6 PERSONALITIES OF A CLO

From the desk of Kortny Williamson...

As a former athlete, I came to learn a lot about teams. I learned how to function within a team, how to work with my peers to achieve the same goal, and how to contribute my skills and collaborate with others. I also came to understand how my coach combined different talents and capabilities to form one powerful weapon. 

My coach possessed an adaptable skill set and was willing and able to alter her coaching style to match my personality and work ethic, which was no easy task. She not only knew what I was capable of as an athlete, but she also had the inside scoop on every one of my teammates’ talents. A true leader – or coach in this case – is capable of honing various talents in order to focus on the overall picture.

Today’s learning and development (L&D) organizations need more overall leadership for the L&D function. Without appropriate senior leadership, L&D organizations have a tendency to focus more on delivering quality training programs and other tactics rather than driving performance and developing strategy.

“In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.” – Lou Holtz

The term CLO is a miniscule component within the overall function of a learning organization. Popularized during the 1990’s, the CLO term is used to describe the corporate university – or learning unit – head. The position itself is a way for companies to let stakeholders know the company understands the importance of L&D in creating value for the business.

In some cases, the CLO reports to the CEO and has broad mandates to act as a strategic partner. CorpU research, however, suggests that only 14% of corporate university heads report to the CEO and 55% report to HR. CLOs from top learning organizations like General Mills and IBM report to someone at the senior vice president level of HR.

Regardless of the reporting relationship, what matters most is the desire on the part of senior executives to treat learning as a strategic advantage that makes considerable contributions to the bottom line. The CLO title is important and much of the enthusiasm for the term has to do with the notion that it sends one common message: learning is an important organizational value and has full support from the executive suite. 

The Replacements

Top performing organizations often assign the task of L&D leadership to seasoned executives. These individuals have strong business and relationship building skills, and a keen sense of how to leverage L&D effectively to achieve business skills.

There are 6 key competencies that identify the CLO’s individual roles and responsibilities. In addition to descriptors, why can’t these terms also be used as informal titles for the CLO?

#1: Visionary

Vince Lombardi was quoted as saying, “We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” A visionary must be able to see something others cannot, even if that something is deemed impossible. On top of envisioning the impossible, the visionary must be able to draw a blueprint for others on how to make it happen.

The visionary is required to assemble an illustration for the learning organization of how the development of human capital will create a competitive advantage. The illustration should be aligned with the company’s key goal and strategies, and enlist the willing cooperation of senior executives.

A relationship between the visionary and senior executives is key. This allows thoughts and suggestions to be bounced around and the visionary can collect feedback as their idea is constructed. The visionary must communicate the idea to major internal communication channels so it is released into the organization in order to receive feedback. If not communicated organization-wide, the vision will collect dust and eventually disappear.

The visionary should continuously develop their own picture of the learning organization and how that picture can support the real business needs of the company. This would require access to communication with organization leaders that is ongoing and not once or twice a year.

#2: Strategic Alliance Architect

A successful learning function that supports an organization requires many external suppliers to provide training programs, technology, and additional services. In order to keep track of these business partners and make sure they understand the company’s business needs, an ecosystem is necessary for organization purposes.

The strategic alliance architect is the catalyst that should initiate and lead the process that brings alliances to life. They are responsible for ensuring that appropriate alliance-building knowledge is built throughout the organization. Additionally, the strategic alliance architect must have the skills to work collaboratively in the company with areas that are integrated and supported by the learning organization.

Through these alliances, the strategic alliance architect is responsible for helping partners learn the business in order to better tailor the overall process. There are 2 visible advantages:

1. Suppliers offer better prices because they have a customer who is committed to the company’s success.
2. There is an improved service level because the relationship is built by referencing one another as a strategic partner.

Nick Howe, VP of Hitachi Data Systems Academy, focuses on their partnerships and relationships with employees, reseller partners, and customers. Getting feedback from business leaders is crucial and the company has seen a transformation in the last two years, specifically through their channel organization and sales outlets. Howe emphasizes that you cannot underestimate the power of these relationships.

Nick Howe

#3: Master of Communication

Although he is probably best known for protesting an official’s call by throwing a chair across the basketball court, Bob Knight is one of the best communicators in NCAA basketball history – both physical and verbal. Though he probably could have been more tactful or had a better choice of words, there was never a moment when you didn’t know what was on his mind. The master of communication encompasses the ability to communicate under any circumstance, and is the means by which learning is spread throughout the organization.

The master of communication should heighten awareness of the strategic importance of communication. Additionally, they must have the ability to facilitate more precise and purposeful communication throughout the organization. Strategic objectives, for example, must be presented in a fashion such that the context is simple and easy to understand, and should not require sifting through the message to identify the strategy.

Most organizations pursue multiple strategies simultaneously, and it’s important for the master of communication to know how the pieces fit together. At companies like Caterpillar, alignment between learning and corporate strategy is a high priority and Caterpillar executives and managers are required to memorize the company’s core values and strategies.

#4: Relationship Engineer

Relationship Engineers must invest the time and energy necessary to build relationships in order for internal partnerships to succeed. Additionally, they should have a deep understanding of business issues and an appreciation for the cultural and environmental issues that may have an impact on performance.

The CLO who is a relationship engineer should become the performance coach for other senior executives to bounce their ideas off, and should influence other executives on the value of performance consulting in addressing thorny business issues.

#5: Extreme Innovator

Known as the father of Russian ice hockey, Anatoly Tarasov led the Soviet team to win every world championship between from 1962 to 1971. He was one of the most innovative coaches in ice hockey to date, and Canadian and American coaches continuously attempt to simulate his ideas and tactics, both on the ice and off. The secret to his innovative coaching tactics? “There is no secret. There is imagination, hard work, discipline and dedication to achieving whatever the goal is.”

The extreme innovator works to drive an organization’s performance higher, delving deep to find those methods others have yet to uncover. Innovation acts as a security system for an organization’s products, processes, and business models to ensure nothing is copied and competitive advantages are not eroded.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to interventions and repairs because there are many facets involved to improve human performance at work. The extreme innovator uses their creativity to analyze business problems and performance challenges in a way that not only determines the root cause of the problem, but also the cost of not intervening.

When solving performance problems, the extreme innovator has countless intervention tools to implement and as they are applied with increased frequency, the tools and methods continue to evolve.

#6: Performance Consultant

When solving the most difficult business problems within an organization – those involving people – the performance consultant must be reliable. As a performance coach, it is necessary for the performance consultant to meet with business unit leaders, all of who have a profound understanding of where the business is heading and its key strategies and priorities.

Digging deep, the performance consultant must understand where performance gaps exist and uncover root causes of those gaps. They must understand the inter-dependencies that the organization has, and take a holistic view of business performance gaps when planning strategies and interventions to close these gaps. Additionally, the performance consultant must measure the costs and benefits of closing these gaps to give the organization an objective way to best apply resources to problems.

Finale

Regardless of what title is given to the corporate university - or learning unit - head, the individual’s number one focus should be on how to piece all the resources together to achieve one overall goal. By utilizing the strengths of each team member, learning leaders can increase the influence of learning within the organization and enable the team to contribute to the organization’s bottom-line objectives in a way that adds value. With a touch of humor, Lou Holtz sums it up the best: “On this team, we're all united in a common goal: to keep my job.”

Kortny Williamson, CorpU Research Analyst