winners or potential winners. In my experience, almost everyone is a potential winner — but some people need reassurance to perform at their full potential. So when the topic of career development comes up, be a cheerleader. Ask your people about their picture of the future. Encourage them to challenge themselves as they look toward their goals. Tell them you believe in them. You never know what a kind Inspired leaders meet people where they are. Your word might do. direct reports will take a big step toward goal accomplishInspired leaders celebrate with people. Don’t forget ment when you give them the right leadership style for to take time to celebrate people’s talents, skills and suctheir current level of competence and commitment on cesses. Celebration doesn’t have to mean a big, expensive any task or goal they may be facing. When you work side party. It can be as small as taking a person aside and by side with each person to diagnose their development praising them for their input at a meeting. Or it can be level on a task, it shows you’re interested in meeting them as grand as allowing the department to stop working two where they are. hours early on a Friday because of an ultra-productive Inspired leaders lead with care and compassion. workweek. Celebration lets people know they are doing Your people are your No. 1 customer. If you serve and things right. It builds morale and camaraderie. lead your people with care, kindness and compassion, Inspire your people and allow them to inspire you. they’ll bring that same service mindset and skill set to Listen to their concerns and help them achieve their goals. their work by going out of their way to care for your No. 2 Consider their suggestions and encourage them to strive customer: the people who use your products and services. for their highest potential. Praise their efforts and recWhen that happens, those folks will become raving fans ognize a job well done. Take time to build meaningful who tell their friends about you and become part of your connections. It’s the best investment you’ll ever make. CLO
The best minute of the day is the one you invest in your people.
16 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
ON THE FRONT LINE
We Need One Hundred Million! Employing a form of governance is critical • BY DAVID DeFILIPPO
I David DeFilippo is principal of DeFilippo Leadership Inc. and an executive coach at Harvard Business School.
remember getting the call a few weeks after our firm had its quarterly earnings report. “We need to find $100 million in this year’s operating budget and the learning and talent function has to chip in.” As I was having this conversation it was clear that the word “find” was a euphemism for “cut” and that this ask was really a requirement that myself and my executive peers were being challenged to figure out. This situation is not new for learning and talent practitioners given the typical business cycle ups and downs that include corporate earnings pressure, mergers and acquisition synergies and senior leadership changes that can affect one’s work. Further, even with a well-organized and business-focused learning and talent development annual plan, the reality of having to adjust that strategy during the course of the operating year is one that we all must anticipate. As such, the manner by which practitioners can make these adjustments is critical to continuing the work that is most relevant to the organization. Similar to the oversite that boards of directors provide public, private and nonprofit firms, establishing a governance structure and process for the learning and talent development function is a key part of one’s strategy. They can be made up of a representative group of stakeholders that may include functional areas, internal clients and external advisers. There are three primary reasons to include this management structure in your learning and talent development plans. Prioritization. First, one of the primary functions a learning council can serve is to act as a complementary group to human resources to assist with the annual planning process. This role may include validating the strategic direction, giving feedback to refine plans and serving as communication champions to the rest of the organization. In my $100 million situation, I assembled our governance group to assess our plan by asking a few questions: What is mission critical? What can we slow or scale down? What can we put on hold? These three questions guided our decision-making process so we could respond with a revised plan, one that had strong rationale behind each change and was supported by a representative group of senior leaders. As a result, we were able to effectively communicate and implement this revised plan with credibility and confidence that it was the best decision for business at that time.
Structure. The second purpose of learning and talent governance has to do with the structure and model employed by organizations. With the three typical structures being made up of decentralized, centralized and federated (according to Bersin by Deloitte, 2015), governance is relevant to all three. With a decentralized structure, a minimum level of oversight can focus on big ticket purchases such as human capital management systems. With a centralized organization, this governance can be utilized as part of the annual planning process for input, feedback and course corrections as described with my $100 million example. And, when operating in a federated structure, explicit rules of the road can be put in place around what is to be centrally managed and what is left to the local markets or lines of business. The key difference from decentralized in this case is that these guidelines are overt and agreed by all stakeholders. In all cases, designing and implementing a governance process should be tailored to both your organizational structure and specific requirements.
Establishing a governance structure and process is a key part of one’s strategy. Social. Next, regardless of your learning and talent model and goals, these types of collaborative forums create an opportunity to be social, whereby groups of people who may not regularly work together can do so toward a collective aim. As practitioners we design and develop social learning for our clients, so we can consider this group work our own version of that method to address and solve organizational issues. And, by establishing and taking part in a learning council, practitioners can learn from each other and create an “esprit de corps” among learning and talent teams that creates a unified sense of purpose. Regardless of the organization’s operating model and structure, employing a form of governance that brings people together to develop organizational solutions will advance your learning and talent agenda. CLO Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 17
18 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
FROM TO
BYSTANDER UPSTANDER Anti-harassment training is good. Antiharassment combined with bystander communication training is better. BY ASHLEY VIRTUE
W
e’ve changed the laws. We’ve mandated sexual harassment prevention training. But nearly three years after #MeToo, studies show that these efforts still might not make any difference in workplace culture and attitudes. What does then? Up until a couple years ago, anti-harassment training was usually organized in response to a specific incident or public moment. Cynical employees could immediately spot this as the HR “check-the-box” effort that it was. Then, in late 2017, #MeToo happened, and preventing inappropriate interactions at work became a front-and-center priority. HR departments in almost every industry went into overdrive, amending company policies and making sexual harassment training integral to organizational practices. It’s now commonly accepted that employees should know how to identify and combat harassment. Many states now require businesses to offer anti-harassment training. California currently has the most aggressive legal requirement, stating that any business with five or more employees (supervisory and nonsupervisory) must put those employees through mandatory
Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 19
anti-harassment training — and many other states may soon follow suit. So, how can business leaders design an anti-harassment training that actually resonates with employees and creates positive change in workplace culture?
Bystander Communication Works When my organization began developing anti-harassment training programs for companies, we noticed one key issue that wasn’t being addressed in standard workshops: What about all of that stuff that happens before a situation turns into actual harassment or discrimination? We had to acknowledge that, while it’s important to know what to do when someone clearly crosses a line, the real key to protecting employees is to stop that line from being crossed in the first place. Bystander communication training is designed with an actual, real workplace in mind. It focuses on addressing microaggressions — the everyday slights and insults that can turn into harassing behavior over time — and teaches employees how they can spot red flags and intervene. Rather than simply highlighting what constitutes harassment, bystander training teaches employees how to communicate with a co-worker when they see red flags. While many remarks or actions aren’t intentionally hurtful and may not seem overtly discriminatory, they can take a heavy psychological toll on recipients over time. Employees who know how to identify microaggressions, and understand why they are so hurtful, are more likely to intervene and talk to the offending party in a productive fashion. Bystander communication training teaches employees how to have the conversations that will make their workplace safer, more inclusive and happier overall.
Bystander communication training is designed with an actual, real workplace in mind. The body of research supporting bystander training is growing. As a recent U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report stated, “[Harassment] training is important, but it needs to be the right training.” According to the same report, “Employers should consider workplace civility training and bystander intervention training.” According to Psychology Today, theory and research both suggest bystander communication trainings “foster context-specific attitudes, beliefs, norms, and skills such that bystanders: are able to quickly and accurately identify a situation as intervention-appropriate, 20 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
experience action-motivating arousal (including empathy) in the face of the event, have positive attitudes towards intervention and perceive the benefits of action as outweighing the perceived costs, are empowered to act and feel confident in their ability to effectively intervene (bystander efficacy) and are resistant to evaluation apprehension and norms contraindicating action.” In plain English, this means that bystander communication training makes people more aware and better able to confront difficult situations.
How These Trainings Work We usually begin by talking about microaggressions, including how they can, over time, lead to actual harassment. We have participants think about what microaggressions they have encountered in their own life and encourage them to discuss those with their co-participants. It’s important to acknowledge in some way that workers often see these red-flag situations happening, but don’t know what to do in the moment — and that it’s natural to feel afraid or hesitant to get involved. Based on our experience leading these workshops, here are some of the most common fears workers might have about speaking up or intervening when they witness a microaggression: • Retaliation, such as being fired or passed over for a promotion. • Hurting your relationship with your colleagues and feeling like it’s “not your place” to get involved. • Jumping to conclusions, or getting involved with a situation that turned out to be harmless. • Harm to your reputation at work or becoming known as “overly PC” or “no fun.” Our trainers then aim to help workers think about the reality of these fears and strategize ways to overcome them. Participants also learn the 4 D’s of bystander communication. Two of them are options “in the moment” and two of them are options for after the incident has occurred.
In the Moment Distract. This is a temporary action you can take in a situation where something needs to be done immediately, but you don’t have time to plan or go to someone else. Do something to interrupt the interaction between the person responsible and their target. If you notice a colleague is uncomfortable with another’s remarks, actions or jokes, make up a task you need their help with and pull them out of the situation. Direct. Here, as the bystander, you make a brief, clear statement to stop the behavior. This statement shouldn’t be an attack on the person responsible, but
it should be clear enough to send a message that you weren’t comfortable. For example: “You know, Josh, usually I like your jokes but that one kind of crossed a line for me.”
