We are now deep into the widespread movement of businesses migrating to the cloud to improve their operations. There are pros to keeping your business processes on an on-premise platform, but more and more organizations are choosing the pros of the cloud over those of the on-premise solutions. In a recent survey conducted by PwC, 78% of respondents said that after moving one or more of their business processes to the cloud, their expectations have been met or exceeded by their cloud product.

Cloud solutions have several benefits over those of the on-premise platforms; however, there is a third option: a hybrid model. This model keeps some processes, such as payroll, on premise and moves other areas, such as talent management, to the cloud. Choosing the right model for your organization solely depends on how much time, effort, and money you want or can put into the implementation.

With the end of the year upon us and planning periods in full swing, it is time for you to begin considering what is best for your organization: staying with your on-premise solution, upgrading to the cloud, or maybe a combination of the two.

Benefits of the Cloud

Moving to the cloud has many benefits, some more prevalent than others, but all tie together to create a user experience that is perceived by most to be significantly better. Here are a few advantages to consider.

Customization

With a cloud solution, you are able to pick and choose what modules you want to implement and what functionality you want to turn on once the solution is implemented. While you can customize your on-premise solution, it usually takes some back and forth with your IT department. With many cloud solutions, this customization is easy and can be configured by your support team afforded by your solution provider or implementation partner.

Support

By implementing a cloud solution, you are eliminating a lot of your IT department’s workload. Most of the work is transferred to the software provider as part of your contract when purchasing the licenses. They take responsibility for quarterly updates and provide support specific to the solution and modules that you purchased. This reduces your dedicated IT support internally, which decreases your overhead cost.

Integration

Many companies are moving to cloud solutions purely for the integration and interaction among systems and teams. As the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue to become integrated parts of business systems, companies are realizing that it is extremely beneficial to give employees access to integrated technology so that they can enjoy a seamless experience at work, just as they do at home and in their personal lives.

Cost

According to Greg Deckler at Fusion Alliance, on average, cloud solutions have a cost savings of about 30% over their on-premise counterparts. This can make a huge difference to those organizations that put a large portion of their yearly budget into technology. When you move to the cloud, you can minimize cost in many areas, such as internal resources, maintenance, support, and yearly or quarterly updates. These are all things to consider when you start looking at the different solutions and platforms.

Information Services Group concluded that because of the cost convenience of cloud solutions and the limited need for internal support, companies of 1,000–5,000 employees have been leaders in migrating to the cloud. However, companies with 5,000+ employees are also recognizing the benefits of cloud HR software and are considering their migration options. Statistics show that 53% of businesses will be running a cloud solution by 2020, more than double the current adoption numbers. Even if you aren’t ready to move all aspects of your business to the cloud, it might be time to start—one module at a time.

As a service provider, we know that finances are always a key factor in any business decision. It is always a topic of discussion when our clients approach us about a possible project. By implementing a cloud solution, you can increase your ROI on your software, improve user experience across the organization, and make your finance department very happy all at the same time. Now the question is, Which platform or platforms are right for you?

Learn more about how to bring a cloud solution to your organization: https://www.gpstrategies.com/solution/hcm-technology-solutions/

About the Authors

Ashton Plusquellec

By Christin Rice, Senior Leadership Consultant

Our recent Leadership Skills Report revealed that leaders of leaders need less in order to do more. At first glance, this stated desire for fewer priorities could look like a desire to shirk responsibilities. What it really signals is that leaders want to be more effective in their role through greater depth of focus. Today’s leaders of leaders face myriad challenges to remain agile in an ever-changing market. Being responsive to shifts can lead to increased priorities for these leaders, though not necessarily the ability to achieve greater impact.

What is the result of too many priorities? The dilution of focus. When there is a never-ceasing stream of reactionary to-dos, genuine strategic forward momentum is sacrificed. For leaders of leaders in particular, this is critical, as they are responsible for driving strategy throughout the organization. When a leader has fewer priorities, they are able to go deeper in solving the root of the problem. Having fewer tasks to prioritize allows leaders to not just solve the problem at hand, but also identify a solution for the problem beneath the problem.

Anyone who has ever tackled a difficult project knows it gets much, much more difficult before finding a way through. Being able to go deep with a particular challenge can lead to finding the many otherwise unidentified connections within the system so that the final solution is a genuine solution, rather than a Band-Aid in the moment.

To successfully achieve a goal, focused attention is needed. People have a finite amount of mental energy for the day. In the same way that a person needs both physical activity and rest to have a healthy, high-functioning body, their mind needs times of focused attention as well as rest for peak performance. Having too many priorities means each priority receives significantly less attention, resulting in less-effective solutions and potentially fewer solutions overall, not to mention the overall negative effects that too many priorities can have on a leader’s well-being. The stress of too many priorities and the frustration associated with the unlikelihood that all priorities can be achieved (resulting in a lack of real impact) take their toll.

We’ve heard from leaders of leaders that they need fewer priorities in order to be successful. The more organizations push for this less-is-more approach, the more substance they will get from their leaders of leaders. But what do leaders do if they have a list of priorities that exceeds realistic expectations?

Communicate – Leaders should clearly communicate why fewer priorities would allow them to accomplish more. When communicating up in an organization, it is always recommended to come in with a proposal for how to solve the problem that was identified, so leaders should be ready to name which priorities they think should be focused on and why.

Leaders shouldn’t just communicate up though; they should communicate the need across and down in the organization, clearly letting people know what they are trying to solve for in a particular priority. Leaders might not know who might have the insight, experience, or reference needed, so they shouldn’t be afraid to engage others who may not seem like possible candidates to help.

Prioritize – A leader should choose one to two priorities they will dedicate the most time to. They should ask themselves whether there are any that can be set aside completely for the time being. Then they should put planning into motion. It is recommended they carve out at least a half hour per week for the simple task of planning out their strategy for making progress on that priority. They should ask themselves what steps to take, who to reach out to, and when. Then they should block time on their calendar to complete those items so they don’t get swept away in the rush of the week. If leaders don’t regularly dedicate time for planning, they may feel unproductive at first. But it directly creates the opportunity to be strategic.

