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Learning & Development:
Lessons from the World’s Premier League Organisations
Terry Meyer
August 2014
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Introduction:
It has now been my privilege to lead 3 international trips, accompanied by HR and L&D Executives, to engage with some of the world’s leading and most admired organizations – companies, nonprofit organisations, consulting businesses and Business Schools. I call these organisations “premier league”. Most are
consistently in the top 10 ratings of most admired company, best company to work for and leadership surveys. And they provide sustainable financial returns.
This article is aimed at consolidating the insights and themes that emerged from all three visits; to the US (New York & Boston, 2011), Europe (Paris & London, 2012) and most recently the US again (New York and Washington DC May 2014 – including participation at the 2014 ASTD Conference).
While many specific strategies and techniques were shared, I have identified 6 key themes or mega trends in the L&D and talent space that have emerged from engagement with the following great organisations:
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Executive Leadership Commitment:
In many good companies Executive leaders support talent management and leadership development.
In most of the premier league companies we visited they own talent and leadership development.
The availability of talent and future leaders always feature in the top 3 critical business priorities of CEO surveys (AMA research). In most of the companies visited, CEOs recognize that talent and leadership development is a key success factor in executing their business strategy; therefore it is a business priority!
Often senior Executives are involved in programmes as Faculty and use the opportunity to engage future leaders in debating strategy and dealing with issues facing the organisation.
In London, after visiting some of the “premier league” organisations and hearing about their talent and leadership development practices, a few of the young HR participants made the point: “we, in HR, do all these things in our companies”. This begged the question: what are the factors that differentiate “premier league”
organisations from the rest.
The answer is that it is quite possible to “cut and paste” all the best global HR practices from the world’s top companies; it is possible to buy the same technology they use and poach their best HR talent: the differentiating factor is the role and mindset of leadership. HR can introduce global best practices, processes and technology; if leaders in the organisation do not own and prioritize talent and leadership development through their own behavior and role modeling such organisations will only aspire to play in the premier league.
At broadcasting company CBS, the size of the L&D function was remarkably small for a typical organisation of its size and complexity. The reason is that line managers at all levels are held accountable for employee development and this responsibility has become part of the culture. It is they who have the stories and anecdotes and can pass on the skills and wisdom to the next generation. This was a consistent practice in many of the top companies.
World class HR processes and practices will never compensate for lack of committed, proactive leadership!
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Culture Aligned to Purpose & Values:
One of the key lessons from the first visit to the US was the importance that premier league companies attach to purpose.
Purpose is far deeper than traditional visions and missions. It is generally enduring and, used effectively, becomes embedded in the DNA of the organisation. It is, thus, a concept that extends far beyond the notion of a business existing to simply make shareholders wealthy. It provides insight into the “why” of a business, where many businesses tend to focus just on the “what” and the “how”.
In most of the purpose statements there is a strong social value which talks to a cause with which most stakeholders can identify and engage with. Hence an
understanding of purpose provides the basis for further deeper conversations in the organisations. Deep conversations, which continually challenge assumptions, is, in my view, another characteristic of premier league organisations.
This year there was a greater emphasis on values and the culture they drive than in previous years.
Participants made note of the fact that in many of the organisations the approach is to hire the best, most highly self-motivated people and create a culture that will enable them to excel and achieve the results required. Then they get out of their way! In this way culture, rather than policies and procedures, exercises control in the organisation. This is highly empowering to top talent.
The role of the organisation is to provide an enabling environment in which they can achieve.
Whilst most organisations have values in the reception, it appears that the premier league organisations distinguish themselves by embedding the values in the culture so that it drives behavior.
The J&J credo, for example, is still considered the cornerstone of the organizational culture. IBM has recently adopted 3 new values following consultation and
engagement with all 450000 employees in 190 countries around the world using their IBM Jam session methodology.
Furthermore, most organisations have a set of leadership competencies or
behaviours and these are directly informed by the values and support the culture.
Hence there is internal consistency throughout.
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Diversity & Inclusion:
Diversity and inclusion is a priority in most global organisations. Most operate in a variety of countries and find their customers, communities and employees are drawn from multiple cultures and social norms.
Whilst company culture and values aim to be consistent across the organisation, increasingly Executive appointments reflect multiple nationalities. This obviously results from a pipeline of diverse talent.
In my view this is what differentiates a truly global organisation from a multinational company.
The driving motivation from a business perspective is the need for globally diverse customers and employees to “see themselves” in the organisation, especially at senior levels.
For diversity to be effective a culture of inclusivity is a critical success factor and these organisations do not leave this culture of inclusivity to chance!
Sustainability:
During the visit to European organisations, sustainability, and in particular social and environmental sustainability, was a prominent theme.
Companies that were remarkable in this regard included Unilever and Schneider Electrical. In both cases sustainability is a key strategic focus and this is evident in both the general culture as well as leadership development and talent practices.
Other companies with a visible sustainability strategy include L’Oreal, Rio Tinto, Total, HSBC and Shell.
The importance and commitment to sustainability was identified in most of the European organisations and this commitment was reflected in the leadership development and L&D space.
