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Sanford Gold is an expert in corporate learning, leadership and professional development, and works with Fortune 500 companies both in the US and abroad. Sanford speaks and writes about issues in corporate learning and leadership, and higher education, and is a recognized thought leader in the field of innovative approaches to associate learning and leadership development. He earned his Doctorate of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He can be contacted through LinkedIn or via email at goldsan53@gmail.com.

Sanford Gold

Sanford Gold outlines how to use simulations in sales training programs.

Take the First Step: Lessons Learned Using Simulations for Sales Training

November 2016 - TD Magazine

Is Now a Good Time for Change?

When I started out in my acquisition career more than 30 years ago, there were no certification programs. When acquisition certification programs were first developed, they were welcomed by the acquisition workforce, and traditional, instructor-led classroom training was the norm. This approach was good for the time, but fast-forward to today, and many are lacking.  The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is taking a fresh look at creative and innovative ways to help employees gain expertise. For example, OMB employees today embrace “just-in-time” learning, such as five-minute educational videos or short podcasts with experts. A few years ago, we initiated topical webinars, which clocked in at an hour or more in length. One of our takeaways from last year’s Association for Talent Development Government Workforce conference was that learning through short bursts of information is more palatable than hours watching a computer screen. Consequently, we are piloting what we call “Knowledge Nuggets,” two- or three-minute educational videos consisting of a simple whiteboard with writing and pictures.  OMB also is looking at free educational content available on the Internet that can be effective in helping our workforce learn. Case in point: I recently came across content produced by Stanford University professor Dr. Tina Seelig, the Executive Director of Stanford’s School of Engineering’s entrepreneurship center. Dr. Seelig has some very interesting and publicly available videos on innovation, which is a topic I’ve been wrestling with recently.  In just six minutes, my whole perspective on innovation changed and I understood how to better tackle some of my initiatives around innovation in the acquisition workforce space. An exciting initiative I’m working on alongside Traci Walker of the U.S. Digital Service is the Digital Service Contracting Professional Training and Development Program Challenge, in which we engage the public to help us transform the way we build digital expertise within the sphere of federal contracting professionals.  After calling for concept papers and getting a good response, our panel of judges chose three finalists who are busy creating a detailed program design. These designs will be presented to our judges in both an oral presentation and a mock classroom session that will showcase one element of their proposed program. Experts in the field of training and development told us our focus should be on learning, not just training. What’s more, we should engage the learners all the time, not just in the classroom.  We listened and we’re exploring these concepts in our effort to foster transformative change in the acquisition culture.  What innovative professional education methods have made an impact in your organization? to discuss further,  join me for the “Problem Solving in Three Dimensions: Training for the Future” panel at the Government Workforce: Learning Innovations conference.

