Leadership Excellence is the Keystone to Driving Digital Transformation

Jason Hathaway, Global Head of Learning and Development, Chief Digital Office and Corporate Functions, Sanofi

In the ever-changing landscape of organizational evolution, the adage "Change is the only constant" holds especially true. Especially in our era where generative artificial intelligence at scale is on everyone’s lips, many organizations are spearheading quick and significant strategic shifts to reap the benefits of these new technologies, which in turn imply and require deep organizational and cultural transformation to be successful. In addition, across most industries, digital has now come to be positioned as a core business capability (rather than a traditional support function), securing a seat on the Executive Committees of most companies.

As organizations race to fully embrace digital capabilities, middle managers are often left struggling to understand the overall strategy and align with agile priorities due to a lack of shared management tools, techniques, and methods. These challenges can yield a breakdown in communication, leaving a significant portion of the workforce uninformed and ultimately misaligned with the company's overarching vision. For organizations who want to win in the brave new world of digital, data, and AI, there is an urgency to address the need for workforce readiness to navigate the ongoing transformation successfully.

Given the urgent need for consequential upskilling and development of people managers in such a context, three main challenges can emerge:  

• How do you upskill a population in which a culture of continuous learning may not be completely anchored and for whom a regular investment of time is not routine? 

• How to upskill hundreds of people managers spread across multiple geographies in both management and leadership at scale?

• How do you build and deliver a program amid rapidly changing business objectives where no allocated budget may exist? 

"As organizations race to fully embrace digital capabilities, middle managers are often left struggling to understand the overall strategy and align with agile priorities due to a lack of shared management tools, techniques, and methods."

There is indeed a “recipe” for success that can overcome the challenges mentioned above that I now implement consistently in all transformational learning journeys. I want to give some proven ingredients that Transformation/L&D colleagues should consider adding to their shopping lists to achieve digital transformation via developmental learning journeys. In my experience, the more ingredients you put into a developmental journey, the higher the returns.

Think big

Consider this: you’re invited to a 2-day(or 2-week) training course on a given leadership topic, versus you are asked to attend an 18-month course that you “sell” to learners as a “mini MBA.” Which one do you find more engaging? Certainly, the time commitment may seem daunting at first (we’ll come back to that later). However, I think most people would feel that an 18-month course is more motivating because it just feels more prestigious. The mere length will produce more long-lasting results for an organization needing to implement large-scale transformation.

Nuggetize the 70/20/10 and embed

We all know that human beings need a routine to flourish, whether in eating habits or exercise. Discipline is not a bad word, especially in adult learning and development, which needs to happen—ideally—like clockwork. As I’ve said to many, “If you don’t block out time for it beforehand and make it a habit, it won’t happen.” Once you have a rhythm established (I have seen that monthly installments work best), think about how you can integrate the 70/20/10 model (Education, Exposure, Experience) into each monthly nugget. Such pacing ensures leaders have ample time to delve deep, practice, and embed new skills without feeling rushed.

Virtual is no longer a bad word

Let’s face it: the COVID pandemic changed nearly every facet of our daily lives, even post-pandemic. This certainly includes how we learn and how we engage with colleagues, especially in a global organization. And while no one is a fan of 100% self-directed digital learning journeys, that does not mean we need to all return to a physical classroom for everything. I encourage Transformation/L&D colleagues to consider the question more with the “synchronous/asynchronous” lens. What can and should be absorbed and produced on one’s own time, and what should be developed and deepened with others in real-time virtually? Striking the right balance between the two is key. 

Create a culture of continuous learning

In the digital age, people can accomplish formal learning when it best suits their schedules. Three hours of learning and development spread over each month is a good starting point, and if people push back, let them know that it breaks down to 45 minutes per week. Remind employees that learning is not a “nice to have”; instead, learning (that is, keeping your skills up to date, investing in yourself and the company's future) is part of your job and accountability.

Be sequential in design

I believe that any transformative learning journey should first be an experience: it is a sequential and structured pathway that unfolds for the learner, like a story. Each nugget journey begins with an introduction that ties the upcoming skill directly to the company’s overarching strategy and cultural tenets, often with a video introduction from a senior leader. Such a beginning builds relevance for the learner and answers the question, “What’s in it for me?” or, more realistically, “Why is this important?”

Make social learning the keystone

The Exposure portion consists of learning from peers and senior leaders. One technique I’ve found that delivers the most results is to form “squads” (or small groups of 4-6 colleagues) that are pre-assigned, self-governing, and meet at established frequencies (e.g., once a month) to learn from each other. From the beginning, it is essential to place ground rules to build accountability for the squads (e.g., “You are responsible for sending an Outlook invitation to your peers”). 

The relatively small size of these squads is intentional to allow richer discussions and ensure every voice is heard. When forming these squads, proactively choose diversity: select people from different parts of the organization, consider gender balance, and mix in different nationalities. In doing so, you’ll foster cross-border collaborations and help break silos. The more diverse a squad is, the richer the experiences, insights, and perspectives will be. Diversity sparks enlightening discussions, encouraging breakthroughs and a-ha moments. Squads are designed as safe learning spaces where, in time, participants will build trust to express themselves freely, be vulnerable, and grow. 

