Chief Learning Officer- September 2008

make connections and see the potential in people helps him develop programs that are tied to strategic business initiatives and prepare people to be leaders. He is continually looking at how we get better [and] how we develop better leadership.” When asked why he left Ameritech, Grifﬁn referred to the opportunity he has at U.S. Cellular to work in a place where learning and the business are harmonized, operating in coexistence rather than independence. “To be truthful, I have many peers in [this] ﬁeld who do similar work, but they do not have the opportunity to do the things [that we do at] U.S. Cellular around developing culture, fostering change and organizational alignment [and] creating higher degrees of capability in people,” he explained. “In many ways, you can say I’m living out a dream here.” U.S. Cellular, which has approximately 8,700 employees, employs a servant-leader strategy, an ideology that encourages leaders and associates to move beyond self-interest to embrace a synergistic vision of high personal and organizational performance. Grifﬁn said U.S. Cellular’s leadership model has been organically cultivated, as each senior leader contributed to its ﬁve tenets through interviews and group dialogue sessions. Similar to what Grifﬁn’s military service demonstrated, character surfaced as one of the most critical aspects of leadership. “At the heart of our leadership model is what we call ‘leader as self.’ That’s being a leader of high integrity and high character,” Grifﬁn said. “Leadership starts and ends with self, so that’s our center point. To drive the people results, you’ve also got to be an extraordinary relationship builder, and you’ve got to be a great teacher. [To drive the business results], you have to be a good strategist, and you have to be a superior results driver.” After interviewing the senior leadership, the organizational learning department had the components of the model validated by every successive level of leadership in the organization. Core competencies and behaviors were established for each of the roles: leader as self, leader as teacher, leader as relationship builder, leader as strategist and leader as results driver. Then the model was embedded into other strategic human resources processes such as performance appraisal and succession planning. Integrating this philosophy into other aspects of the organization makes it an operational priority, ensures implementation and creates accountability. “We can’t empower until we create the capability, so our servant-leader philosophy at its core is about [creating] capability [and then having] leaders lead from this perspective each and every day, in each and every interaction with an associate, a peer, a customer, a supplier or anybody else,” Grifﬁn said. Because learners crave dialogue, and learning often is the offshoot of discussion, it’s important to Grifﬁn that U.S. Cellular creates a safe space for conversation 30 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • September 2008 • www.clomedia.com CLO-RADIO Associate Editor Lindsay Edmonds Wickman talks to Tom Grifﬁn about his role as learning leader at U.S. Cellular in a podcast interview this month. Listen in at www.clomedia.com/podcast. by immersing its leaders in four- to ﬁve-day transformational learning programs. “We believe that in many cases transformation happens through substantive dialogue,” he said. “The lightbulb may not go on for me today, it may not go on for me tomorrow, but it may happen the next day. It may not happen from the instructor who’s doing the teaching. It may happen through a side conversation, it may happen through peer coaching or it may happen through a guest speaker talking about their own personal experiences.” With discussion comes the need for reﬂection. As a result, U.S. Cellular carves out time for cogitation. “In all of our work, people will engage in active learning. They’ll have the opportunity to practice what they learned, and then they’ll have to demonstrate competence of that learning,” Grifﬁn said. “In our servant-leader program, a big part of that is what we call ‘action reﬂection.’ One of the most important leadership behaviors that [deﬁnes] success is the ability to take the time to engage in reﬂection. “In some of our higher-level programs, we’ve actually built in time for purposeful reﬂection because we like to say, ‘Meaningful reﬂection leads to more purposeful action.’ We create opportunities for people to dialogue and then to reﬂect on what they’re learning and then say, ‘How does this apply to me on an everyday basis, and what [can I do differently] as a result of what I’m learning?’” The philosophy of the learning organization works in tandem with the company’s overall goal to be a dynamic organization. If the leaders are effective, the associates will be satisﬁed. Then, customers will be satisﬁed, and ultimately, the business will be successful. “Learning is very important to the DO,” Rooney said. “You can’t manage results unless you manage the things that go into making the results. The [DO] model emphasizes values and principles, as well as leadership skills. We don’t want managers; we want people who motivate.” Because of the close alignment between the learning organization’s philosophy and the company’s overall vision, Grifﬁn enjoys a close relationship with senior ofﬁcers. “For my entire tenure here at U.S. Cellular, I’ve always had a strong relationship with all of the company http://www.clomedia.com/podcast http://www.clomedia.com

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

Chief Learning Officer Editor’s Letter Contents Connections Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Lifestyle Learning: Improve the Bottom Line With Behavioral Education Tracom’s Social Style Model CLO Profile IOL: Determining the Impact of Learning Communicating With the Boss About Impact Mission Accomplished? Measuring Success of Corporate Universities Borrowing Measurement Practices From Investors Value Creation With Human Capital Investment Business Impact Analysis at Chrysler Learning or Performance Enhancement: Which Is It? Best Practices in Global Project Management Training Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

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