A New Learning Frontier

A New Learning Frontier
In partnership with:
Ferrazzi Greenlight Offices
1849 Sawtelle Blvd., Suite 710 Los Angeles, CA 90025
Tel: (310) 444-0049 Fax: (310) 444-0069
www.ferrazzigreenlight.com
A New Learning Frontier
How higher education institutions can grow by helping corporate
learning executives solve their most urgent challenges
Introduction
Transforming Companies
Since 2003
Colleges and universities have entered a new learning frontier, one filled with countless
opportunities and pitfalls. Today, many higher education institutions grapple with lower
enrollment figures, incessant budget crunches, high dropout rates, rapid technological
advancements and sweeping shifts in the demographics of learners.
At its core, Ferrazzi Greenlight
is a research institute focused
on human behavior change. Our
consulting around high-return
practices creates new habits
that transform company
cultures.
To survive in this new reality, colleges and universities must evolve and adapt. One promising
area that holds vast, unrealized potential for higher education to expand and thrive is
business and industry. Research shows that in 2014, U.S. spending on corporate training
i
grew by 15 percent, the highest growth rate in seven years. And overall, organizations spent
ii
a staggering $70 billion in the U.S. and $130 billion internationally to improve their learning
and development programs.
This spending on training is likely
to remain strong since ongoing
learning and development is
a highly effective tool to drive
innovation and productivity while
increasing employee engagement
and retention, especially for
millennials who see continuing
education and development as a
iii
top employment benefit.
Plus,
according to a recent PWC report,
63 percent of CEOs are worried
about finding talent with the right
skills, meaning more executives
are likely to spend money to ensure
iv
their employees possess the skills
necessary for their positions.
Year-over-year Change in Training Spending U.S. 2006-2013
20%
15%
15%
12%
10%
10%
7%
Our Clients
Many of Ferrazzi Greenlight’s
clients are Global 1000 including
Accenture, BT, Cisco, Dow,
eBay, General Motors, Intel,
Thomson Reuters and US
Bank. Everything FG does is
focused on our iconic clients
and guided by four relational
mindsets: generosity, intimacy,
accountability, and candor.
6%
5%
0%
2008
2006
2009
2007
2%
2010
Ellucian
2011
2012
2013
-5%
-10%
-11% -11%
-15%
Source: Bersin by Deloitte, 2013.
Unfortunately, despite pouring huge sums of money into these learning and development
programs, many executives still grapple with how to improve and enhance their effectiveness.
v
As research shows, the need to revamp and improve learning programs is an important
concern among HR executives.
At Ferrazzi Greenlight, we know
the best results often come
through the best partnerships.
That’s why we’re proud that
Ellucian partnered with us to
bring this important study to life.
An industry leader and expert
on the shifting needs of higher
education institutions, Ellucian
provides software, services, and
insights to help higher education
leaders meet the demands of
students and staff today and
tomorrow.
A New Learning Frontier
Learning executives need help, which is why many have established, or are
interested in establishing, partnerships with higher education. In our research
at Ferrazzi Greenlight, we discovered that 80 percent of learning executives we
surveyed view higher education as a potential partner to provide solutions to
their most urgent challenges.
This is great news for higher education institutions. Instead of having to undergo
an arduous search to find viable and profitable long-term markets, the market
has found them. However, to capitalize on these unlimited opportunities for
institutional growth, higher education institutions will have to modify and
transform their traditional course structures and business models to meet the
needs and demands of organizations and their adult learners.
This will require higher education institutions to review and update enrollment procedures to make it easier for people to
register online instead of demanding in-person enrollment. It will require flexible course schedules so non-traditional students
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— which, by many reports, now represent the majority of college enrollees — can continue to work while taking classes. It will
require an ability to rapidly customize courses to meet the real-time demands and challenges of an industry or organization. It
will require the development of high-quality content that engages, informs and is instantly applicable in a learner’s workplace.
And it will require higher education institutions to show, track and clearly measure performance so an organization can easily
monitor how well employees have mastered — or are mastering — expected skills.
