Chief Learning Officer - March 2008 - (Page 47)

productivity While he ultimately was pleased with the result at his company, he said it’s not a bad idea to prepare a handful of direct reports to take over the CLO role, even if you can’t guarantee they’ll actually get the job. “If I were making recommendations to someone else, it would be to groom a successor within your corporate university,” he said. “It might be someone who was in your corporate university a few years ago and has since gone on to other rotational assignments, but they would’ve had that experience. If you have five or six direct reports, it would probably be good to select one or two of them as people who could succeed you. Then the company has a few more options and a good way to provide continuity.” Another good way to maintain some sense of permanence in the midst of a CLO transition is to have some sort of decisionmaking organization within the function that shares power with the learning executive. “It helps in a case like that to have a board of governors or another governing body because that provides another source of continuity,” Vance said. “I think that’s really encouraging for my direct reports. Without that, they might have wondered about a new person coming in and changing directions dramatically, or even wanting to change staff. When I left, the business plan was finished and had been approved by the board of governors, so we didn’t leave anyone in the lurch. My successor could come in, pick up the plan and execute on that next year.” Additionally, Vance did not notify his staff of his departure until shortly before his retirement date. He believes this helped him remain effective in his position until the very end of his tenure. “I didn’t make my intentions known until about September 2006 because I didn’t want to be a lame duck in that position during the last year,” he said. “There were several projects under way at the time, and I wanted to make sure those got ramped up. There were several key initiatives that I considered to be a part of my original five-year plan. I worked really hard in my last year to make sure those were either completed or advanced as far as I could possibly advance them.” Once he did make the announcement, though, he made sure to keep his direct reports motivated and informed of all future plans. “I wanted to encourage them to keep moving ahead. I didn’t want to lose time while the company looked for a replacement and have people holding back for four to six months because they wondered what would happen during the transition. And we kept pushing ahead very aggressively right up until my last day.” Vance spends more time thinking about leisurely pursuits nowadays. In fact, during the interview, he mentioned that he was looking forward to trying out his new snowshoes with his wife. He explained that his decision to leave Caterpillar University was ultimately a product of his unique interpretation of work-life balance. “I was ready to do something else in my life. You work incredibly hard, and it’s all very satisfying. But there are tradeoffs; it means you aren’t doing other things. There are a couple of approaches to balance in life. Some are able to balance everything that’s important to them in real time, within the course of a week or a month. But some of us aren’t so good at that, or don’t aspire to that. If I like something, I’m going to throw myself into it. That’s what I did at Caterpillar University. The alternative to balancing your life in real time is balancing it throughout your life. There are periods in your career where you’ll work long hours and maybe don’t spend much time with friends and family or on travel. But other times — maybe when your children are born or you have ailing parents — that will shift, and you’ll spend less time at work. For me, this move was the logical extension of achieving that balance.” — Brian Summerfield, bsummerfield@clomedia.com http://www.thetrainingassociates.com http://www.thetrainingassociates.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - March 2008

Chief Learning Officer - March 2008 Editor's Letter Table of Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Learning Solutions The Treasury Board of Saskatchewan: Training the Trainers With Experiential Learning Clo Profile Environment Xerox: Creating a Learning Masterpiece Tactics Capturing the Knowledge of the Workforce Productivity Succession Planning Tips from the U.S. GAO Human Capital Influencing Competency Management Case Study Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - March 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.