Engage Their Community – Leaders don’t have to achieve their priorities in a silo. They should enlist someone on their team for the smaller priorities: It can lead to a growth and development opportunity for them. Leaders should ask themselves whether there are any priorities that can be delegated to someone on the team to take on the deep-thinking part of the work so they can create that time for themselves on something with higher stakes? Leaders should connect with those that can give them access to the influencers and decision-makers that need to be involved in order for the final solution to be a successful one.

Many organizations have found themselves reorienting to a do-more-with-less approach in order to remain customer focused and financially strong. This same approach can unleash the potential for genuine, strategic impact for leaders of leaders when applied to their list of priorities.

About the Authors

GP Strategies Corporation

GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.

“The most important factor in survival is neither intelligence nor strength but adaptability.”
~ Charles Darwin

Change is inevitable. Leaders all over the world are facing constant change and complexity, including new cultures, new jobs, new markets, and new competition. To thrive as a leader requires the ability to adapt to these changes and adjust to the new conditions. Adaptable leaders see change not as an obstacle but as an opportunity to focus on being ready for change. The following three key traits help resilient leaders navigate through change.

1. Adaptable Leaders Have Flexible Ways of Thinking

For leaders, adaptability is about having ready access to different ways of thinking, enabling leaders to shift and experiment as things change. Having an elastic cognitive approach allows leaders to use different thinking strategies and mental frameworks. Deepening awareness and perspective help leaders to understand how they think, how their team thinks, and how their customers think. Some fundamental activities to unlock flexible thinking include:

• Question your thought patterns: Ensure you are approaching with an open mind, exploring from all angles.
• Relax your mind: Give yourself the freedom to step back from rigid processes and analytical thinking, allowing you to play with the idea of a new paradigm or thought.
• Examine your emotional flexibility: Practice reflecting on your own emotions and the emotions of others; vary your approach to dealing with the emotions of others.

2. Adaptable Leaders Plan Ahead

Adaptable leaders understand that while an end goal and a vision are necessary, the path that takes them there needs to be flexible. Like with flexible ways of thinking, it’s important to have multiple plans for reaching goals. Rather than getting stuck on one solution to solve a problem, adaptable leaders have a contingency plan in place for when Plan A doesn’t work. Planning allows appropriate responses to the demands of the moment.

• Planning creates focus: Planning creates focus (it’s worth repeating a second time). Planning enables leaders to focus on their resources and use their energy to reach their goals.
• Planning helps to assess risks and opportunities: Planning provides the platform to examine the opportunities and threats in current and future situations. By understanding the obstacles they may face and the tools they have at their disposal, leaders can minimize the risk and maximize the reward.

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
~ President Dwight D. Eisenhower

3. Adaptable Leaders Are Curious
Curiosity helps to open the mind, enable growth, and encourage new ideas. Curiosity generates questions that wield problem-solving, leading to finding results. Adaptable leaders use activities, such as the following, to help develop their curiosity:

• Ask questions, listen, and observe: Seek first to understand, not to explain. Leaders should wonder, explore, and consider before judging and deciding. They understand the perspectives of others and are willing to sit in ambiguity and be open and curious without being invested in the outcome. Leaders develop the ability to uncover and check assumptions, values, and belief systems.

• Be inquisitive: Leaders ask others their opinions, perspectives, and their approaches. Everyone does things a bit differently, and potential new answers and solutions to problems can be hidden in the way other people think.

• Think creatively: Leaders know how to develop a growth mindset and create space for innovation and continuous learning. They create a safe environment for risk-taking with new models and fast failures to accelerate learning. Adaptability occurs through experimentation.

Learning how to gain an adaptable mindset does not come naturally to everyone. However, with practice and focus, resilient leadership traits, such as the ones listed above, can be developed to help foster navigation through the course of changing landscapes.

About the Authors

Keith Keating

With a career spanning over 20 years in learning & development, Keith Keating holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership and has experience in a myriad of areas ranging from Instructional Design, Leadership Coaching, Operations Management, and Process Transformation. More recently Keith has been leading clients on the development and execution of their global learning strategies. Regardless of the role, at the heart of everything Keith does centers around problem solving. He studied Design Thinking at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and found Design Thinking was a perfect tool to add to his problem solving "toolkit". Since then, Keith has been utilizing Design Thinking to help clients tap into understanding and resolving unmet customer needs.

While many people are preparing for the upcoming peak season in business & HR processes or trying to absorb the innovations announced by SAP at TechEd last week and at SuccessConnect just 4 weeks ago, we here at GP Strategies have been taking a first look at the SuccessFactors Q4-2018 release, sometimes referred to as b1811.

The coding for the Q4-2018 release has been completed and implementation partners and clients can now spend time getting acquainted with the functionalities until Q4-2018 hits preview environments in a few weeks. To clients, we would like to stress that this is an important task even though the Q4-2018 and Q1-2019 releases were announced as a “minor release.”

Looking to the Future

The updated SuccessFactors product road map debuted at SuccessConnect in September reveals that SAP is taking huge leaps forward. We were especially eager to hear if the Q4 release included anything about SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), which was announced by the President of SAP SuccessFactors, Greg Tomb, at the Las Vegas keynote.

Shortly after Tomb’s presentation, it was confirmed that SAC would indeed be delivered and is a production-ready product that will be rolled out with the Q1-2019 release. Being dedicated students of reporting and analytics, we’ve also looked at the release summary through the lens of how it will appear in SAP Analytics Cloud:

We love SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) and believe it will be a major component all SuccessFactors customers and other SAP technologies will be using inside a year and a half. The ability to build report stories, highlight main focus areas, and review key performance indicators in a user-friendly way provides a massive return on investment.

Release Details

From a high level, there are 190 release items in the Q4-2018 list, a notch lower than what we saw in previous releases. There’s also expanded support for new countries. Although SAP Analytics Cloud hasn’t arrived just yet, improvements in the current reporting capabilities have still been made. Even though they’re not architectural, they provide business opportunities and value. For data privacy, there are some important features that are also likely to complicate matters.