OMB Is Taking a New Look at Learning Strategy

This is the second post in a three-part series examining leadership.  (See post 1 and post 3.) In the present business climate, the leaders need to become champions of the “learning organization” as designers, teachers, and stewards (Senge 1990), rather than position themselves as the traditional charismatic hero (Steyrer 1998).  With that in mind, leading others requires constant learning and development (L&D) and designing of knowledge-creative workplaces that foster growth. Agile Skills Required Enter “design thinking.” Research reveals that design-driven companies, such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Ford, IBM, Intuit, Nike, P&G, Starbucks, Starwood, Target, Walt Disney, or Whirlpool, have outperformed America’s S&P 500 large companies by an extraordinary 228 percent over 10 years (DMI 2014). Likewise, being smart about agile working, agile workforce, and agile environments and cultures should be on every leader’s list of priorities. In fact, a 2014 CIPD survey of HR leaders and employees found that improving “leadership and management capability” (64 percent of respondents) and “learning and development” (54 percent of respondents) are top tactics to deliver organizational agility. Meanwhile, respondents in the CIPD research ranked “reward management” (15 percent of respondents) and “increasing workforce diversity” (17 percent of respondents) much lower. In the 2014 report, Change Agents: The Role of Organizational Learning in Change Management, ATD Research concurred that organizations and their leaders should be more adaptive to change. Indeed, the research study found that 61 percent of organizations experience three or more changes per year, but they are not prepared to manage that change. Only 17 percent of respondents rate their enterprises as highly effective at managing change, and a mere 30 percent of organizations have change management teams. The good news is that there is clear evidence that an adaptive, generative, and knowledge-productive learning and development (L&D) approach to leadership development can provide the infrastructure for numerous progressive methods designed to produce adaptive leaders. Coaching and self-managed learning are clear examples of this approach. Why Coaching Works Through my own research into leadership development, I have found that coaching is about building and sustaining high-quality links with others. Extremely good coaches energize, ask, listen, invite, and equip others to develop themselves and achieve their personal and professional best. How does this work? The coach energizes the relationship, while the coachee empowers it. As a result, the link re-energizes the coachee, so that he or she is better able to discern, ideate, transform, and deliver (Tkaczyk 2014). More importantly, numerous coaching skills can be applied routinely with clients, peers, or direct reports. They include setting the stage, bringing forth positive leadership presence, tracking information, identifying issues and key factors, playing back exchanges and checking-in, giving and receiving constructive feedback. In addition, one of the most important tools when working with others is the skill of positive inquiry (Tkaczyk 2014). Meanwhile, Stanford’s 2013 Executive Coaching Survey revealed that nearly 100 percent of CEOs enjoy the process of coaching and receiving leadership advice from professional coaches and outside advisors. Although CEOs are receptive to making changes based on these interventions, the Stanford study found that a majority (66 percent) do not receive leadership advice or coaching. To be sure, the benefits of coaching for developing leadership skills are tangible. ATD Research’s report, The Coaching Approach: A Key Tool for Successful Managers, concluded that, in reality, coaching improves communication (69 percent), raises engagement (65 percent), improves skills-to-performance transfer (63 percent), and stimulates productivity (61 percent). Becoming Self-Managed Learning Leaders As leaders grow, they need to become “L&D crafters” (Tkaczyk 2014). To maximize their leadership presence and learning agility, rooted in design thinking (Austin and Devin 2003, Martin 2009) and positive organizational scholarship (Cameron at el_._ 2003, Cameron and Spreitzer 2012), such L&D crafters may routinely use a “continuing developmental portfolio” comprised of two components: Continuing Executive Development Check-In: A disciplined L&D system, self-managed by an individual who constantly “checks in” with themselves by asking reflective questions regarding any critical and opportunistic incidents that happened in the workplace or outside, daily or in the past week.Design: A natural and drilled L&D mechanism that is self-guided by the leader, in which they constantly “design” their own L&D by asking developmental inquiries regarding what it is that they still want to learn and develop, and how exactly they will execute their development plan. International research conducted by the Learning Entrepreneurs project from September 2011 through September 2013 found that such self-managed learning produces personal gains: upgrades your skills and helps monitor your learning in an evidence-based way (91 percent) and boosts your credibility as a reflective and creative leader (90 percent). It also offers organizational benefits: unlocks HR potential (80 percent) and builds “knowledge-creative” workplaces (73 percent). Interestingly, participants in this global research project represented diverse geographies, including Africa, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and North America. Still, more scientific research is needed, especially as Asia/Pacific leaders were not represented in the study (Tkaczyk 2014). For more on “self-coaching” as a self-managed leadership development method, see my August 2014 TD article, “Daily Check-Ins Stimulate Self-Improvement.” Finally, other approaches for developing leaders for future success can include:cognitive or relational job re-designjob enlargementsposition transfersjob rotationssabbaticalsexternships—professional development through a full-time temporary position at another organizationself-assessment inventories360-degree feedbackpsychological profiling and strengths-findingleaderless group discussions in which a team of multiple leaders is assigned a complex challenge and must work together to work it out within a certain time periodacting and storytellingconcept mappingrepertory gridscritical incident technique, as utilized in job analysis,mentoring·one-on-one Personal Management Interview (PMI) programs, namely purpose-finding and role-negotiation sessions—approximately 60-120 minute each, and preferably twice per month, depending on life cycle rhythm of work. The final installment in this leadership series will address future vistas in leadership.References ATD Research, 2014. Change Agents: The Role of Organizational Learning in Change Management, Association for Talent Development (ATD), Alexandria, VA.  ATD Research, 2014. The Coaching Approach: The Key Tool for Successful Managers, Association for Talent Development (ATD), Alexandria, VA.  Austin, R. and Devin, L., 2003. Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.  Cameron, K., Dutton, J., and Quinn, R. (eds.), 2003. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, CA.  Cameron, K. and Spreitzer, G. (eds.), 2012. Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.  CIPD, 2014. HR: Getting Smart About Agile Working, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London.  DMI, 2014. “Design-Driven Companies Outperform S&P by 228% Over Ten Years—The DMI Design Value Index,” Dialog, Design Management Institute (DMI), Boston, MA.  Martin, R., 2009. The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.  Senge, P., 1990. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Century Business, Random House, London.  Stanford, 2013. 2013 Executive Coaching Survey, Stanford University/The Miles Group.  Steyrer, J., 1998. “Charisma and the Archetypes of Leadership,” Organization Studies, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 807-828.  Tkaczyk, B., 2014. “Critical Clarification on Coaching,” International Coach Federation (ICF).   Tkaczyk, B., 2014. “Positive Inquiry Skills: Crafting Vital Coaching Questions," Association for Talent Development (ATD).  Tkaczyk, B., 2014. “Crafting Continuing Learning and Development: A Positive Design Tool for Leadership Development,” Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 5-8.  Tkaczyk, B., 2014. “Daily Check-Ins Stimulate Self-Improvement,” TD, Vol. 68 No. 8, pp. 72-73.

