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Stephanie Wade is the former director of the Innovation Lab at the Office of Personnel Management.

Stephanie Wade

Stephanie Wade offers a brief look at the Innovation Lab at OPM.

Quick Look at The Lab at OPM

Innovation—Not Just a Buzzword for Federal Agencies

October 2016 - The Public Manager

7 Steps to a More Innovative Team

2020 Best Practices  - TD Magazine

These 10-plus-time winners of ATD’s BEST Award encourage employees to form daily habits that contribute to a culture of learning.

Small Actions Nurture Company-Wide Learning Cultures

January 2013 - TD Magazine

A New Wave of Working Women

Stephanie West is a interactive designer and e-learning developer. She has been developing courses for the last 7yrs for post secondary schools such as the University of Waterloo, L&D courses for Canadian Tire Corporation and now awareness courses for Intertek Catalyst. She has always had a passion for designing for all end users in mind and making sure that they are accessible to all. Aside from designing courses she enjoys cooking a new recipe each week and summer nights playing frisbee!

Stephanie West

  Stephanie Montanez has been called one of California’s HR thought leaders, as well as a subject matter expert in improving employee performance through a wide variety of tried-and-true methods. Formerly an HR professional with Imperial Wallcoverings and Qualex, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of KODAK, Stephanie now heads up the HR division as director in one of America’s most highly regarded and successful medical billing companies, MedAmerica Billing Services, Inc. She also created the organization’s employee development and coaching division, with locations throughout California and Arizona. Montanez is the executive producer and the voice and face of HumanResourcesSources.org and its popular internal media programming channel. For further information or questions associated with this book or the HumanResourcesSources.org website, you can email Stephanie at Steff@HumanResourcesSources.org.

Stephanie Montanez

Here’s the brutal reality: Most HR teams are often playing defense when they should be playing chess.Just like in chess, a winning HR strategy means thinking several moves ahead, anticipating shifts, and shaping outcomes before they arrive.The most strategic teams already operate this way. We call them HR Anticipators—and they drive 33 percent more high-quality leaders and 2X greater likelihood of top-tier financial performance for their companies.The difference isn’t resources—it’s mindset. While HR Reactor teams scramble to fill today’s gaps, Anticipators are already building tomorrow’s leaders.So, what sets them apart? It comes down to four nonnegotiable behaviors that the best HR teams execute relentlessly. The Four Behaviors That Define HR Anticipators 1. They Align Talent Strategy With Tomorrow’s Business HR Reactors fill vacancies as they arise, taking chances that the right person is in the pipeline or that they strike gold with an external hire.HR Anticipators take a different path. They map three- to five-year business strategies directly to the leadership capabilities they’ll need, using it to guide talent and development decisions now.The payoff? A 24 percent higher success rate for high-potential leaders who deliver real results after promotion. In today’s fast-paced environment, that speed to impact is critical.This foresight and its results don’t go unnoticed. Anticipators are 2.1X more likely to have executive sponsorship—crucial backing that fuels programs with the resources and influence they need to succeed.To get there, Anticipators create nested alignment by tying every leadership capability to specific business outcomes at each level. This builds the bench strength they need to support long-term strategy.If your talent strategy only reaches next quarter, you’re already behind.2. They Forecast Capability Gaps Before They Become Crises Accurate forecasting helps avoid costly missteps and limits the damage when disaster does strike.That’s why Anticipators are 2.7X more likely to use systematic forecasting. Placing talent in the wrong roles is expensive, but it’s avoidable. The key is to plan early and often. These teams run scenario planning monthly or quarterly, not just once a year. This is where they gain an edge. When disruption hits, they have leaders ready, instead of scrambling to find someone “good enough.” Consider this your wake-up call. By the time you feel the leadership gap, it’s already too late.3. They Design Development That Solves Real Business Problems In the HR evolution CEOs are calling for, generic box-checking leadership workshops are out.What’s in? Development tied directly to strategic initiatives—the kind that delivers measurable business outcomes and is tailored to each leader’s current needs and future growth.When development solves real business problems, it becomes a multiplier: Every dollar builds both leader capability and business results.4. They Measure What Matters Anticipators focus their measurement where it matters most: business outcomes.They’ve ditched vanity metrics like completion rates and satisfaction scores in favor of power metrics that resonate across the business: readiness rates, time-to-productivity, and revenue per leader.For example, Anticipators are 2.3X more likely to measure actual succession program effectiveness and results, rather than just participation.If you can’t connect your talent initiatives to bottom-line impact, you’re measuring the wrong things. Conclusion HR faces a critical choice: anticipate or get left behind. Every day in reactive mode is a missed chance to build the leadership advantage your organization needs.Becoming an HR Anticipator demands a full mindset shift: from order-taker to strategic advisor, from filling roles to building capability, from activity metrics to business impact. That’s how you elevate your role and claim the chessboard.The shift from Reactor to Anticipator is proven—and the business impact is waiting. Ready to transform your HR impact? Get the complete Anticipator framework in our HR Insights Report 2025. Read the full report.