Release Highlights

• Life is more flexible and powerful for system admins. For example, you can now view and manage business rules on the new Business Rule Admin page. This page is designed with the SAP UI5 technology. From here, you can search, filter, sort, and group business rules. You also have the option to create and display rules from the page, but for all other operations such as modifying, copying, and deleting rules, you’ll be taken to the legacy “Configure Business Rules” UI. You can access the Business Rule Admin page the same way you currently access Configure Business Rules. The new UI5 design provides a clear overview of what rules are available in your company and offers more capability and efficiency to business rule management.
• The Fiori-based home page’s custom tile framework has been updated. While we’ve been able to create up to 100 custom tiles and have been able to use RBP roles to assign tiles to users, some use cases haven’t always been supported in the past. Now SAP has made an enhancement to the custom home page tile framework. As an admin, you can associate business rules with a custom tile and create a single tile for different target populations. The Rules Engine determines which content to display for the end user. This helps reduce the total amount of custom tiles that need to be created and helps you avoid reaching the 100 tile limit.
• SAP has put a lot of effort into providing module-specific configuration check tools. While they may not be super valuable for certified consultants, configuration check tools help analyze potential issues post go-live, so we highly recommend you enable and use them. As of the Q4-2018 release, there is a tile in the Admin Center showing a summary of the latest check results from the tool, covering total number of checks, successes, warnings, and errors. The check history pop-up also includes a new feature that shows the selected parameters for that particular check execution run.
• If your SuccessFactors solution is set up to use single sign on, you’re now hopefully using SAML2.0 as the method. Be aware that if you’re using other mechanisms and the GET log in method, you might run into security issues. For organizations that log in via browser URL, it’s recommended that you don’t include the username and password in the URL. For organizations who log in through internal integration, it’s encouraged that you change the log in method from GET to POST–it’s a change that will be enforced in a future release.
• Consultants often use a combination of XML-based data model imports and the Admin Center configuration tools. Previously, the max-length field defined in the employee data model sometimes exceeded the maximum length allowed in the SuccessFactors database even though the data model could still be imported successfully, making the max-length field ineffective. Now, it’s possible to validate the max-length definition of string fields when importing the data model. If it exceeds the maximum length, the import is blocked and error messages are provided to help you better manage the max-length definition. So if the data model has invalid configurations in it, they must be fixed in order to reimport. We recommend you just try to export and reimport to verify.
• For clients working with data imports on a regular basis, there is a much-needed enhancement to the visual experience of the importing of background and trend (this includes performance ratings and potential ratings) data. The process is enhanced so admins can now choose to enable a pop-up to notify users when they choose to overwrite existing data. Today, it’s easy to perform a simple import with one row, select overwrite, and watch as all data for the particular import object is physically deleted/purged from the system. This new warning is needed to hopefully avert purging disasters.
• There’s finally support for concurrent employment in Onboarding. This means customers will be able to indicate if this is a new hire’s primary employment during onboarding, allowing there to be multiple positions assigned to an employee without having to manually update the concurrent employment relationship afterwards.
• We have historically seen consultants and client admins add custom fields to the development plan template and forget to mark the custom field as reportable in Career Development Planning. Currently, you can add as many fields as you want, but only 20 fields can be reportable and this has to be set by field. With the Q4 2018 release, you can run a configuration check to identify the development plan templates where custom fields have not been specified as reportable. Nice!
• Compensation has seen several innovations in 2018 we hope clients will have adopted for their 2019 campaigns. The all new combined Total Compensation Worksheet is now generally available and although not mandatory to use, we recommend looking at it from 2019 on.
• There’s a lot of movement in the recruiting space. This is largely attributed to the new Candidate Relationship Management function. For example, with the Candidate Relationship Management Email Campaign feature, users can create an email campaign; enter the name, description, locale, and brand and email campaign code; and enter email field details such as from, reply-to, and the subject. Users can also select individual email recipients or select recipients from talent pools, select an email layout and content template, and save the email campaign as a draft. Other functionality includes viewing a list of email campaigns that includes the campaign name, status, date sent, number of recipients, brand, created by, and description and feedback on the email campaign such as number of recipients, clicks, unsubscribes, and undelivered. If you’re struggling to keep your candidate pool engaged and you’re not using CRM, consider it in the future.
• Employee Central is getting a (forced) upgrade from the now legacy XML-based propagation rules to EC Business Rule-based propagation. If you’ve been live with EC for more than 2 to 3 years, it’s possible you’re using the legacy method. As of the Q4-2018 release, XML-based propagation is no longer supported and is instead replaced by business rules-based propagation. Existing XML-based propagation in your systems will be automatically migrated for you. A must for all customers using XML-based propagation is to review the migrated configuration and ensure it still works as originally designed. As always, pay attention with forced upgrades and verify consequences before the upgrade hits your production instance.
• The Employee Central Data Replication Monitor now uses optimistic locking for all content types. SAP implemented optimistic locking for business configuration in Q1 2018. This means when multiple users try to update the same record, optimistic locking prevents data replication records from being corrupted or invalidated.
• In Employee Central Time Off, not a lot of change this time around – mostly focusing on unifying the user experience with SAP Fiori design in more areas.
• For Performance Management and Goal Management we’re seeing a focus on bringing the mobile experience on par with the browser experience, introducing features such as enhanced search for forms and support for collaborative steps—good features to finally have for mobile.
• Continuous Performance Management is improved!  A mobile-first feature for SAP SuccessFactors Mobile iOS users reimagines the talent experience by creating an intuitive user experience integration between Learning and Continuous Performance Management (CPM). Learning users can now create CPM achievements from the history details screen of successfully completed learning items, create CPM activities from the item details screen of learning items added to My Assignments, and receive a prompt to create a CPM activity when assigning a course to themselves via the Learning Catalog. These features are currently available only on the SAP SuccessFactors Mobile app. It’s safe to assume that they’ll revisit the web UI in a future release.
• More mobile improvement. The iOS and Android SAP SuccessFactors mobile apps now support the collaborative route map steps for Performance Management Reviews. This enables multiple users to edit the performance form simultaneously. This has been a long-time request and should significantly improve the adoption of the mobile apps.
• Updating to Report Center is now mandatory. In Report Center, you can now import or export multiple reports (and different report types) in a single action. To export multiple reports, select the reports you want to export, and click the export icon that appears above the reports list, and watch as it generates a zip file of the exported reports. Likewise, to import multiple reports, click import, select the zip file containing various reports, and click import. A status message will tell you the results. This is particularly useful for moving reports from one instance to another.
• There are also data protection improvements. When setting up a full purge of inactive users for data protection and privacy, you can now upload a list of multiple users specified by User ID via a CSV file. Before, this option was only available for partial purges of specific types of data. Now it’s available for the full master data purge.
• We are still eagerly awaiting the Read Audit functionality that was scheduled to be released during Q2 and Q3. It’s now scheduled to be released in Q1–2019  and will make customers with sensitive employee data compliant.