Leadership Development in Post-Heroic Times—An L&D Orientation

Anne Bruce doesn't just speak for a living, she's also a talent manager and an executive coach who helps speakers and authors including celebrities, politicians, sports figures, and well-known business leaders soar to the next level of their career. With a background in broadcast journalism and years of extensive television work, Anne has written for clients and projects in Hollywood and New York. Her clients have appeared on Ellen, Shark Tank, Steve Harvey, Today Show, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, and more. She's also carved a niche in coaching talent to write and deliver popular TEDx and TED Talks.Anne has had the privilege of speaking, writing, and conducting talent projects worldwide for organizations like the American Red Cross, Baylor University Medical Center, Sony Entertainment, Sony International, Saks Fifth Avenue, GEICO, Ben & Jerry's, Accenture, Coca Cola, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, The White House, the Pentagon, the FBI, Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, Columbia University School of Business, the Conference Board of Europe, and NASA, where she produced a documentary on the lives of women astronauts.She is the author of dozens of e-books and more than 23 books, which have been translated into more than 36 languages worldwide. Some of Anne's books include Speak for a Living: The Insider's Guide to Building a Speaking Career; Discover True North: A 4-Week Program to Ignite Your Passion and Activate Your Potential; Be Your Own Mentor; How to Motivate Every Employee; The Manager's Guide to Motivating Employees; and Building a High Morale Workplace; and Leaders Start to Finish: A Roadmap for Developing Top Performers (2nd edition). She's also been a featured author for Perfect Phrases for Employee Development Planning, part of McGraw-Hill's Perfect Phrases series. Anne also authored and acted as acquisition editor for the Pocket Tool Kit series. She has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, London Times, San Jose Mercury News, Newsweek, and Inc. magazine, among others.Anne's home base is in the greater Los Angeles area at Channel Islands Beach her favorite place to coach clients and film her popular weekly video blog, #30SecondsAtTheBeach. She has also partnered with her co-author Sardek Love, to launch The Speak for a Living Success Academy, a program for aspiring and accomplished speakers.

Anne Bruce

Johnathon Briggs is a senior vice president at Public Communications Inc. (PCI), a Chicago-based marketing communications firm. He taps his knowledge of public health and digital marketing to help clients engage, educate and influence their audiences. From health awareness campaigns to corporate communications, Johnathon leads the development of programs for clients in the healthcare, public health, and nonprofit sectors. He is also responsible for developing, managing and marketing the digital offerings of PCI (content strategy, social media, email marketing, paid promotion, analytics). His media expertise and in-depth understanding of public relations helps him create and communicate messages for diverse audiences ranging from consumers, employees, board members and elected officials, with placements in local and national outlets. Before joining Public Communications Inc. Johnathon served as the chief officer of external relations for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, one of the nation’s leading AIDS service organizations. Johnathon is certified in Digital Marketing Foundations, and as a practitioner of content and mobile marketing by Market Motive, an industry leader in digital marketing training. He also draws on his 11-year career as a journalist for The Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, as he conducts media training workshops for clients. A graduate of Stanford University, Johnathon holds a Master of Public Health degree from DePaul University where he studied text messaging as a tool for behavior change.

Johnathon Briggs

Derek Belch is the founder and CEO of STRIVR, the leading company that uses immersive technology to transform the way companies train and develop their employees. Belch laid the foundation for STRIVR during the 2014 season with the Stanford Cardinal football team, when he was an assistant coach for the team while completing a masters degree. STRIVR currently works with 50+ Fortune 500 companies and elite sports teams, all of which use VR to improve the performance of their employees and players. Belch holds three degrees from Stanford (BA Communication, MA Journalism, MA Media Studies), as well as an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Derek Belch

William Seidman is a recognized thought leader and expert on how to develop and sustain high-performing organizations. In particular, he is renowned for understanding the processes required to discover and use expert wisdom to create extraordinary organizational performance. William holds a doctorate from Stanford University, where he spent eight years studying management decision making. As part of his doctoral dissertation, he developed a groundbreaking technique for analyzing management decision making. The technique is the core of Strategy to Action methodology and has been recognized by KMWorld, The Innovation Center, IDC, and others.

William Seidman

Jennifer K. (Jenny) Stine, PhD, is a leadership coach and innovator. She is vice president of the Academic Leadership Group, where her consulting work spans organization development, leadership development, coaching, and program innovation. Stine is also an instructor at Harvard Extension School, where she teaches organizational behavior, leadership, and teamwork. She is an expert in the development of world-class executive and professional programs, with more than a decade of leadership experience at Harvard and MIT, and she has worked with Accenture’s global HR organization to support its university-corporate partnerships. Stine holds three degrees from Stanford University, including a PhD. She is a certified CliftonStrengths coach and a certified Stakeholder-Centered Coaching coach.

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