Chief Learning Officer - February 2008 - (Page 55)

also included representatives from major transformation programs that crossed BT’s lines of business, such as the 21st Century Network initiative. Butler said an important message for CLOs to remember is that managing cultural change is not necessarily equivalent to enforcing a unitary culture on different global units and geographies. “Our Learning Council has helped our different units cooperate and understand each other, but those units will continue to acknowledge they are different,” Butler said. “An executive simply has to work within that constraint. You have to understand the different cultures. They will never be exactly the same, and you have to work with that understanding. We acknowledge the fact that we’re unlikely to satisfy everyone all the time, so we avoid setting that up as our primary goal. The challenge with large organizations is that there are many cultures and that you need to manage them, rather than enforce a single culture. That’s an important message for everybody to remember.” A best practice tactically in this regard is what we might call “governing centrally and managing locally.” That is, the centralized learning function can provide a governance framework that enables everyone to work together at the strategic level, without overly interfering with their ability to meet the needs of their local business on a day-to-day basis. When it’s relevant and right to be different, that’s fine, and when it’s relevant and right to operate from a common perspective, there need to be mechanisms in place that enable that to happen. More Than a Hammer in Search of a Nail Part of the growing sophistication developing in the learning outsourcing field is knowing when outsourcing is the best answer and when some other tool in the enterprise learning toolbox might be more appropriate. As the old saying has it, if your only tool is a hammer, every challenge looks like a nail. CLOs have a varied set of challenges. They are looking to modernize the learning they offer and increase its business impact, mostly likely through centralizing the learning function and making it more consistent. Is outsourcing the right answer? It may well be. But having the conversation is really the important part. A successful relationship at any level is based on trust, and trust is developed when two parties fully understand each other and their common goal. Outsourcing is one part of a varied toolbox that can help organizations generate maximum business value from their enterprise learning function. FINANCIAL TRAINING FROM THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW FINANCE PROFESSIONALS As the national membership organization for Certiﬁed Public Accountants, the AICPA knows ﬁnance professionals. If you are looking for cost-effective, quality training for your professional staff, AICPA LEARNING offers a wide variety of on-site training, including auditing, tax, leadership, internal control, ethics and more. BENEFITS OF AICPA LEARNING ON-SITE TRAINING: No lost travel time or expenses for staff Focused presentation for your company Conﬁdential learning environment Flexible pricing options Discounts on large group seminars Employee/instructor interaction Convenient schedules Reinforced learning with workbooks and follow-up reading Experience and expertise of the AICPA With more than 200 COURSES to choose from — ranging from 4 hours to 3 days, accounting to Yellow Book — you are sure to ﬁnd the training program that is right for you. For a complete list of available courses, visit www.aicpalearning.org or call 1-800-634-6780, Option 1 for more information. 1147-252 ISO Certiﬁed http://www.aicpalearning.org http://www.aicpalearning.org

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Chief Learning Officer - February 2008 Editor's Letter Table of Contents Business Impact Trends Best Practices Effectiveness Guest Editorial Learning Solutions Home Depot: Building Better Associates CLO Profile Environment Realizing the Vision of “One Philips” Tactics Sun Microsystems’ Next-Generation Worker Video Game Recruiting Tool Productivity The Regence Group: Blended Measurement Human Capital NASA: A Case Study in Technical Leadership Development Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - February 2008

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