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The University of Pennsylvania’s program is thought to be the first comprehensive curriculum for corporate learning.
By Irwin Speizer Comments 0 | Recommend 0
he assembled chief learning officers represented some of the best-known corporate
names in their respective fields—companies like IBM, Yahoo, Siemens, JetBlue and
Toyota. And as they went around the room introducing themselves at the opening session
of their meeting, Doug Lynch, vice dean of the Graduate School of Education at the
University of Pennsylvania, was struck by the diversity in their backgrounds. No
two had arrived at their positions via the same career path or training.
"Some started in the field of education," Lynch says. "Some were from human resources.
Some were line folks—like, ‘I was a good salesman, so I was asked to train sales
folks, and 15 years later I’m the CLO.’ "
That meeting in May 2005 set Lynch on a quest to develop a comprehensive training
program for chief learning officers that would bring not only a measure of continuity
to the position but also define exactly which skills a chief learning officer needs.
This fall, the University of Pennsylvania plans to launch a doctoral program for
corporate learning leaders in its graduate school of education.
"As far as I can tell, there is not a single university in the world that prepares
people for these types of leadership positions," Lynch says. "People get MBAs, some
study adult education or instructional design. What we are trying to do is develop
a discrete body of knowledge."
As Lynch points out, to become an accountant requires a specific type of training
that is designed to produce a professional who knows and understands what the job
entails and how it is practiced. Lynch’s research indicates that the position of
chief learning officer, which first came about in the 1990s, has yet to be similarly
codified.
Lynch joined with Brenda Sugrue, senior director of research at the American
Society for Training & Development, to publish a study based on that 2005 meeting
of CLOs. In the study, published in February, they concluded that learning executives
need to have a solid grasp of theory and methods in both education and business,
coupled with the abilities to lead, motivate and communicate. In essence, chief
learning officers needed to be solid corporate managers with specialized skills
in learning and education.
The curriculum that Lynch developed for the new program at Penn attempts to meet
those needs while also plugging any learning gaps that a prospective learning executive
might have. The program has five distinct sections. To earn a doctorate, a candidate
would need to complete all of them and write a dissertation. But learning officers
can take just the sections where they feel they need help and earn individual certificates.
The entire program consists of more than 1,000 hours of courses.
The five sections are:
4Business acumen. To make sure chief learning officers understand the basics of
business, Lynch tailored a batch of Wharton School business courses for the needs
of chief learning officers, including such topics as marketing, organizational theory,
finance, people management and accounting.
4Technology. Since so much training is now delivered and tracked via computers
and the Internet, Lynch figured CLOs needed a solid grounding in business technology.
The program includes courses in databases, information management systems, video
and simulations, and the inner workings of technology vendors.
4Organizational leadership. This is MBA-type training geared to the needs of CLOs.
The course covers building and managing teams, presentation skills and other basics
that a top corporate executive might need.
4Evidence-based decision-making. This section covers monitoring, tracking and
evaluating data, designed to help CLOs understand how to do cost-benefit analyses
and make training decisions that have real evidence to back them up.
4Learning leadership. This section delves into adult learning theory and practices,
and examines how education systems operate.
Lynch hopes his program will produce corporate learning leaders who understand
business and education and have a grasp of their profession in the same way lawyers
and accountants do.
"If they are going to be chief learning officers, they’d better understand leadership
and strategy, and they’d better live and breathe business," Lynch says. "But they’d
better also have an empirical, evidence-based way of making decisions to know if
training works or not."
Workforce Management, May 22, 2006, p. 27
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Irwin Speizer is a Workforce Management contributing editor. E-mail editors@workforce.com to comment.
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he assembled chief learning officers represented some of the best-known corporate
names in their respective fields—companies like IBM, Yahoo, Siemens, JetBlue and
Toyota. And as they went around the room introducing themselves at the opening session
of their meeting, Doug Lynch, vice dean of the Graduate School of Education at the
University of Pennsylvania, was struck by the diversity in their backgrounds. No
two had arrived at their positions via the same career path or training.
