Research on CLO

Objectives:

We need to determine:

1. What makes an effective Chief Learning Officer (CLO), particularly in governmental organizations

2. What information about training or the organization should a CLO have to do their job effectively

What makes an effective Chief Learning Officer (CLO)?

Survey from Government Business Council (2012): Recommendations

The government business council launched a survey from August to September 2012 to federal managers above a GS-11 pay grade with the aim of assessing perceptions, attitudes, and experiences regarding professional training. The survey aimed to provide insight into how federal agencies are creating cultures of learning and how to improve the role of (CLO) in providing high quality training for the federal workforce. From their findings the author Dana Grinshpan suggest that CLOs should be highly vocal in their organization, focus on developing learning strategy rather than attempting to implement training, and gain as much knowledge from retiring workers as possible. Based on the survey results respondents noted not having any communication or direction of policy or strategy from learning leadership. The Grinshpan suggests that the CLO should provide greater communication which would drive increased participation and satisfaction with training. In the survey Grinshpan also notes that respondents felt that their managers are significantly more involved in actively encouraging a culture of learning more than CLOs therefore she suggests that the CLO should focus on strategizing, ensuring that managers and their reports have the skills needed for the next year and beyond. Finally due to the retiring baby boomers, managers feel as if the drop off in knowledge from experienced workers leaving will be significant. Due to this concern Grinshpan suggests that the CLO develop mentoring programs, exit interviews, and phased retirements so that knowledge can be passed along through other forms of training.

Survey from American Society for Training and Development: Findings

Current CLOs were asked what competencies they feel are most important for success as a CLO which were “leadership, articulating the value of learning in business terms, business acumen, and strategic planning.” Some areas of improvement were “measurement and evaluation, human performance improvement, strategic planning, and learning technology infrastructure.”

Galagan, P. (2012). New Career Paths and Skills for Aspiring CLOs. T+D, 66(11), 28-30

Someone seeking to hire a CLO should look for three characteristics: business acumen; you must be able to apply it show you represent the business; the ability to lead workforce develop; you develop the skills needed to grow the company while developing current employees; and must be able to rationalize the array of modalities that are new in the learning environment; what format learning is in (ex-social and mobile learning)

Learning’s Strategic Force: Recapping the Fall CLO Symposium. (2013). Chief Learning Officer, 12(12), 30-31.

Charles Duhigg, NY Times business reporter and author of the power of habit shared how CLOs can have an effect. 1. Know your keystone habits. Keystone habits can be determined by assessing what kinds of change seem frightening. 2. Look for moments of crisis—that’s when habits are more flexible. 3. Find emotional rewards for people. The best rewards relieve tension.

Leibowitz, J. (2002). The Role of the Chief Knowledge Officer in organizations, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 10(2), 2-15.

The CKO, according to TFPL, Inc. (an international consulting firm that conducts CKO Summits), acts in four ways [TFPL, 2002]:

1. “cartographer” in mapping expertise and making connections2. “geologist” in drilling into specific areas and applying tools3. “spark plug” in igniting an awareness of the need to change4. “architect” in designing the physical and cultural environment.

The typical CKO finds a means to utilize corporate knowledge to help corporate growth, understands the skills and competencies of knowledge teams, creates powerful corporate cultures that recognize common values, enables the effective flow of information, and communicates the meaning of information and knowledge.

According to Tom Davenport, of Accenture and Babson College, the CKO [Davenport and Pruzak, 1998]:

Must be an advocate or evangelist for knowledge and learning;

Is the designer, implementer, and overseer of an organization’s knowledge infrastructure, including its libraries, knowledge bases, human resources, computer knowledge networks, research centers, and academic relationships;

Is the primary liaison between external providers of information and knowledge;

Provides critical input into the creation of knowledge and uses processes that already exist within the company, such as product development;

Plays a leading role in the design and implementation of a company’s knowledge architectures;

Has deep experience in some aspect of knowledge management, including its creation, dissemination, or application;

Has familiarity with knowledge-oriented companies and technologies, such as libraries and groupware;

Has the ability to set a good example by displaying a high level of “knowledge ability” and success.

Abell and Oxbrow (1999): CKO/CLO skills into two categories

Skills to Develop the Vision Skills to Plan the Program

• Business knowledge

• Political understanding

• Risk analysis

• Influencing skills

• Leadership

• Creativity

• Presentation skills

Organizational development

• Information and IT strategy

• Financial planning

• Communication

• Innovation

• Risk management

• Flexibility and openness to all issues

• Managing across boundaries

• Helping individuals to self-manage

• Ability to release the full potential of people

What information should the CLO have about training and the organization in order to be successful in their job?

In an article titled “best practices to make learning more effective” written by Natalie Morera she interviewed Dave Basarb of V.A.L.E consulting firm in which he suggested the following:

Learning must be thought of as a continuum. It starts off with designing the program, where learning leaders must decide what expectation they have of participants based on the course design. “What do we want people to adopt?” Basarab asked. “We want to make sure our objectives and our content are supportive of adoptive behaviors.” But reality should guide the design. “You want to design the course so that it mirrors the real-world environment,” Basarab said. “You need to be sure whatever you’re debriefing, practicing [or] doing in the training session is clearly tied to the workplace and demonstrates how the skills can be used.”

In a chapter of Improving Learning Transfer in Organizations titled “The Strategic challenge for transfer: chief learning officers speak out” written by Camden and Wiggenhorn (2003):

The CLOs from the chapter wrote that the existing literature on the transfer of learning suffers from a number of latent assumptions which include: a preoccupation with training outcomes versus business performance; evaluation of transfer effectiveness is often detached from organizational culture and context; and there is a bias towards activities and programs in defining the scope of learning. The CLOs also identify three challenges which face the transfer of learning, which are: “(1) aligning learning with the business needs of the organization; (2) organizing for impact by building a learning infrastructure that connects with people and processes that matter in the business; and (3) affecting real learning by including all the forms of learning that can support a learning culture in the organization and improve the performance of individuals.”