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Leah Strecher joined JCI L&D in June of 2008 and has been promoted through several roles within the department to her current role as an instructional learning technologist. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, she spent five years at the United States Bowling Congress as an L&D trainer/developer. During those years, she was responsible for curriculum design, development and training of Microsoft and soft skill courses. She also developed, designed and conducted the new hire orientation/onboarding. She coordinated and led several companywide training events and supported the entire Training and Development department.In her role as a learning technology specialist at Johnson Controls, Leah wears a variety of hats. She is the main contact for uLearn, its video learning platform, specializing in video recording, editing, and final production, as well as the resident expert in voice-over audio recording/editing. She also develops creative screen capture recordings. She enhances them by adding zoom features, tool tips, callouts and graphics. She combines all of these applications into one multi-dimensional video to enhance the end user’s retention and application. Her attention to detail and creative mindset drive her to ensure quality output with high end user experience. In addition to this, she supports the LMS in our ASIA and EMEA regions and any high level questions the department needs. She also creates reports from survey feedback to support our training measurement efforts (ROI).

Leah Strecher

Leading a Collaborative Learning Revolution With Video at the Helm

How JCI embraced video as a learning, communication, and collaboration strategy to break down barriers of time, location, and skills.

Case Study: Leading a Learning Revolution With Video

Operating amid rapid technological advancement, global uncertainty, and evolving public scrutiny, government agencies find traditional leadership and change approaches insufficient. To meet today’s challenges and build leaders capable of addressing tomorrow’s disruptions, organizations must make capability building a sustained and strategic imperative.Capability building develops the mindsets, behaviors, and systems that enable organizations to adapt quickly, align around shared goals, and take decisive action—even in ambiguity. As the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report highlights, 44 percent of core skills are expected to change within five years. An ATD study echoes this urgency, with 76 percent of government talent development professionals reporting a workforce skills gap. With investment in capabilities historically linked to improved policy outcomes and staff engagement, coupled with the stricter funding environment, cultivating a learning culture to strengthen organizational adaptability is no longer optional. Strategic action grounded in robust capability building enables agencies to outmaneuver uncertainty and accelerate results through the following interdependent pillars:Strengthening organizational adaptability by fostering a culture that embraces change, encourages learning, and responds quickly to emerging challengesEnabling fast and flexible decision making by empowering individuals and teams with authority and tools for swift actionAccelerating action to achieve results by focusing on visible progress, generating momentum, and demonstrating meaningful outcomes are possible, even amid ambiguityFor government leaders, this framework provides a blueprint to adapt confidently and with resilience. That said, translating these pillars into real capability demands investing in skill development and behavioral change across all levels.To strengthen adaptability, organizations need strategic foresight and systems thinking to anticipate trends and understand ripple effects. Cultivating an agile mindset, including encouraging iterative problem solving, experimentation, and rapid learning, is equally vital. At the leadership level, change leadership becomes essential, guiding teams through uncertainty with clarity and embedding adaptability into culture.Fast, flexible decision making relies on critical thinking, problem solving, and data literacy, enabling timely and informed choices. Empowerment and communication are central to this, fostering trust through delegated authority, transparency, and clarity. A notable example is the Department of Health and Human Services’ “Buy Smarter” initiative, which leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) in procurement to enhance agility in its process, resulting in a projected savings of $720 million. This demonstrates that equipping teams to act with speed and clarity pays off.To accelerate action, organizations must empower execution, ensuring plans translate into momentum. While digital fluency equips teams to leverage tools for innovation and efficiency, a culture of continuous learning and feedback enables rapid adaptation. Momentum also builds in organizations that foster continuous learning cultures: A Deloitte study found that such organizations are 92 percent more likely to develop innovative products, 52 percent more productive, and 56 percent more likely to be first to market, and they achieve 17 percent higher profitability compared to peers. In government, that translates to faster program delivery, reduced waste, and greater resilience. When progress is visible, outcomes follow.Ultimately, it’s not just about surviving change; it’s about using it to lead. Aligning these cultural expectations and structural supports with leadership behaviors creates an environment where adaptability is expected and results are fully seen. Building this requires leadership commitment, as evidenced by a McKinsey study that found that when senior leaders model behaviors, broad adoption of these behaviors increases 5.3 times.Adaptability is no longer optional, and the creation of an adaptable culture is not happenstance. Agencies that invest in building these capabilities gain a competitive edge in mission delivery and public trust. By embedding adaptability into culture and equipping teams with change leadership skills, they position themselves to meet complexity with confidence and lead the public sector into a more resilient, future-ready era.

