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Bold Leadership with Sean Penistone (Part 2)

In this second part of the interview with Sean Penistone, Former Head of L&D and Talent at Colt Technology Services, begins by answering the question: “What is your take on how the business landscape will look in 2030?” He describes how Colt has launched a hybrid working initiative giving people the freedom to choose where and how they work.

This is going well however Sean shares how difficult it is to build a corporate culture when everyone is not together in the same space. Much thought will be given to how to refine hybrid working over the next few years. Certainly Sean believes some kind of ‘communal space’ will have a role to play.

Then comes the question: “What do you think the style of a leader needs to be going forward?” Sean thinks that “managers need to be more generous”, be more deliberate with giving feedback, and listen and include people more. Managers will need to develop the skill of facilitating meetings where some are not physically present. And he concludes by suggesting that we ALL will have to change to some degree in the future to successfully accommodate this ‘workplace’.

Bold Leadership with Sean Penistone (Part 1)

Sean begins by answering the question “What do you feel is a business mindset for the coming decade and what facets do you predict will have the biggest influence across businesses?” He believes that one of key skills will be mining data to gain actionable insights with the help of AI and machine learning. In his time at GSK they looked for data in everything and he found this extremely helpful.

Another question is: “How do you think your people will interact with and leverage this revolutionary change?” Sean explains how hard it is to get people to step into the unknown and “break the rules” in service to growth. At GSK he established a Capabilities document that was used to help employees develop the right attitudes and mindset to be positive change agents. Leaders at GSK were asked to spend time coaching staff to develop these capabilities in themselves and this enabled huge leaps forward in the organization.

The key for Sean is “leaning into the art of the possible” and having an open, growth oriented mindset. Experimentation and challenging ‘sacred cows’ is vital to creating a new future for the business. Small test projects were established using ‘calculated risks’ and then scaled up if there was success. Experimentation and failures were subjected to learning reviews. And in this way internal red tape and bureaucracy could be avoided.

The New Age of Learning

The world has changed dramatically over the past three years– and with it, the world of learning and development. Just as trainers and L&D professionals settled into online delivery, we have now shifted back to hybrid workplaces. Some organizations have reintroduced in-person training, while others are mixed or have declared themselves fully virtual.

The new age of learning is no longer the future – it’s the present. Companies that resist can find themselves struggling to fill open positions as employees take more control of their own careers. Front and center of employee-driven learning is the ability to learn on demand, in an engaging, interactive, personalized way that is as flexible as online learning and yet has the magic and charm of in-person interactions. In other words, the future of learning has to be phygital: combining the best of both physical and digital worlds. How are trainers to pivot to this new training normal?

This new age of learning, training, and development doesn’t have to be one we resist. Forward-thinking companies can embrace the changes and adapt to a world where a commute of several hours is replaced by productivity and where in-person doesn’t have to mean everyone must be in the same room.

Let’s take a look at how training is evolving and how companies can look to entice, train, and retain employees. But first, how did we get to this point?

The Year Everything Changed

As 2019 began, there was already a growing disconnect between employees, who for years had wanted more freedom in the way they worked, and their employers. Many employers believed the requested freedoms would create lackluster results.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone indoors. Traditional companies wishing to stay in business were catapulted into a future they hoped was many years ahead. For them, work meant everyone coming together under one roof to move toward the same goal.

The idea of using a remote workforce for traditional companies meant losing control. How would employers know if each employee was putting in the adequate amount of time each day? COVID left them no other choice. Employees gathered only the equipment needed from offices and created home workspaces in a matter of days to keep things running the best they could under the new circumstances.

Technology Does Not Stop

It’s easy to blame the pandemic for the changes but remote training is here not because of COVID, but because of technological advancements. Virtual reality simulations have existed for many years. Long before 2019, pilots logged hours in flight simulators before flying real planes with passengers or cargo. The same can be said for military and law enforcement training.

Technology is also what may have saved the world economy during the pandemic. Without the advancements of the last decades, how would we have kept moving in the midst of this outbreak?

While VR’s benefits were initially embraced by the gaming community, many knew its real benefits revolved around the technology’s ability to create a real sense of place and community. The VR market is expected to bring in over $12 billion in revenue by 2024.

