learning and development in organisations

To Safeguard Our Success And Prepare For Tomorrow, We Must Put Training At The Fore

How L&D must evolve to successfully close the modern skill gap.

If the digital evolution has left you dizzy, you’re not alone. New technologies such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence, robotics and 5G are emerging at such a furious clip that your planning likely feels obsolete before you have a chance to gain alignment. While these disruptive forces will create 58 million new jobs over the next few years, these positions will require new skills the average worker has yet to master. The answer is to reskill and upskill to meet the workforce needs of the future.

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Why companies are struggling

As companies confront the trends transforming the future of work, it’s increasingly clear that learning and development programmes have emerged as a critical component needed to drive business success. But despite recognising the urgent need for training, many organisations are struggling to establish the culture of continuous learning necessary to meet the needs of the modern organisation. 

One key hurdle is that learners have difficulty finding time to train. Deloitte estimates the average employee can only dedicate 24 minutes per week to professional development. And even when learners of all stripes take training courses, they often lack the engagement needed to learn effectively. Adding to the challenge is the evolving ways in which staff are employed by businesses. The cost of hiring skilled talent, and the need for specialised skills, has driven organisations to meet employment needs through contractors and offshore companies. Gig economy workers add to the complexity that has created a far more diverse and distributed labour pool that still requires new knowledge and skills.

Training your enterprise ecosystem

When considering learning audiences, one must factor in the learning needs of non-employees as well. Corporate supply-chain partners, content sellers, association members and especially customers all need a seat at the learning table. If we must make strides to upskill our enterprise, and if we are to truly elevate business performance, then these external audiences must also come along for the ride. To create lasting change, we must create learning strategies that plan for training an organisation’s entire ecosystem.

A commitment to change: the need for a new approach

As business leaders, we are often on the front line of problem solving. We should ask ourselves what is needed to overcome obstacles that stand in the way of effective corporate learning. We now have before us the opportunity to create innovative learning cultures by investing in the right tools, setting the right priorities and seeing that our leadership teams carry that mantle as they interface with their teams. We’ve already witnessed nearly 200 CEOs at top companies such as Walmart, Google and Amazon pledge to invest more in employee training to develop the new skills essential for a rapidly changing world. But committing to training employees, partners, customers, and taking the right steps to provide it, are two entirely different things.

To thrive in the digital age, businesses must embrace a completely new paradigm for corporate learning. As the business world evolves, so must our approach to training and development. We must pivot away from antiquated thinking about learning, and instead implement programmes designed to promote learner excellence and growth for both today and the years to come. 

 Personalisation and relevance: the new training ingredients

What does today’s learning and development landscape look like? For one, it’s fast-paced, yet flexible, highly relevant and personalised. Learning experiences should be connected to the task at hand, in the workflow, seamlessly and transparently. Learning should become an effortless part of one’s day – throughout the day – occurring at the precise moment information is needed, and without delay. This makes training contextual, relevant and tailored to the individual. After all, there’s more than one way to work, so there should be more than one way to learn. Organisation and learner preferences vary as much as businesses do themselves.

How do we get there? By empowering efficient, customised learning that taps the latest technologies, tools and techniques. In doing so, every company can benefit. Blended learning takes on a whole new meaning. You can include individual learning experiences in new and dynamic ways, especially relevant for hands-on verticals such as healthcare and manufacturing, where training may require learners to demonstrate competency. This evolution in corporate education will result in an upskilled workforce ready to take on the evolving challenges it faces. It will likewise prep external enterprise audiences for the work, and world, they encounter.

We are living an information age where knowledge is power. To safeguard our success and prepare for tomorrow, we must put training at the fore and rethink how learning is delivered. Let technology become the secret weapon to your success. It’s hiding in plain sight.

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This article originally appeared on Business Reporter.

Best of Madison Business 2020: Difference makes a difference

Madison Magazine’s Best of Madison Business celebrates 20 years of recognizing extraordinary business leaders and their contributions to greater Madison’s economic vitality and nationally recognized livability.