Government’s Edge: Adaptability and Skills for Future-Ready Leadership

“Next person up.” This is how most frontline managers get the job.According to DDI, frontline managers are the most important people in the workplace. They lead 80 percent of the workforce and influence every part of the employee experience. But most never planned to do this job. In fact, 70 percent of managers didn’t anticipate their promotion.Companies rely on these managers to turn strategy into action. “As a result, the work piles on, and 40 percent of managers feel burned out,” according to The Deskless Report 2024. This leaves little room for development. Even a 30-minute quarterly webinar is a stretch.Traditional leadership development isn’t built for the frontline. It’s designed for people with steady schedules, not those running the floor and putting out fires all day. Managers are asking for help, but they need a different approach—one that fits into their reality, rapidly builds capability, and boosts on-the-job confidence.Here’s a better way.Start with guidanceBefore building any courses, make sure managers have access to real-time support. Provide a knowledge base with proven practices and answers to everyday challenges, such as:What happens if we miss a delivery or run out of stock?What’s the process for approving shift swaps?What do I say in a write-up conversation?Make this knowledge easy to find and apply. Use AI to provide managers with a digital assistant that’s always available to answer questions, share advice, and help them stay focused.When managers can solve everyday problems on their own, training can shift from teaching processes to building the skills that drive outcomes.Focus on what’s most useful nowSkip the leadership theory—at least at first. New managers need practical skills that enable them to run the operation without letting things fall apart.Start with the basics, then build up. Restructure your manager training into job-relevant phases:Manage a shift. Build core confidence in leading daily operations.Navigate disruption. Provide the knowledge and tools needed to handle the unexpected.Lead a team. Focus on building trust, improving communication, and coaching to performance.Lead initiatives. Help them take ownership of projects and excel in stretch opportunities.Pursue opportunities. Foster the skills that will get them to the next role.Personalize the path so each person can progress at the right pace. Strong operators may move fast. Newcomers might need more time to build the basics. Make sure the manager and their team are confident they can handle the next shift—because it’s tomorrow. Foster peer networks“Training has limits. There’s only so much you can cover in the time available. It’s no surprise that 67 percent of frontline managers say they’re making it up as they go,” according to The Deskless Report 2024.Microlearning and reinforcement are essential for ongoing development, but a manager’s most valuable resource is fellow managers. They’ve been through it. They know how topics discussed in the classroom play out in real life. Make it easy for managers to connect with peers who can share advice and offer support in difficult moments.A frontline manager might be the only one in their location, and that location might be the only one in the city. But they shouldn’t feel alone. Foster community. Create space for real conversations and judgment-free guidance. The support they need is often one text message away.Design for realityLeadership development is falling short, and most companies know it. “75 percent say their programs don’t deliver value,” according to Josh Bersin.This gap is even wider on the frontline. Managers don’t need theories and slide decks. They need actionable training that fits into their free moments. They need tools to solve real problems and lead through the daily chaos.Fixing leadership development doesn’t mean lowering the bar. Instead, L&D must design for the reality frontline managers face every day—and give them a real chance to succeed.