After the Incident Delegate. If you don’t feel like you are in a position to address the situation with one of the parties involved, go to someone with more power who can take appropriate steps. This could be as simple as reporting what you saw to an authority figure with formal power, such as an HR manager, or a colleague with informal power, who simply knows the people involved better than you do. Dialogue. Using this step means you have decided to follow up with the person responsible and have a conversation about their words or actions. At first, this might seem like the most challenging task for bystanders, but it is by far the most effective in terms of long-term results. The trick to approaching a potentially volatile conversation like this is to listen respectfully to the other person while calmly stating what you saw occur. Be curious about their behavior and ask open-ended questions, such as, “What do you feel like the appropriate thing to say would have been in that situation?” or “Has anyone ever made you feel uncomfortable at work?” This may make them feel more at ease opening up about their behavior or acknowledging what they did was wrong. A word about listening: Once you ask these openended questions, your goal should be to hear and understand what the other person is saying. That is very different from pretending to listen while you are actually thinking about and rehearsing your next response (which is human nature and often what happens in difficult conversations). How the workshop unfolds from here is usually determined by the size of the group, the type of organization or industry we’re working with and how engaged the employees are. While these trainings can be done by someone on staff, such as an HR director, it’s usually best to bring in an outside organization to conduct them. It gives your company more protection in the event of a future lawsuit because it demonstrates that you brought in experts for the workshop. There is also a morale benefit: Bringing in outside experts shows employees you are truly invested in changing workplace culture. Another benefit of an outside organization: They appear as a neutral party and create a safe space for employees to talk about issues. Often, employees feel nervous admitting that they have witnessed microaggressions or red flag behavior in the past and done nothing. With the right facilitators, these employees quickly learn that wanting to avoid confrontation is
a natural, human response, and we have to acknowledge that. Above all, though, when employees feel safe, it’s easier to focus on things that motivate bystanders to take action and move employees from seeing themselves as passive bystanders to active upstanders.
Case Studies Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of quantitative data available yet about the effects of bystander communication training, but it’s something we are working on measuring at the National Conflict Resolution Center. In the meantime, we have seen some impressive qualitative results and visible changes in a workplace’s culture and interactions with one another.
Employers should consider workplace civility training and bystander intervention training. My organization has led bystander communication training for companies of every size and across a variety of industries, from a warehouse company to the Los Angeles Times newsroom to large corporations like Toyota. The one thing they all had in common was that they wanted to do more than check the box. They wanted to help prevent discrimination and harassment rather than just address it and move on. Here are two recent case studies from workshops we’ve led that illustrate the effectiveness of bystander communication training.
Case Study No. 1: The Power of Nicknames I was conducting a training with a group of employees at a company who all worked jobs that require physical labor, outside an office. During the session, I encountered some pushback while talking about microaggressions. I was giving examples of microaggressions and explaining how over time they can escalate and lead to harassment. As I was telling a story about a nickname that started out as a small tease but quickly escalated into a more serious workplace issue, one of the men in the room said, “Hey, listen. Joking and teasing is a part of our workplace. We don’t want to change that.” BYSTANDER continued on page 48 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 21
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Personality and Leading Through a Crisis By: Ryne Sherman, Chase Borden, & Kimberly Nei Every organization will face a crisis at some point. When that crisis occurs, people will turn to their leader for answers. How are we going to survive? How should we respond? What is the plan for getting us through the crisis and back to business as usual? Ultimately, it is the leader’s answers to these questions and the leader’s actions that determine whether an organization survives or collapses in the face of a crisis. The critical question then for organizations is this: who is best suited to lead us through a crisis? To find the answer to this question, we searched the academic literature on crisis leadership to identify the most critical competencies for leading through a crisis. This search, which included hundreds of scientific papers, journal articles, and book chapters, pointed to five things effective leaders do during a crisis. Here we describe these five behaviors and how they can be assessed with common personality instruments. The first thing effective leaders do during a crisis is remain calm. Crisis increases stress in everyone, which can lead to panic, chaos, and poor decision-making. A leader who remains calm – at least outwardly – maintains order and prevents panic. The key personality trait associated with remaining calm under pressure is Adjustment. Leaders who score high on Adjustment (or low on Neuroticism) are steady under pressure and convey a sense of calmness that prevents panic. Second, effective crisis leaders show compassion and concern for their constituents. The members of the organization—employees, citizens, customers—who are most effected by the crisis want to know that their leader cares about them and their needs. Showing compassion
instills trust that the leader will make decisions in the best interest of the organization. The personality traits associated with these behaviors are Altruism and Interpersonal Sensitivity (or Agreeableness). Leaders who score high on these traits are seen as friendly, likeable, and care deeply about the people around them. Third, effective crisis leaders get comfortable with uncertainly. Part of what makes something a crisis is its unpredictable nature. Leaders who are more comfortable with uncertainly are less likely to panic and more likely to make reasonable decisions. The personality trait most associated with attitudes toward risk is Security. Leaders who score low Security are more comfortable with risk, uncertainty, and ambiguity. As a result, they are less likely to succumb to the inherent stress of a crisis.
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A leader who remains calm – at least outwardly – maintains order and prevents panic.”
Fourth, effective leaders during a crisis get realistic about the size and impact of the crisis. Crises are inconvenient. As humans, we naturally want to deny, ignore, or discount factors that are inconvenient for our plans. But, denying reality is a short-term solution that leads to long-term disaster. Leaders who are realistic about the size of the problem can best determine how to mitigate it. The two personality traits most associated with denying reality are Excitable and Reserved. Leaders who score high on these scales are more likely to deny problems and avoid confronting them.
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Fifth, effective crisis leaders take charge and make decisions in a timely fashion. When a crisis occurs, it is easy to be uncertain of what to do and to freeze up. While acting rashly and without considering the information is problematic, it is just as problematic to delay action when the proper course is clear. Once the scope of the problem and possible solutions have been evaluated, people look to the leader to make a decision and to plot the course of action. The personality traits most associated with taking vs. not taking action are Ambition and Cautiousness. Leaders who are ambitious take charge of situations and try to solve problems immediately. On the other hand,
leaders who are Cautious are reluctant to act and hesitate far too long. Summary
Crisis is inevitable. The best way to be prepared for a crisis is to have a leader who is effective at handling crises when they occur. Research on leadership tells us that the most effective leaders during a crisis remain calm, show compassion for others, are comfortable with uncertainty, are realistic about the scope of the problem, and act promptly. Additionally, these critical behaviors for crisis leadership can all be predicted by underlying personality traits.
As Hogan’s Chief Science Officer, Ryne is responsible for managing the primary functions within Hogan’s industry-leading research department, including client research, product development and maintenance, and Hogan’s research archive and infrastructure. Ryne’s previous research in personality psychology focused on the role of personality in career pursuits and workplace performance. He has also researched and experimented with new approaches to personality assessment, including unobtrusive assessment via new talent signals, such as voice prosody, word use, and affective responses to stimuli.
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Learning Alignment in an Uncertain and Disrupted Business Climate By: Alexandra Levit, Chairman, DeVry University Career Advisory Board When speaking with a Chief Learning Officer at a Fortune 500 industrial equipment organization, I heard a leader who was both stressed out and inspired. She described how, after years of struggling to maintain her L&D budget, her function was now center stage. The CEO had a narrow set of strategies in mind to keep the business afloat during COVID-19, and he needed the CLO to quickly develop learning experiences to help employees execute on those strategies. The CLO’s plan includes bite-sized trainings on skills employees have never used before, from self-scheduling to virtual collaboration. And, since the business has shifted more toward e-commerce, she’s developing a program to bring all employees up to speed on the essential digital tools. Increased L&D investment isn’t purely a consequence of the pandemic. According to LinkedIn’s 2020 Workplace Learning Report – issued prior to the crisis – nearly 60 percent of surveyed L&D professionals expected to increase their online and virtual learning offerings in 2020. Just under three years ago, that number was 27 percent. But since COVID-19, the TrainingIndustry.com website, which targets corporate L&D professionals, has seen a 8,135 percent increase in topics related to remote learning, virtual instructor-led training (VILT), and leading through adversity, indicating that appetite for guidance has increased exponentially. In the current climate, business priorities are constantly shifting, and skill mastery must occur rapidly and with unprecedented agility. The corporate L&D function is more critical than ever because
no team is better positioned to drive skills outcomes in line with overall business objectives. My partners at DeVryWORKS recently introduced the concept of learning alignment. When an organization is learning-aligned, L&D enables business strategy and measures learning initiatives’ success in transforming the organization. DeVryWORKS’ Sr. Director of Strategic Accounts, Duane Glader suggests that organizations are learning-aligned if they’ve implemented a continuous process to map the learning strategy to the business strategy, which may include: • Documenting learning or training requirements for new initiatives and planning rollouts in a way that integrates effectively with the whole. • Affiliating learning professionals with business units or geographic areas. • Including L&D components in all change management initiatives. • Creating flexible programs that can be instantly adjusted as business priorities change. • Leveraging analytics tools to quantify learning program impact on business performance. As a human capital expert, I have observed that a lack of alignment may result in diminished business performance, higher levels of employee confusion and disengagement, and poorer retention. Now that COVID-19 has ushered in a new era for L&D, we have an opportunity – and some might say a duty – to uplevel the function. DeVryWORKS named the following six areas as essential to learning alignment:
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Business Relevance
KPIs
The L&D team is clear on current and pressing business objectives and the HR organization is empowered to attract and retain top talent and fill skills gaps to execute on these objectives.