Opposing Sides

As COVID becomes a more manageable disease, employers and employees are seemingly pulling in opposite directions. Businesses want everyone to return to the workplace of old while employees now realize much of their work can be completed from home and would like to hold on to the new ways.

This opposition is what has led to today’s Great Resignation. Employees exercised their value and resigned from companies they feel are refusing to change in search of companies more in tune with where work is heading. In 2021, over 47 million workers quit their jobs.

Training Must Evolve

Training professionals must always be aware of the changes coming to the workforce. As generations bring a new outlook to work, trainers must be ready to meet their expectations to create an engaged workforce that believes in a company’s values and takes that company to a bright future.

Think of anybody coming into an onboarding training session today. This person has spent most of their life to this point learning with the use of a computer, tablet, or phone. A trainer asking them to put away all electronics and take out paper and a pencil to take notes would be a bright red flag about this company as a whole.

Training in Web 3.0

The internet as we know it today is a tool designed to help our machines connect all around the world. Yes, you are highly communicative online, but you are fully aware that it is happening by communicating from one device to another.

In training, web 2.0 enabled people to train from anywhere with a solid internet connection. They do so with courses presented to them on the screen that ask them to read training material or view scenarios covering the material. A test is usually given to employees after completing the lessons.

The shortfall of this training is that while it uses the web, it still relies on old methods of teaching developed decades ago. The idea is to memorize what is being taught. The concepts are then repeated as proof of understanding.

Let’s go back to the pilots in flight simulators example. How comfortable would you feel getting on a plane if your pilot’s only experience came from reading a digital session and taking a written test?

Enter training in Web 3.0, a new development that promises us a decentralized, user driven, fairer internet. A clear picture of Web 3.0 or Web3 as it is known is still evolving. What we do know is that Web3 will change the face of L&D as learners expect more authentic experiences that they can control and customize to their learning pace and environments (work from home and otherwise).

Learning in the Metaverse

The metaverse, a key concept of Web 3, is the evolution of the internet. Rather than connecting machines to machines, you will now travel to a central place of communication. The channels for this new level of communication and collaboration are virtual and augmented reality. Together, they form Extended Reality, also known as XR.

Benefits of XR Training

XR training is the new age of learning. Thanks to XR, your physical location is no longer a limitation. Trainers can live in one country and onboard a group of new employees scattered throughout the globe. The team can work together as if they were in one room because while connected, they are.

Training in a virtual space is the opportunity we have all dreamed of for a long time. You can now ditch the old ways of teaching in favor of an experiential approach. You’ll cut down training time, engage your personnel, and teach the way human beings learn best.

Who Is Using XR Training?

Here are some examples of companies already taking advantage of XR training:

Ford Motor Company: Worked with Bosh to develop a VR training tool for their service technicians
Dermalogica: Uses a VR training program complete with an AI trainer for its 100,000 skin therapists
Bank of America: VR program consists of 20 simulations for its workforce of 50,000

The New Age of Learning: Wrap-Up

The key to successfully training a new generation of people is to look forward and not back. Robert Lambrechts of Pereira O’Dell said it best, “I don‘t think there‘s ‘going back‘ to anything. That world, whatever we did in January 2020, doesn‘t exist anymore.”

The skills gap continues to grow. Traditional schools are not keeping up with the demands of today and online training is not enough. Employees are looking to their employers to coach and develop them using methods not stuck in the past.

As trainers, it is our responsibility to work to close the skills gap and XR training is one of the best tools available to do it. Edstutia’s trainer certification program is designed to prepare trainers to fully understand instructional design, development, and delivery in XR and to put their best Web3 foot forward in engaging and developing top-notch talent.

Dr Yogini Joglekar is COO of Edstutia and Senior Consultant at PeopleSmart, specializing in change leadership, communication, and learning technologies.

Business Mindset 2030: Humans & the Technology

Do you control your phone or does it control you?

