Breakfast Club
Philadelphia: The Next Frontier for Learning and Development
Mar 18, 2010 07:30 am
Four Seasons Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Webinars
Improving Emotional Intelligence Through Behavioral Style
Mar 18, 2010

CLO Symposiums
The Networked Organization: Leading Learning in the New Economy
Apr 12, 2010 - Apr 14, 2010
Boca Raton Resort & Club
Boca Raton, Florida

See More Events

Features

Published July 2009

The Other Side of the Tracks

  

  Frank Stanesic and Joseph Daniel McCool

People in the learning community often talk about the importance of understanding the businesses their companies are in, but what about when an executive from the business side transitions to a learning role?

As companies are pressured to deliver sustained, profitable growth, the performance of their people and retention of key talent becomes inextricably linked to strategy and health of the business. Today’s CEOs realize that to deploy learning and development that is critical to the business, learning leaders must bring a savvy that emanates from their knowledge of the business — things they didn’t necessarily learn in a classroom or other formal learning environment.

This movement to infuse the training and development agenda with embedded business know-how can only be gained by years in the functional areas of operations, and a new generation of executives finds itself balancing learning agendas and hard business realities.

“A strong business background, internal credibility with key stakeholders and strong relationships aren’t the only personal assets required for anyone making the move from operations to learning,” said Anna A. Tavis, global head of talent management, organizational development and learning for AIG Investments, part of American International Group Inc. “Leading in a time of crisis is very different than leading in the good times.”

“People are hired for what they’ve done before,” she said, and now more than ever, corporate leaders consider strong business acumen, familiarity with multiple parts of the business and strong business relationships as key tools for leaders in any function to weather the pressures and uncertainties of their markets.

That’s especially true in financial services, Tavis said, because of how those assets will need to inform and drive performance within an industry that will need to attract much more diversely experienced and uniquely motivated individuals in the future.

“It’s going to be a totally different talent profile that we’ll be looking for,” she said. “People we’ve been attracting are not going to find this industry suitable anymore because people will be paid well but not [systemically] overcompensated.

“Learning anticipates by several years what the organizational requirements must be, and that’s the trick,” she said. “If one moves directly from operations to learning leadership, he or she may only execute on current needs. That’s the risk.”

The premium placed on broad business and operations knowledge and effective enterprise-wide collaboration may accelerate the trend of business and operational leaders transitioning into their first learning leadership roles.

But what is it that makes some business leaders successful in their first learning leadership roles in major corporations? Are there common traits in individuals who transition successfully from the business side of the enterprise to the learning function? What do the experiences and perspectives of learning leaders who have successfully bridged the significant gap that often separates business performance and enterprise competency development suggest?