Chief Learning Officer Podcast

This is a conversation you won’t hear anywhere else.

Technology is indisputably transforming learning. Artificial intelligence and powerful data and analytics tools are becoming more widespread. The scope of learning in the organization is growing, and sometimes shrinking, as a result. There’s a creeping sense of unease in the CLO role, with the future both uncertain and full of opportunity. It's understandable if learning executives are feeling a little bit shaky.

Fortunately, Sarah Kimmel, vice president of research for Chief Learning Officer magazine, has some data to light the way. For the second year in a row, her research team conducted an in-depth survey and deep analysis of data from current and future learning executives to uncover the path forward.

In this conversation, Sarah unpacks the results to provide insights for the future of the CLO role. Along with podcast co-host Justin Lombardo, they put the findings into context for day-to-day practice. Key topics include what skills are rising and falling in importance, how CLO roles are structured, how learning and talent management fit together and whether or not CLOs are falling into an aspiration gap.

Show Notes:

• 2019 CLO Role of the Future Executive Summary
• Panel Discussion Video from Fall 2019 CLO Symposium.

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters.

There is no single path to becoming a leader. Lisa Doyle is a case in point. She’s been a public servant, consultant, a Fortune 100 executive, as well as recipient of the CLO of the Year award from Chief Learning Officer magazine.

Each situation was different. What is consistent is her approach to leadership – combining a passion to serve others with the courage to try new things and the humility to realize she doesn’t have all the answers.

“In order to teach people you have to meet people where they are – where they’ll hear you, understand you and make it their own” said Lisa, now vice president of global learning at Booz Allen Hamilton.

In this episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast, Lisa talks about her path from federal procurement officer to chancellor of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Acquisition Academy as well as her head-first dive into the private sector as head of learning for Lowe’s Companies. Through it all is a commitment to serving others by building something that lasts, a mission that guides her new role as head of global learning at the Virginia-based management consulting firm.

Lisa shares the leadership lessons she’s learned along the way, how she builds productive partnerships with business executives, why “Tea with Lisa” is a key team-building strategy and why so much of CLO success comes down to having an individualized exposure plan in addition to a development one.

Plus, co-host Mike Prokopeak learns what the phrase “a pig looking at wristwatch” means and Justin Lombardo talks about the difference between being a builder CLO and a maintainer.

This episode of the podcast is brought to you by the Chief Learning Officer Breakfast Club. The CLO Breakfast Club is part professional development and part hackathon, where you and other local learning leaders talk about what’s on your minds. The next Breakfast Club takes place in San Francisco on November 7, 2019. For more information, go to www.sanfrancisco.clobreakfastclub.com.

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters.

It can be hard to say no. But learning how to do so effectively is one of the most critical skills a CLO can learn. It reinforces the point that not every problem is a training problem.

“Executives like the shortcut of, ‘I have an issue, put training program X together,’” said Greg Friedman, vice president of HR, organization and leadership development at Parexel, a Boston-based specialist in clinical drug trials. “And I think we need to be strong enough to say what result are you going for?”

In this episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast, Greg talks about the perspective his background as an organizational development professional brings to the work of employee learning and what CLOs can do to set aside busy work to do what's meaningful.

Greg also shares why culture change is risky ground for CLOs and how and why he’s rethinking performance management to focus less on ratings and more on meaningful conversation.

Plus, co-hosts Mike Prokopeak and Justin Lombardo discuss the differences between learning, OD and HR and why they sometimes come into conflict.

This episode of the podcast is brought to you by the Chief Learning Officer Symposium, the premier gathering for senior learning executives. The fall event takes place in Chicago from Oct. 14-16, 2019. For more information go to CLOsymposium.com.

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters.

Something’s not working at work. Record-high stress and rock-bottom engagement show that pretty clearly. Across the board, workers are burnt out, disconnected and struggling to maintain work-life balance.

Fortunately for employees, organizations and chief learning officers alike, there’s something that can be done.

A culture of resilience is “a form of psychological immunity” and key to bouncing back from the inevitable effects of adversity, says Tim Mulligan, chief human resources officer at Seattle-based Vulcan, the umbrella company for a number of investments and projects created by late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen.