A Note on Role-Based Permissions (RBP)

With the Q4-2018 release, there is now a role-based permissions migration tool to perform RBP migrations. For small organizations, this tool allows you to create the most commonly used roles and assign permissions in RBP based on legacy permissions. Previously, RBP migration did not have a step-by-step tool to support it. Now, you can use the migration tool to start creating the roles you’ll need in your new security model. If you’re not using RBP, it’s time to start. If you’re not sure how to get started, reach out to SAP Cloud Support, your partners, or ask an expert. It’s a simple and largely self-maintaining feature.

Reporting Overview for SuccessFactors

Finally, let’s talk a little about reporting. While we’re waiting for SAP Analytics Cloud to emerge as a reporting framework inside Report Center, it’s important to make sure you’re taking advantage of the analytics capabilities already available in SuccessFactors.

Today, an enterprise company will likely have:

• List Reports (based on Ad Hoc Report Builder)
• Tiles (based on admin center built youcalc tiles and standard tiles)
• Dashboards (based on admin center built youcalc tiles as well as standard tiles and standard dashboards)
• Advanced Reports (based on Online Report Designer EC Advanced Reporting)
• Spreadsheet Reports (for Login history and details)
• Embedded Insights (allows display of tiles in a panel on each main module)
• Home Page Tiles (display selected tiles on the home page)

Access to all reporting tools is governed via role-based permissions, so it can become quite granular. We recommend you check that your end users have access to the right analytics at least quarterly.

We also recommend you enable the login spreadsheet report so you can better understand general system usage and answer questions like: “How many of our mangers have logged in during the past 30 days?” and “Which managers have never logged in?” If you haven’t enabled Report Center yet, we recommend that you do and that you validate your existing reports on a regular basis, including making some basic spot checks on data validation and reconciliation. With this in place, you’ll be in a fine position to start using SAP Analytics Cloud once it becomes available in the first half of 2019.

Wrap-Up

Our friends at SAP have certainly been busy the past few months. We expect this innovative pace to continue its acceleration as the SuccessFactors solution matures and integrates more and more with the SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Digital Boardroom, S4/HANA, CRM, Procurement, and countless other SAP systems to complete the SAP vision of the fully digital enterprise.

We look forward to getting our hands on all the new features and seeing them in action, and we’d love to hear what you think about the new features as well! The preview instances are set to update the weekend of November 3rd and the production instance is set to drop four weeks later on December 1st.

If you want to learn more about the release, consult the SuccessFactors Customer Community or contact us.

About the Authors

Erik Ebert

For the past 25 years, Erik Ebert has supported organizations across diverse industries and geographies to implement digital transformation strategies, improving business performance within human capital management (HCM). Erik has a track record of building lasting relationships through a consultative approach, resulting in happy clients, successful projects, and effective teams. Erik works as a Business Development Director with HCT at GP Strategies in Copenhagen, Denmark.

I straddle the worlds of employee experience surveys, learning solutions, and performance improvement resources. No matter which “hat” I’m wearing on any day, I encounter clients who want to “do something innovative” or “become more digital.” I’m not alone. Chris Lepine’s blog on people-friendly digital transformations is a great primer on the evergreen truths of technology-enabled learning and performance improvement.

Like Chris, I explored how to use engagement measurement tools in an increasingly digital world in a recent eNews article titled “Don’t Let the Tail Wag the Dog”. I’d like to continue that dialogue by digging a bit deeper into the topic of pulse surveys and their benefits.

As the name implies, pulse surveys are designed to “take the pulse” of your workforce (as opposed to, if we continue with a healthcare analogy, a comprehensive annual checkup). Advances in technology make pulsing (and its trendy cousin “continuous listening”) easier than ever. How do you know whether it’s right for your organization?

Four Reasons to Pulse

When you need to break a cycle of inaction. Some clients admit, often in hushed tones, that “not much has happened” since their last survey. If you can relate, adding one or two pulse surveys to your annual measurement approach can provide the impetus leaders need to stay focused on engagement year-round. More frequent insights will drive more frequent manager-team discussions, which can lead to renewed commitment and progress on ideas for increasing engagement.

When you want to drive accountability. If you’re trying to move your engagement survey from an annual HR-driven activity to a driver of a high-performance culture, a pulse survey can reinforce the behaviors that can actually move the needle. When you include questions that explore employee perceptions of how the last survey findings were communicated and how employees were involved in action planning, you’ll send a message that everyone needs to own a piece of the engagement equation. You’ll also obtain insights into who is actually using the survey insights to drive change and who is not.

When you’d like early warning indicators. External events impact your organization; strategies morph; priorities shift; change happens. Pulsing can help you gather insights into what’s happening in your work environment so your leaders can take appropriate action quickly.