“Higher education has to better understand what the market wants and develop those programs
and courses, because if we don’t, other institutions — or even private consulting firms — will
step up and deliver the material that corporations want and need,”
says Dr. Brian Cameron, Associate Dean for Professional Master’s Programs and Clinical Professor of
vii
Management Information Systems at Penn State.
The question isn’t whether higher education can provide the solutions that business and industry crave and cry out for.
It’s whether higher education will.
A New Learning Frontier
Learning Executives Take Center Stage
In the following pages, we explore the results gleaned from our research among learning executives on the major challenges they
face in their learning and development programs. After an extensive and thorough review of recent research, we conducted indepth interviews with Chief Human Resource Officers (CHRO) and Chief Learning Officers (CLO) at GM, eBay, Dun & Bradstreet,
Farmers Insurance, Natixis Global Asset Management, Wells Fargo and Xerox. We followed this up with a structured survey
with top learning and training executives, including CHROs, CLOs, Chief Talent Officers and other senior leaders of 16 major
corporations. These firms represent industries in Consumer Products, Electronics, Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Health
Care, Insurance, Manufacturing, Transportation and Technology, and range from $1 billion to $55 billion in annual revenue.
In our survey, we asked learning executives to evaluate the urgency they feel in addressing seven key learning challenges they
face in their organizations. We also asked learning executives whether they have, or plan to, implement solutions for their
current challenges, and if these solutions were effective. Finally, survey respondents were asked about their perceptions of
higher education as a potential partner to address their learning challenges and what higher education can do to make a
partnership successful.
To understand how providers of training and development view these challenges and possible solutions, we also interviewed
leaders of industry-focused education programs at several leading universities and colleges throughout the U.S.
Case Study: Experiential Learning at Penn State Drives Lasting Change
In this role, Penn State’s world-class faculty will
real, lasting change in the workplace.”
guide learners through the knowledge, techniques
Dr. Jeffrey L. Spearly
Senior Director, Learning and
Development
and information they need to solve a relevant
Penn State faculty also offers virtual learning
problem identified within the organization.
options with flexible class and group discussion
times to accommodate the needs of an older, and
often employed, demographic of learners.
Penn State is one example of a university that
“At Penn State, our faculty guide internal teams of
offers an experiential approach and custom course
pre-selected people through the learning process,”
design for its corporate partners and learners. At
explains Dr. Jeff Spearly, Senior Director, Learning
By providing flexible, custom course design geared
Penn State, faculty can customize programs or
and Development for Penn State Executive
around experiential learning, learners have the
courses based on the short- and long-term needs
Programs and a Senior Instructor at the Smeal
chance to implement the lessons learned in
of business and industry. Faculty will even take
College of Business. “This approach isn’t about
real-time in a way that can ensure the material
learning tools beyond the traditional video, lectures
classroom teaching or faculty giving answers to
is embraced. This approach is also invaluable for
and textbooks to offer learners the chance to fully
students; it’s about faculty leading, directing and
many corporations that select real challenges that
engage with the material through facilitated small-
coaching the group to find the answers themselves,
their own people — not consultants — solve.
group discussions and interactions.
and then to apply them. This type of learning drives
A New Learning Frontier
Emerging Trends: 7 Disruptive Challenges Facing Learning Executives
Learning executives face a myriad of worrying challenges as they work to bring more learning and development activities
and opportunities to their learners. From our research and interviews, we observed seven major trends impacting learning
executives and their learners. In our survey, we asked respondents to rank each trend in order of the urgency they feel to
address the challenge.
1. Challenge: Getting managers to make time to coach their employees. Respondents identified this challenge as the most
urgent of the seven. Historically, managers were the ones who passed on knowledge, skills and insights through coaching
and mentoring of their employees. But in our more global, complex and competitive world, the role of the manager has
eroded. Managers are now overburdened with responsibilities. They can barely handle what they’re directly measured on, let
alone find the time to offer coaching and mentoring.