Working in concert with c-level leaders, L&D has established success metrics and put tools in place to ensure consistent monitoring of performance.
Awareness
Resources
Targeted employees or employee groups understand the L&D resources and opportunities available to them and where to access them. Awareness increases participation in learning programs, which cascades into higher levels of engagement and productivity.
Organizations secure and maintain enough L&D staff and budget to develop relevant and impactful programs.
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Skill requirements will be in flux for the foreseeable future, and what your organization needs today may well be different than what it needs tomorrow.
Management Support
Aligned organizations spread learning messages far and wide. C-level leaders publicly promote L&D offerings and evaluates managers based on the learning outcomes of their direct reports. Utilization
Targeted employees or employee groups actively take advantage of L&D opportunities because learning is presented in a variety of formats that people can consume on their own time.
Like many aspects of the COVID-19 business world, learning alignment requires ongoing vigilance and oversight. The process of mapping learning to business strategy, gaining c-level buy-in, communicating learning availability and benefits, and demonstrating impact must be repeated and honed as your culture evolves and your company transitions out of the current crisis. Skill requirements will be in flux for the foreseeable future, and what your organization needs today may well be different than what it needs tomorrow. In my opinion, learning leaders who use this time of disruption as an opening to think differently and try a new approach may be rewarded with a more stable organization and a workforce that is proactive and enthusiastic about upskilling as the business demands. Are you wondering how your organization compares to its peers with respect to learning alignment? How does learning alignment look in practice? What steps have your peers taken to transform their learning function from order taker to business enabler? Stay tuned for the results of DeVryWORKS’ and Human Capital Media’s Strategic Learning Alignment survey, to be released later this year.
Workforce Solutions to Attract, Acquire and Develop Talent At DeVryWORKS, we understand that one of the biggest challenges of any business is not only hiring skilled people but also providing opportunities to help them grow in their careers. DeVryWORKS seeks to truly understand your organization’s training and development needs so we can offer solutions to help you acquire and retain strong talent, plan for succession, and close the skills gap. www.devryworks.com.
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Leadership Development on Every Level Crafting a plan to grow in a changing economy. By: Kristen Britt Adaptation and improvement have always been key to organizational success, and there has been quite a lot of disruption in the business world recently. As organizations focus on the changing face of the workplace, they want to upskill their current employees thoughtfully and efficiently. Considering whether to develop training in-house or purchase something off the shelf can be challenging, and choosing the wrong option can be costly. Time and money are tight in most industries, and learning and development might be neglected to focus on other considerations. That means learning solutions providers need to be equipped to deal with the challenges facing these organizations and be able to maintain both top-quality content and tailored support for customers at every stage. Can a third-party learning solution be as good as bespoke? Gabriel Clevenger, assistant vice president of enrollment management at Champlain College Online, says yes. “In this new normal that we’re approaching ... learning leaders are likely going to be asked to do more with less.” A trusted, academically sound learning partner that is willing to consult with and listen to organizational needs to deliver quality content will be crucial. The team at Champlain College considers which of their offerings would be a good fit for an organization by not just selling or consulting, but by building a learning partnership. A college with a history of career-focused education along with being a pioneer in online academics can easily adapt to a changing world. Today, leadership and management training requires more than a quick online course. That is why Champlain College Online developed “Champlain Stackables,” a suite of modularized courses designed to support upskilling efforts
at various education levels and professional experience. Domain areas include leadership and management, project management, human resources, cybersecurity, and healthcare. With options for certificates, bachelor’s, and master’s-level courses along with custom modules delivered online, face-to-face, or a hybrid of both, the aim is to provide the ideal leadership training solution for any type or size organization. Stackables aims to address three big considerations an organization would have when choosing a third-party learning solution — flexibility, collaboration, and timeliness. Flexible
Potential managers and organizational leaders already have different levels and types of education. For industries like health care, government, or engineering, high-performing employees might have mastered skills that don’t easily transfer to management. They may need new skills but don’t have time to complete a full degree program. Organizations and their employees need the ability to choose program types and lengths that fit their needs. For some, one course offering a continuing education unit (CEU) will provide their organization with the leadership development needed, while others might need employees to complete a full bachelor’s or master’s degree program to achieve their business goals. Along with program duration, many may consider location a key to determining the right learning solution. Should employees attend in-person or online courses, or is a combination of the two more practical? Within an organization, there may be different needs for different business functions, and finding solutions from a single provider can be the most cost-effective.
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Collaborative
Finding a learning solution can be difficult, and consulting experts can sometimes lead to a decision that feels like it belongs to someone else. Organizations can look to higher education to find academically sound partners with proven track records, but finding one that is interested in tailoring a solution to specific organizational needs may still be a challenge.
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Learning solutions providers need to be equipped to deal with the challenges facing these organizations and maintain both top-quality content and tailored support for customers at every stage.
For Champlain College Online this means that though people tend to read “custom” or “tailored” and think “more expensive,” Clevenger says, “we intentionally designed the modules with a level of flexibility that allows for customization without cost being inflated.” Working with a learning provider to determine the combination of timeframe, location, and skills that makes the most sense for individual learners and the organization is key to finding the right solution. An institution should be a guide and
allow for a diversity of needs among learners and their organizations. Listening is key to being successful guides and collaborators. Timely
Getting the learning solution you need when you need it is key to maximizing ROI. Many organizations have experienced big changes recently and may look to training to achieve their business goals. As these organizations attempt to regain lost ground, short courses that can later become certifications or degrees can jumpstart ongoing success. A mix of readyto-use and organization-specific offerings can also help to upskill employees quickly in the short term while setting them up for continued achievement. The business case for learning solutions to build leadership and management skills can be made in most situations. Today’s leaders and managers need organizational support to develop the skills necessary to flourish as individuals and team members. Employing a leadership development program like Champlain College Online’s Champlain Stackables ensures that an organization will be able to find the right fit for growing its management and leadership. Learn more about Champlain Stackables at www.online.champlain.edu/jointruED.
Champlain College Online is at the forefront of adult education. Since 1993, we have carefully crafted online education to match the career aspirations of employees with the industry-driven needs of the organizations that employ them. As one of the first online programs in the United States, we are proud to be part of the distinguished history of regionally accredited, not-for-profit Champlain College, founded in Burlington, Vermont in 1878. Champlain College Online is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a leader in online higher education. Our nationally recognized programs address industry trends and critical skills gaps. We serve more than 3,000 students through 60 online undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates, and stackable credentials in high-demand fields like cybersecurity, business, healthcare, and information technology. Through our workforce development program called truED, we partner with some of the nation’s leading businesses and organizations in a bold reimagining of workplace learning that enables employees to flourish and organizations to grow.
PROFILE
Motor City’s Resourceful Learning Leader Iris Ware proves you don’t need a big budget to build a world-class learning program.
BY SARAH FISTER GALE
D
etroit was one of the hardest hit American cities during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The automotive industry collapsed, the state lost more than 800,000 jobs between 2000 and 2009, and median household incomes are still down more than 15 percent from before the recession. But the city is recovering — and Iris Ware is helping to make it happen. Ware was hired as chief learning officer for the City of Detroit in 2014. She was the first learning leader in more than eight years, taking over a department that had been essentially eliminated during the downturn. “There was no formalized training and development, and no performance management,” she said. “It was just me.” But she was up for the task. Ware is a native Detroiter. She is a first-generation college graduate who went on to receive a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Michigan Universities. However, she admits that early on she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. “Everyone in my family and neighborhood was in manufacturing,” she said. “It’s a great life, but I didn’t want that for myself.” Uncertain about her future after completing an associate degree, she spent the summer with friends in East Lansing, where she decided to take a class at Michigan State University. She met a counselor who suggested she pursue a career in HR. “I never looked back,” Ware said. She completed her bachelor’s degree at MSU and then got her master’s in labor and industrial relations at Wayne State in Detroit. She later
28 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
completed her Ph.D. in learning and design technology, when she saw where the industry was going. “I fell in love with HR,” she said.
Close to Home
Ware never lost her connection to Detroit. After completing her masters, she landed a job with DaimlerChysler, where she was quickly selected for a fast-track leadership development program. Then in 2008, she launched her own learning consulting agency, where she worked with several Michigan organizations before being recruited as CLO by Detroit’s mayor, Mike Duggan.
“It’s never about the technology. It’s always about the process and the people.” — Iris Ware, CLO, City of Detroit Ware spent the first six months as Detroit’s new CLO building her team and outlining a scalable learning strategy to help city employees develop new skills as the city emerged from bankruptcy. Ware quickly realized that while the mayor’s ambitions for providing training to the city’s 9,000-plus employees were big, her budget was not. “It was a very different experience from the way you provide learning at a for-profit company,” she said. As a city leader, she has minimal budget, old computers, and whatever additional content and equipment she and her team can cobble together. “We don’t have fancy software, but that is OK,” said Daryl Conrad, chief recruitment officer for the
ILLUSTRATION BY ZOË VAN DIJK
Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 29
PROFILE
City of Detroit. He noted that Ware has a knack for turning even the most limited resources into powerful training solutions. “She builds things using free software online, and she develops partnerships with other organizations and local colleges,” he said. “She gets things done.”