When you have an overall measurement strategy. Pulsing without purpose is a bad idea – as is “listening in real time” without a strategy that defines the roles and responsibilities for taking action. A pulse survey can explore themes that your more comprehensive survey identifies. Its short length prevents it from gathering information on everything that you need to know to increase engagement and performance. It can’t replace the more in-depth survey.

The bottom line: Before you schedule a pulse survey, make sure you have the answers to questions like: How does this fit with our overall approach? What are we trying to achieve? What do we need to learn? … and my favorite, Who is going to do what with the insights?

About the Authors

Mary Ann Masarech

Mary Ann Masarech spent the first third of her career writing, designing, and marketing skills training for top-notch consulting firms. She acquired a broad Mary Ann is the Lead Consultant for GP Strategies’ Engagement Practice. In this role, she leverages her extensive experience with instructional design and client experience to create practical tools and strategies that clients apply worldwide to create successful businesses and thriving workplaces. She is also co-author of The Engagement Equation: Leadership Strategies for an Inspired Workforce (Wiley, Oct 2012), and a founding member of the Norma Pfriem Urban Outreach Initiatives, a not-for-profit that addresses food insecurity and education for underserved adults and children. Mary Ann is a graduate of Wesleyan University. 

How do you effectively build a learning culture? Or reskill your workforce to work with evolving technologies? And what’s the best way to develop a content strategy? Manage your digital assets? Integrate digital learning into everyday workflow?

These are the kinds of questions that keep learning and development professionals up at night. They’re also the questions GP Strategies addressed with a select group of clients on September 26 and 27 at the GP Strategies 2018 Customer Forum: “Take Flight! Empowering Innovation at the Speed of Business.” The Boeing Company graciously hosted this event for GP Strategies customers from around the world; the Forum was held at the Boeing Leadership Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Don Duquette, Executive Vice President, GP Strategies, shares insights with attendees about the future of the learning industry.

Like most learning organizations these days, many of our clients are going through some aspect of transformation, finding new learning strategies to manage talent, keeping learners engaged, preparing the workforce for a shift, or building a continuous learning culture. Several of our clients made presentations about these types of challenges and shared how they and their GP Strategies team have addressed them successfully. There were also many great conversations—both formal and informal—about the issues learning professionals face every day to maintain their global leadership positions.

Britney Cole offers an interactive demo in one of the Exploratorium rooms.

A popular attraction at the GP Strategies Customer Forum was our Exploratorium—five rooms delivering hands-on learning experiences, blending highly engaging visuals, storytelling, technology, and kinesthetic learning opportunities. The theme for our Exploratorium was “Transforming the Landscape of Learning”; each room featured innovative, real-life solutions developed by GP Strategies and our clients to solve business problems in their organizations. The Exploratorium included:

• An “Innovation Garage” showing how a major automotive manufacturer transformed learning for their sales consultants through chatbots, in-vehicle technology, interactive 360 tours, augmented reality, and virtual reality.
• A water-themed room telling the story of how a marine-themed MOOC was used to upskill a pharmaceutical company’s practitioners. At the end of the MOOC, participants could peruse the Captain’s Log, a bound book filled with key learning takeaways.
• An aerial-themed room sharing the story of how one small conversation between two fathers on a soccer field changed the trajectory of learning for one of the world’s largest technology companies. Visitors to this room had hands-on experiences with a drone and a 360-degree video camera and witnessed how these technologies could be used in learning.
• A room sharing the story of two learning journeys: Leading Self and Manager of Managers. Among the items in this room were parts of a prosthetic hand that participants from the Manager of Managers session assembled in their program for delivery to an amputee who was injured by an unexploded munition device in Asia.
• A room telling the story of how our Company is making a meaningful impact in the world through diverse initiatives such as eliminating chemical weapons stockpiles, improving disaster relief communications, supporting a crisis call center, and boosting operations and safety in the oil and gas industry.

  A peek inside the Exploratorium during the GP Strategies Customer Forum.

From a panel discussion with learning industry experts to a variety of presentations addressing the everyday challenges our clients face, the GP Strategies Customer Forum was packed with relevant and timely information that our clients could put to use immediately to enhance their learning organizations.

Each year, the GP Strategies Customer Forum raises the bar to bring our global clients value beyond the work we do for them every day. The event gives our clients the ability to connect and share ideas with each other, and gain insight on how other companies are addressing performance in their organizations. The energy, excitement, and camaraderie lasting beyond this two-day event keep our clients coming back year after year. I hope to see you there in 2019!

About the Authors

Heidi Milberg, Vice President

The Learning Technologies Ecosphere is a key part of the overall experience that we, as learning and development professionals, are trying to create for our learners. Historically, organizations have used one monolithic tool such as a learning management system, but the disruption we’re seeing now is from a variety of tools being brought together to create deeper and richer learning experiences.

We call this the appification of the learning industry. This creates an ecosphere and learning experience that is unique to each organization.

During the Learning Transformation Breakfast held in London this summer, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Nigel Paine to discuss this in more detail. Watch the video of our discussion to learn more about the Learning Technologies Ecosphere and sustainable strategies to manage them.

For learning and development professionals, one of the biggest challenges is to discover and combine the right elements that work for an organization’s goal, and then to stay on top of changes as they happen. By creating a sustainable strategy to address this challenge, your organization will be able to efficiently manage the Learning Technologies Ecosphere.

For more digital learning strategies, solutions, and examples, visit our Innovation Kitchen. If you liked this post, please connect with me on social media or share it with your colleagues!

