Google Ad #1 - desktop - 728x90

Google Ad #3 - desktop - 728x90

Google Ad #1 - mobile - 300x200

Google Ad #3 - mobile - 300x200

ATD_Half_Page

Googel Ad #1 - Side Bar - Content pages

ATD Footer Logo

Jack Scholl

Recognizing the Need for Succession Planning

Clint Pulver is an Emmy Award–winning, motivational keynote speaker, author, musician, and workforce expert.A professional drummer for more than 20 years, he has played with headlining fellow musicians at venues like the Vivint Arena, the Stadium of Fire, and the Kodak Theatre (now Dolby Theatre) in Hollywood. In 2010 he founded the Utah Valley University (UVU) drumline known as the Green Man Group, which he directed for six years and went on to direct the drumline for the NBA’s Utah Jazz until 2015.Clint was featured in BusinessQ magazine as one of their top 40 under 40 list as a premier corporate keynote speaker. He has appeared on America’s Got Talent and in feature films with actors such as School of Rock’s Jack Black and Napoleon Dynamite’s John Heder.Known as the leading authority on employee retention, Clint helps organizations retain, engage, and inspire their team members from the front desk to the board rooms and everyone in between. He expertly helps audiences navigate generational complexities, communication challenges, leadership missteps, and cultural cues.As the president and founder of the Center for Employee Retention, Clint has transformed how corporations like Keller Williams, AT&T, and Hewlett-Packard create lasting loyalty through his work and research as “The Undercover Millennial.” For more than a decade, he has been a self-motivated entrepreneur who is well-versed in business start-up, leadership, sales management, management training, and helping teams grow multi-million-dollar accounts. He uses that experience to create teachable relationship and business strategies based on trust, service, support, connection, and consistent follow-through.Clint strongly believes that a single moment in time can change a person’s life. He has traveled the world speaking to a wide spectrum of diverse audiences, challenging them to dream, excel, connect, and believe—both in themselves and in the power of others. Clint has dedicated his heart, his messages, and his business to helping organizations understand the younger generation and helping the younger generation better understand themselves by living a life of significance, rather than just a life of success. His mantra: “It’s not about being the best in the world . . . it’s about being the best FOR the world.”

Clint Pulver

 Volunteering involves providing your knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as your time and energy, without establishing an employment relationship and usually without any monetary compensation. Employees who take on volunteer roles are able to build new skills and practice existing skills in a different setting from their day-to-day job.Via volunteering, employees can try something different from their usual work, and bring back new skills to the workplace, thereby adding value to their employer by improving their current job performance. They may even enhance the succession management efforts of their employer, because they become ready to move into positions of greater responsibility faster and more effectively than they would have had they not taken on the volunteer role.The best part about this employee development strategy is that it doesn't cost the organization nearly as much as sending the employee to costly training workshops or hiring a coach. In fact, it often costs the organization nothing.In my ATD Press book, Employee Development on a Shoestring, I describe 11 different methods for developing employees outside the classroom. The chapter on volunteering explains: who should try volunteeringhow volunteer projects benefit learners and the organizationwhat competencies volunteering can develophow to establish volunteer efforts. The chapter concludes with a case study that depicts the success PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) enjoyed as a result of offering this type of development method. PwC’s Project BelizeProject Belize, an initiative that partners PwC employees with schools in Belize City, is primarily focused on financial literacy and environmental sustainability. Specifically, some 200 PwC volunteers—partners, staff, and interns from across the United States—traveled to Belize City, Belize, in the summer of 2011. The PwC team connected with more than 1,200 students in 10 schools in some of Belize’s poorest areas and focused on hosting a youth financial literacy camp, leading a scholar's mentoring program for current and former Belizean students, providing financial and technology training to teachers. According to the project’s website, “since its inception, \[they\] have contributed 30,000 pounds of school supplies, awarded approximately 765 high school equivalent scholarships so these students can continue their education, and delivered our financial literacy curriculum to 6,412 students with the help of 1,609 talented and enthusiastic PwC interns, partners, and staff.” In addition, volunteers built “Learning Landscape” playgrounds using repurposed materials. PwC volunteer Justin Suissa explains that “the experience \[building learning landscape playgrounds\] was valuable on so many levels.” Suissa shares that he was out of his element—construction is not where his expertise lies. What’s more, the team had a tight deadline, as well as many pitfalls and unexpected obstacles to overcome. But clearly defined deliverables—build six playgrounds in five days for the children—helped the team pull together through pouring rain and intense heat and humidity.  Working through these challenges, says Suissa, helped him improve core leadership and teambuilding competencies. He describes how figuring out new technical skills in an unpredictable environment developed his flexibility and agility. “While I did not expect it, it was like a learning playground for us, the volunteers. With high stakes and a tough deadline, my teammates and I had to solve problems creatively and let go of pre-established hierarchies in this new environment.” For another PwC volunteer-employee, Jack Teuber, this experience meant a change in his environment and operational mode. He went from working as a competent managing director who leads a team of experienced adults to a novice middle school teacher in a foreign country, working with children and a brand-new and mixed team of associates and interns. Teuber understood that his challenge was “to get out of people’s way and encourage them to grow, solve problems, and develop their leadership skills.” Doing so helped him develop collaboration and coaching skills. In other words, he and his team cultivated their abilities to support the success of those working around him—building relationships, establishing empathy, communicating, and partnering. These skills are “extremely important back in the PwC environment because they help us serve our clients better and be better leaders and team players to our colleagues,” says Teuber. Finally, he believes that the volunteer experience helped him gain tremendous partnering and networking benefits. According to Teuber, “The team members still keep in touch after returning home and all of us have developed greater access to and understanding of other areas of the business, which serves to break down barriers, especially the hierarchical ones. Belize affected my self-awareness and has caused me to want to do this for my own team \[at home\].” Practical Application While Project Beleize describes a large and generous company taking on a big expenditure, the same principles can be applied to any volunteering effort. Organizations can start volunteering projects in their local communities (no international flights needed) by sending either individual employees or workforce teams to connect with other members of the wider community on volunteer missions. The learning that took place for Project Belize volunteers could happen in your local neighborhood. I hope you give it a try! Employee Development on a Shoestring provides plenty of additional tools, checklists, self-assessments, and other supports to help you implement the various development methods, consider some of the objections you might encounter, and outlines ways to overcome challenges. It’s a comprehensive tutorial for all managers, supervisors, trainers, human resources (HR) personnel, coaches, and other professionals who are involved in developing employee competence efficiently and cost-effectively.