2. Challenge: Keeping up with the rapidly changing, short shelf life of learning and development needs. Respondents rated
this challenge as the second most urgent. It used to be that what people learned was valuable for years, but now, knowledge
and skills can become obsolete within months. This makes the need to learn in real time, rapidly and regularly more important
than ever. And it requires organizations to rethink how learning and development happens from a once-in-a-while activity
to a more continuous, ongoing campaign. As Annette Thompson, Senior Vice President & Chief Learning Officer at Farmers
Insurance, pointed out in an interview for this study, avoiding information overload is vital, so organizations must strike a
viii
balance between giving the right information versus giving too much.
“Our philosophy around learning has shifted. We’ve moved away from telling our employees they must complete
a prescribed number of courses to saying we don’t care where the information comes from— be it from peer-topeer learning, a manager, a course or from someone’s own experiences. What we care about is whether a person
can pass an assessment exam and prove they know, and have learned, the competencies.”
Annette Thompson
Senior Vice President & Chief Learning Officer, Farmers Insurance
3. Challenge: Teaching employees to own and drive their career development. The majority of learning executives (63
percent) in the survey identified this as a highly urgent challenge. Highly structured, one-size-fits-all learning programs
don’t work anymore. Individuals must own, self-direct and control their learning futures. Yet they can’t do it alone, nor do
learning executives want them to. The development and growth of talent is vital to the ongoing success, ability to innovate
and overall productivity of an organization. It’s a delicate balance for many learning executives to teach their learners to take
responsibility for their development while also encouraging individuals to develop specific skills to help the organization.
“We need to have ‘customized’ solutions for individuals while simultaneously providing scale and cost efficiencies across the
ix
organization,” explains Don Jones, former Vice President, Learning at Natixis Global Asset Management.
A New Learning Frontier
How much of a concern is this challenge for you right now?
(5=Urgent Concern; 1=Not a Concern at All)(n=16)
Legend
1
M=
4.00
3.63
3.6
3.5
13%
12%
3.25
2
3
3.06
4
5
2.75
100%
90%
31%
6%
13%
25%
25%
80%
25%
13%
70%
25%
60%
50%
44%
31%
44%
50%
50%
40%
56%
37%
30%
25%
38%
25%
20%
31%
6%
10%
13%
13%
Challenge 2:
Challenge 6:
0%
Getting
Keeping up
managers
with the
to allocate
speed of
time to
the rapidly
actively
changing
coach their learning and
direct reports… development
needs…
6%
19%
6%
Challenge 1:
Teaching
employees
to own,
control, and
self-direct
their own
individual
career
development…
Challenge 5:
13%
Challenge 7:
6%
Challenge 3:
Challenge 4:
Providing
Serving the
Building
Providing
flexible
learning and
trust
appropriate
learning
development
among learning options
options
needs of
employees
to suit the
so employees employees
in your
variety of
can actively
who work organization’s
learning
engage in
in virtual
leadership
styles…
learning and
teams…
team
development
activities…
A New Learning Frontier
4. Challenge: Providing flexible learning options to make it easy for employees to actively engage in learning activities. The
majority of respondents (57 percent) felt a high level of urgency to provide flexible learning options so employees could easily
engage in learning activities. Modern men and women live in a complex world of dizzying workloads, information overload,
frantic paces and technology that constantly buzzes and beeps them into 24/7 work cycles. For many — from leaders to
managers to frontline employees — the idea of work/life balance has become a myth. Telling employees they need to engage
in more learning and development activities with their already heavy workload often leaves them feeling overwhelmed and
consumed by the question, “When and how will I find the time?” Companies recognize the need to adopt more on-demand
and mobile-friendly solutions that make learning opportunities more readily accessible for people.
“To remain competitive, colleges must innovate in all aspects of their work including bringing new courses and
training to market. Partnering with business allows colleges to closer align the market needs of employers with
the skill development of current and future employees.”