From Cost Center to Profit Driver: The HR Evolution CEOs Are Demanding 

If you work at an organization with a large deskless workforce, you know just how difficult it can be to upskill and reskill employees. Deskless workers are often on the front lines or hard at work earning revenue for the business. They’re interacting with patients or customers, doing work out in the field, or on the road—delivering goods or offering services. Employers may be hesitant to take them “off the job” for training. Patty Gaul, senior writer and editor for the Association for Talent Development, explored this topic in a recent article.“An L&D leader may learn that a company doesn’t include training time as a bucket of employee time,” she writes. “The organization encourages their managers to hurry their direct reports to their stations or positions (such as the manufacturing line, cash register, or delivery route) rather than giving employees the time to learn how to do their immediate work well. This negatively affects workers’ knowledge and, in the end, motivation.” Research shows that poor training also puts staff in danger—instances of human error causing occupational accidents are more likely when workers are under-skilled.There’s an opportunity cost as well. Gaul writes: “Too often, leaders train these workers only when there’s a problem, not taking advantage of the opportunity that development affords.” Employers that do not invest in training may be leaving productivity gains and a competitive advantage on the table.With all the benefits L&D offers—and all the challenges it can help your organization avoid—how can you train your deskless workforce in the most effective way possible? Giving learners more options to complete their training can help. Employees don’t have to be chained to a desk or sitting in a classroom to learn and develop. A little bit of L&D creativity can go a long way. Read on to discover four strategies to motivate your deskless employees to fit training into their busy schedules.1. Give Learners the Flexibility to Learn Wherever They Happen to BeMost workers want to learn new skills and are intrinsically motivated to improve and develop. A recent survey shows that seven out of 10 workers feel more connected to their organization when they’re learning. A further eight out of 10 say learning gives them a sense of purpose at work.Giving deskless workers the opportunity to access this kind of purpose can drastically improve their job satisfaction—and extend their tenure too. Research shows that having a strong culture of learning can improve employee retention by up to 57 percent. Some employees may associate learning with taking notes in a lecture hall, or sitting in front of a computer—but “studying” shouldn’t have to equal “desk.” The solution to helping deskless employees learn and develop is already in their pockets. When staff can complete their training right from their mobiles, wherever they happen to be, a whole world of opportunity opens up to them.Did you know that Bridge LMS, an all-in-one solution for training and upskilling staff, comes with the intuitive, user-friendly Bridge Learning app as standard? The app, available for both iOS and Android, makes it simple and easy for employees to complete their learning, whenever, wherever.Learners can even access content without Wi-Fi. This makes the learning experience seamless. They can start their training in a break room, for example, and effortlessly keep their momentum going when traveling to a field site. They’ll have key insights on the topics that matter to them at their fingertips—even in the most remote locations. With Wi-Fi-less learning, a bus, a train, a factory floor, their kitchen, and even the most far-flung location can instantly become an inspiring classroom.2. Help Staff Keep Their Learning on TrackResearch shows that there’s a strong correlation between motivation and learning outcomes. Setting smaller goals and steadily working toward them can help people stay committed to their targets. Breaking a big learning target down into less intimidating, achievable goals can be tremendously helpful. This is particularly true for deskless workers who may work in isolation or don’t get much contact with leadership. Boston Consulting Group stated that: “[A] major issue is the limited access deskless workers have to corporate communication systems like email and intranets. These tools are often designed with desk-based employees in mind[...]This communication gap can lead to a sense of isolation, making these workers feel disconnected from the organization’s broader goals and culture.”Choosing an LMS that helps you keep every learner on track, wherever they happen to be, can make all the difference. With Bridge Mobile, push notifications remind learners when a course is due. This relieves them of the cognitive load of managing their own learning and development schedule.Admins can easily track enrollments, missed deadlines, and course completion rates. They can generate intuitive reports in a few clicks and share data-powered insights with the wider organization. This