About the Authors

Matt Donovan

Chief Learning & Innovation Officer

Early in life, I found that I had a natural curiosity that not only led to a passion for learning and sharing with others, but it also got me into trouble. Although not a bad kid, I often found overly structured classrooms a challenge. I could be a bit disruptive as I would explore the content and activities in a manner that made sense to me. I found that classes and teachers that nurtured a personalized approach really resonated with me, while those that did not were demotivating and affected my relationship with the content. Too often, the conversation would come to a head where the teacher would ask, “Why can’t you learn it this way?” I would push back with, “Why can’t you teach it in a variety of ways?” The only path for success was when I would deconstruct and reconstruct the lessons in a meaningful way for myself. I would say that this early experience has shaped my career. I have been blessed with a range of opportunities to work with innovative organizations that advocate for the learner, endeavor to deliver relevance, and look to bend technology to further these goals. For example, while working at Unext.com, I had the opportunity to experience over 3,000 hours of “learnability” testing on my blended learning designs. I could see for my own eyes how learners would react to my designs and how they made meaning of it. Learners asked two common questions: Is it relevant to me? Is it authentic? Through observations of and conversations with learners, I began to sharpen my skills and designed for inclusion and relevance rather than control. This lesson has served me well. In our industry, we have become overly focused on the volume and arrangement of content, instead of its value. Not surprising—content is static and easier to define. Value (relevance), on the other hand, is fluid and much harder to describe. The real insight is that you can’t really design relevance; you can only design the environment or systems that promote it. Relevance ultimately is in the eye of the learner—not the designer. So, this is why, when asked for an elevator pitch, I share my passion of being an advocate for the learner and a warrior for relevance.

Who doesn’t love trends? Digitization of the workplace, the Internet of Things, consumerization of the employee experience, and big data are just a few phrases peppering our discussions these days. As we sort through which developments are going to fuel organizational performance and which will fall short of their promises, we want to share a few observations for updating your engagement strategy to remain a competitive differentiator, not a mere distraction.

Make no mistake: We’re “all in” when it comes to advances in measurement methodology and reporting. The key, as with any evolving discipline, is not forgetting why we measure in the first place – or what to do with what we get. 

Here are six fundamentals for making the most of the latest engagement measurement tools and trends.

1. Don’t let the tail wag the dog. Said another way, don’t survey just because you can, without clarifying your overall measurement strategy. Your measurement strategy needs to provide useable insights for your engagement, culture, or performance strategy. Technology won’t change this basic truth. As it has become easier to gather information from employees, it’s important to remember the context: What are your organization’s mission-critical imperatives? How are you trying to shape or sustain your culture? How does engagement fit with your other employee experience initiatives? How can a more-engaged workforce deliver the results you need?
   
2. “Shorter, faster, easier, more often” is the way to go. We have always encouraged organizations to step away from the 100-item survey that takes months to process and leads to analysis paralysis. Technology now makes it easier to conduct targeted pulse surveys more frequently and present the findings more quickly to leaders and managers online. Not only does faster, easier access to findings allow leaders to explore their findings and accelerate action, dynamic dashboards satisfy the new standards in today’s workplace. As we access information and manage our lives outside of work on our smartphones, we expect that our tasks at work can be accomplished with the same ease.
   
3. Listening isn’t enough; you need a two-way dialogue – and doing. Employee feedback needs to inform conversations about improving engagement and performance. Those conversations must include all members of your workforce. If you start gathering information through a continuous listening strategy, make sure you have a way to close the feedback loop and involve employees. Our research suggests that asking for input without taking action can lead to lower response rates (people are not “survey weary”; they are “weary of nothing happening”) and disengagement.
   
4. Find the cadence that works for you. If you want to move from an annual survey to more frequent pulsing of the workforce, consider the following: What kind of change management is required to manage expectations and reset expectations of leaders and employees? What’s your organization’s track record for action so far? Will people have enough time to take action before you measure again? How will more frequent measurement overlap with your business or talent management cycles? There is no one-size-fits-all. When in doubt, start slowly and/or pilot in a few units or locations so you can apply lessons learned to the larger organization.
   
5. Provide findings down to the lowest level possible – managers and their teams. Although organization-wide initiatives have their place in your engagement strategy, engagement equations play out In our experience, change happens most quickly when managers and their teams take ownership of findings and determine what they can do within their control or influence. This means that continuous listening or pulsing strategies need to provide managers with relevant insights about their teams. Forget about random sampling. If you want every member of the workforce to own their part of your engagement or culture strategy (and yes, you do want that), you need to be able to give them their data – not a high-level sentiment sampling.
   
6. Understand the current limitations of people analytics. There are ample opportunities to kick up your analysis by exploring how retention and performance metrics relate to engagement. But remember that your employees are not customers. Your relationship with employees is different. Employees expect a response when they share their views. You’re asking how people feel, not tracking their online purchase behavior.

So what’s next? Revisit your measurement strategy to make the most of pulse surveys, dynamic reporting, and other technology-enabled engagement measurement tools.  Just keep your eye on the reasons your organization cares about engagement in the first place, as well as what’s going to work best in your culture.

About the Authors

Mary Ann Masarech

Mary Ann Masarech spent the first third of her career writing, designing, and marketing skills training for top-notch consulting firms. She acquired a broad Mary Ann is the Lead Consultant for GP Strategies’ Engagement Practice. In this role, she leverages her extensive experience with instructional design and client experience to create practical tools and strategies that clients apply worldwide to create successful businesses and thriving workplaces. She is also co-author of The Engagement Equation: Leadership Strategies for an Inspired Workforce (Wiley, Oct 2012), and a founding member of the Norma Pfriem Urban Outreach Initiatives, a not-for-profit that addresses food insecurity and education for underserved adults and children. Mary Ann is a graduate of Wesleyan University. 

The summer went so fast. It always does. As you may recall from a previous blog, I had the honor of launching a learning experience designer summer internship at GP Strategies. We envisioned a program that offered undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines to participate in client-facing work as well as internal innovation projects. The interns were from all different backgrounds and majors—from media arts to finance to engineering to communications. But, we intentionally had them co-located at our World HQ in Columbia, Maryland. Due to some long commutes, many worked remotely several days per week to offer them more of a work-life balance, whereas others really embraced the culture of working in an office and having a dedicated space.

