Leading From The C-Suite: Graham Glass of CYPHER Learning On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive
An Interview With Doug Noll
Respect for customers. They’ll decide your fate, and the fates of your co-workers, and partners, and suppliers too. It’s plain to see which companies — or entire verticals — take customers for granted, or even engage them as adversaries. (Back in the 2000s I remember a certain mobile telecom brand discovered one-third of account terminations occurred the very day the customer’s contract expired. People were straining at the leash to abandon this telecom, they disliked it so much. The brand’s long gone, but the lesson lingers.) Sending the message from the C-suite that your supply of customers can be endlessly replenished is not only wrong, it’s a dead-end C-suite strategy.
As part of our series called “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive” we had the pleasure of interviewing Graham Glass, entrepreneur, author, and CEO of CYPHER Learning, which provides modern digital learning platforms for more than 20,000 organizations worldwide.
Graham brings more than 30 years of thought leadership to the education and technology fields. Born and educated in Britain, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1983 and studied, then taught, computer science and training dynamics at the University of Texas in Dallas. Lobbied by nearby technology firms to package his training curriculum for their employees, Graham founded a series of companies focused on learning and development: ObjectLesson, ObjectSpace, The Mind Electric, EDU 2.0, and, in 2006, CYPHER Learning — which in 2023 is at the forefront of the revolution in AI-enhanced modern learning platforms as it serves businesses and educational institutions around the world. Graham’s written numerous books on computer programming. Today he divides his time between Texas, California, and the UK.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I actually started life not as an entrepreneur, as some do, but an academic! When I arrived in the United States in the 1980s, I lectured on computer science at the University of Texas. Everybody’s got a superpower, and I found mine was a knack for explaining complicated things effectively and appealingly to people who might or might not be naturally interested. I taught UNIX, Smalltalk and C++, and before long I had offers to write books about programming in the same style.
The mid-1980s was a pretty lively period for the Texas high-tech scene. Michael Dell, a University of Texas grad, had a modest little direct-sales computer firm that was starting to make waves. Anyway, I began fielding calls from nearby tech companies, asking if I might be available to port my classroom materials over to the corporate campus. I said yes — so many fateful things happen when you just say yes! — left the university, and found my calling in workplace training and education. My first company, ObjectLesson, was a one-man show. Much has happened since, however — I’ve led multiple startups, and been dedicated to enterprise courseware and platforms for learning and development since the mid-2000s.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
The story that springs to mind happened quite recently. Our learning platform was selected a couple of years back by Qatar’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education for implementation at every public school in the country. When you work for years to win access and prove value in schoolrooms one small jurisdiction at a time, achieving such total penetration and high impact in one fell swoop was a remarkable experience. And then of course you breathe to yourself: I hope we live up to expectations! At a March conference the Ministry pronounced itself highly satisfied — student motivation, engagement, and performance all up impressively — and extended CYPHER Learning access to all Qatar’s private schools.
It’s not every day a leader and his team experience such emphatic, tangible validation from an entire country — especially when you start small. We had to tell ourselves to savor it.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
Sir Richard Branson, like me, is a serial entrepreneur who’s applied his Virgin brand to music, transport, vodka, banking, etc. He said: “Business opportunities are like buses. There’s always another one coming.” I love that; it frees you to experiment. A business failure is not obliteration, just a learning moment. Not all Virgin ventures have taken the world by storm — who remembers Virgin Cola? — but the brand remains revered, and Sir Richard’s place in our culture as an iconic, gutsy insurgent-disrupter is assured and historic. He’s one of my chief inspirations.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on your leadership style? Can you share a story or an example of that?
David C. Robertson wrote a wonderful Lego company history: Brick by Brick: How Lego Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry (Crown Business, 2013). At the end of the century Lego was enduring heavy losses in the face of video games and other claimants on kid headspace. This is the story of the toy company’s improbable comeback, powered by so many values I hold dear — from listening to customers, to empowering design teams, to “building a culture where profitable innovation flourishes.” An example for us all, no matter our line of work.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Until pervasive AI became a global talking point, I typically said CYPHER Learning stands apart from competitors owing to great, high-touch product design. Not many learning and development platforms are engineered to elicit joy in the using. Our solutions are. Ask me in 2023, though, and I’d also cite our thoughtful, strategic application of authentic AI tech.