From food and beverage enterprises (our first winners included Monty Schiro and Peder Moren from the groundbreaking Food Fight Restaurant Group) to cutting-edge new economy innovators to Madison business legends, we have celebrated the best, their accomplishments and their influence. All have had stories — a way of doing business — that collectively make up Madison’s one-of-a-kind intersection of lifestyle and business.

It’s clear from the list of 80 individuals who have won Best of Madison Business awards since 2000 that great businesses have great leadership. But it’s also clear that the best have great leadership teams. How those teams are organized, the ways they function and the degree to which they are diversified make a difference.

Quality, sustainability and success are profoundly affected by a diversity of ideas, experiences, life paths and more. According to the labor market analytics firm Emsi, Madison has America’s most diverse economy. It’s one of our greatest strengths. This year’s Best of Madison Business honorees exemplify the values of diversity in the corporate chain of command at some of the city’s most important and successful businesses.

Dream Big: Telisa Yancy, American Family Insurance

Telisa Yancy (Photo by Sharon Vanorny)

Telisa Yancy is, among other things, a dreamer. As the COO of American Family Insurance, Yancy created a marketing concept to position American Family as the inspirer, protector and restorer of dreams. That includes the Insure Carefully, Dream Fearlessly campaign and the DreamBank community space. But behind the dream is Yancy’s journey from growing up in Chicago to earning a master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She has held executive positions at companies including Ford Motor Co. and Burger King Corp., and she has earned recognition from Ebony Magazine, appearing on its Power 100 list, and Black Enterprise Magazine in 2019 as one of the most powerful women in corporate America. American Family Insurance Chairman and CEO Jack Salzwedel describes Yancy as “smart, strong and poised” and someone “who thrives on finding a solution to any challenge.”

Top Care: Frederic “Ric” Ransom, UW Hospitals – Madison Region

Frederic “Ric” Ransom (Photo by Sharon Vanorny)

Like Yancy, Frederic “Ric” Ransom brings a heady mix of professional experiences to his leadership positions as vice president and president of UW Hospitals – Madison Region. Though just a little more than a year into the job, Ransom has already made his mark as the provider of overall direction for foundational health care institutions in Madison at American Family Children’s Hospital, UW Health at the American Center and University Hospital. He also provides primary oversight for the joint operating agreement with UnityPoint Health – Meriter. Ransom’s previous leadership experiences include serving as COO of Greenville Memorial Hospital, the flagship hospital of Prisma Health-Upstate, part of the largest not-for-profit health system in South Carolina, as well as working on teams in Memphis, Atlanta, Boston and Dallas. In other words, he’s an expert in managing complex systems, a terrific asset for an institution like UW Hospitals and a health sector like greater Madison’s.

Shared Success: Ana Hooker, Exact Sciences

Ana Hooker (Photo by Sharon Vanorny)

It’s illustrative that at the ribbon-cutting for Exact Sciences’ new Discovery Campus last June, board chair and CEO Kevin Conroy asked Ana Hooker to emcee the event. Over the course of six years, Hooker has risen to the position of senior vice president of operations at Exact Sciences. But her leadership skills extend beyond Exact Sciences to the greater Madison community at large. Hooker’s value as a key member of the Exact Sciences leadership team is enhanced by her embrace of the rest of the team as essential to her success. Her diverse skill set is the result of 25 years of experience in the clinical laboratory space, including managing a genetics, oncology and anatomic pathology division of about 260 employees. She is a member of the United Way of Dane County’s Women’s Leadership Council and on the boards of Overture Center for the Arts and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County.