Dr. Bryan Albrecht
President, Gateway Technical College
5. Challenge: Serving the learning needs of more virtual teams. A third (31 percent) of learning executives saw this as a highly
urgent challenge. Of the learning executives we interviewed, those organizations that have multiple offices spread across the
country, or with significant experience utilizing virtual teams, were the most impacted by this challenge. Because technology
allows people to live in Texas while working for a company based in California — or Japan — learning executives are having
to give more thought and creativity to how to actively engage this segment of their workforce.
6. Challenge: Building trust in organizational leadership. Relative to the other learning challenges, building trust in leadership
registered only moderate urgency among respondents. People crave transparency, openness and honesty from their
leaders. Unfortunately, business leaders continue to face trust issues. According to a survey by the American Psychological
x
Association, one in four workers say they don’t trust their employer and only about half believe their employer is open and
upfront with them.
7. Challenge: Matching different learning options to different learning styles to address the sweeping demographics shift.
One in four learning executives (25 percent) said they continue to feel some urgency to address this challenge. With five
generations actively in the workforce, organizations must restructure the way employees learn and the tools and activities
they use to correctly match the different styles, preferences and expectations of employees. For example, millennials came
of age using cell phones, computers and video game consoles, so they expect to use these technologies to support their
learning activities.
A New Learning Frontier
Wanted: Effective Solutions
Everyone in the interview and survey groups mentioned numerous solutions they’ve
implemented to combat all seven of the trends our research identified, regardless
of the level of urgency experienced. However, none of the solutions in place were
considered highly effective.
For the second most urgent
challenge — keeping up with
the speed of rapidly changing
learning and development needs
— we learned that 63 percent
of respondents had solutions in
place, but only about half believed
their solutions were effective.
One survey respondent noted,
“We have a process in place that
identifies needs, but we’re not
yet fast enough in being able to
respond to those needs.”
Urgency vs. Effectiveness of Solutions
4
High Urgency With Only
Moderately Effective Solutions
Moderate Urgency/Moderate Solutions
3.9
Building Trust in Leadership (95%)
3.8
3.7
Effectiveness of Solutions
Most troublesome for learning
executives is the lack of successful
solutions for the top three most
pressing challenges. While 56
percent of respondents said they
had some solutions in place for
the challenge of greatest urgency
— getting managers to make time
to coach employees — the majority
(67 percent) ranked their solutions
as ineffective.
Teaching Employees to Self-Direct
Learning & Development (68%)
Matching Learning Options
to Learning Styles (69%)
3.6
3.5
Keeping up with Changing Learning
Needs (63%)
Serving Virtual Team Members (75%)
3.4
Providing Flexible Learning Options (75%)
3.3
Getting Managers to Make Time to
Coach Employees (56%)
3.2
3.1
Getting
managers to
make time
for coaching,
keeping up
with the speed
of change,
and providing
flexible
learning
options are the
most urgent
learning
challenges
facing learning
executives
None of
the current
solutions
to these
challenges are
considered
“highly
effective”
Moderate Urgency/Need Better Solutions High Urgency and Need Better Solutions
3
2.5
2.7
2.9
3.1
3.3
3.5
3.7
3.9
4.1
Urgency of Key Learning Challenge
Note: Numbers in parenthesis represent the
percentage of respondents with a solution already in place.
Rounding out the top three most urgent challenges, 68 percent of survey respondents also said they had solutions in place for
teaching employees to own, control and self-direct their own individual careers, but only 18 percent believed these were highly
effective.
A New Learning Frontier
The Role of Higher Education
Learning executives need powerful and dynamic learning solutions for their employees, and they’ve begun the hunt for partners
that can provide the solutions they need. According to our survey respondents, higher education institutions have made the
list of potential partners. The vast majority of survey respondents (80 percent) see higher education institutions as potential
partners to provide the most needed solutions to their learning and development challenges.
These executives have wasted little time in developing key relationships with higher education institutions. Three out of five
survey respondents (58 percent) already work with higher education, while only eight percent said they are unlikely to work with
an institution.
“The credibility of content producers is everything. In today’s environment, learners are as interested in who is
creating the content as they are in the content itself.”