Three Questions
That spurred Ware’s team to create a 10-module competency-based supervisor training program focusing on the city’s core values, and the skills they needed to be successful. “The supervisor training was our foundational program,” said Maria Graves, the branding, communications and logistics specialist on Ware’s team. Each course is four hours, and trainees receive certification when they complete them all. It became so popular they had to clarify that anyone could participate — not just supervisors,
When Ware was hired, many of the city’s employees were going through redeployment, which meant they had to move into new roles and departments as the city rebuilt. After all the changes, about 80 employees were left without a position. That’s where Ware began. She and her team rapidly created a program to help these employees find new jobs in the city. They taught — Coy Mosley, HR director, interview skills and résumé building, Empowerment Plan offered basic computer skills training and helped them apply for appropriate openings in the city infrastructure. Within three Graves said. They also created a spin-off 10-module weeks, 90 percent of them found new full-time follow-up training program called Learn Engage positions. “It’s one of the things I’m most proud Apply Perform, or LEAP, that any employee can of,” Ware said. take to further enhance their supervisory skills. With employees placed, Ware set out to deterThe supervisory training programs sent the mesmine what city departments needed from her. sage that Ware’s team was committed to solving She spent weeks interviewing leaders, super- the departments’ learning needs. It started a flood visors and employees across city departments of requests and communications with department about what they did and what they needed. Her leaders, including Conrad, who said everyone on audience was vast and varied, ranging from police his team has taken part in one or more of the superand firemen to parking meter attendants, health visory courses. department personnel and tax collectors. “There His team has also benefited from partnerships are 36 departments and agencies and they all have that Ware has launched with local colleges to learning needs,” she said. offer courses on project management, time manThe research took a lot of time and effort, but agement, leadership development and other core it helped her team determine what role they would skills. Having access to such formal training for the play in helping employees achieve their goals. “We don’t want to build something unless we are sure people will come,” Ware said. “So we align everything we do to the city’s mission and the department’s desired results.” To get to the core of those needs, she asked everyone three questions: What do you like about working here? What would you change? Why hasn’t it happened? Their responses guided her toward the right solutions. For example, she found that leaders felt their supervisors weren’t as effective as they should be, while supervisors were unhappy with the lack of opportunity to build When Iris Ware was named CLO of the City of Detroit in 2014, the city had been the skills they needed to be effective. without a learning leader for the past eight years. 30 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF IRIS WARE
“She is the type of leader who pushes everyone else up.”
PROFILE
first time in years has had a profound impact on Detroit’s employees, Conrad said. “They aren’t just building new skills. It is changing the way they see themselves and where they can go in their careers.”
Everyone’s an Expert
This focus on personal development doesn’t just extend to the training Ware’s department offers. Ware prides herself on helping everyone on her team find and hone a specific area of expertise. “She doesn’t create traditional roles,” Conrad said. “She tries to find a specialty for each person to augment the team.” For example, Graves originally met Ware when they worked together on the launch of Detroit Manufacturing Systems, a small Tier One automotive supplier. It was a bare bones start-up and Graves recognized that the company had no communication and branding strategy. So she took some classes and slowly developed a unique brand image and communication strategy for the company.
“Learning and development exists to serve the employees by addressing their pain points with real solutions. It is not about just providing feel-good training.” — Iris Ware, CLO, City of Detroit “She saw what I did, and when she was recruited to the city she thought I’d be perfect for her new division,” Graves said of Ware. It took Graves a year of going through formal city hiring channels, but once she joined the team in 2015, Ware put her in charge of creating all the communication for the division. Graves has since taken over the department’s social media and internal communication channels, designed the department’s brand and messaging, created an HR newsletter and started facilitating course design. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities to grow under her direction,” she said. She particularly appreciates how Ware has empowered her to take charge from the beginning. “When I come to her with an issue, she helps me think it through, but then she defers to me to make the final decision,” Graves said. Ware takes a similar approach with all of her team, allowing
them to take charge of one aspect of the department’s operations. “She is the type of leader who pushes everyone else up,” said Coy Mosley, HR director for the nonprofit Empowerment Plan, which makes coats that convert to sleeping bags for homeless people. Mosley worked with Ware on a Head Start program in Detroit several years ago, and Ware has continued to mentor her throughout her career. Recently, Ware co-hosted a vision board session with Mosley’s team to help them come up with low-cost solutions to support homeless women. “She’s really good at finding ways to help people on a budget,” Mosley said. Mosley also appreciates how respectful Ware is when working with the women her organization serves. “They have a lot of trust issues, but they love Iris because she talks to them, not at them,” she said. “It is a special kind of person who can relate just as easily to DaimlerChrysler executives as women in a homeless shelter.”
E-Learning on a Budget
Ware attributes her success to her passion for learning and her participatory/benevolent leadership style. “I’m always concerned about the well-being of my team and my organization,” she said. That informs her approach to identifying training needs and creating solutions with limited resources that help people reach their potential. These days, Ware is focused on offering more online learning content for city employees, which she believes will be critical for their ongoing training needs. “Things are changing so quickly that we need to provide learning opportunities that employees can use without interrupting their work,” she said. “They need personalized, scalable learning that they can access quickly on their time.” To maximize her budget, she is taking advantage of every free and low-cost software she can find and leveraging the talent on her team to find and create content that employees need. “We can do amazing things with committed people and few gadgets,” she said. “It’s never about the technology. It’s always about the process and the people.” Ware’s advice to other leaders? Focus on what matters most to the business, rather than what the learning function wants to do. “Learning and development exists to serve the employees by addressing their pain points with real solutions. It is not about just providing feel-good training,” she said. When learning teams focus on real business goals, she added, everything they deliver will add value. CLO Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in Chicago. Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 31
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LEADER UP! Here’s how to select candidates for executive coaching in your company. BY RICK KOONCE
W
ith the demand for executive coaching skyrocketing in many companies and organizations, what’s the best way to prioritize your company’s selection of individuals to receive coaching, especially when talent development and training budgets are tight — even more than usual as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic? It’s a question leadership and talent development professionals as well as HR departments struggle with every year, as familiarity with coaching grows among new generations of managers and executives, and as the tangible benefits of coaching increasingly have been validated across multiple industries and in countless functional areas of focus. From CEOs and other members of the C-suite to vice presidents, directors, and senior and middle managers, it’s important to note that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to designing coaching engagements. Instead, the intensity, focus, design and duration of a coaching engagement should be based on the developmental needs of the individual, the desired outcomes by senior leadership, the level of the individual in the organization, and the impact that changed behaviors on the leader’s part is likely to have on productivity, leadership effectiveness and business performance. Clearly, the more senior the manager or executive who’s targeted for coaching, the wider the options they may be offered. An engagement with a senior executive might last six to 12 months (or Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 33
longer) and begin with a pre-engagement leadership assessment (e.g., The Hogan Personality Inventory, The Lominger Leadership assessment, etc.). Engagements for managers or more junior executives might last four to six months and begin with a workshop or initial virtual consultations and get-acquainted sessions via Zoom, Skype, FaceTime or Go-to-Meeting. Increasingly, companies are also employing cohortbased leadership development programs. These feature a mix of group coaching sessions (typically for 12 to 15 individuals at a time) interspersed with one-on-one coaching sessions for each individual cohort member over eight to 12 months. These programs, often offered to emerging, high-potential leaders, are a great way to build leadership bench strength across multiple functions and departments or to prepare an organization for emerging business challenges. Regardless of what kind of coaching a company offers its executives and managers, there are seven factors to consider when evaluating a person’s suitability for coaching. A prospective candidate for executive coaching should possess each of the following.
Established Track Record of Early and Consistent Success Any individual selected to receive executive coaching should already have clearly demonstrated their leadership potential as well as their ability to adapt and learn, work with others and deal with rapidly changing market conditions and business challenges. For that reason, prospective learners will likely be drawn from a company’s cadre of emerging young leaders, high-potentials, or established managers and executives whose careers are on the rise. Normally, potential learners already have managerial responsibilities, but in some instances, an individual contributor who shows great promise, who has not yet managed others, will be a candidate for coaching as well. So, too, may new arrivals in a company who are being onboarded or groomed for higher-level leadership responsibilities in the near future.
Demonstrated Capacity for New Learning In today’s business environment, managers and executives must have a deep capacity for new learning. This goes beyond academic prowess or intellectual acumen to include a proclivity and enthusiasm for real-time experiential learning and an inclination to “lean in” to new business challenges as they arise. Such personal traits are critical to leadership effectiveness because learning agility has become a foundational component of leadership agility. In an insightful white paper published by the Center for Creative Leadership, “Learning about Learning Agility,” “learning-agile” leaders are described 34 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
as individuals who typically display greater extroversion, originality of thought, resilience and focus than many of their workplace counterparts. They’re also more likely to challenge the status quo, generate new ideas and plans, and embrace learning as a goal in itself. “[L] earning-agile individuals not only seek out new and challenging situations that may serve as learning experiences, but also manage these challenges effectively, allowing learning to occur,” the report notes.
Learning agility has become a foundational component of leadership agility. Because learning agility is a key element of leadership agility, choose candidates for coaching who display a thirst for new learning on a daily basis, who see the job they have now as a learning ground or stepping stone experience for future advancement, and whose skills are mission-critical to the company’s long-term success.
