Will Powley
Head of Human Resources
Grabber Construction Products
Episode 333
Corporate Learning Reinvented: Integrate Values for Real Impact
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJanuary 24, 2025 · 9:59
Thesis
“Effective corporate learning, particularly through in-house corporate universities, must be deeply integrated with an organization's mission, vision, values, and strategic initiatives to build competencies, foster relationships, and magnify development impact.”
Show notes
In this episode of the Built by People podcast, we explore the dynamic career of Will Powley, an HR leader with extensive experience at GE, healthcare consultancies, and startups. Will discusses his journey from communications to HR roles and his work in creating corporate universities at multiple organizations. He shares insights on aligning corporate learning with company missions, identifying internal faculty, and the importance of business simulations in leadership development. Will also highlights successful outcomes from his initiatives and offers advice on effective in-house learning programs. 00:19 Sponsor Message: Previ's Employee Benefits 00:45 Guest Introduction: Will's Career Journey 02:52 Building a Corporate University 03:49 Developing Internal Leaders as Faculty 05:18 Five D's Approach to Corporate Learning 06:38 Balancing Operational Skills and Strategic Thinking 07:49 Success Stories from Internal Faculty Programs 09:06 Parting Advice for HR Leaders 09:50 Conclusion and Farewell
What you'll take away
- 1Corporate universities should align with the organization's mission, vision, and values from the outset to effectively build competencies and strengthen internal relationships.
- 2Utilizing internal executive leaders as faculty members in a corporate university fosters stronger bonds, breaks down silos, and enhances their teaching and facilitation skills.
- 3Implement a '5 Ds' approach (Diagnose, Design, Develop, Deploy/Deliver, Debrief) to structure corporate learning programs, ensuring they meet the evolving needs of the organization.
- 4Incorporate business simulations and case studies into training to blend experiential learning with practical and strategic skill development, offering leaders diverse perspectives.
- 5To maximize effectiveness, link all in-house learning programs directly to the organization's strategic priorities and mission.
What most organizations get wrong
In Will's words
“The design that I've preferred is to actually identify key executive leaders, key leaders who are leading the organization to also become faculty within the corporate university and to build that stronger tie between their organizational team members.”
Highlights the strategic benefit of internal faculty for fostering connection and ownership.
“It also built a stronger bond and relationship between senior leaders, broke down barriers, broke down the silos between having conversation with senior executives and made it more comfortable and vulnerable and, and opened up vulnerabilities that would never have been surfaced before.”
Emphasizes the positive cultural and relational impact of internal faculty-led programs.
“If you can link the training you do to the organization's strategic priorities and mission, it'll just magnify the effectiveness of that corporate university.”
Provides core advice on maximizing the impact and relevance of corporate learning initiatives.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Difficulty in building competencies and strong relationships across multiple organizational entities.
- •Challenges in recruiting, retaining, and developing talent effectively within an organization.
- •Lack of strong ties and communication, and prevalence of silos, between executive leadership and other organizational team members.
- •Ineffectiveness of generic, off-site training programs that are not intrinsically linked to the organization's strategic priorities.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Will has worked at GE for nearly 20 years in a variety of positions
Top HR Executives: My Career Journey
Will: I've done development work with organizations around developing a corporate university
Exploring a Corporate University: The Goal
How do you balance teaching operational skills with promoting strategic thinking and leadership qualities
How do you balance teaching operational skills with promoting strategic thinking and leadership
Will shares examples of successful outcomes from having internal faculty lead training programs
Outcomes of In-House Training Programs
Will, thank you so much for joining us on the Built By People podcast
Will Ferrell on Built By People
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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