As I reflect upon the 12 weeks of the summer, I get excited knowing that GP Strategies will be on the interns’ résumés; they can use the experiences they had with us to craft their story on upcoming interviews and opportunities. Based on the feedback we received, the experience was positive, but of course, not perfect. I wish I was onsite more (I live in Minnesota). I wish I had more client work and projects; however, the projects they did work on were strategic, internal initiatives. I wish I had more time for individual discussions. That aside, I feel we offered them an amazing opportunity to build out their portfolio. They worked on cutting-edge technology, including virtual reality and chatbots. They participated in collaborative, design-thinking exercises. They had the autonomy to create and design the experience they wanted. So, all in all – good stuff, but after reflecting on the process I wanted to share six lessons learned that we’ll take into consideration next year:

1. Make the onboarding experience a “WOW” factor.
   • During the first two days, we had the “big guns” talk to the interns. Think president of the Company, CEO, several executive vice presidents, subject matter experts, etc. While potentially overwhelming, the interns met the people in the organization who are responsible for our overall strategy and direction. They were able to share their GP Strategies stories, including describing how the people and organization shaped their career paths.
2. Make lots of connections.
   • Since we are a virtual workforce, the interns had me as their manager, but we had plenty of other resources for them. They had onsite supervisors to help them manage their day-to-day tasks. They had a network of buddies they could tap into to socialize and connect with. I set up informational interviews with individuals across our enterprise who had roles of interest to the interns. Engineering major? Meet our vice president who manages an Air Force base. Finance major? Meet our team who is responsible for quarter closeout.
3. Get a client project ahead of time.
   • This is one place I want to do better. While I had our internal projects lined up (for example, taking classroom content from our BlessingWhite partners and building a digitized learning experience), I just assumed there would be plenty of client (billable) work waiting in the wings. And it wasn’t for many reasons—timeline, schedule, skills, etc. Next year, I intend to work with one of our larger clients to “carve out” a project for the interns to work on exclusively so they can get more exposure to actual work. Too many internal projects made some of the timelines rather fluid and unclear.
4. Help with time management.
   • The six interns had several projects to work on—some were individual, some were small group, some were large team. About halfway through the internship, one of our project managers helped one of the interns build out a project plan and create the tasks and timelines needed to move the project along. I assumed that was happening, but it really wasn’t. Projects were moving forward, but in a more casual and undefined way. Next, time, we’ll give upfront training and templates to help the interns manage their time and workload so that they don’t feel overburdened or bored.
5. Use technology to connect, but focus on where the work gets done.
   • In a previous blog, I shared my angst about having too many collaboration platforms to choose from. In the end, I picked our corporate collaboration platform, Yammer, versus something that was more experimental in nature. And, for the most part, it worked. But, it only worked when we kept going back to it. It was hard to keep the conversation alive when it was easier to converse in tools such as email or IM (Skype). And, the interns made a group text message with their phones, so it was easier for them to collaborate directly with the team that way. So, bottom line—collaborate on tools where it’s easy, natural, and integrated into the job. We can’t force a single method for working jointly.
6. Offer more developmental and social opportunities.
   • One of the highlights of several interns was a one-day session on Presentation Skills led by one of our expert BlessingWhite facilitators. It helped them prepare their final presentation to the GP Strategies leadership team and gave them practical skills that they can translate to school and future work. I envision adding several sessions next year, ideally in person, on topics such as managing time and staying accountable. Also, because of several interns and myself working remotely, we didn’t do a lot of after-hours or other social/community projects. More of that next year.

So there you have it—my first experience crafting and leading an internship program. It was an honor to work with these future professionals and I hope sharing our experience can help those of you who are considering a corporate internship program within your organization.

About the Authors

Britney Cole

Britney is a learning leader with experience in organization development, human performance, and corporate learning and has worked remotely, managing virtual teams for more than a decade. Britney lives in Minnesota with her husband and three small children (ages 5, 7 and 8) where she keeps warm with plenty of blankets and cozy hats. She likes to talk, so you might see her at learning conferences as a speaker. Britney has provided consulting for clients in the financial services, pharmaceutical, steel, chemical, media, technology, retail, manufacturing, and aerospace industries. She forms lasting partnerships with her clients helping them with learning design and architecture, content development, leadership and professional development, performance consulting, technology implementation, and change management. Most recently, she is helping pioneer new experiential learning methods and defining learning 3.0 taxonomy.

By Leah Clark , Director, Strategy & Development

For many organizations, a hybrid workforce has become the norm. In this environment, many of the traditional methods of working must be adapted to fit this new paradigm. When employees no longer share a common workspace, flexibility and clear communication become essential. Leaders must find new ways of managing and communicating with team members. This may require implementing new policies, learning different technologies, and dealing with the multitude of issues that will come from leading a hybrid team. Mindsets can be a valuable tool to turn to when navigating these challenges. 

Introduction to Leadership Mindsets  

The shift in mindset to being a leader does not happen like an inchworm that spins a cocoon, undergoes some metamorphosis, and emerges one day as a newly winged leader. It’s much subtler than that. Leadership happens in the nuanced shifts that occur first in the leader’s mind. Before delegation, coaching, or team-building skills are used, individuals need to change how they think about themselves and their role in the organization. They need to adopt certain mindsets that are foundational to leadership success. We believe four elemental leadership mindsets—growth, inclusive, agile, and enterprise—are critical to being a successful leader today. 

The Four Key Leadership Attitudes in a Hybrid Environment 

Growth Mindset   

Having a growth mindset is foundational to leadership success because it supports the premise that people can learn, grow, and expand their skills. When a leader has a growth mindset, they see their own setbacks, and those of the people they lead, as opportunities to be more persistent and try again. Leaders with a mindset for change believe they, and the people around them, get better through effort and persistence.  

Benefits of Shifting to a Growth Mindset  

A growth mindset can help leaders abandon long-held assumptions about how to get work done, bring people together, and develop careers by reframing these basic assumptions:  

Assumption: The team needs to be together to collaborate, innovate, and give feedback. 
New Perspective: We can innovate and collaborate in new ways, leveraging technology to support us. 

Assumption: Collaboration and innovation will decrease with a hybrid team. 
New Perspective: We can increase our ability to collaborate and innovate through a diverse and talented team regardless of location. 