According to a recent study in the US, 66% of people surveyed show signs of ‘nomophobia’ – the fear of being without their phones. Also, the same study revealed that users unlocked their phones on average 150 times per day. This constant distraction can have profoundly negative effects on our relationships. In early 2010 I purchased a shiny new smartphone (for my job of course) and immediately fell in love with having a mini computer in my pocket. I could manage my emails, diary, messaging, banking…everything on the go. We’ve all been there right, but this was different to most of the technology that had come before – it was highly addictive but not like gaming or TV. Even for those of us who felt that we were not easily distracted, the allure of maximising our ‘efficiency’ and being ‘always contactable’ has remained with many of us to this day. The question for a lot of people now is, “Has the technology improved our lives or made it worse i.e; more stressful with increased anxiety?” As I was in and out of meetings a lot during this period, I left my phone in ‘silent’ mode and it has pretty much stayed that way to this day as my wife can confirm! Of course, this isn’t always possible but it highlights a common power struggle that we have vis-a-vis our tech.

Humans still have centre stage – people matter

Business is about people – our collaborators who we entrust to deliver our promise day in and day out and our customers who believe what we believe and vote with their wallets. Technology is great and laptops and smartphones have revolutionised our professional mobility plus, coupled with a vast array of apps and software, we now can work from anywhere 24 hours a day if we wanted to. It is essential however, to strike a healthy balance. Many of us have a myriad of apps open at any one time and this can limit our ability to deeply focus on tasks without being constantly distracted. Multitasking is an enemy of productivity and the struggle now is how to design into our

daily flow, periods of uninterrupted work. This is a real challenge for many people and it is those who manage to do this well who will ultimately succeed. Without a high level of wellbeing, all of us, both personally and professionally will suffer so we have to act now.

Rise of AI and the move towards decentralisation

Two key areas of technological development are shaping our world more than ever – these are; artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain.

Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, namely computer systems. Specific applications of AI include natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision. In general, AI systems work by ingesting large amounts of labelled training data, analysing the data for correlations and patterns, and using these patterns to make predictions about future states. For example, a chatbot that is fed examples of text exchanges can learn to produce lifelike exchanges with people, or an image recognition tool can learn to identify and describe objects in images by reviewing millions of examples. AI programming focuses on three cognitive skills: learning, reasoning and self-correction.

The aforementioned highlights the machine learning element or ‘soft’ AI and most of us are familiar with these types of algorithms working away in the background when we use Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. Who has been on a Youtube video spiral based on the recommendations..? The ‘hard’ AI is the next level and the one of concern as this is when the machines start to think for themselves rather than basing their ‘behaviour’ on being fed information. Great minds of our time such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson have all voiced deep concerns about ‘hard’ AI.

Blockchain is fast becoming well regarded in many industries and the use cases are plentiful; finance, supply-chain, cyber security, voting, anti-counterfeiting etc. Essentially, blockchain is a decentralised, immutable and secure ledger of transactions that by its very nature, is significantly more secure than a database and has ‘trust’ built in from inception. A blockchain therefore removes the third party from transactions (think: banks, custodians, estate-agents etc.) so it’s turning the centralised world as we know it on its head.

Mindset for success

As these two exciting technological advancements accelerate us into our increasingly digital futures, it begs the question, “Where do we as humans fit into the mix?” Here are a few pointers to consider:

We must remember that our technology works for us, not the inverse, therefore setting rigorous boundaries for its use is key. Create a company ‘Tech charter’, communicate it well and stick to it.
When possible, maximise human face-to-face contact as this is where true connection happens.
Over communication can easily overwhelm collaborators so agree on ‘how’ different types of collaboration should be conducted and on what channels and platforms. Using three types of file sharing platforms for projects is a recipe for disaster. Focused communication wins.
At a Comex company level, don’t be afraid of the technology, leverage it! Set up a sandbox to experiment with AI and blockchain and share your findings with the team.
Challenge the 60 minute meeting default. How about 15, 30 or 45 minutes instead with 2, 3 or 4 attendees..?
Actively encourage and support your collaborators to disengage to re-engage by building a meaningful life outside of work. Work hard, play hard and foster well-being.