Project Belize: Volunteering as an Employee Development Tool

Rebecca leads the Government & Nonprofit Partnerships team at Coursera, with the goal of transforming lives through access to world-class education. The team develops and oversees workforce development partnerships with public and social sector partners, including efforts to promote skill development for populations such as transitioning service members, opportunity youth, refugees and underemployed adults. Prior to Coursera, Rebecca was the Education Advisor to Governor Jack Markell (Delaware), in which capacity she developed state education policies and worked closely with the Secretary of Education to implement Delaware’s education agenda. Previously, Rebecca was an Associate at McKinsey & Co., where she advised private and public sector clients on strategy, human capital and organizational development. Rebecca holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University, an MA from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Rebecca Taber

Let’s talk about the AI revolution. It’s not on the horizon—it’s here, and it’s upending everything, especially the world of work. Forget the old-school notion of niching down into one tiny specialty. The future belongs to the “creative generalist”—someone who can connect the dots, think differently, and adapt quickly.Think of it this way: AI is a powerful tool, like a high-powered engine. But it needs a skilled driver to navigate the road ahead. That’s the creative generalist. We’re not just jacks-of-all-trades, we’re masters of integrating those trades. We see the big picture, understand the interplay of different parts, and use AI to amplify our uniquely human strengths.Take someone like Reid Hoffman—LinkedIn co-founder who blends tech, philosophy, and network theory. Or consider a product manager who combines psychology, data science, and storytelling to build AI-powered experiences that actually serve users. These creative generalists don’t just use tools; they see connections others miss and solve problems from unexpected angles.Let’s be clear: AI is already reshaping the job market. Routine tasks are vanishing, automated into oblivion. Companies are desperate for people who can think critically, solve complex problems, and navigate constant change. These are the very skills that AI can’t replicate, and they’re precisely what creative generalists bring to the table.Here’s the thing about career growth in this new landscape: forget the traditional ladder. Career advancement now looks more like rock climbing—sometimes you need to move sideways, even backward, to find the right holds that let you scale higher. That lateral move into AI ethics? That detour through UX design? Those aren’t career mistakes; they’re strategic repositioning.So, how do you become one of these in-demand creative generalists? It’s about cultivating a few core skills:Critical Thinking: Don’t just swallow information whole. Chew on it. Challenge assumptions, recognize biases, and form your own conclusions. Like a good cybersecurity professional, question everything.Adaptability: The only constant is change. Embrace it. Learn from setbacks and be ready to pivot when the landscape shifts. In the cybersecurity world, we call this “incident response”—it’s about adapting to new threats and finding solutions on the fly.Creativity: AI can generate ideas, sure, but it can’t replicate true human ingenuity. It can’t tell a story, inspire emotion, or connect with people on a human level. Find new ways to solve problems and add value. Think outside the firewall, so to speak.Emotional Intelligence: AI can process data, but it can’t truly connect with people. Build relationships, communicate effectively, and show empathy. This is where humans excel. We understand emotions, motivations, and the nuances of human interaction.Lifelong Learning: The world is in constant motion, so you need to be too. Be curious, explore new areas, and commit to lifelong learning. In cybersecurity, we call this “threat intelligence”—constantly learning about new threats and vulnerabilities to stay ahead of the curve.AI Fluency: This isn’t about becoming a coding whiz, but about understanding what AI can do and how to use it effectively. Experiment with different tools, learn the basics of machine learning, and think about how AI can amplify your existing skills.The key takeaway? The future isn’t about humans versus AI, it’s about humans with AI. By cultivating a creative generalist mindset and learning to leverage AI’s power, you can not only survive but thrive. It’s time to embrace the change and build a future where humans and AI work together to achieve remarkable things. This isn’t just about surviving the future of work; it’s about defining it. It’s about taking the reins and driving innovation, not just reacting to it. And that, my friends, is the power of the creative generalist. 

The Creative Generalist: Thriving in the AI Era

September 2019 - ATD Links

Assess your reasons for wanting to attend school. Identifying goals ahead of time will help you evaluate return-on-investment. Education requires a great deal of resources, both time and finances. Get clarity before embarking on a costly effort.

Search results for 'Jack Scholl'

Categories

Refine By