Evoke Change: Cedric Ellis, CUNA Mutual Group

Cedric Ellis (Photo by Sharon Vanorny)

When Cedric Ellis was told who his fellow Best of Madison Business honorees were, the first thing he said was, “I’m on the Big Brothers Big Sisters Board with Ana.” Diversity in leadership clearly includes influence beyond the boardroom. That’s right in the wheelhouse of Ellis, the executive vice president and chief enterprise services officer for CUNA Mutual Group. Ellis’ management portfolio at CUNA Mutual has grown to include the CUNA Mutual Group Foundation, the hugely influential philanthropic arm of CUNA Mutual that he leads along with vice president Angela Russell. Over a span of 15 years with the company, Ellis’ oversight functions have included human resources, information technology, diversity, equity and inclusion, project management, continuous improvement and corporate brand and marketing. This is a leader who understands difference, as in different responsibilities. CUNA Mutual Group President and CEO Bob Trunzo says Ellis, “leads with integrity and humility while challenging the status quo. He’s an advocate for change, modernizing the way work gets done.”

Shine Bright: Greg Piefer, SHINE Medical Technologies

Greg Piefer (Photo by Sharon Vanorny)

There’s modernizing how work gets done and then there’s modernizing the work itself. Both are examples of innovation. What Greg Piefer has done for the “modern” delivery of health care amounts to transformational innovation. Piefer put his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison to work by founding advanced physics technology manufacturer Phoenix in 2005. But over the next five years, Piefer saw game-changing potential in producing several medical isotopes, one of which, molybdenum-99, is used in more than 20 million imaging tests in the U.S. and more than 40 million worldwide every year. SHINE Medical Technologies was born. In 2019 SHINE landed a $50 million funding round from a global investment management firm and began construction of a plant in Janesville projected to cost more than $100 million. The plant is in Janesville for a lot of important reasons, but SHINE’s and Piefer’s roots are still deeply planted in a Madison ecosystem that includes UW–Madison, Morgridge Institute for Research, Wisconsin Investment Partners and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The technology’s potential in improving the human condition is breathtaking. The missions of both Phoenix and SHINE revolve around improving the world, not just changing it. “I don’t want to live a life where I’m not trying to do that,” Piefer says. “To me that’s important. Part of the joy of living is contributing in that way.” He adds, “I have plans to build one of the largest companies in the world. I know that sounds bold and crazy, and maybe it is, but the reality is, that’s what we’re here for.”

Piefer is the winner of the 2020 Best of Madison Business Brian Howell Excellence in Innovation Award.

Celebrate this year’s awardees at the Best of Madison Business event on Feb. 6.

Neil Heinen is editorial director of Madison Magazine and WISC-TV.

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The (Not-So-)Secret Way to Attract Majors to Your Department

These are precarious times in academe. Budgets are being slashed. Fewer undergraduates are projected to be attending college in coming years. And in my discipline of political science, some departments are even on the chopping block.

Of course those trends affect every institution and discipline differently (the hardest hit are likely to be those with fewer resources to begin with). Filling seats and building programs requires a steady stream of interested students. Whether the projected outlook on your campus is stable or ominous, you cannot be blamed for worrying about where your next group of majors will come from.

Fortunately, at my small liberal-arts college, we’ve had good success bringing new majors in to our department. In my own introductory American-politics course, I regularly have several students who, by semester’s end, are declared political-science majors.

While I like to think that is the result of my effort to discover their untapped interest in politics, my brilliant and effective teaching, and/or my stunning good looks, I credit it to a not-so-secret formula for attracting students to our department: Ask them, motivate them, and believe in them.

Step No. 1: Ask them. Asking is the key to getting people involved in any collective effort, as both political-science scholars and political-campaign organizers know. Most people never think to work on a campaign or run for office. Some have other career plans, some face self-doubt about such high-profile work, and some simply can’t imagine themselves in the political world. Others lack the connection or opportunity to get involved.

Those factors also apply to (at least some of) our undergraduates. They may not have imagined themselves as political-science majors. Some don’t even know that the major exists. They may have entered college planning to major in business, biochemistry, or botany, or they may be undecided entirely. And some are waiting for a good opportunity to pop up and make the path ahead clear.

That’s where a simple ask is important.