Jeremy Peter Williams 08.03.2022

The Hybrid Leader with Bruce Owen (Part 2)

In the second part of this series around ‘Leading into the Future in partnership with The Business Transformation Network, Bruce Owen (Vice President – Employee & Community Impact at Equinix) looks at how Equinix measures diversity and inclusion efforts.

Equinix’s key belief is transparency. They break up the elements of diversity, inclusion and belonging so that they are not merged.

Diversity is measured through key metrics. Internal placemats are published every quarter that then goes out to all senior leaders that represent all aspects of diversity that they can measure. Some include gender, race, ethnicity and more.

Inclusion is heavily relieved on survey data. Poll surveys are used every quarter to get a sense of where their employers are. Bruce then explains how they look at what is the experience of people from under representative communities at Equinix’s and how do they take action to create a more inclusive environment. They identify which pockets of the organisation have higher levels of inclusion and which ones have lower levels. Bruce states…

“You cannot make progress until you’re willing to be vulnerable and transparent”

The conversation then moves on to the different ways we can develop future leaders and create a comfortable place to work. According to Bruce, there are 4 main ways that this can be done:

Creating an environment where others look like you at all levels of the organisation.
Creating an environment where you are believed.
Being valued for your perspective, such as having a different opinion.
Fun. Create an environment where people want to grow, develop and lead.

The Hybrid Leader with Bruce Owen (Part 1)

We welcome another insightful leader to this fascinating series around ‘Leading into the Future, Bruce Owen (Vice President – Employee & Community Impact at Equinix) in partnership with The Business Transformation Netwoork (The BTN)

Within this session, Bruce looks at what leadership behaviours employees need to truly believe in an inclusive culture. Bruce believes it’s all about…

“remembering the type of leaders that made us feel included whether that be teachers, sports coach, or manager that you worked for.”

5 factors you need to truly have an inclusive culture:

Accountability – where you are holding people accountable for inclusive behaviour.
Vulnerability – watching leaders discuss real topics such as admitting their weaknesses, being able to demonstrate that they do not have it all together.
Empathy – taking the time to truly listen and understand what someone is trying to say despite their wording being different.
Helping conflict – diversity of thought and diversity of experience is about injecting difference into an equation. This results in conflict. Conflict is seen as necessary and healthy to have greater innovation and outcomes. This is only that is done on a foundation of trust, it is an important behaviour to be able to model as a leader.
Collaboration – diversity is a core ingredient to innovation and business progress. Leaders need to ensure that they lead collaboratively. Leaders do not always need to always have an answer, but to simply be able to work together as part of a collaboration team and help one another.

4 ways organisations should start their Diversity & Inclusion Journey:

Being Clear on the why… If an organisation is looking at every data point that leads to greater innovation, agility, higher performance and financial targets, you have to be precise on why you’re doing this.
The positioning of acknowledging you are unaware of what you don’t know. It is vital to listen to your employees and require help.
Ensuring that the majority of groups take active roles in leading and co-leading.
Establish a set of guiding principles right at the start about how you want to embark on a diversity and inclusion journey.

Building a Learning Community with Ian Hardie (Part 2)

Within part 2 of this series with Ian Hardie (Founder at Hardie & Company), in partnership with The Business Transformation Network, Ian identifies what leadership behaviours facilitate a learning community and how each of us is motivated by different role models or motivators that we look up to.

4 behaviours we can adopt as individuals to make learning more effective:

1. Encouraging people to ask just one question of why – This question needs to be asked so that you can learn from it.

2. Openness and curiosity – That you are genuinely interested to understand and learn. What is it that you can take from it going forward?

3. Tenacity – The ability to stick to it, learn and engage with the topic and subject.

4. Celebrate – Being able to celebrate when someone has learnt, made progress, advanced so that you can make the connection between what has happened and discuss the progress that has been made.

Ian then goes on to discuss what leaders can impact your organisation the most. Organisations need to ensure they have a leader who is seen at the very top, valuing people who are learning and progressing. Instead of following the norm and getting the CEO to inform everyone that they need to learn, look for individuals who influence others.

For example, the people in lead learning need to pay attention to understand who is influential in their network. Ian explains that. “If you can advance their level of commitment to learning, that will have a much better impact than classically getting a CEO to do his learning is an important speech.”

