3 Words Every CLO Should Use to Focus On the Right Things
Insights from Kevin Wilde, Executive Leadership Fellow @ University of Minnesota and former CLO @ General Mills
No? Yes? Maybe??
The reality is, often times learning executives don’t get strategic. But when you ask those three questions, things go well. When you don’t, you get in trouble.
I recently interviewed Kevin Wilde, Executive Leadership Fellow at the University of Minnesota and former CLO of General Mills. Kevin shared when CLOs should say “no,” “yes,” and “maybe” to better focus on what matters.
Accelerate the No
We spend a lot of our efforts adding things (adding value, etc.), but over time we stack our commitments too high.
As the guru Peter Drucker once said, executives should step back annually and test every program and system they have to see if it’s still relevant. He called it “purposeful abandonment.”
Ask yourself:
“Is there anything I need to abandon?”
We’re often caught in legacy systems that are no longer effective. But even though it takes courage, saying no frees us up for the bigger things.
Another side to this is that the operating partners you’re involving in learning or sponsoring are getting overwhelmed. One study says that in the last 5–8 years, leaders have gone from spending 50% of their days in meetings to well over 80%. They’re taking their real work home on nights and weekends.
If we’re just adding more to them, that won’t go well. But it could be very popular if you start taking things away — or streamlining them at the very least.
Slow Down the Yes
You should accelerate the no, but you should also think about slowing down the yes.
Kevin told a story he’d heard about a novice and a guru. They met, and the guru said, “Go get me a rock.” The novice brought one back, but the guru said, “Not that one.” So the novice brought another one back.
“No,” the guru said. “Not that rock either.”
By the third time, out of sheer desperation, the novice finally said, “Well, what kind of rock are you looking for?”
The lesson Kevin shared was that before some of the worst mistakes he’s made in his career, he should have asked one more question to clarify what the person wanted, but he didn’t want to look stupid asking. In the end, he found himself chasing that rock again and again.
Before you say yes on a request or program, slow down the yes to make sure you fully identify the rock.
There are three types of conversations with executives that you need to navigate with the yes:
1. “Blue sky” conversation — You’re talking about learning and what’s possible, but they’re not serious yet. They just want to explore “blue sky.” You might run out of the room thinking you have a mandate, but they just wanted to kick the idea around.
Question to ask: Is there something you want me to do on this right now, or do you just want to mull it over?
2. Strategic planning meeting — The leader says, “I’m beyond blue sky; I want to do it.”
Question to ask: Do you have enough information to give me a green light to begin implementation?
3. Project update — They’ve given you the green light, and they want you to come back with the program’s details, budget, and progress.
Question to ask: Are you comfortable with our progress?
In all three cases, the strategic question slows down the yes, but it makes sure you get the right rock.
Consider the Maybe
You’re saying no on things that aren’t adding as much value anymore. You’re slowing down the yes to get the order right.
Now maybe you should start sharing the learning responsibility.
It goes as follows: you’ve got a participant in one of your learning events. For the manager, it’s like vacation: they’re not at work, or you’re doing something beyond work. That’s not good.
The other mistake we fall into by not sharing responsibility is with the learning participant. The participant is in vacation mode, too: I’ve got no accountability; you’re the tour guide; you entertain me. Then we rush back and try to measure the project, to make sure it has an impact. If they don’t take responsibility on either side, you find yourself chasing the wrong rock again.
In the new year, ask yourself these questions: How do I structure my learning interventions so the sponsor and the champion are clear on what they’re going to do to support it? More importantly, how can I get them to help guide me, if not partner with me, on how I’m going to measure it?
Make sure you’re clear on what success looks like. If you’ve got a sponsor that can’t articulate how the numbers are impacted by your work, I’d start questioning whether this is a big deal. (If it’s a CEO, that’s a different matter, of course.)
When the day of accounting happens down the road, if you’ve asked the right questions ahead of time, you’ll be ready.
It’s OK to ask for help, too. Partner with people who are good at measuring and bake it into the project request upfront.
Conclusion
One of the big trends right now is self-guided, self-directed learning. Rather than the learning team defining everything, we are enabling individual employees to figure out what they need best.
The best way to do that type of enabling is by learning when to say “no,” “yes,” and “maybe.”
This episode is based on an interview with Kevin Wilde from the University of Minnesota. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to The CLO Show on iTunes.
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