Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2008 - (Page 37) “The only way you can have an advantage is through your people.” — Josh Blair, TELUS 10 QUESTIONS WITH JOSH BLAIR 1 What’s most important to a learning professional — classroom/training experience or business experience? 6 7 What’s the most challenging aspect of your job? I think the combination is the optimum. I think if you can No. 1, have a good background in adult learning and No. 2, understand the business you’re supporting, that’s the way to be successful. If you only have one of the two, it’s pretty difficult to optimize the function. I’ll make this one a bit more personal. I would say, how do I allocate my time? The decisions I make are very critical decisions and really make a difference on how successful I can be in helping my area make a positive impact on the rest of the company. What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job? 2 What’s your favorite training methodology? I think it totally depends on the situation you’re facing. If I take it to the next level, the overarching methodology is how can you link training to performance improvement? If you have that as your overall methodology, that’s going to help you make decisions about what form the learning is going to take. This one’s easy. It’s definitely seeing other individuals succeed. Whether seeing someone complete an after-hours schooling program or someone get a big promotion or a team get recognized globally for expertise in their area. Our overall learning capabilities were recognized No. 3 in the world last year at the ASTD Best Awards. We also recently received the industry achievement award at the SkillSoft conference, so that was nice too. 3 What’s your most memorable training experience, good or bad? 8 9 Do you find the time to continue your own professional development? The one that’s most memorable for me is something we do on an annual basis. We run a senior leadership forum, where we pull together our top 180 leaders at TELUS. We basically go back to business school but with a TELUS focus to it. We have executives, vice presidents and directors all in the room together. We learn leading edge thoughts and practice and we talk through how we can leverage the learnings to enhance our operations and leadership at TELUS. The week-long program is always incredible. Absolutely. I would say on-the-job learning is non-stop. I’m very purposeful about getting to at least two things a year that force me to get out of my day-to-day and stretch my mindset. If you ever stop that, it means you’re probably satisfied with where you’re at and I don’t think the world stops these days. Any recommendations for folks out there – books, partners, resources, etc.? 4 Who would you consider your most valuable role model? I think in the context of learning, I actually look to our CEO, Darren Entwistle. I’ve definitely never had the opportunity to work for someone as committed to learning as a way of life as he is. He’s someone who always pushes us to link learning to performance, always pushing us to ensure the learning function is globally-leading. I would probably link it back to my last answer. Force yourself once a quarter to do something that’s going to stretch your mindset. Whether that’s picking up the latest book, going on a learning retreat, or benchmarking yourself against another company. I think building that into your own personal plan on a quarterly basis would be my recommendation. 10 If someone wants to follow in my professional footsteps, I’d tell them to be sure to… 5 What are the most pressing issues on your professional plate now? For me it really gets back to the two I mentioned earlier – exponentially increasing competition and exponentially more challenging labor markets. The challenge becomes how do you optimally attract, develop and retain an overall team in your company. There are a lot of levels of additional detail behind that. I would tell them three things. No. 1, make sure to get that combination of learning expertise and business understanding so that you can do the best you can for the learning function. No. 2, if they’re interested in the chief HR role, the combination of the learning function and the HR generalist side is a wonderful combination that’s served me very well. The final thing I would say is put yourself out there, take risks and have fun along the way. Training Industry Quarterly, Fall 2008 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ 37 http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ
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