Ability to Embrace Adaptive Leadership Besides learning agility, candidates for coaching should demonstrate potential as it relates to problem-solving and decision-making. In “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership,” authors Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky identify two kinds of challenges business leaders face today. These include “technical” challenges — those for which proven problem-solving approaches and solution paths already exist, and “adaptive” challenges, which require a mindset shift on the part of leaders to successfully address them. The adaptive leader adopts an intuitive, inquisitive, open and exploratory mindset with which to look at business problems and issues in new ways. Heifetz et al. describe this as the ability “to get on the balcony”; to look at problems and challenges with fresh eyes; and to discern new patterns, variations and combinations of things that lead to breakthrough insights and new pathways of action. Clearly, in choosing candidates for executive coaching, talent development professionals should select individuals who have the intellectual bandwidth and potential to exercise both technical (everyday) business decision-making and creative/adaptive leadership in response to new or emerging business challenges.
Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence Developing oneself as a leader depends, in large measure, on an individual’s self-awareness and
emotional/social intelligence. The most effective leaders are highly self-aware and realize that to be effective, they must work through others to get work done. They embrace their strengths with both humility and self-confidence but also acknowledge the strengths and contributions of others. They are vulnerable and decisive, visionary and inclusive. They realize that in today’s organizations, real power emanates not from formal positional authority alone, but more often from one’s ability to influence others, to engender trust and respect, and to engage and align others around common objectives. For this reason, choose individuals to receive coaching who have the capacity to grow, not just in the depth of their business knowledge, but in their knowledge and awareness of self. Choose individuals who already display both humility and agency at work, who motivate and inspire their teams, and who have shown the ability to create followership among others.
Demonstrated Ability to Engage Others In my experience as a coach, leaders often struggle with how best to exercise influence with groups. Many leaders achieve early success by displaying strong subject matter expertise and by being standout individual contributors. But as one takes on the role of leading a team, department or organization, there’s a heightened need to engage others, optimize the involvement of colleagues in group discussions, and drive effective and inclusive team/group decision-making. To be sure, this requires strong emotional intelligence, but it also requires honed facilitation and group communication skills. In today’s world, the role of leader as a convener and facilitator of group discussions continues to increase in importance. That’s why, in my work with managers and executives, I emphasize the importance of leaders developing strong facilitation, or “dialogic,” skills. This includes the ability to set the table for critical discussions with others, create an environment in which everyone present feels free to speak, where each person is given voice, and where the leader establishes an ecosystem that allows for the thorough discussion and vetting of ideas before critical decisions are made. Doing all this well is not easy, and leaders today must check their egos at the door for this dialogic leadership approach to succeed.
Strong Social and Interpersonal Skills In today’s matrix-based organizations and highly collaborative work environments, leaders need to display a standout ability to work well with a variety of people. They must be able to build followership among individuals with competing goals and agendas and create a spirit of trust, engagement, alignment and camaraderie
around common goals in the process. For these reasons, choose candidates for coaching who understand the importance of building “social capital” within their sphere of influence, who’ve shown the ability to build and maintain strong stakeholder networks and work across departmental or business unit lines. Also, look for individuals who possess a flexible interpersonal style, who can adjust their engagement approach with others based on the personalities and needs of the moment, and who employ tact and diplomacy along with a results-orientation.
Choose learners who have the capacity to grow, not just in the depth of their business knowledge, but in their awareness of self. Finally, Presence! Leadership presence is the fundamental basis of the authority, credibility and power (formal or informal) any leader possesses and conveys to others. It includes variables such as physical bearing, mannerisms and demeanor, use of language and ability to communicate, the ability to emotionally connect with others, and the ability to project authenticity, integrity and character to others. Given the importance of presence in leadership effectiveness, consider as candidates for coaching any executive or manager who possesses upside potential in any or all of the aspects of presence noted above. Coaching can help an executive or manager pinpoint both the areas in which their leadership presence is strong and where, with a little bit of focus, they can dramatically improve their presence and leadership effectiveness.
Toward the Future Developing leaders is never easy, especially in an environment where training and development dollars are limited and leadership development needs are immense and growing. To maximize coaching’s value to your organization’s success, be sure to identify both current and emerging leaders to receive coaching, as this will help build your existing leadership bench and provide a mechanism for the continuous development of new generations of leaders in the future. CLO Rick Koonce, PCC, is an executive coach to companies and organizations worldwide, including the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 35
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One model cannot solve the industry’s measurement problem. Instead, each L&D team must ask their own questions, apply proven, data-rich principles and develop their own measurement strategy. BY JD DILLON
S
quare peg. Round hole. This is the problem with learning measurement. The most well-known learning measurement models have been around for decades, and yet the industry continues to struggle with its measurement practices. We’re great with surveys. We have plenty of test scores. We know who completed the training, how long they took and what they clicked along the way. But most learning and development teams still cannot answer critical stakeholder questions: Is the training actually working? Which tactics are having the greatest
Unfortunately, many traditional L&D tactics remain data-poor.
impact? Why should we invest more resources into employee development? But it’s not for lack of trying. Measurement is a bigger L&D priority now than it has ever been. Ninety-six percent of L&D leaders say they want to measure learning impact, according to LEO Learning’s “Measuring the Impact of Learning 2019.” Donald Taylor’s 2020 L&D Global Sentiment Survey includes multiple data-related entries among the list of the year’s hottest industry topics, such as learning analytics (No. 1), artificial intelligence (No. 5), consulting more deeply with the business (No. 7) and showing value (No. 9). However, less than 20 percent of companies say they are highly effective at learning measurement, according to Brandon Hall Group’s 2018 Modern Learning Measurement study. L&D wants to fix learning measurement. Stakeholders are demanding accountability. Plenty of models are available from which L&D pros can choose. So then what’s the issue?
The Real Problem The problem with learning measurement is that the problem doesn’t begin with learning measurement. Workplace training looked very different when popular measurement models were created. The internet didn’t exist. Training only happened in classrooms and on the job. L&D was fundamentally limited in what it could measure. Measurement models reflect this focus on place-and-time training. They have tried to adapt with the times, but there’s only so far you can take the foundational concepts. This has put L&D in a “square peg, round hole” situation. So, L&D just needs a new measurement model that takes into account how workplace learning works now, right? Well, it’s not that simple. Thankfully, we can learn a lot about this topic from billboard advertising. Yes, the key to fixing learning measurement is billboards. 38 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
A Lesson from Marketing L&D already borrows from marketing on topics such as content design and campaign-based delivery. It’s time for another lesson, this time on data. Modern marketing is a data-enabled function. They don’t just know that you consumed an ad. They use everything they know about you to first develop the strategy, then target advertising and ultimately determine how tactics influence your buying decisions. Marketing can measure impact. But they didn’t always have this capability. In fact, marketing was in a place very similar to L&D 20 years ago. Before the internet, marketing leaned on mail, print, radio and television ads. Oh, and billboards. They used a limited understanding of their audience to get as many eyes onto an advertisement as possible. Then, they did their best to correlate changes in business results to marketing activities. Did they know that driving past a billboard caused you to buy a new breakfast cereal? No. But they knew sales went up after the billboards went up, so they kept doing it. Fast forward 20 years. Marketing has not gotten any better at measuring the impact of billboards. They’re not a data-rich tactic. There’s only so much you can do to measure their impact without considerable time, effort and expense. Instead of repeatedly trying new models to measure data-poor tactics, marketing evolved how they do what they do. The internet gave birth to digital marketing. Mobile and social technology provided even more data-rich tactics. Marketing still uses billboards, but they’re a small piece of a dynamic toolset. Unfortunately, many traditional L&D tactics remain data-poor. It doesn’t matter which measurement model you apply. Even with extra time and effort, there’s only so much data you can get. Before measurement can be fixed, L&D must first evolve the way it approaches its work. L&D must adopt data-rich tactics that align with how learning actually happens in the workplace.
The Principles of Good Data The biggest consideration for improving L&D data practices is a basic question: What problem are you trying to solve? All of the data in the world won’t matter if L&D teams don’t start by clarifying the goals of the organization. What does the business need to do, and how can L&D leverage data to make it happen? Are you trying to accelerate onboarding? Are you trying to improve key performance indicators? Do you need to enable organizationwide reskilling? All of the above? Data can only help you if you know what questions to ask.
FIGURE 1: LEVERAGING DATA IN L&D Adaptation How can we continuously adapt our support tactics to ensure optimum results?
Engagement How are people engaging with learning opportunities?
Prediction How are we projected to perform in the future with our key business goals?
Outcomes How is learning impacting business results and delivering ROI?
Learning How is people’s knowledge changing over time?
Behaviors How are people’s behaviors changing on the job?
Source: Axonify
Next, L&D needs more than just data. You need the right data. You need data that helps you understand the needs of your employees and how their performance does (or does not) change based on your solutions. Learning doesn’t start and end with a course. It’s a personal, continuous experience. Therefore, L&D measurement must also become personal and continuous. As you begin to think differently about measurement, consider the five key principles of good data. • Velocity: Data must be gathered and analyzed at the right speed. • Variety: Different types of data will be needed to tell the overall learning and performance story. • Veracity: Data must be trustworthy and free of bias and disruptive outliers. • Volume: The appropriate amount of data must be collected to enable the holistic measurement strategy. • Value: Data must be selected for collection and analysis based on its ability to foster the right questions and deliver value to the business and employees. Modern data practices are built on these five principles — the same principles applied in marketing.