Michael Arena
Chief Talent Officer, General Motors
This means higher education institutions have an opportunity to provide the solutions business and industry need. But what
must they do to capture this segment of the education market?
The learning executives we interviewed and surveyed suggested a mix of technological, content and administrative changes that
higher education institutes could make to increase the likelihood that organizations will choose them as their partner.
To understand how providers view these challenges, we interviewed presidents, deans and faculty members throughout academia
at leading universities like Harvard, Yale and Penn State. Each of the schools represented have diverse undergraduate, graduate,
continuing education or executive education programs. Where applicable, we have included examples of these institutions to
represent how others in higher education can successfully align their curriculum and administrative procedures to meet the
needs of organizations and the new wave of learners.
A New Learning Frontier
Case Study: Cal Poly’s “Learn By Doing” Approach
Dr. Brian Greenwood
Associate Professor and Chair of the
Learn By Doing Conference
model and places them at the center of the action
comes directly from one of the college’s corporate
to problem-solve and troubleshoot situations
partners, like Lockheed Martin. The students must
designed to mimic what they’d see in the corporate
then solve the problem, with the instructor helping
world.
to guide and coach them to the answers – just like
the Penn State model.
In Greenwood’s classes, he uses a blended
“In today’s information age, the information is
approach of online and face-to-face classroom,
Organizations have taken notice of the Cal Poly
out there for anyone to access, but learners have
small-group learning. Before class, students will
Learn By Doing approach. Cal Poly boasts an
to know how to ask the right questions and how
read the material on their own time and where they
impressive 97 percent employment
to solve problems as a team,” says Dr. Brian
choose. When they come to class, they take a quick
some of the nation’s top companies, like Boeing,
Greenwood, Associate Professor and Chair of
quiz at the beginning to ensure they’ve prepped
Northrop Grumman, Cisco Systems and Philips
the Learn By Doing Conference at California
by reading the pre-class materials, and then the
66. Greenwood says feedback from corporations
Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly).
students form small groups to begin collaborative
that host interns and recent graduates say that Cal
problem-solving exercises.
Poly students tend to be better prepared to enter
rate with
the professional world and are years ahead of their
Cal Poly places a strong emphasis on learning
through experience, or what they call Learn By
In these small groups, Greenwood poses a
Doing. This is an engaged approach to learning that
challenge to his students. Sometimes, depending
takes students away from the traditional lecture
upon the academic discipline, the challenge even
peers from other institutions.
7 Ways Higher Education Can Create More Sustainable Partnerships
With Business
1. Be flexible in course structure, design, and offer customized courses. The overwhelming majority of respondents (87
percent) said they wanted to see greater flexibility from higher education institutions to customize courses to an industry or
a specific development need. Gateway Technical College in Wisconsin is an example of a college that has a strong history
of successful partnerships with companies like SC Johnson, Trane Corporation and Snap-on Inc. Through these innovative
partnerships, Gateway, along with the supporting companies, has built a national network of industry certifications embedded
into their curriculum leading to industry-recognized certificates of competence for students. Another example is Gateway’s
concentrated boot camp training that helps to reduce the skilled worker talent gap throughout the college district by matching
the skills needed by employers with a focused 15-week, 8-hours-per-day training experience. By tuning into the market
xi
needs of business and industry, Gateway has created strong programs that corporations and learners actively seek out.
A New Learning Frontier
2. Offer ways for companies to track performance analytics. Over 70 percent of respondents said this tool could help make
partnerships with higher education institutions more effective and well-received. The reality is that many learning executives
have come under intense pressure to demonstrate a return on investment for their learning and development initiatives. They
must show that learners have gained and improved their skills and abilities and that these skills have, and will, positively
impact the organization.
Many colleges and universities have moved to teach practicable and applicable skills that learners can immediately implement
in their daily jobs to quickly demonstrate the effectiveness of the courses. One example is Corporate College, a division of
Cuyahoga Community College in the greater Cleveland area. At Corporate College, faculty work to measure and analyze the
results of courses with the goal of showing measurable results to the organization on the new skills employees gain. For
example, faculty will work with managers to teach them how to better delegate responsibilities and prioritize their time. To
show organizations that their managers have successfully learned and put this new skill to use, faculty will ask managers
to record the new tasks and responsibilities they completed with the time saved from delegating lesser priority duties. This
exercise helps organizations to quickly see the direct benefit and value of their investments in higher education and training
xii
for their managers.
