Chief Learning Officer - October 2007 - (Page 57)

SPECIAL 5th ANNIVERSARY SECTION How has your learning organization evolved with your business? What is different today about your programs, services or initiatives? How has your learning organization adapted to the company’s geographic, market and employee growth? ering training programs — the learning function exists to increase individual and organizational performance. Determine your organization’s needs and how the learning organization adds value. Create a strategic advantage for your company. Always Link Learning to the Business A great deal has been written about how essential it is to align learning with the business. CLOs are continuously scanning the business for learning opportunities, including organizational, leadership and marketplace changes. Great CLOs capitalize on those opportunities and leverage learning during those critical times. Seek your company’s “inflection points,” those when learning can be critical (such as a process, structural or product change). Maximize your learning organization’s presence during these times and assist the business in executing its plan. Focus on Alternative Delivery Methods Move beyond the classroom and into the business and embed learning into the work people do every day — learning should not be perceived as something that is done “outside of work.” It occurs on the job, throughout the day and across all careers. Most real learning doesn’t occur in the classroom environment. Mobile, online, virtual and on-the-job learning, as well as podcasts and webinars, provide nontraditional experiences for employee development. Today’s work world transcends locations and physical boundaries — companies operate globally and need to expand their learning to reach all audiences across all time zones. Expand Your Staff Capabilities Great CLOs are great developers of people. Most have transitioned their staff members from being operationally focused to being consultative. They have coached their staff members to work with senior management to become savvy consumers of learning. The learning function and CLOs are only as good as their staff, so modeling employee development within the learning function is critical. Heavily Invest in Leadership Development Leadership talent is a true differentiator for organizations, and it is a critical element of a company’s competitive advantage. Today’s organizational structures and complexities require more leadership capacity. Sustained company growth is made possible by having a continuous supply of qualified and ready leaders to take on additional responsibilities and positions as they become available. There is a strategic need for building management strengths and developing a strong pipeline of leadership talent — a significant amount of a company’s learning budget should be spent on leadership development. What is the company commitment to building leadership capability? How is leadership evaluated and developed? How are leadership capability gaps addressed? Building great leaders can enhance employee satisfaction, employee retention and overall company performance. External Recognition Drives Internal Recognition of Your Organization’s Accomplishments External recognition for the learning organization can have a positive effect on prospective external candidates, as well as internal employees. Everyone can read about the company, and most of the time, people believe what they read — awards earned, programs cited and recognition achieved from external sources help validate an organization’s exceptional work. Prospective candidates also read about companies they want to join, so highlighting your learning successes (i.e., external awards and recognition) can assist in both attracting and retaining talent. It’s a great time to be in the learning profession. Organizational, marketplace and technological changes have created numerous opportunities for learning leaders. The future will continue to provide us with many opportunities to improve organizational and individual performance, and the ability to capitalize on these opportunities is what differentiates successful CLOs from the rest. More information about these practices and how to add value to your learning organization can be found in the book “The CLO’s Role: Adding Value to the Organization Through Learning and Development” by Tamar Elkeles and Jack Phillips. Elkeles can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. 57 October 2007 How has your learning organization evolved with your business? What is different today about your programs, services or initiatives? How has your learning organization adapted to the company’s geographic, market and employee growth? CLOs continually reinvent their learning functions to adapt to business changes, and being both progressive and adaptable is critical. Dynamic changes in the business industry should reflect dynamic changes in the learning organization. Be creative. Benchmark best practices. Stay abreast of learning trends and opportunities. Constantly think about ways to outthink your competition and lead the learning profession. I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer Reinvent Your Learning Organization http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - October 2007

Editor's Letter Table of Contents Letters to the Editor Taking the Lead Trends Best Practices Effectiveness Guest Editorial Elements of Social Media Arrive on the Learning Scene Trend Micro: Making Learning More Modular CLO Profile Learning’s Role in Talent Management INTTRA: Using Global Learning to Better Enable Talent Management Operationalizing Communities of Practice U.S. Army: Sharing Lessons from the Field Looking Back, Moving Forward Leveraging Business Data to Develop Strategic Learning Solutions Chrysler LLC: Metrics, Score Cards and Automobiles Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Connecting the Dots: Recognizing Talent Development Differences at Nonprofits Nonprofits in Health Care: Learning at ENH Case Study Business Intelligence Case Study In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - October 2007

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