Identifying Your Data Just figuring out where to start is one of the biggest obstacles L&D pros reference when it comes to improving measurement. After you know what problem(s) you are trying to solve, you must determine the types of data you will need to power your solution(s). The specific data points will vary by organization and problem to be solved. That said, most high-value data fits within four categories. Business data: How does the organization know there is a problem at all? Start with this question to determine the existing business metrics that will be of most value to L&D. This may include sales results, net promoter score, recordable safety incidents, first-call resolution, etc. If stakeholders are unable (or unwilling) to provide this data, L&D will be limited in its measurement capabilities. People data: Who is L&D trying to help solve this problem? Organizations usually have a lot of employee data, including demographics, role, team structure, location, tenure and so on. This data can help you better target your solutions and understand how specific groups are (or are not) benefiting from L&D solutions. MEASUREMENT continued on page 48 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 39
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Do strengths and skills assessments perpetuate gender bias and stereotypes? It’s a complicated question. BY ELIZ ABETH LOUTFI
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n article published in the 2019 issue of Management Learning, titled “‘I Always Knew I was a Little Girly’: The gendering of skills in management training,” implores users of management texts and strength assessments to learn about how gender is understood in the workplace, suggesting that they perpetuate bias and stereotypes based on gender. In 2008, Sarah Blithe, the article’s author, was working at a consulting firm where she delivered strength-based training sessions to the firm’s clients. In these sessions, Blithe conducted assessment programs based on the Strengths theory developed by Donald O. Clifton and Gallup, which the group would reflect on in discussion afterward. During these discussions, Blithe realized the individuals in her sessions were looking at their results in a way that placed gender stereotypes on specific strengths or skills. “They were consuming that information through a gendered lens,” Blithe said in an interview about her research. “So they were attributing skill to a particular gender, saying, for example, that harmony or empathy is a classic feminine skill, and aggression and competition are classic masculine skills.” The “gendered lens” is a part of the invisible gender binary structure that’s already present and well-ingrained in society. The gender binary, which is the classification of gender into masculine or feminine, and gender conformity are deeply entangled in the workplace and occupational roles across industries such as technology, health care, hospitality, manufacturing and more.
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This gendered structure is responsible for the stereotypes, inequalities and assumptions about gender that hold women and other groups that have been marginalized back in the workplace, Blithe said. If someone who doesn’t appear masculine, for example, was embodying masculinity, that person can sometimes be punished. “Classically, you can see this in politics,” she said. And for women specifically, she added, embracing too much femininity versus not enough can be a catch-22. Years later, Blithe, who is now an associate professor of communication studies at University of Nevada-Reno and the chief education officer at Equilibrium, a consulting firm for training and design, returned to those experiences of delivering strengths assessments for her research. Blithe’s research is based on analysis of the texts that make up the “Strengths” psychology, auto-ethnographic accounts and critical reflection. She looked at her notes from the sessions she conducted — 53 participants in all, across six 90-minute sessions. She said the notes she took then showed how the individuals in her group valued strengths or skills in unequal ways, and that these associations were “strongly tied to gender.”
Women in leadership are often reluctant to claim their own achievements. During her analysis, Blithe discovered that none of the text within the Strengths theory directly mentioned gender. She said these findings were interesting to her and it was evident that people were putting the gender binary structure onto the results. “So using those assessments can never be gender-free because the people consuming them are part of society,” she said. However, these types of assessments are intended to look past things like gender, race or age, and rather identify what makes each person unique, said Marcus Buckingham, co-creator of the StrengthsFinder and StandOut strength assessments.
Looking Beyond Gender “Unquestionably, there is gender stereotyping in our society. We do an awful lot of stereotyping,” Buckingham said. “The strength assessments that I’ve made are obviously trying to do the opposite of that.” Buckingham said assessments should be built to ensure that no item is more commonly selected by one gender or the other; that the “least interesting” 42 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
thing about someone should be their gender, therefore destroying any stereotypes about gender created by society. If someone taking an assessment thinks of a particular strength as being gender-specific, then the person presenting the assessment should help them address their bias. “Anybody who is presenting a strength assessment needs to understand that the point of it is to look past gender or race or age and identify the uniqueness of the human,” he said. Strength and skill assessments are currently widely used in learning and development because they help managers and people leaders learn more about the individuals who make up their company or team. Gallup’s research on strength-based development suggests that strength assessments have a positive impact on employee engagement and productivity and that workplaces that participated in strength-based development programs also saw an uptick in understanding and respect among co-workers. These assessment programs can also be very helpful for the individual taking them, too. For example, because they are intended to reveal what makes a person individually unique, Buckingham said assessments are tremendously helpful in helping a person know how they can best contribute within a team. “We can basically use all the help we can get in terms of understanding who we are, how we think we’re driven and how we can turn that into contribution,” he said. “If we can use a strength assessment to help pinpoint people’s uniqueness on a team, that’s really useful.”
Occupation, Gender Stereotypes and Skills But strength or skill assessments might not assess everyone in the same way, especially in regard to gender across different occupations. A 2018 article, “Occupational Segregation,” published by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, suggests that nearly half of the women in the U.S. labor force would have to move to a different occupation in order to eliminate all occupational segregation by gender. The levels of segregation by gender also vary by race, the article notes. Bias and stereotypes about gender in relation to skill has led to this gender divide across occupations, according to Blithe’s research. She isn’t the first to arrive at this conclusion: In 2014, an experiment published in the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that unconscious bias — among both men and women — toward women’s mathematical skills was leading to hiring choices that favored men over women, despite both genders performing equally.
Blithe said there are occupations, such as caregiving, management work and education, that are currently mostly taken up by women. “Some people say, ‘Who cares if people do different jobs and if you can see the divisions by gender?’ Well, that really becomes impactful when you look at the wages and occupations that tend to be dominated by women or characterized as feminine, regardless of who’s doing it.” When occupations are devalued, they are paid less, she added, pointing out that a teacher’s salary, regardless of who happens to be receiving it, is an example of this. Women advancing through the leadership pipeline also face a multitude of barriers, including the gender pay gap, paid family leave and child care offerings, according to a 2018 Chief Learning Officer article, “Women in Leadership: Surmounting Barriers and Bias.” But there are more barriers to rising through the ranks than just those structural ones. Two more barriers that author and leadership coach Sally Helgesen said she has seen rising women leaders face are a reluctance to claim their own achievements as well as a fear that talking about their skills or strengths could be perceived as being arrogant. This also applies to different racial or ethnic groups. “In people who represent groups of all kinds, there can be sensitivities about claiming achievements,” Helgesen said. Those who deliver strength assessments or strength-based training need to be aware of those sensitivities, understanding that it could impact the way the results are perceived. A third issue that concerns women specifically in organizational pipelines is perfectionism, which can impact women’s own assessment of their strengths or skills in the workplace. “Perfectionism makes it, No. 1, very difficult to accurately assess your strengths because you go in with the presumption that whatever it is, you could always be better. It’s hard to admit a strength when your standard for a strength is going to be perfection all the time,” Helgesen said. “So in that way, that can undermine you.”
Assessing Inclusively For those who conduct strength assessments, being more inclusive can mean simply being sensitive to the way different people view strengths and weaknesses, Helgesen said, while acknowledging how these views differ among men and women, as well as race, ethnicity or age. There’s no perfect weapon for society to do away with the gender binary, stereotyping and other forms of unconscious bias completely, but Blithe said organizations that adopt training programs or partnerships
that support diversity and inclusion will have an easier time addressing them and undoing some of that binary way of thinking. This also means that L&D leaders should make sure they are thinking inclusively about their organization and the way popular management texts, such as the ones based on the “Strengths” psychology and other similar skill or strength assessments, are used in different training programs and initiatives.
Humans are more complex than just one assessment, but it would be precarious to get rid of them altogether. A 2019 article published by The New York Times, “To Promote Inclusivity, Stay Away from Personality Assessments,” suggests personality assessments, like Myers-Briggs, might be too broad, and don’t take into account gender, race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status or disability, which can impact how someone interprets a question, or even a score. “While not intentionally discriminatory, these assessments tend to box individuals into a narrow stereotype, which can have a negative professional impact on those with less-desired personality traits,” writes the article’s author, Quinisha Jackson-Wright. Humans are more complex than just one assessment, but Blithe has seen first-hand how these assessments can benefit people in the workplace, which is why it would be precarious to get rid of them altogether. “In my experience, some people have said these kinds of personal reflections are the best things they’ve ever learned about themselves at work,” she said. Rather than using the results of an assessment in order to predict a person’s future behavior, Blithe said it could be more helpful for managers or leaders to view these strengths as the way a person feels about a certain job or task, or simply a snapshot of that person’s day. “I also think managers can fail when they rely on these tests to determine who their people are, when it’s really just one photograph.” Popular management texts, or whatever is the biggest, newest “guru piece,” need to be interrogated, Blithe said. “Some of the stuff that is in there may be glossing right over these inequities.” CLO Elizabeth Loutfi is Chief Learning Officer’s associate editor. Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 43
CASE STUDY
Lessons From COVID-19 BY PAUL MESKANICK
W
hile watching some recent World War II documentaries, I was fascinated to see the chess match not only between the leaders of the Allied and Axis powers but between field generals, admirals and other commanders beneath them. Much like the WWII commanders, chief learning officers and other learning leaders are having to draw up and modify battle plans to position their organizations to win against the coronavirus. Besides the fact that our opponent is imperceptible, it is the speed of change that makes the challenge particularly vexing. As recently as the first part of March, some public figures were downplaying the impact of the virus. By the end of April, jobless claims had soared to over 30 million, and that number continues to grow. Today, as many small businesses find themselves on the brink of financial insolvency, we are beginning to reopen the economy. From a learning and development perspective, the impacts of workplace transitions are numerous. These include, to name a few, addressing implications of mass teleworking shifts; devising smart classroom instruction conversions and avoiding virtual instruction fails; fulfilling vast cross-training needs associated with job role changes and reboarding; and producing more and better learning with reduced resources. So, what are talent development leaders doing to not only address current challenges, but to ready their organizations for our “next normal”?