In this turbocharged moment, all sorts of products and services suddenly claim to be AI-infused. Some aren’t, actually — they just look that way. Other times we see too little thought given to the ramifications of AI. CYPHER Learning will differentiate itself by advocating for — and modeling — a sensible balance of power between human and machine inputs. As we bring AI-enhanced learning online, we’re assigning artificial intelligence a “copilot” role: it takes on much of the repetitive rote work that drives teachers and instructors crazy, but elevates the people in the mix to decisive edit-and-control roles.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Counterintuitively or not, I’d say number one is empathy. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but quite a lot of computer culture is anything but empathetic. It demands that users do things its way, rather than responding to their preferences and patterns; even the term “user” seems sometimes to carry a jot of disdain. We all run into cryptic, demanding interfaces and processes on a daily basis — evidence of an empathy deficit during the design phase. Bringing empathy to product and experience design has proven really valuable at CYPHER Learning, and a key differentiator for us. We love it when students love our products.
The number two trait? Curiosity, no doubt. I like to know what makes smart people go, what motivated them to make big life choices, and what they want next. And I respond happily to other curious people — I love good questions! My companies have succeeded in large part because of curiosity.
Third: for better or worse, impatience. With today’s tech, in particular generative AI, I see possibilities I know can’t be realized overnight. And obviously we as a society must leverage AI wisely and with consensus. Still, I’m impatient to see round the next bend.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?
I made a wrenching decision some years ago to step down as CTO at webMethods, a large company devoted to application and business process integration. I joined up in 2003 as webMethods acquired another startup of mine, The Mind Electric, and at that point Deloitte had webMethods pegged as the fourth fastest-growing software company in North America. Its prospects were huge. But within two years I resigned to found another company of my own from square one, this one a pure education play.
It was a classic leadership inflection point, I suppose: Are you going to ride the biggest tiger you can? Or, blessed with the opportunity and wherewithal, are you going to pursue your true calling? A few years later webMethods was acquired by a German concern and those involved did rather well, but I have absolutely no regrets.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a C-Suite executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what a C-Level executive does that is different from the responsibilities of other leaders?
An effective C-level person is a proactive navigator who anticipates trends and events, identifies opportunities, and gives teams the resources they need to exploit those opportunities and outrace the competition. In nautical terms, a captain who knows the waters, the weather, and the crew’s capabilities is a better leader than one who’s surprised by shallow rocks that were clearly marked on the charts all along.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a C-Suite executive? Can you explain what you mean?
Well, two come to mind. First, we don’t know every minute detail of corporate operations — but we know people who do. I like to give smart, passionate teams their own heads, but I think micromanagement has a paralytic effect and is not a great look for a leader. So there are “gotcha” quizzes about my own company I might not pass. Second, if we’re good, we balance quarterly results and profitability against what’s good for the company and its customers over the long term. It’s a myth — and a gross oversimplification to think all CEOs prize profit first, second, and third at the expense of everything else. When companies postpone reinvestment or R&D to hit a stretch-goal sales figure, they’re postponing a reckoning. I’m always weighing competing priorities to maximize long-term competitiveness.
What are the most common leadership mistakes you have seen C-Suite leaders make when they start leading a new team? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Perhaps the most common error I see is empire defense. A CEO builds something, has market success — sometimes dramatic, world-beating success — but then clings to that something for too long. I think of Heinz Nordhoff, who led Volkswagen for 20 years, from the ’40s through the ’60s. Under Nordhoff the VW Beetle became a global icon despite certain flaws. VW had no replacement in the pipeline. Then in 1968 Road & Track magazine compared the Beetle to the new Toyota Corolla and pronounced the Toyota better in every way and cheaper, too. That was the peak year for Beetle sales in the U.S.; the numbers spiraled downward after that. Still, It took Nordhoff’s sudden death and a hard-driving successor, Kurt Lotz, to jump-start new designs — and the Golf, or Rabbit, did not launch until 1974! Six years later! By then Volkswagen was almost an asterisk in the U.S. market — run over by Honda, Toyota, and Datsun. No icon is invulnerable.
So: how can we not be VW in 1968? Part of a leader’s job is to let go of what’s historically worked and evolve a company toward something new before market forces, new tech, and changing tastes pose mortal risk.
My sphere of business is crowded with conventional learning and development platforms that don’t really support personalized instruction, don’t leverage AI judiciously and authentically … I think there’s far less risk in designing for the future than working to prolong the appeal of a legacy product.
In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
It might sound self-contradicting, but I promise you it’s not: institutionalizing dynamism. I’ve watched so many companies pigeonhole people as a ploy to achieve operational stability: once you get good at something, you’re stuck doing it. The problem with that is, your best, most innovative brains — the ones you really want in a position to disrupt things — get antsy. Which can make your company less agile — less able to lead, visualize the future, take smart risks.
Within a durable, resilient framework, I think a good CEO curates a bubbly, dynamic working environment where people see ways to acquire new competencies and assume new roles. Not incidentally, that kind of dynamism is a ROI play for the business: you’re going to be better able to form “dream teams” from within to spearhead innovation. I see organizations retaining headhunters and engaging in bidding wars when they want a new competency in-house, even though it could be lurking there all the time, just waiting to be activated. The value of simply supporting your people when they want to keep doing new things is very often underestimated.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective C-Suite Executive”?