“We’re seeing a desire from our people for more informal learning, which we’re working to honor. Recently, we
negotiated a deal with TED to bring talks to our team members. We’ve already had nearly 150,000 downloads of
TED talks.”
Cara Peck
Executive Vice President, Enterprise Talent Planning and Development Service, Wells Fargo & Co.
3. Create fast and simple solutions for learners to search, register and pay for courses online, or through an organization’s
own web portal. Over 50 percent of survey respondents felt this would be helpful. Especially as the onus shifts more onto
the learner to own and self-direct their ongoing learning and career development, the process of searching, signing up and
paying for courses must be efficient, simple and quick. “If you want to increase engagement and get ongoing learning into
your employees’ hands, then you have to bring learning to them, not the other way around,” says Daryl Zapoticzny, Global
xiii
Head of Talent at Dun and Bradstreet. This includes offering learners the ability to register for classes in person, over the
phone, online or by mail.
4. Make it simple for organizations to bulk register and pay for employee courses online. Similar to #3, over half of learning
executives surveyed believed it would make their partnerships with higher education institutions more effective if they could
easily register multiple employees at once for a program or course.
A New Learning Frontier
5. Use engaging, high-quality and easy-to-access content. Learners today want a variety of learning tools that they can easily
access and consume on-demand. The learning executives we spoke with all noted that higher education institutions, with
high-quality faculty, are a potential trove of valuable content. These organizations are on the lookout to form short- and
long-term partnerships with higher education institutions. Learning executives are looking to higher education institutions
to produce and provide learning applications and tools, like online lectures, webcasts, podcasts, interactive tools, MOOCs,
games and snippets of content that will match the needs of a diverse range of learners. And executives want to provide their
learners with a variety of tools that can be easily accessed and consumed on-demand, whenever and wherever that makes it
convenient for the learners’ busy life.
Harvard University
Case Study: Harvard’s New Model for Executive Development: Cascaded Learning and
Leader as Coach
Das Narayandas
decision-making speed of its leaders and to build
When the senior leaders returned home, they were
Senior Associate Dean, Harvard
Business Publishing
greater alignment on strategy, brand and culture
each assigned to one of 15 virtual cohorts. Each
among its 100 most senior leaders and throughout
cohort consisted of about 50 managers and six or
the organization.
seven senior leaders. Virtual cohorts participated
While on-campus programs at Harvard Business
School (HBS) remain a popular option, the school
in a program consisting of four modules. Each
has found a growing niche. For some corporations,
HBS Executive Education and Harvard Business
module was four weeks long and included a
HBS offers a mix of intensive one-week classroom-
Publishing partnered to develop a customized
foundational framework, a virtual lecture delivered
based programs targeted to senior executives and
classroom-based program for the 100 most senior
by HBS faculty, a case discussion, and a simulated
then, through a virtual platform provided by Harvard
leaders at HBS and a virtual program designed
challenge specific to Zeiss.
Business Publishing, cascades that curriculum to
to cascade key curriculum elements of the
additional levels of company management. Senior
senior leader program to an additional 750 Zeiss
Throughout the program duration, senior leaders
leaders who participate in the HBS program
managers.
in each cohort were supported by Harvard program
often play a key role as mentors and coaches to
participants in the virtual program.
moderators. Dedicated moderators, who stayed
At the conclusion of the classroom-based program,
with their assigned cohort throughout the virtual
called the HBS Leadership Summit, leaders were
program, were responsible for both facilitating the
The school recently saw success using this
given an overview of the virtual cascaded program
cohort’s learning and providing ongoing support
model with Carl Zeiss, a global portfolio company
and introduced to the role they would play in
and assistance to senior leaders to support them
specializing in optics and optoelectronics. Carl
coaching, mentoring and supporting the virtual
in their roles as cohort coaches and mentors.