From Teammate to Team Leader: A Blueprint for Frontline Manager Development

This is the first post in a three-part series examining leadership. (See post 2 and post 3.)  “With each new day in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing it must outrun the fastest lion or perish. At the same time, a lion stirs and stretches, knowing it must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. It is no different for the human race. Whether you consider yourself a gazelle or a lion, you simply have to run faster than others.”— from “My Vision: Challenges in the Race for Excellence”by His Highness Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai There is little argument that leadership is comprised of many facets. For many, leadership is the key aspect of a manager’s job—as well as a critical component of any directing function. More importantly, many agree that a main role of leaders is to empower others to work toward specific objectives. Accordingly, leadership is a constant process, rather than a “product” that happens overnight. In addition, leadership is focused on making other people feel more energetic and determined to work. In other words, leadership is a “contact sport” that routinely occurs via positive social modeling and continuous learning and development. Apart from this “relationship” dimension of leadership, there is an emphasis on accomplishing purposeful tasks, improving performance, and achieving results. What the Research Tells Us International research consistently shows that investing in leadership development and management capabilities is the key to achieving sustainable organizational growth and success. Indeed, the evidence touting the value of leadership development is compelling. A major case-based European HRD research project examined learning and development (L&D) practice in nearly 200 “learning-oriented” enterprises (most employing between 500 to +1,000 employees) in seven European countries: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The study found that it takes a learning culture to produce a learning culture, and its development could be traced to such factors as organizational leadership, a strong push for innovation in the workplace, and future learning capacity development (Tjepkema et al., 2002).According to research, led by Birkbeck, University of London, about management training and development approaches in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Norway, and Romania, there is strong statistical corroboration for management development leading to superior organizational performance across companies of all sizes, sectors, and national location (Mabey and Ramirez, 2004).Research into National Vocational Education and Training (NVET) systems in the Netherlands, Germany, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan found that NVET strategies impact both workforce upscaling and re-skilling, and are the foundation of success in the knowledge-based global economy of the 21st century (Harrison and Kessels, 2004).A Harvard Business School/Hay Group research project that examined more than 100 senior teams around the globe revealed that effective teams can significantly contribute to their enterprises, yet only one in five are extremely good, while one-third are mediocre, and 42 percent are poor. The study identified “a clearly defined senior leadership team” as one of the conditions for effective operations—rather than a heroic CEO (Wageman et al., 2008).Another study found that ineffective management is estimated to cost, for example, UK businesses more than £19billion per year in lost working hours. More importantly, the data showed that bad management by company directors is the source of 56 percent of all corporate failures (BIS, 2012). Clearly, leadership is one of the most loaded, not to mention well-established, issues in management today—whether we are dealing with a global corporation, government institution or a start-up in Abu Dhabi, London, Minneapolis, Moscow, Mumbai, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, or Toronto. And even though we have been studying “leadership” since the time of Plato, the same questions emerge: Are leaders born or made?How are we doing as leaders?   How we thought about leadership and its development, though, has changed over the years. Let’s now explore the journey of leadership. Trait Approaches to Leadership Trait approaches seek to uncover what makes a leader_—_in contrast to those who are not leaders. The typical assumption is that that some people simply possess the “right stuff” to be leaders, while others do not. The implication is that good leaders are, in fact, “born to lead.” These "born leaders" possess unique traits that are not equally present in all individuals. For example, Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) researched the regularity of certain traits in leaders, such as:energypersonalized vs. socialized leadership motivationhonesty and integrityself-confidence (including emotional stability)cognitive abilityknowledge of the business. The study found weaker support for other traits commonly touted as necessary leadership traits, including charisma, creativity/originality, and flexibility. Meanwhile, Daniel Goleman (1998) produced a meta-analysis of leadership competency frameworks in 188 different enterprises. He found that it is the “emotional” competencies—a combo of traits and abilities enabling people to work with others and lead positive change—that make an effective leader. His research found that five emotional intelligence (EQ) competencies (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill) were twice as significant as other capabilities, specifically: technical skills (accounting or business planning) and cognitive skills (big-picture thinking or analytical reasoning). Research, however, has demonstrated little consistency in these “bundles” of personal capabilities among power leaders who drive organizational performance far above the norm. Leadership Behaviors and Styles for Different Situations Along a different vein, other leadership analysts have shifted the emphasis of study from “what the leader is” to “how leaders behave.” For example, McGregor (1960) held that the leader determines the style they manage staff, and thereby, successively determines how the staff behaves. Leaders who buy into “Theory X” believe that people are naturally irresponsible and uncooperative, and must be rewarded or punished to add value. Leaders who subscribe to “Theory Y” believe that followers are naturally energetic, growth-oriented, and interested in being utilitarian. Though the model admittedly plays up and groups leadership behaviors along an orientation toward employees, it offers little concrete basis for action. Furthermore, Blake and Mouton (1964) created the “Managerial Grid,” which is based on two facets of leadership behavior: people and production. This grid then produces four leadership styles:Authority-Compliance (High on Production, Low on People)Country Club (High on People, Low on Production)Impoverished Management (Low on People, Low on Productivity)Team Leadership (High on People, High on Productivity). However, although this framework is significantly more inclusive (the assumption being that leadership involves learning leadership behavior) and numerous leadership development interventions have been built on it, it fails to account for events and circumstances that cannot be predicted with certainty. Finally, situational leadership, a contingency model by Hersey & Blanchard (1988) provides a remedy for adapting the leadership style to fit the demands of the environment. Having diagnosed the developmental level of the followers, as well as their needs, this model contends that the leader works through the four styles:Directing (telling)Coaching (selling)Supportive (participating)Delegation (empowering). Again, many current leadership development solutions are being designed around this model of leadership. Perhaps, though, it is time to move onto a post-heroic view of leadership that offers an L&D orientation of leaders. This will be the focus of my next post in this series on leadership. Stay tuned...

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