1 . Respect for customers. They’ll decide your fate, and the fates of your co-workers, and partners, and suppliers too. It’s plain to see which companies — or entire verticals — take customers for granted, or even engage them as adversaries. (Back in the 2000s I remember a certain mobile telecom brand discovered one-third of account terminations occurred the very day the customer’s contract expired. People were straining at the leash to abandon this telecom, they disliked it so much. The brand’s long gone, but the lesson lingers.) Sending the message from the C-suite that your supply of customers can be endlessly replenished is not only wrong, it’s a dead-end C-suite strategy.
2 . Big ears. Listen to all your people, up and down the org chart, and amplify the least credentialed voices — they may have the most striking, bolt-from-the-sky ideas. I don’t want anyone in my organization shrinking back when I pass; I want them to speak up, so I work to show I’m listening.
3 . Radar. Inhale news, and not just Wall Street dispatches and product news from your business sector. Work to understand the whole zeitgeist; it affects your fortunes. As I’ve said, I value curiosity, and I expect curious people to know what’s up with Ukraine, EV sales, and the Barbie movie. It makes us a better company. Few businesses are able to prosper in an information vacuum.
4 . A Mind’s-Eye Message Hierarchy. Your audiences inside and outside the company expect you to communicate naturally, coherently … and consistently. If you describe your mission or offering differently every time you’re asked, the net impression may be jumbled. Sketch yourself a simple hierarchy of mission, goals, and value-proposition keywords — it should fit on the back of an envelope — and let it be the basis for a consistent “brand voice.”
5 . A Mirror. Look into it every morning and see where the buck stops. You may have squads of brilliant team players surrounding you. Now and then, some will err. Who takes responsibility? The person in the mirror. Little diminishes your leadership equity faster than placing blame in public.
In your opinion, what are a few ways that executives can help to create a fantastic work culture? Can you share a story or an example?
In the workplace, minimize symbols of hierarchical divisions: Andy Grove, the legendary Intel CEO, officed in a cubicle at Santa Clara HQ like everybody else. Model tolerance. Criticize in private, praise in public. Celebrate team wins so everyone can hear. Encourage positive storytelling; it’s the foundation of a durable company culture. If you need a team to work on something at six in the morning, they’ll remember forever that you were there at five-thirty, making coffee. Show up for the company baseball outing.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
We haven’t begun to leverage distance learning technologies to serve everyone within reach. In our era, geography shouldn’t be a barrier to education and better lives. With a modest digital device and an internet connection, it shouldn’t matter if you’re in London, Lviv, or Lanzhou: equal access to learning resources is theoretically possible. It’s within our grasp to create a grand, globally connected schoolroom that literally elevates billions. It’s not a question of money, really — it’s a question of convening and aligning governments, educators, businesses, and technologists. I’d love to help activate that movement!
How can our readers further follow you online?
As often as I can, I take part in webinars and virtual panels and post notices regularly on LinkedIn, where I also seek feedback and advice from those who look in. I’m happy to have you do the same at https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamglass/. I’m also on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: @grahamglass. Thanks for the follow.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
It’s our destiny to live in the most dramatic period of change in human history. I almost said, “Let’s see what’s next!” But we’re not spectators; let’s co-create what’s next. Good to speak with you. Thank you very much!
About the Interviewer: Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA was born nearly blind, crippled with club feet, partially deaf, and left-handed. He overcame all of these obstacles to become a successful civil trial lawyer. In 2000, he abandoned his law practice to become a peacemaker. His calling is to serve humanity, and he executes his calling at many levels. He is an award-winning author, teacher, and trainer. He is a highly experienced mediator. Doug’s work carries him from international work to helping people resolve deep interpersonal and ideological conflicts. Doug teaches his innovative de-escalation skill that calms any angry person in 90 seconds or less. With Laurel Kaufer, Doug founded Prison of Peace in 2009. The Prison of Peace project trains life and long terms incarcerated people to be powerful peacemakers and mediators. He has been deeply moved by inmates who have learned and applied deep, empathic listening skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills to reduce violence in their prison communities. Their dedication to learning, improving, and serving their communities motivates him to expand the principles of Prison of Peace so that every human wanting to learn the skills of peace may do so. Doug’s awards include California Lawyer Magazine Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year, Purpose Prize Fellow, International Academy of Mediators Syd Leezak Award of Excellence, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals Neutral of the Year. His four books have won a number of awards and commendations. Doug’s podcast, Listen With Leaders, is now accepting guests. Click on this link to learn more and apply.