To finish the discussion, Ian demonstrates his views on whether the rise of more remote working will widen or narrow the talent pool. As the internet has given many of us the accessibility that we need, it all comes down to what you do with it as an individual.

Many individuals want to learn at the moment, however, the question is… are they prepared to access learning long-term for their long-term development? Or is it, according to Ian, going to be “Just in time and transactional” which acts as a large barrier.

It is also extremely important to understand the difference between barriers and triggers. The trigger is in terms of accessibility, connection and gaining access to different resources. The barrier is the attitudes of those people making decisions. Ian emphasises that a lot of work is done on unconscious bias, are people prepared to yes they learned online? To summarise, Ian explains that some societal organisational structural barriers need to be addressed. Organisations also need to celebrate the idea of accessibility and breadth of resources that are available to us. There are many societal organisations.

Pivoting your culture of ‘me’ into a culture of ‘we’

Where we’ve come from – The journey to ‘me’

The narrative of the individual has been the dominant voice in our culture since the birth of the Enlightenment (“I think, therefore I am.”) Each person was raised to be individual, autonomous, self-reliant, and high achieving. It has been a glorious age of the individual – celebrating our break from the clutches of monarchy to individual freedom and creative expression that resulted in ground-breaking achievements in science, medicine, technology, and education.

Where we are – where’s that selfie-stick!

The rise of the internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s and Web 2.0 (creator culture) ushered in the Instagrammer and Youtuber generation who epitomised the ultimate ‘me’ culture and this has morphed into society – many children now aspire to be the next YouTube star! It’s easily accessible using free platforms to become a ‘star’ but where is this taking us, in society and in the workplace?

Office star shining bright or a full-on galaxy ready to discover?

Let’s face it, the vibe in the office, whether physical or virtual, has a significant bearing on happiness, well-being and productivity so it’s essential to get it right. We all know companies which have a culture of fear where every man and woman are for themselves and this obviously isn’t a recipe for success especially given the current context.

We are rapidly moving into the 4th industrial revolution where technologies (Artificial Intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things) are playing a more significant role in our everyday workflow and collaborators are having to adjust their approaches to virtually all aspects of their work accordingly.

It is no longer acceptable to be a ‘me first’ entitled collaborator and a recent study by the University of New Hampshire concluded that in environments of this nature:

Conflicts are more likely

Constructive feedback can be more difficult to receive
Job satisfaction is lower
Expectations can be unrealistic
Passing the blame for failure to others is more likely
The likelihood of taking undue credit for successes is higher

‘Me’ leaders fared even worse as it was concluded that their effectiveness and ability to lead high performing teams was substantially reduced.

Our future will be determined by our ability to get back to ‘we’ and communities will lead the way – if we embrace this collective power

Paradigm shifts do not just happen by chance. They are evolutionary, driven by agents of change – scientific, cultural, philosophical and technological. It is now increasingly believed that refocusing a culture back to an inclusive ‘we’ culture is what is needed to successfully navigate our way into the looming 4th industrial revolution.

Communities will take on more power in organisations and bottom-up, consensus decision making is on the rise. This is surely a good thing but a change of mindset right through the organisation is required for this shift to be realised in an effective way.

5 ways culture-first start-ups are leading the way

Hiring for the best cultural fit is the most important aspect of fostering a community that will be led by consensus decision-making and collaboration. Involving the current collaborators in the hiring process can really help with finding the right cultural fit and also the engagement of existing collaborators. It’s a win-win! For example; pair up team members to interview a candidate around one of the company’s values.

Working environments are also fundamentally important as a basis for a successful ‘we’ culture. Having communal working areas where impromptu conversations or meetings can take place (if face-to-face) and organising virtual coffee breaks if working more online can all help foster a positive vibe.

Technology has a huge influence on our work nowadays so it has to be embraced in an intelligent way, but there is the real risk of over-complicating simple processes and the tech can easily switch from being your friend to your enemy if not managed correctly. Tip: keep it simple and clearly lay down the rules for which apps and software can be used and stick to it by creating a ‘tech charter’ which everyone agrees on. This way, miscommunication can be avoided and face-to-face time can be maximised.