Regrettably, in the US sustainability was seldom mentioned. In a wonderful discussion with the Dean of Macdonough Business School at Georgetown
University, it emerged that research has shown that sustainability seldom features prominently in US corporate strategies. This was borne out during our discussions with US companies. Although most will say there is a commitment, it clearly is not a visible priority.
To the extent that governance is a key aspect of sustainability many US companies were again found wanting and commitment seemed to focus on “tick box” and legal compliance. To illustrate this questionable approach the roles of Chairman,
President and CEO are, in many organisations, fulfilled by the same person.
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This suggests that short termism is generally still dominant in the US.
A very notable exception to this finding was IBM who recently rolled out a global compliance programme in which corporate citizenship is positioned as a global strategy and competitive advantage. Governance, HR, the Environment,
communities and supply chain are seen as the key elements of corporate citizenship.
Although compliance is ensured from a legal perspective, corporate culture is seen as a key factor in compliance.
Technology:
Many of the greatest disruptions are to be found in the role of technology in organisations.
This was evident at two levels: the impact of what can be broadly termed social technology and the impact of technology on learning & development and talent management.
Most of the “premier league” organisations leveraged the benefits of social
technology rather than adopting a defensive approach which is so common amongst SA companies.
IBM refer to the broader concept as “social business” which recognizes the
implications of “crowdsourcing” and wide ranging engagement and collaboration with employees, customers and other stakeholders.
The social consequences of social technology has huge implications for
organisations. The marketing people in organisations, for example, understand this and have generally changed their marketing strategy to remain competitive in a digital world. Alas the same cannot be said of HR in South Africa.
In many “premier league” organisations social technology underpinned the change, organizational design, talent management and many other strategies. It was
leveraged by organisations to redesign everything from the way work is done to the design of office space thereby facilitating “smart work”.
Increasingly people work remotely at home or with clients with multiple “employment”
arrangements. This in turn has a profound effect on all HR policies and practices.
In South Africa the more progressive companies such as professional service firms and multinationals are moving with the times and benefiting from increased
productivity and employee engagement.
Many have a long way to go!
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With regards to the use of technology as an L&D tool, the direction is that any employee should be able to access any learning, anytime, anywhere.
One of the implications of this is the essential role of highly competent instructional designers since simply transferring manual course files onto e learning platforms is by no means helpful. Effectively designed, individually centered learning is an essential characteristic of technology driven learning. This was emphasized repeatedly by organisations that had advanced in this learning approach.
Many organisations have created learning academies which are often segmented into functional or specialist academies. This is the model of Pepsico University that we visited in New York. Such academies offer learning through a variety of
approaches and partner with thought leaders inside and outside the organisation.
They are also able to drive the learning agenda that responds to company needs.
In another example, the World Bank is currently creating an academy as part of its leadership, learning and innovation strategy. There are 3 elements to the learning opportunities:
WBx which provides a context for Just in Time learning such as talks on hot topics, pod casts, storytelling and broadcasts by experts
WBa is an Academy that focuses on deep learning and developmental issues and solutions. It is modeled on GE’s Crotonville and similar institutions and includes face to face facilitated learning sessions
WBc connects people through communities of learning. Experts and peers connect to collaborate on specific issues and challenges faced by
practitioners.
One trend currently moving inward from the edge of the radar screen is the concept of MOOC – massive online open courses.
Currently various institutions run MOOCs on an experimental basis. Generally
enrollment is free. They provide materials and opportunities for anyone, anywhere to study anything. While accreditation and other issues are still under debate there are potentially significant implications for Universities, Business Schools and companies.
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Integrating the Learning Value Chain:
This was not explicitly stated but was noticeable in practice.
In many organisations people are nominated to Business School and other programmes, at considerable expense, on an almost ad hoc manner without the necessary supporting systems and preparation before and after the learning experience.
What “Premier League” organisations do is ensure the following:
Understand what future leaders and leadership teams will need to look like to enable the organisation to execute its strategy
Effectively identify potential leaders and invest in their development rather than sending people to expensive courses on an ad hoc basis. Hence they invest in those that will provide a return on their investment
They institute effective succession planning to have an effective pipeline of people to meet future organizational talent and skill requirements
People have personalized career development plans so that participation in programmes takes place in the context of career development
Furthermore, attendance at programmes is only one component of a blended learning development plan including on the job experiential learning,
coaching, job redeployment and many other learning experiences.
In order to enable motivated talent to apply their learning they prepare the work environment to ensure that participants can make a difference through the application of learning. In most organisations the organizational culture was such that people were expected to make an impact based on their learning experience.
While many business schools do try to facilitate a broader learning experience and to transfer learning to the organisations benefit, the core competence of most business schools is running effective programmes. They are not in a position to implement that part of the talent management system best addressed within organisations.
In “premier league” organisations most programmes were developed in house with the use of specific Business School Faculty that would contribute to the
organisations requirements.
Based on the 10:20:70 concept most “premier league” organisations make a
concerted effort to ensure highly effective experiential learning that stretches talent in the work place.
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Conclusion:
The experience of engaging with some of the world’s greatest organisations has been a great privilege. Many specific lessons were learnt about the practices that differentiate them from other organisations and the above themes provide only a small window into the insights that such an experience facilitates.
In addition to the insights from top organisations, the experience associated with engagement with high level South African peers from various organisations and sectors provided an additional benefit.