The “Next Normal” With more than 50 hospitals in the western U.S., Providence St. Joseph Health found itself at ground zero, having treated the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. PSJH is a leader in the response to the pandemic, operating some of the largest clinical trials in the country for drug therapies and antibody testing. PSJH CLO Darci Hall said that while COVID19 hasn’t affected their thinking and strategy around learning, it has fostered innovation and speed to implementation. “What COVID-19 has 44 Chief Learning Officer July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
SNAPSHOT While there’s still much ahead, learning leaders and their organizations have come a long way since the pandemic started.
done is help to expedite decision-making and ability to drive more innovative solutions in a much quicker fashion as we are reacting to the virus,” she said. ”We have been talking about digital learning for years — and in a very traditional organization like ours, this has given us the ability to implement nontraditional learning in a quicker way.” TriCore Reference Laboratories, New Mexico’s largest medical laboratory, has been on the forefront of COVID-19 testing for the state. Jillian Gonzales, manager of workforce education and engagement, indicated there is an ongoing shift to the next normal. “We are pivoting to provide all of our usual classes, training and programs to virtual live or prerecorded offerings,” she said. “We also have to develop strategies to support our many SMEs who present content in many of our classes and programs.” Thor Flosason, senior director of global learning & development at The Kellogg Co., has seen a similar change. Their transition efforts in recent years to more virtual and online learning solutions have helped ready the company for many challenges in these times. “It is pushing us to do more of what we have already started, move quickly and figure out how we can support our leaders and employees in the best way possible to acquire new skills, while paying close attention to their emotional health and wellbeing,” Flosason said.
Addressing New Challenges In our responses to COVID-19, challenges abound in supporting how learning gets done. Adoption of remote collaboration and productivity tools becomes a key consideration. Project priorities continue to evolve. Budgets are cut and employees are furloughed or laid off.
Every business faces unique obstacles based on their industry, offerings, financial well-being and culture. For Hall, it was “the move to mobile and distributed (learning) in a highly regulated/contract/unionized organization. Implementing change and innovation can be difficult when your organization is typically risk-averse.” Flosason said, “Not knowing what to expect in a post-coronavirus world and how we can truly prepare for that today. There are so many unknowns. How will organizations change their ways of working, policies and how they conduct their business? “Another hurdle is the whole change-management piece of this,” Flosason continued. “Many people have a hard time with being 100 percent virtual from a learning and productivity standpoint. This includes proficiency with technology and being comfortable with establishing and maintaining important relationships remotely.”
What’s Proven Effective? So far, these learning leaders have seen success in a variety of methods and approaches to facing COVID19 head-on. Gonzales stressed the importance of keeping things simple for urgent needs. “Not getting stuck in perfection,” she said. “Categorizing to-do’s based on triage learning and needs, projects that can still be maintained, and being proactive to what future learning needs will be.” Hall added, “getting out to the ‘field’ and learning how our workforce works, learning about our organizational goals, so we can design truly valued added learning and development solutions because we understand the work and the workforce.” One of the brightest spots in all this is how the learning profession has become a lynchpin in a successful response — smoothing transitions, meeting new upskilling requirements and providing for both organizational and human needs. The amount of sharing, listening, teaching, mentoring and — above all — helping has been unparalleled. This has been evidenced by cooperation among competitors, courses being provided at no cost and sharing forums for the good of the learning community. Standing up and sharing one’s best ideas with others, while being willing to sit down and learn from others who may have a different idea or a better approach — in these times, we’re witnessing it all.
Insights for Our Next Steps Looking forward, we will need to figure out how to best continue into uncharted territory. Hall shared a number of suggestions.
“Get to know your organizational needs and the organizational readiness,” she said. “Build strategic relationships with the ‘influencers’ in your organization to help support and drive the learning and development vision. Be bold and challenge your team to think big and broader on how learning should look in the future to support your workforce.”
“This calls for a complete recontextualization of learning. I think learning leaders are up for the challenge.” — Thor Flosason, senior director of global learning & development, The Kellogg Co. Gonzales emphasized the importance of idea sharing, both internally and externally. “Reach out to L&D leaders and groups outside of your organization,” she said. “Maintain those connections to share resources and lessons learned while also being a support system. Provide microlearning content to your HR and communications departments. Partner with them to support the organization.” Flosason knows that he must focus on the here and now as well as plan ahead: “We will learn from successes and failures and then be better equipped to support and provide learning in a dramatically different environment.” He stresses understanding and embracing the very important role learning leaders play in managing through the crisis and beyond. “It’s almost like we are resetting everything, how we operate, how we collaborate and how we add value to our organizations. It’s a huge responsibility and we must use this opportunity to help lead the way. We must innovate like never before; this is not about converting learning solutions from one solution to a different solution. This calls for a complete recontextualization of learning. I think learning leaders are up for the challenge.” With the phased reopening of the economy, undoubtedly there will be new challenges ahead. In this dynamically changing environment, learning leaders on the front lines are now battle-tested and well-positioned to keep their organizations healthy and to prevail in this fight against COVID-19. CLO Paul Meskanick is director of client services for Ingenuiti, a developer of custom learning solutions and ISO-certified provider of translation and localization solutions. Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 ChiefLearningOfficer.com 45
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
The Rise of E-Learning BY ASHLEY ST. JOHN
T
here’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic — and its longer-term effects on our personal lives, work and the economy — is far from over. But as the world finds itself in various stages of reopening, what’s the initial outlook for learning and development? At first glance, it may seem a bit grim. Unsurprisingly, learning leaders’ outlook for spending in the next 12-18 months is mixed, but far less optimistic than the past couple years. Thirty-six percent of respondents to the Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board’s “2020 Learning State of the Industry” report said they anticipate an increase in their organization’s spending on L&D, while 29 percent expect no change and 29 percent anticipate a decrease (see Figure 1). In 2018, 57 percent of respondents predicted a spending increase, 28 percent expected no change, and 12 percent predicted a decrease, and in 2019, those numbers remained roughly the same. 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. As far as where spending will be allocated, it seems the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of trends already in place — most notably, e-learning delivery. While this has been the No. 1 anticipated area for L&D technology spending for the past few years, it jumped significantly from 2019 — when 41 percent of learning leaders identified it as an area of key spending — to 2020, with 52 percent of respondents identifying it as such (see Figure 2).
46 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
Anticipated spending in most other areas declined, most notably for learning management systems, which declined from 29 percent in 2019 to 19 percent in 2020. While instructor-led e-learning is currently increasing among organizations in conjunction with the sharp decline of classroom-based ILT, self-paced e-learning remains fairly static. This is true across business skills training, compliance training, core competencies, leadership development and onboarding/new hire training, and likely will continue if many organizations continue allowing more employees to work remotely, at least part-time. Over the next 12-18 months, self-paced e-learning is expected to increase — 65 percent of those surveyed this year anticipate this to be the case versus 60 percent in 2019 — but the most substantial anticipated change, again, relates to instructor-led e-learning: 53 percent of 2020 respondents anticipate an increase versus only 38 percent in 2019 (see Figure 3). Classroom-based ILT continued to drop sharply as an anticipated learning delivery method, with 47 percent of 2020 respondents expecting a drop in the next 12-18 months compared with 28 percent in 2019. The use of e-learning has been increasing for years, and it’s no surprise that the events of 2020 have accelerated this trend. Will this be just the beginning of an increasingly digital future? This calls into question just how important and powerful face-to-face human interaction is when it comes to learning and development — and life in general. CLO Ashley St. John is Chief Learning Officer’s managing editor.
Figures’ source: Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Board’s “2020 Learning State of the Industry,” N=978. All percentages rounded.
Based on the events of 2020 so far, it’s no surprise that e-learning is accelerating. But what does that mean for the future?
FIGURE 1: HOW WILL YOUR ORGANIZATION’S SPENDING ON L&D CHANGE IN THE NEXT 12-18 MONTHS? 36% 29%
29%
7%
Increase
No change
Decrease
Don’t know
FIGURE 2: TOP THREE ANTICIPATED AREAS FOR L&D TECHNOLOGY SPENDING IN THE NEXT 12-18 MONTHS 52%
E-learning delivery
36%
Analytics/performance metrics/evaluation/dashboards
30%
Competency management/capability development
26%
Mobile learning delivery
25%
Social learning tools/platforms
24%
Instructor-led learning delivery
22%
Authoring tools/systems (content development)
19%
Learning management systems
16%
Data integration
14%
Content management systems
Classroom tools and systems 12% Cloud-based software
12% 10%
Enterprise portal
FIGURE 3: WHICH OF THESE LEARNING DELIVERY METHODS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE IN THE NEXT 12-18 MONTHS? 65%
60%
55%
53%
53%
53% 37% 28% 18%
Self-paced e-learning
Mobile learning
Coaching or mentoring
Video
Instructor-led Collaborative e-learning
Simulations
Formal on-the-job
Text-based training
16%
Classroombased ILT
Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 47
BYSTANDER continued from page 21
MEASUREMENT continued from page 39
I asked him what it was about joking that meant so much to the team. Through that process we were able to work through the underlying need he expressed: a sense of camaraderie among his team and a fun work environment. We talked about ways to uphold those elements of their work culture while being more sensitive to things that could intentionally or unintentionally hurt others’ feelings. Finally, as we were wrapping up the conversation, one of the toughest-looking guys in the room raised his hand and said, “You know what, I’m so glad we’re talking about this. I hate my nickname. I’ve just never had the guts to say it because I like you all so much as friends.” The room was shocked, and there was a huge shift in energy. Suddenly, everyone was more receptive to the teaching and realized the real-life implication this had on their colleague and friend. By not shutting down the original pushback, and instead working to draw out what was important to the participants in the room, we created a safe space for them to have a real and honest conversation — one that will hopefully have a long-lasting impact.