empowers managers to intervene with support at the right time. Regular contact from well-informed managers means reports feel less at sea and more empowered to meet the development goals that matter to them.3. Be Realistic About Learning Challenges and Prepare for HiccupsAs useful as remote training is, it does come with challenges. If it’s not properly managed, it can open the door to miscommunication or inefficient learning. Workers may encounter technical difficulties, for instance, and feel that these headaches are a significant burden after a long shift on their feet or on the go.Tech challenges can have a big impact on morale, even among younger generations. Research shows that just under 50 percent of young graduates surveyed across the globe feel their level of technical expertise has left them unprepared for the workforce. As many as one in five young workers say they feel “judged” when they don’t know how to solve a tech issue. Tech headaches can be exacerbated for deskless staff who work far from a central IT team and may not have admin time built into their schedule. The key is to accept that challenges may arise from time to time and prepare for them in advance. Your first line of defense will naturally be to choose a mobile LMS with a very simple, clean interface, and intuitive, user-friendly features. Bridge Mobile offers a straightforward experience with uncomplicated dashboards. Learners can easily navigate between their courses, learning libraries, and agendas. User-friendly design isn’t the only factor though. Choosing an LMS provider known for meticulous onboarding and responsive customer service can also help you stay ahead of tech challenges. The last thing you want is for a learner to lose their motivation for good because of a minor technical hiccup that could be solved with a few simple instructions. This is why Bridge offers comprehensive onboarding. Our expert teams work with your admins to make sure they fully understand our app’s capabilities. When admins know features inside out, implementation is easy—and they’re empowered to help their team as and when required. It’s thanks in part to our outstanding onboarding that we recently achieved a customer satisfaction score of 93 percent. We also offer tech support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This means deskless workers with unusual hours don’t need to fall behind on their learning just because they need a bit of extra support. We have an excellent service team—and we’re proud to share that our customers love us for it. A representative from US-based construction and engineering company Rudolph and Sletten said: “Bridge LMS is exceptionally user-friendly, featuring an intuitive and clean interface that simplifies navigation for both administrators and learners. The customer support is outstanding—easily accessible and remarkably patient in understanding and resolving even the most challenging scenarios.”4. Offer Accessible, Engaging, and Personalized Learning for AllWhen staff feel that instructions are passed down from some invisible authority, they may feel less motivated to learn. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation—wanting to complete a task because it is fun, interesting, or helpful—can be a crucial factor for successful learning. Employers can promote intrinsic motivation by making employees feel competent and autonomous.To achieve this, personalizing learning is key. Especially when you consider the type of tasks deskless workers tend to do. Deskless workers are the lifeblood of many organizations. Every hour away from their daily tasks is an hour away from crucial activity that drives their company’s revenue or underpins their organization’s ethos. When the stakes are this high, cookie-cutter learning content can feel like a waste of time.Bridge Mobile can help you steer clear of one-size-fits-all courses. It empowers you to deliver personalized learning journeys for every employee. Managers can assign courses that align with specific, individual targets—and employees always have a clear view of their progress over time. This means that they’ll have a little bit of motivation to keep learning, and easy access to that learning wherever they are.Because the app stores tasks, ideas, achievements, and due dates all in one place, employees have their own, personal space to work toward their goals. This can help them feel like your organization is invested in improving their experience at work, instead of just forcing standardized training en masse.Crucially, Bridge also makes content more accessible for every learner. The app supports 20 different languages, so you can keep your employees of all backgrounds engaged and inspired. It also complies with WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) at AA-level. This means:It’s easy to use with assistive technologies, like screen readers.There’s good color contrast between any text and background.Content is organized under clear headings, in a logical order.Navigation buttons or elements are consistent across the app.

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