Zeiss approached HBS to help improve the
program participants.
(continued on next page)
A New Learning Frontier
6. Provide experiential learning. Learning executives want
more than classroom, lecture-style learning options —
they crave real-life experiences for their learners that will
immediately help to solve real, pressing, internal challenges
at their organizations. Many institutions like Harvard, Penn
State and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly)
take a more experiential learning approach to teaching
course material, which appeals to many learning executives.
At Cal Poly, this teaching method is taken seriously through
its “Learn By Doing” motto. Learn By Doing is an active and
engaged approach to learning that takes the student away
from the traditional lecture and places them at the center
of the action to problem-solve and troubleshoot situations,
like what they’d see in the corporate world,” says Dr. Brian
Greenwood, Associate Professor and Chair of the Learn By
xiv
Doing Conference at Cal Poly.
Harvard
University
Harvard mentors might, for example, assist a
leader in discussing how a particular framework
being taught that week applied to Zeiss challenges
or provide whatever support a leader required so
that they were effectively prepared to guide and
facilitate their cohort’s discussions and problemsolving efforts.
“Learning is about becoming less of an expert who
imparts knowledge onto the learner and more
7. Communicate and market courses directly to learners.
“With so many demands on people’s time, it’s all about
how easy it is for students to access your college,” says Dr.
Larry Keen, President of Fayetteville Technical Community
College, in North Carolina. Dr. Keen adds, “Leveraging the
technological advancement is important not just for teaching
the classes but for communicating and interacting with
xv
students.” It’s become critically important that institutions
communicate directly with training executives and their
learners on course descriptions, costs, class time and other
relevant information.
about leading, coaching and facilitating discussions
to help people arrive at the answers and solutions,”
says Das Narayandas, Senior Associate Dean,
Chair, Executive Education at Harvard Business
School.
What made this particular program and style of
learning so rich was that leaders were expected
to be coaches and mentors to Zeiss employees.
This type of role can be unnatural for many people,
which is why the moderators’ ongoing support and
coaching of leaders throughout the process helped
them to expand and transform their behaviors
and abilities in real-time and on real, applicable
problems.
Plus, there is the power of leading by example.
Throughout the program the 750 middle-managers
observed their leaders coaching and mentoring
them,
which
meant
they
gained
invaluable
knowledge and experience for how they, too, could
coach and mentor their own direct reports.
A New Learning Frontier
The Future Begins Today
Organizations are spending billions of dollars each year on their
learning and development programs, spending that is likely
to continue, and yet they continue to struggle with lackluster
results. This creates a rich opportunity for higher-education
institutions to fill the void of unimpressive solutions with those
that will transform, educate and elevate learners at all levels
of an organization. Partnerships with organizations also mean
higher education institutions have the chance to ensure their
revenue and enrollment numbers remain strong.
Will helping to improve and solve the urgent learning and development challenges facing organizations mean that some higher
education programs and administrative systems must change? Yes, but all things evolve. Just as public and private entities
have had to survive in the modern world of ricocheting uncontrollable and disruptive technological, societal and environmental
forces, so, too, will higher education institutions have to weather their own waves of change.
And as the colleges and universities spotlighted in this report show, it’s possible to successfully adjust to this new world. It’s
possible for higher education institutions to meet the needs of learning executives and organizations that plead for greater
training, streamlined administrative efficiencies, enhanced and ever-evolving content, and new content delivery systems and
course structures that meet the needs of adult, nontraditional learners.
The new frontier of higher education has arrived, but the question remains: Which higher education institutions will make the
necessary adjustments to meet the needs of organizations and, by doing so, increase enrollment and revenue?