Performance data: What is happening in real life? How does the organization determine whether employees are demonstrating the right behaviors on the job? In some cases, this data already exists. For example, in safety-critical environments, auditors often record behavior observation data to identify trends and potential risks. L&D can leverage this data to determine how their solutions are (or are not) impacting real-world employee behavior. This is critical for connecting learning to business results. Learning data: How is employee knowledge and confidence changing? L&D must expand the definition of “learning data” to include more than test scores, smile sheets and course tracking. These data points are still needed, but L&D must be able to assess an employee’s current capability, regardless of the training they completed in the past. This will help L&D proactively design and implement right-fit, persistent solutions before performance gaps appear. This is not a comprehensive list of the data L&D needs to improve measurement. For example, some teams are applying sentiment and network analysis to determine how people interact in the workplace and learn from one another. These categories show how much the L&D data puzzle must expand so you can get the pieces you need to put your own measurement strategy together.
Case Study No. 2: Generating Excitement Two hours after a workshop I was leading concluded, the company’s HR director called me on my cell phone. I braced myself for whatever emergency I had imagined she was having: “Oh no, everyone’s grumbling about why they had to take time out of their day to be there.” Instead, I was relieved to hear her laughing on the other end of the line. “One of my employees just ran in here exclaiming, ‘I just used it! I was just an upstander,’ ” she told me, with obvious pride in her voice. Instead of fostering cynicism, empowering employees to be good bystanders can have a significant impact on morale and fellowship. Above all, what we find in most of our workshops is that the typical employee really wants to stand up to inappropriate behavior — they’re just not sure how.
Beyond the Foundation Telling employees what harassment is, and the many forms it can take, provides an important foundation, but HR departments can’t just leave it at that — this will only breed disengagement in a time when we need impactful cultural changes in our workplaces. Employees must be given the tools and confidence to speak up when they see something happening, and bystander communication training helps them realize that it is, in fact, “their place” to do so. CLO Ashley Virtue is director of external relations of the National Conflict Resolution Center. 48 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
Moving Data Forward You have identified the types of data you need to solve your problem. Now, you have some work to do. Start with existing sources. Where can you already access some of this data? HR should have the people data. Business stakeholders should have the business data and maybe some performance data. L&D has pieces of the learning data. Connect with data experts on these teams to understand what data is available and how you can access it. This should happen early in the process, before you actually need to apply the data. Next, consider evolving your tactics. It’s time to go beyond the billboard. L&D can apply an evolved perspective on data to gather more and better data from existing tactics. If this isn’t enough to solve the problem, you can evolve and augment your tactics to become more data-rich. For example, a traditional classroom session yields minimal data beyond completions, assessment scores and survey results. However, this tactic can be enriched by adding new, meaningful data collection points before and after the session. Progressive organizations are asking participants to complete assessments that demonstrate their
If you can’t tell if what you’re doing is working, what’s the point in doing it at all? knowledge and confidence in key topics before the session. They are provided with ongoing reinforcement activities to measure how they retain important information long-term. Microlearning activities are also being applied to capture data on knowledge retention during the few minutes employees have available in their workday. This provides a real-time understanding of what employees do (and do not) know. Consider new capabilities. Improving L&D data practices is not just about fixing learning measurement. Data is required to implement a growing list of modern learning practices, including: • Personalization: adjusting a digital learning experience based on the specific needs of an individual employee. • Adaptive learning: providing the right learning experience to the right person at the time. • Recommendation: highlighting additional resources or experts based on proven need and value. • Coaching: providing managers with specific, actionable steps to help an employee improve their performance.
Learning Measurement, Transformed How do you fit a square peg into a round hole? You can’t. You need a new peg,
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one that is specifically designed to fit this particular hole. The same is true for learning measurement. One model cannot solve the industry’s problem. Instead, each L&D team must ask their own questions, apply proven, data-rich principles and develop their own measurement strategy. In addition to not knowing where to begin, L&D pros often cite prioritization as a reason for measurement problems. Why should this be important to every L&D team? The answer to this question is another question: If you can’t tell if what you’re doing is working, what’s the point in doing it at all? Stakeholders expect L&D solutions to have a positive impact on their people and their business. When L&D cannot prove impact or apply data to innovate their tactics like other functions, their value comes under scrutiny. Everyone anecdotally agrees that learning is important. It’s the way we do our jobs that comes into question — and rightly so. This may sound complicated. This may sound difficult. But doing what it takes to finally fix learning measurement is clearly worth the effort. According to a 2019 study by Axonify, companies that apply modern data practices see a 29 percent average impact on business results from their learning programs. This isn’t the result of a survey. It’s not the weak correlation that comes from old-school billboards. Real impact measurement is possible. But first, we have to shatter the way L&D thinks about measurement. CLO
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Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com 49
IN CONCLUSION
Agile by Fire How the tech industry is transforming learning • BY JULIA M. LEWIS SATOV
W Julia M. Lewis Satov is manager of learning for Kira Systems. She has more than 10 years of experience in people strategy, leadership development, diversity and inclusion, learning and development and organizational culture.
hen it comes to the fourth industrial revolution, machine learning and artificial intelligence are at the center of the universe. Move aside, elite and longstanding establishments of formal education — the tech industry is advancing both theoretical and applied learning at a faster rate than Apple can push out an iOS update. It is “agility by fire” — the ability to move quickly but not easily, and still excel. Small and medium-sized enterprises are brimming with intelligent, diverse and eager talent producing work as it defines and redefines itself. This reality accounts for a fast-paced, reactive, regulated yet boundaryless organization with silos of expertise. It’s a beautiful place to be. It is what industry giants have long written about when telling tales of their path to success. SMEs are true front-line and onsite educators. Although conducting research and onsite training is not new to business savoir-faire; invested in-house researchers, a valued platform for customer support, dedicated customer experience leadership and a strong strategic learning culture all drive iterations of excellence in real time, obliged to become versions of interdisciplines, which in itself is innovative and a testament to evolutionary survival. In the past 10 years, the academic demographic has transformed into a mix of highly educated university students and seasoned continuing education professionals seeking career complement. To a growing degree, this is because the workforce rewards interdisciplinary experience and applied learning. Formal education is not enough. Bryan Caplan, in his book “The Case Against Education,” argues that 80 percent of a college degree’s value comes from what the degree signals to employers, not the knowledge and experience gained acquiring it. The internet economy is creating new professions at a pace too fast for universities. These professions require two or three different skills, which aren’t taught in the same degree or even by the same faculty. Along the same vein, student internships have taken on a competitive counterpart with coveted partnerships between industry organizations and academia. The nuance in this collaboration is that the industry is giving substantive value to education. This milieu gives agency for an employee within their own role and organization to be curious, to fail, to wonder, to try — to learn. Academia alone are not the keyholders to the new world of work anymore — they too had to become agile by fire.
50 Chief Learning Officer • July/August 2020 • ChiefLearningOfficer.com
The No. 1 culture peg for 2020 is agile learning, says Spotify HR Blog author Katarina Berg, who refers to upskilling, cross-skilling, reskilling and offskilling as “the new black.” Major strides in technology and a new internet-enabled economy open doors to a new model of education — one where the individual takes responsibility for their development, according to a HackerNoon.com post.
Move aside, elite and longstanding establishments of formal education. The tech sector not only inspires but requires learning by fire with interdisciplinary teams for real-world application that is natural in software SMEs. It’s the perfect storm. Industries struggle to integrate data, tech and software to keep pace, suffering with the upskilling required to use it. According to a global survey commissioned by Workday Rising, 22 percent of finance executives believe the ability to interpret and act upon predictions made with machine learning will be the most valuable skill to their function over the next five years. What will be different is that powerful planning tools will take these once-specialized capabilities and democratize them so people throughout an organization can use these skills. The tech sector requires logical minds using a blend of technology, math and business analysis to solve various practical problems. This is sparked by a strong learning culture. To be innovative, it is important that learning continues to widen the scope and breadth of how we see what we do. The tech sector survives from the understanding that developers need designers, designers need marketers, marketers need UX researchers and researchers need data scientist researchers. Any of those candidates who has learned the others’ value becomes more valuable to the organization. The role of learning is to capitalize and create the architecture of the hybrid-mind. This opportunity is constantly presenting itself in tech companies as agile and on-the-fly pods are created to problem solve, innovate and compete. This is also how the tech sector is implicitly impacting learning. As the sector continues to evolve, it survives by being agile by fire. CLO
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