Make everyone the teacher

Many managers often lack facilitation experience. Empower squads to elect a facilitator for each session. Consider equipping them with a comprehensive facilitator deck to help them develop the ability to lead an engaging squad session featuring role-playing, activities, case studies, discussions, etc. You may consider baking in a pre-work activity to ensure a more thoughtful and active contribution. Then, after the squad session, the managers translate what they’ve learned into tangible actions with the 'On-the-Job' segment, often in the form of guided activities with their direct reports and, thus, positively impacting their managerial behaviors through learning by doing.

Harness moments that matter

Where relevant, consider centering program delivery around “moments that matter,” meaning the topic selected would come at the moment of need and be immediately actionable by the managers.

Be agile in course design

As we know, business strategy (especially nowadays) changes more and more frequently. Who’s to say that in 4 months, storytelling will be less of a priority than thoughtful risk-taking? Once the rhythm is established, work in sprints that respect that rhythm. Don’t be too quick to plan out the entire learning journey, as flexibility to account for changing business needs is key. Finally, agile deployment also generates suspense (i.e., what’s next month’s nugget about?), which in turn can contribute to better engagement.

Get (real) sponsorship from the top and give back

It is essential for managers to feel recognition for their investment. To recognize their achievements and dedication, participants receive a "Digital Badge" via email after every monthly nugget. Since completing a reflection survey triggers the creation of the badge, receiving one does more than validate one's efforts; it crystalizes one's commitment. In addition, throughout the overall learning journey, think to include “Leaders teaching leaders” sessions, during which top leadership agrees to serve as mentors and teachers around a given topic. When top leadership proactively help others improve by sharing their own experience, it kick starts a culture of development for the entire organization.

Adopt targeted engagement

Should I send another email to everyone? Try to find alternative ways to engage people in a targeted manner, as many managers who may have forgotten or fallen behind will appreciate a more direct approach to remind them of upcoming tasks (especially providing monthly feedback). For this, think about pioneering automated direct messaging. Your organization uses Microsoft Teams. Using Power Automate can truly shorten the cycle time of response rates. Such messages should be concise (2-3 sentences max) reminders for completing the end-of-nugget reflection form to ensure participants receive their well-deserved badges. Including direct links embedded in the messages will further streamline access to the content. Especially for programs targeting large populations (200+), you can successfully engage participants and help keep everyone on track. 

Measure behavioral shifts (intentional and real) continuously

I used to preach about hot and cold measurement mechanisms, where you ask learners for feedback immediately after the course and then 4-6 months afterward to measure the effectiveness of the journey. I’ve learned through experience that continuous measurement is much more insightful, especially in a “nuggetized” approach to learning and development. I would urge Transformation/L&D colleagues to explore a mechanism where every nugget(I recommend monthly) would culminate with a self-assessment, a reflective exercise ensuring managers internalize their growth and areas of improvement. The emphasis of the feedback focuses on readiness to test and experiment, making each nugget a transformative journey rather than a mere training module, fostering continuous evolution in leadership as well as intended and observable behavioral change.

As we know, people don’t have time to fill in forms that require more than a few minutes of commitment. So, be straight and to the point. In each monthly nugget, think about the following: 

1. Measure NPS (especially insightful over several months). 

2. Check if they met with their squad (Y/N). 

3. If they completed the on-the-job activity (Y/N). 

4. Ask about their commitment to implementing a new behavior after the nugget (free text). 

For long programs targeting deep transformation (12 months+)—which I recommend—include deeper analytics after six months and one year, where you learn to what extent participants have implemented their learnings in their day-to-day. For example, in this questionnaire, you may want to ask, “From the beginning of the program until now, to what extent have you successfully implemented what you’ve learned with your team?” followed by choice on a scale. 

Measure business outcomes using non-learning data available.

Learning professionals are often faced with the challenge of measuring success at Kirkpatrick Level 4 because of a lack of data available to link learning and results. One option I have used consists of analyzing the results of the Voice of the Employee survey, which is sent to all employees in many organizations. In surveys I’ve seen in the past, one item particularly asks employees to evaluate to what extent their own manager’s behaviors reflect the expected behaviors of what is considered great management in that organizational culture. If your organization has such a survey, consider looking at this item's results from before the program's launch and track its evolution throughout the program. In my experience, after one year, such a leadership development program will show that employees observe a significant improvement in their managers, underlining a tangible impact of the program. In addition, if you’re deploying a program to a certain piece of the organization (e.g., digital, HR, etc.), think about including a baseline (or control group) comparison over time with the whole organization.

And if you want to go even further, don’t hesitate to think creatively about how to correlate—even loosely—other indicators that you have access to attrition rate, exit interview data, and overall company performance (especially if you are concentrating on a particular geography). 

Go out with a bang

If you’ve adopted the previous 13 ingredients, then this final one should be a no-brainer: after a learning journey that lasts over a year and is structured around monthly “nuggets” and around moments that matter, incorporates Education/Exposure/Experience, exposes learners to top leaders who become teachers, insists on the power of learning from peers, and measures behavioral change/organizational outcomes (to name a few), then it’s time to celebrate! If any external spending is available in your budget, use some of that to organize a huge online event with an external speaker and have a formal graduation ceremony. Suppose your people have dedicated their time to a learning experience over several months. In that case, you need to indicate a clean end to the experience, indicating what has been achieved thanks to their commitment and recognizing their contribution to helping transform the company from within. Of course, diplomas (signed by the CEO or the Executive Committee) are a huge plus. 

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