Celebrate your successes! No matter how small, make sure to always acknowledge and celebrate the small wins (as well as the big ones of course!) as business should also be fun. Some companies have a bell that they ring when a deal is closed and others arrange social BBQ nights once per week (socially distanced of course now). More and more companies are progressively getting back into having yearly offsite trips abroad to foster cultures of collaboration and inter-team connectivity which goes a long way to building trust and long-term performance. In short, it works so it’s worth the investment.

Many KPIs are outdated and aren’t suited to a modern collaborative culture of ‘we’ so it’s wise to take a close look at the underlying KPIs in your organisation as these will be driving a lot of the behaviour that can be observed. In order to install and nurture a community culture of ‘we’ focus the KPIs around outcomes not activities. The team members will hence be more focused on putting their energy into achieving the desired result through working closely with their colleagues with a clear focus. The other benefit is that they will be more likely to take ownership of the outcome of their work which will lead to increased job satisfaction. Tip: this can only be achieved if there isn’t a culture of fear (of making a mistake).

It’s safe to say that this road to a ‘we’ culture will be long and windy but it is definitely worth starting out on this journey right now as the companies which do so, will surely be ahead of the pack and quite possibly, some of the leaders of tomorrow.

Article written by: Jeremy Peter Williams

Building a Learning Community with Ian Hardie (Part 1)

As we continue this fascinating series in partnership with The Business Transformation Network, around Leading into the future, we welcome Ian Hardie (Founder at Hardie & Company).

This conversation brings to life Ian’s view on how we can create more ‘pull learning’ situations through technology rather than the historic classroom push learning. Learning needs to be happening in the workplace, in which case for a lot of organisations, video is now a large part of the workplace.

Technology has always however been a large barrier to virtual learning. Individuals have to be taught technology first before getting them to do the learning you need them to do. Despite this, the advantage of everyone now using technology is that everyone now knows how to work, operate and connect virtually, and therefore those barriers of technology can be voided.

As the technology barrier is down, organisations need to think about what the triggers are. How can they encourage and motivate people to want to learn and identify what the impact of learning is? On the other hand, face to face learning will not completely die out and therefore, there will be some occasions where you have to meet in person to be successful

Ian then goes on to discuss whether the move to more virtual environments has created a new challenge for learning, in which he explains that having a learning mindset is key.

“Everyone does their best when they are motivated to do their best.”

This is one of the responsibilities of people who deliver training, learning is to ensure that the brand and desirability is built into the provision they create. Organisations need to ensure that their people are drawn into it.

A phrase identified by Ian is ‘Learning works’ – If people see what impact learning has, then they are motivated and drawn to it even more. The key is that individuals need to understand what will happen once they are engaged in learning and what will happen if they don’t. They need to identify what the missed opportunity is which enables them to want to learn and do things themselves.

Ian acknowledges that we are seeing a variety of trends. Some include:

The modularisation of learning – Learning is being broken down into smaller and smaller chunks. However, with this in place, there is also the risk of taking away that interest and fascination of long term learning.
We will see this facilitation and connection with a coach, mentor or expert which will mean there is more facilitated learning going forward.

Power of Purpose with Jerry Pico (Part 2)

In this interview with Jerry Pico, Co-Lead, Global Culture Initiative at Daiichi Sankyo Co., he talks about his company’s purpose – “To contribute to the enrichment of the quality of life around the world” and how his pharmaceutical firm has a social mission to ‘give back’ through the three core values of “integrity, accountability and innovation”.

Next Jerry explains that, as part of the company-wide culture change they are in the middle of, they administered a diagnostic that led to the ability to link each person’s individual purpose to the company’s purpose, values and strategy.

Another value emerged. Instead of the leadership being more HQ centric, thanks to the pandemic global leadership can be exercised virtually and is more fluid. By embracing diversity and inclusion a leader can contribute whoever they are and wherever they are based.

Jerry ends by describing how pleased he was when a senior leadership group chose to vote for self-awareness as the number one most important leadership competency. A leader cannot be authentic without this. And what does being authentic mean in practice? It means asking questions, listening well, ‘exuding empathy and compassion’ and being true to oneself.