A New Learning Frontier
Corporate College
Case Study: Corporate College Develops Talent in Its Backyard
Depending on the needs of business and the
In the 12 years since Corporate College opened
number of individuals the company wants trained,
its doors, the program has steadily increased the
Corporate College can customize the course,
number of corporate partners. Over the last two
where it’s taught and the duration. Bilardo and
years, Bilardo has seen a shift to more continuous,
her team offer a range of course lengths, from a
ongoing talent development work on a larger
brief “Lunch & Learn” session to classes that last
scale, versus companies that choose only a one-
At Corporate College — a division of Cuyahoga
anywhere from four to eight hours to those that
hour training event. This trend is something she
Community College, located in the greater
take place over the course of one day, multiple
anticipates will increase.
Cleveland area — northeast Ohio individuals,
days, once a month or up to four months or more.
businesses and international companies, like
And if a company can’t make it to their facility,
“There is a definite need to help coach managers
Cleveland Clinic, American Greetings, Olympic
that’s okay because Corporate College will travel
to be better leaders,” she says. “Coaching of
Steel and Medical Mutual, regularly seek out the
offsite to a company’s headquarters.
leadership and managers can absolutely be done
Meghan Bilardo
Director Organizational Effectiveness
by higher education. However, many organizations
school to provide ongoing professional training and
Corporate College deploys a blended learning
development, especially for managers.
approach for its learners. Some of the learning is
Director
self-directed and self-paced and includes online
Organizational Effectiveness, the college offers
reading, self-assessments and books. It also
a variety of courses in different areas and does
includes experiential learning vis-à-vis small
extensive work to help managers change their
groups of people selected from one company who
behaviors to become better leaders. Often, they’ll
will work together on a real business challenge.
work directly with human resources and learning
And depending on the corporation and its learners,
and development professionals to connect a
the college will even use social learning tools, like
manager’s leadership development training with
setting up a private Facebook group to facilitate and
their personal development plans.
moderate internal discussions amongst learners.
According
to
Meghan
Bilardo,
don’t know that higher education can help.”
A New Learning Frontier
Endnotes
i.
Josh Bersin, “Spending on Corporate Training Soars: Employee Capabilities Now A Priority,” Forbes, February 4, 2014,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/02/04/the-recovery-arrives-corporate-training-spend-skyrockets/.
ii.
Ibid.
iii.
PwC, “Millennials at Work,” 2011,
http://www.pwc.com/en_M1/m1/services/consulting/documents/millennials-at-work.pdf.
iv.
PwC, “The talent challenge: Adapting to growth 17th Annual Global CEO Survey,” 2014, http://www.pwc.com/talentchallenge.
v.
Bersin by Deloitte, “Engagement, Retention, and Culture now the #1 Issues in Talent and HR,” March 10, 2015,
http://www.bersin.com/blog/post/Engagement2c-Retention2c-and-Culture-now-the-1-Issue-in-Talent-and-HR.aspx.
vi.
John Ebersole, “Top Issues Facing Higher Education in 2014,” Forbes, January 13, 2014,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnebersole/2014/01/13/top-issues-facing-higher-education-in-2014/.
vii. Dr. Brian Cameron, interview with Ferrazzi Greenlight, Penn State, March 10, 2015.
viii. Annette Thompson, interview with Ferrazzi Greenlight, Farmers Insurance, April 27, 2015.
ix.
Don Jones, interview with Ferrazzi Greenlight, March 4, 2015.
x.
American Psychology Association, “Employee Distrust is Pervasive in U.S. Workforce,” April 23, 2014,
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/employee-distrust.aspx.
xi.
Dr. Bryan Albrecht, interview with Ferrazzi Greenlight, Gateway Technical College, March 10, 2015.
xii. Megan Bilardo, interview with Ferrazzi Greenlight, Corporate College, March 5, 2015.
xiii. Daryl Zapoticzny, interview with Ferrazzi Greenlight, Dun and Bradstreet, January 22, 2015.
xiv. Dr. Brian Greenwood, interview with Ferrazzi Greenlight, Cal Poly February 20, 2015.
xv.
Dr. Larry Keen, interview with Ferrazzi Greenlight, Fayetteville Technical Community College February 20, 2015.
xvi. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, accessed June 29, 2015, http://www.calpoly.edu/aboutcp.html.