“It's our role as leaders in the business world to create an environment that is realigning conditions in a way that people are able to balance the stress level, be productive, to leave work every day knowing you got a lot of stuff done and to look forward to coming back to work the next day,” Tim said.

In this episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast, we talk to Tim about Vulcan, the lessons he learned from twelve years at the San Diego Zoo as documented in his book “Roar: How to Build a Resilient Organization the World Famous San Diego Zoo Way” and how other companies can build a toolkit for resiliency. 

Plus, co-hosts Mike Prokopeak and Ashley St. John talk with Tim about what a resilient leader looks like, why branding is so important in learning and development work and how simple, catchy phrases can be the difference between a good program and a great one.

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters

Book: Roar: How to Build a Resilient Organization the World Famous San Diego Zoo Way

Like many bosses, Jon Kaplan thought he was a good leader.

The results seemed to prove it. He worked his way up from aspiring academic to public school teacher to corporate instructional designer and eventually into the top learning job at Discover Financial Services, a Chicago-area firm with 17,000 employees.

The only problem? His team didn’t agree with his assessment. “I was there for about three or four years and I had managed to take a team that should have been high performing and I just drove them into the ground,” Jon said. “It just was really unpleasant.”

What he did in response catapulted his career forward and led to some of the learning organization’s greatest successes.

In this episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast, Jon talks about that “crucible of leadership,” how he rebuilt himself and his team in the wake of his failure and how they came to establish the Discover College Commitment, an industry-leading tuition assistance program that all Discover employees are eligible for starting on their first day.

Plus, Jon and Justin Lombardo talk about why they left academia for the corporate sector and guest co-host Ashley St. John, managing editor for Chief Learning Officer, shares what she’s learned in her first two years on the job and what she looks for when selecting a magazine profile candidate.

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters

April 2019 Profile: Discover Financial’s Jon Kaplan

In the list of professions, corporate education isn’t a particularly risky endeavor. It’s not firefighting or high altitude mountain climbing. That’s why it’s particularly important to inject an element of risk into learning and talent development work. There is no growth without it.

“You're either disrupting, being disrupted or dying,” says Reece Roberson, vice president of HR, global talent management and learning at Interface.

That means trying new things, failing and sometimes saying no to executives who have a pet program or initiative they’d like you to build. “If you say yes to everything, you’ll just turn up a bunch of crap,” Roberson says. That same willingness to challenge the status quo goes for personal development, too. He knows that firsthand.

In this episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast, Reece describes whey he left a comfortable job at Home Depot to start up a new talent and learning function at Interface, an Atlanta-based maker of commercial flooring.

The bottom line: sometimes you need to go from getting stuff done to doing big things. Plus, co-host Justin Lombardo shares why complacency is a dangerous thing in learning and development work and when it’s OK not to take a risk in your career.

Episode Sponsors:

This episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast is brought to you by DXC Technology. DXC's human capital management solutions are powering the next-gen workplace. Learn more by visiting dxc.technology.

This episode is also brought to by Bridge, the makers of Practice. Practice can scale the competency and confidence of your teams to ensure your organization thrives in today’s fast changing, unpredictable world. Visit getbridge.com to learn more.

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters.

Talented people don't want to work for your company for decades. Simply put, the incentives to do so no longer exist.

"There's no gold watch for anybody anymore," says Zoe Harte, senior vice president of HR and talent innovation for Upwork, a Silicon Valley-based technology company that matches companies and freelance workers.

So why wouldn't you consider freelancers when designing your learning and development programs? In this episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast, Zoe makes the case for crafting targeted programs to onboard and develop them as part of your learning strategy.

How do you do that? Here's a hint: Freelancers are people, too. Just like everyone else, they need to understand the purpose and mission of your company in order to do their best work.

Plus, she and co-host Justin Lombardo talk about the value retired executives can bring to the company and how to make sure your internal team is ready to work with freelancers.

This episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast is brought to by Bridge, the makers of Practice. Practice can scale the competency and confidence of your teams to ensure your organization thrives in today’s fast changing, unpredictable world. Visit getbridge.com to learn more.

This episode is also sponsored by BetterUp. Help your organization cultivate a coaching culture with BetterUp, the industry’s first mobile platform that provides personalized coaching at scale. Learn more by visiting betterup.co. 

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters. 

Centralization. Decentralization. Consistency. Flexibility. There’s a constant push and pull taking place in the learning function. Sometimes there’s a need for more control and consistency across the organization. At other times, flexibility and local ownership takes precedence.

Stephanie Speights has been at the forefront of that debate for more than a decade. In this podcast recorded live in front of an audience at the House of Blues in Dallas, the chief learning officer of Children’s Health shares how to navigate centralization conversations with executives, tips to overcome organizational skepticism and how important it is to focus on getting the right people on the learning team.

Her insights are practical, useful and informed by experience. And that ability to tie learning into the organizational strategy is in demand. Since this episode was recorded, Stephanie took on the CLO role at Parkland Hospital and Health System, one of the largest health systems in Dallas.

Plus, co-host Justin Lombardo talks about the three things to look for in a new CLO role and why he thinks centralization is the way to go for the modern learning function.

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

This episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast is brought to by Bridge, the makers of Practice. Practice can scale the competency and confidence of your teams to ensure your organization thrives in today’s fast changing, unpredictable world. Visit getbridge.com to learn more.

This episode is also brought to by O’Reilly Media. O’Reilly’s online learning platform can help your employees learn on the job, get quick answers on the fly and advance your organization’s goals. Learn more at oreilly.com. 

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters.

If you don’t already know Karie Willyerd's work, you should.

She’s been at the forefront of corporate learning for a couple of decades, leading the learning function at companies like Lockheed Martin, Heinz, Sun Microsystems and SuccessFactors/SAP. She's an author, futurist and a successful tech entrepreneur who took her education technology company from startup to sale in just over a year.

And now, after years away, she's a chief learning officer again. She took on the brand new role of global CLO at Visa in 2019. In this conversation recorded on stage at the Spring 2019 Chief Learning Officer Symposium, Karie talks about why she decided to take the job at Visa, what it means to be strategic in corporate learning and how she manages the function at a high-growth company.

But what's most important about this conversation is what she has to say about the future of the chief learning officer role. Her insights are sharp, practical and informed by her years of experience. 

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

This episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast is brought to by Bridge, the makers of Practice. Practice can scale the competency and confidence of your teams to ensure your organization thrives in today’s fast changing, unpredictable world. Visit getbridge.com to learn more.

This episode is also brought to you by DXC Technology. DXC's human capital management solutions are powering the next-gen workplace. Learn more by visiting dxc.technology.

Podcast Producer: Jesse McQuarters.

It might surprise you to learn that one of the best companies for learning and development is also one of the smallest. Vi, the Chicago-based company that runs 10 senior living communities across the country, ranks up there with corporate giants like AT&T, Deloitte and Nationwide Insurance, among others.

How does a company with less than 3,000 employees compete with firms with more than 10x the resources? With creativity and persistence and a lot of marketing savvy.

Judy Whitcomb, senior vice president of human resources and learning and organizational development at Vi, shares what she's learned from a career spent delivering big results on a small budget.

In this podcast, she talks about the moment when she realized the powerful connection between marketing and corporate learning, why there's never a 'one and done' solution and how to keep an eye open for opportunities to make a a big impact. Plus, co-host Justin Lombardo talks about how important it is that CLOs be able to speak truth to power in the C-suite.

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

This episode of the Chief Learning Officer Podcast is brought to by Bridge, the makers of Practice. Practice can scale the competency and confidence of your teams to ensure your organization thrives in today’s fast changing, unpredictable world. Visit getbridge.com to learn more.

This episode is also brought to you by DeVry Works and DXC Technology.

DeVryWORKS can help with workforce solutions to attract, acquire and develop the leaders of tomorrow. Learn more at devryworks.com.

DXC Technology human capital management solutions are powering the next-gen workplace. Learn more by visiting dxc.technology.