Roughly a third of the way into the semester, after the first exam, I approach certain students and ask them to think about majoring in political science. Students who are engaged in class, who seem to show a genuine interest in the subject matter, or who performed well on the test (and who have time left in their college careers) receive a short note on the back of their exam: "Have you considered a political-science major or minor? If so, let’s chat!"

Sometimes I follow up that initial question with an in-person conversation the next time I meet with the student. Or I make "the ask" later in the semester. On occasion, I make a general invitation to the class to check out what our major has to offer. (I promise I’m not desperate … just a political-science nerd.)

Sarah Rose Cavanagh makes the essential point that emotions matter when working with students. In their seemingly hierarchical world — one in which the professor professes and doles out grades while students are mere novices — they like to be noticed, appreciated, and wanted. Those emotions matter and reasonably should count for something when they are choosing a field of study.

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Whether you are a political-campaign worker, a fund raiser, or a professor, asking for participation is often the first step toward achieving engagement. Do students decline my invitation to major in poli sci? Frequently. But a simple ask is a low-stakes step toward connecting with students in a meaningful and affirming way.

Step No. 2: Motivate them. Like many educators, I am not a fan of the consumer model of education, in which students are customers and faculty members just service providers. But at the end of the day, students do have a choice to make about which department becomes their academic home. And for all of its faults, administrators and state lawmakers will continue to operate using this model. One small positive element of this model, however, is that it allows you to consider how consumers make other choices and how businesses market their goods and services.

The reality is, students will not respond to "the ask" if you do not follow up with a motivating reason for them to join your department.

Over time, I’ve crafted a short sales pitch that I can adapt to students’ various interests. For example, if a student wants to double major, I mention how well my department works with other majors. Or if a student is interested in the corporate world, I note that many political-science majors go on to business careers. I also keep fliers about the major handy and am able to discuss jobs, courses, or extracurricular opportunities, as well as offer to introduce a student to my colleagues.

None of that would matter if I did not believe in the academic major I am "selling."

One of my favorite books on teaching and learning, How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, makes the point that students are motivated by supportive learning environments, by authentic and engaging instruction, and by teachers who show enthusiasm and passion for their discipline.

You demonstrate all of that by asking a student to be a part of your department. But the reality of life inside the major must meet those standards, too. Of course your program will not be perfect. (That’s OK — I’ve responded "yes" to many imperfect groups and endeavors.) However, in building your major, a little preparation and authenticity goes a long way. We must be asking students to join a department and field of study worthwhile of their time and resources.

Step No. 3: Believe in them. I am not out to convert our college into a factory of political scientists. To be perfectly frank, our major is not a good fit for every student. The students I do approach, I firmly believe, are capable of doing great things with our major.

When any of those students commit to our major, I make sure to express how happy we are (or, if they’re just asking for more information, how happy we would be) to have them in our department and remind them that they are a valuable part of the program. I also try to bring up, once more, my reason for asking them in the first place.

The not-so-secret part of this formula is that bringing new majors into your department ultimately comes down to connecting with students and explicitly recognizing something in them that you believe in.

If you’re lucky, your department doesn’t have to do much to attract majors: The students come to you. But the meaningful challenge of building a program — and working with students in general — is to meet undergraduates where they are at and to invite them to be a part of a collective effort. Opening doors for positive interactions with students continuously reminds me of why I became an educator in the first place.

This simple formula — ask, motivate, believe — hasn’t just boosted the number of political-science majors, it’s also had residual benefits in my classroom. It’s motivated the students who choose to become involved and invest in the political-science department as well as those who don’t, yet appreciate being noticed. Every student benefits from a supportive environment.

And it costs nothing more than a few meetings with students. Much like in the world of political campaigns, I’ve spoken to plenty of young people who have never been asked to participate — in this case, in a major. And I’ve spoken with faculty members who have never thought to outright ask an undergraduate to join the department’s program.

I am not naïve enough to think that this strategy alone will fill our classes or prevent budget cuts. But for those of us with this challenge on our minds — and we may all face it more and more — this is a great first step that any faculty member can take.

Andre P. Audette is an assistant professor of political science at Monmouth College in Illinois.