Assumption: All people are more collaborative when they can physically be together and brainstorm. 
New Perspective: People collaborate in diverse ways—we can make room for that on our team. 

Ways of Implementing a Growth Mindset  

• Offer coaching to team members to unlock their full potential 

• Provide autonomy within your team, by allowing employees to choose the way they work 

Inclusive Mindset 

For inclusivity to be a part of an organization’s collective consciousness as well as its best practices, it needs to be an inherent part of how leaders conduct themselves. Inclusivity is not an extra concept that leaders should do when they get around to it. It’s part of the internal compass that directs their thinking and their behaviors. Gathering other perspectives and innovative ideas is about consciously seeking diversity while being aware of the unconscious biases that can prevent us from reaching out to others and repeating patterns. This shift in mindset is essential to the future success of your organization. 

Benefits of Shifting to an Inclusive Mindset  

Hybrid environments require an increased focus on inclusivity. Employees want to be involved in the decision-making process regarding hybrid arrangements. Equity will be a key focus in leader communications, the structure of meetings, and in the way career development is addressed to avoid an “us” vs. “them” mentality among in-office and remote team members. Here are some ways to apply an inclusive mindset to hybrid work.  

Assumption: The organization decides what is best. 
New Perspective: Involving my team in the decision-making process, to the extent possible, will drive better outcomes for all. 

Assumption: Everyone’s work-from-home scenario needs a certain structure. 
New Perspective: Each person’s lived experience is different, and we can account for that in the way we structure their work. 

Assumption: Individuals in the office are the hardest working and have an important voice at the table. 
New Perspective: I have a responsibility to engage all team members. Contribution can come from a diverse group of employees, regardless of where they work. 

Ways of Implementing an Inclusive Mindset  

• Recognize and confront your own unconscious biases through self-reflection 

• Invite feedback from your team members 

• Speak up for others and challenge non-inclusive attitudes in team members and the organization itself 

Agile Mindset 

Our research shows that leaders value a mindset of openness and adaptability—and with good reason. Having an agile mindset, particularly in the context of an ever-changing business and work environment, is crucial. Digital transformation has altered the level and frequency of information individuals receive. An agile leader can take in, filter, and assimilate information quickly. They can then reassess their decisions or choose to stay the course, but they must do so with a frequency that reflects the speed of business. Agile leaders are not just resilient—they seek change as a way to spur innovation. They don’t merely anticipate change; they invite it in. 

Benefits of Shifting to an Agile Mindset  

An agile mindset will help leaders keep an open mind and remain flexible to alternate ways of working. Here are some ways of using the agile mindset to rethink assumptions:  

Assumption: The hybrid team needs to work the same way our in-person team worked, or we cannot sustain it. 
New Perspective: We will have bumps along the way as we implement hybrid, and we will need to make adjustments. 

Assumption: Hybrid will be successful with solid protocols in place from the start. 
New Perspective: We can begin to implement certain elements of hybrid even if we do not have every aspect of it solved. 

Ways of Implementing an Agile Mindset  

• Embrace change 

• Open yourself to alternative solutions & approaches 

• Work to become comfortable moving forward with incomplete information  

• Prioritize adjusting plans in response to new information 

Enterprise Mindset 

Finally, today’s leader must increasingly embrace an enterprise mindset. They must think about their goals and their team’s goals in a way that aligns with the goals of the organization. A leader with an enterprise mindset puts the needs of the organization first and foremost—they make decisions based on the greater good. They build relationships for this purpose. They speak up and make tough decisions all in service of organizational needs. A leader with an enterprise mindset pushes beyond group and divisional needs, breaking down siloed thinking with the aim of producing results that benefit the organization. 

Benefits of Shifting to an Enterprise Mindset  

A hybrid leader balances meeting individual and team needs while keeping the goals of the organization and customers top-of-mind regardless of physical scenarios. Here are a few mindset shift examples: 

Assumption: I can get the team working towards the goals of the organization and meeting the needs of our customers by bringing them together physically. 
New Perspective: I can get the team working towards the goals of the organization by reminding them of those goals and the needs of our customers regularly. 

Assumption: They will remember what they are working for when they see the building and their colleagues. 
New Perspective: They team will continue to remain focused on serving our customers regardless of location. 

Ways of Implementing an Enterprise Mindset  

• Link the team objectives to organizational goals 

• Reinforce the connection between what team members are doing and the impact this has on the organization 

The Role Culture Plays in Leadership Mindsets 

Mindset shifts can only be successful for leaders if the culture is supportive. New thinking alone will not drive leadership success, and the best of leader intentions can fall short if senior leadership doesn’t model behaviors that are in line with this thinking. Likewise, performance management and other processes must align if attitudinal changes are to successfully take hold. An organization that promotes a growth mindset but then punishes failure or risk taking will fail to instill this mindset in its people—just as an organization that rewards group and individual accomplishments will have a tough time promoting enterprise thinking. 

Benefits of Shifting Your Leadership Mindset 

It is important for leaders to understand how to change their mindset and attitude in a hybrid environment. Reimagining what is possible in a hybrid environment means thinking about things differently—embracing a sense of agility and inclusivity, adopting an enterprise perspective and leading from a perspective of growth and possibility. These mindsets will help you improve your ability to delegate, hold others accountable, and coach team members. These behaviors are the visible evidence that a leader is fulfilling their role, but it’s the mental shift that happens, the attitudes that an individual brings to their role as a leader, that, while intangible, most determines leadership success. 

Want to improve leadership within your organization? Our Digital Leadership Suite offers solutions for managers at all levels of your organization. 

About the Authors

Leah Clark

Leah Clark is the Leadership Practice Lead at GP Strategies, as well as an author and the founder of LeaderConnect. With over 28 years of experience in her field, Leah brings a unique perspective on the mindsets and skillset that are critical to leadership success to her coaching and consulting. Her clients benefit from her collaborative approach to crafting a well-connected and thoughtful leadership development strategy. Leah holds a Master of Arts; Organizational Psychology, Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts; English and Sociology, Boston College.