The Strategic Role of the Chief Learning Officer
By: Michael Kanazawa
One of the biggest challenges in driving strategic change is in following through on execution. On March 31, 2008, Lindsay Edmonds Wickman, associate editor for Chief Learning Officer Magazine, wrote an article titled Making Change Meaningful. In it, she cites BIG Ideas to BIG Results and points out one of the biggest problems in running a failed change program is not the just the missed opportunities for business improvement, but creating a jaded and cynical workforce that won’t respond over time. There is a strategic role that CLOs are well positioned to play in integrating business strategy and leadership to accomplish breakthrough resutls and avoid the common pitfalls of in strategy execution. There has long been a gap between business operations and leadership development, so as Scott Adams’ book title aptly points out, be cautious of where and how you step forward in exapanding the CLO role to be more strategic. It was great to see the topic of strategic execution and change being addressed by the CLO community. There is a critical role that the CLOs and others in management development can play in successfully turning BIG Ideas into BIG Results. In many companies, the strategy is developed by the CEO and a few top executives, with little involvement from HR or any of the related support functions. Business issues and people issues are treated as separate items in these bifurcated companies. And in cases where HR is included as a strategic function it is often just to oversee headcount forecasts.
As the strategic plan is rolled out in these companies for “buy in”, the CLO team works to design training programs that in some way support the necessary shifts in strategy, but really is following it’s own plans. General managers also are asked to “buy in” to a designated plan and scramble to figure out how to deliver the results. Training and development become “nice-to-have” extras for when all other operational demands have been met. As a result, the rollout of any of the CLO team’s programs languishes and the content becomes dated by the time even a minority portion of the workforce has been covered.
In companies that are successful in turning BIG Ideas to BIG Results, the role of the CLO is different and more strategic. In these integrated companies, business and people/leadership issues are viewed as two sides of the same coin. Jack Welch made this connection years ago at GE where he developed the 2×2 matrix that measured peoples’ contributions based on both the results they achieved and how they supported the desired culture. There are some distinct differences in how these CLO organizaitons operate and the roles they play. Below is a list of five ways to play a more strategic role that will accelerate and improve strategy execution at your company:
1) Build a plan for the CLO organizaiton that is designed and geared to deliver on the corproate strategy and objectives, not on some concpet of a “world class CLO organization.” This will put your team into alignment with the core business on delivering the same goals.
2) Integrate the people initiatives (leadership, culture, values) with the busienss initiatives (corporate strategy, transformation initiatives, corpoate goals). Execution of the business initiatives will be better if people are properly engaged, which is somethig the CLO organization can bring.
3) Strucutre the strategy and business operations processes to require high-engagement leadership. Successful strategy execution starts during the strategy development process. Plans built in executive isolation and then rolled out to the troops for buy in have high odds for failure. Plans built with high engagement are executed far more quickly as ownership and accountability already exist as a plan is launched.
4) Work with the executive team to drive the same diligence in holding managers to business performance standards as to leadership standards. If there are rewards for personal development in terms of promotions and advancement as well as consequences for not developing and growing, your programs will be more impactful and viewed as critical to the performance of the company.
5) Develop sponsorship for the CLO organization from the CEO. If the CLO orgnaization reports to a forward-thinking Chief Human Resources Officer, but the the CEO is not actively engaged, it will not be effective.
There is a key strategic role for Chief Learning Officers to play in the process of strategy execution. The integration of business strategy and leadership is a major key to success in strategy execution and an issue that CLOs are well positioned to address. The role is one where CLOs will seem to give a little ground in terms of taking on the objectives and management cadence of the operating business as their own, but deliver through that an integrated apporach where leaders are more engaged and learn by doing. The process and approach outlined in BIG Ideas to BIG Results provides a roadmap and great examples of companies where this more integrated approach was achieved. As outlined in the book, companies such as IBM Global Services, GE, Symantec, Office Depot and others were able to accomplish breakthorugh results when they began to fully leverage the integration of business strategy and leadesrhip and made that everyone’s job - at all levels.
