Human Resource Development Masterclass
Human Resource Development Masterclass
How To Develop An HRD Strategy
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In this fourth episode of Season 5, guests Dr. Fotios Mitsakis, Dr. William J. Rothwell, and Dr. Lyle Yorks discuss how to develop an HRD strategy by exploring questions:
- What do we mean by the term “HRD Strategy”, what other terms could be used in organizations to describe this work?
- How does the term “HRD Strategy” differ from the term “Strategic HRD”?
- What information would an HRD Strategy typically contain and what form would it take?
- How important is it that an HRD function has an HRD Strategy – what are the benefits and what are the potential consequences of not having an HRD Strategy?
- What advice do you have for how to build and maintain an HRD Strategy and how to align it with organizational and HR strategies?
- What are some of the biggest potential helpers and hinderers when it comes to building and implementing an HRD strategy?
- and much more.
For full details on the HRD Masterclass series, visit hrdmasterclass.com, and for the bios of the guest scholars visit allbypodcast.com/strategy.
For more information on the Academy of Human Resource Development, visit ahrd.org.
This episode is sponsored by:
- Thomas Garavan and Michael Gaffney of Positive Career Options. Positive Career Options combine a multi-disciplinary team with academic and industry expertise to provide a unique and valuable insight into career options utilising fully validated psychometric tools combined with 1:1 feedback and coaching from qualified career coaches. Their five services include CV, interview, and assessment centre preparations as well as career coaching and a career options program. To find out more and obtain the career advice you need, visit them as https://positivecareeroptions.com/.
- Concordia University Wisconsin, Earn your Doctorate in Business Administration online. Unlock new career opportunities with a PhD or Doctor of Business Administration from Concordia University Wisconsin. Our flexible, online programs are designed for ambitious professionals seeking to lead, innovate, and drive meaningful change in their industries. With expert faculty, research-driven coursework, and specializations in Financial & Economic Management and Organizational Performance & Change, you'll gain the skills to excel in executive leadership, consulting, or academia. Take the next step in advancing your career—visit earnyourdoctorateonline.cuw.edu today!
We need to draw on the alignment. We need to make sure that the HRD strategy is vertically and horizontally aligned with the business objectives and all the other, let's say departments and HRM practices, for instance.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Human Resource Development Masterclass, the podcast series from the Academy of Human Resource Development, the organization that leads HRD through research. I'm your host, Darren Short, and here in our fifth season we're exploring some of our listeners' top how-to questions with the help of leading authors, researchers and scholars. In this fourth episode of the season, we're focusing on the question of how to develop an HRD strategy, and you'll hear a conversation recorded in March of 2025. To explore this important question, I'm joined today by three experts. My first guest is Dr. William J. Rothwell, Distinguished Professor of Workforce Education and Development at Penn State University. At Penn State, he leads an online program in organization development and advises doctoral students specializing in talent development and organization development. Bill has authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited 170 books and delivered over 1,600 professional talks in 15 nations. My second guest is Dr. Lyle Yorks, Professor Emeritus, Adult Learning and Leadership Programme, Teachers College, Columbia University. Lyle continues to teach his course on strategy development as an organizational learning process and continues to be active in research projects. From 2016 to 2024, he served as a distinguished principal research fellow for the Conference Board. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Lyle was Professor of Management and Chair of the Department of Business at Eastern Connecticut University. Early in his career, he was senior vice president at an HR-focused consulting firm. My third guest is Dr. Fotios Mitsakis, senior lecturer in human resource management, organizational behaviour at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University. Fotios is a research active academic in areas such as human resource development, strategic HRD, and training and development. He serves as an editorial board member of the Human Resource Development Review Journal and Deputy Chair of the University Forum of Human Resource Development Doctoral Symposium. Photos's research has been published in several HRD-related journals. Just visit allbypodcast.com forward slash strategy to learn more about the bios of the three guests and also to connect with our episode sponsors, Thomas Garavan and Michael Gaffney of Positive Career Options and Concordia University Wisconsin. Earn your doctorate in business administration online. The first half of this episode is brought to you thanks to the sponsorship of Thomas Garavan and Michael Gaffney of Positive Career Options. Positive Career Options combines a multidisciplinary team with academic and industry expertise to provide a unique and valuable insight into career options utilising fully validated psychometric tools combined with one-to-one feedback and coaching from qualified career coaches. Their five services include CV, Interview and Assessment Centre preparations, as well as career coaching and a career options program. To find out more and obtain the career advice you need, visit them at PositiveCareeroptions.com. Right, let's dive into the episode. I have the great honor of saying a big hi to Bill, to Fotias, and to Lyle. Thank you, all three of you, for joining me for the episode today.
SPEAKER_02Hi, nice to be with you.
SPEAKER_01Yes, thank you.
SPEAKER_02Nice to be with you.
SPEAKER_01I know the episode today is how to build and implement an HID strategy. It could be worth us defining what we mean by the term HID strategy before we get into the weeds of the conversation. So let's start there. What do we mean by the term HID strategy and what other terms could be being used to describe essentially the same thing? But Bill, would you be willing to lead us off on that question?
SPEAKER_02I'm happy to lead us off, and it's a topic dear to my heart, since that was the topic of my doctoral dissertation many, many years ago. I've looked at the relationship between company strategy and the management training offered by companies. It was a qualitative study, and I did 24 match pairs of strategic planners and uh directors of management training. And in the 80s I found absolutely no relationship between the training being offered and the company's business strategy. And I even had a vice president and a multinational company tell me it was impossible to do that, that strategy was was hard and and HRD was soft, and it and he said that it would be nailing jello to a tree. That's a direct quote. And uh of course, we hope that is not true. So, what do we mean by HRD strategy? So HRD strategy can refer to an organization's deliberate plan to develop its human resources to meet current and future business needs, it can include the policies, programs, and initiatives aimed at enhancing employee capabilities and competencies, improving performance, and fostering long-term organizational growth. I would mention that in my book, The Strategic Development of Talent, which was preceded by an earlier edition that had the title Strategic Human Resource Development. In that book, I talk about the layers of strategy, and at the top layer we have company strategy, in the middle layer we have human resource strategy, and the third layer down is HRD strategy, showing a linkage and a relationship between those three different areas. But more recently, I've written articles where I say that we should reconsider the idea that HRD strategy supports the business. I believe the quality of the talent of an organization sometimes leads the business. Entrepreneurship creates companies, and the entrepreneurship within the company may be a critical factor in determining future company direction. Of course, that's heresy in the field of strategic planning, but to put HR over the business leadership, but I think it's an issue to think about.
SPEAKER_01So it's interesting listening to Bill's definition there, which I thought really set us up well for the episode, because it makes me realize there's a second term that you see in in practice and in literature, which is the term of strategic HRD. And so it again, it could be helpful from a from a listener perspective to understand what the difference is between those two terms, the term HRD strategy and the term strategic HRD. So Lyle, what what do you see as the difference between those two?
SPEAKER_03First of all, I should say that I see them somewhat uh overlapping. And uh I would say that the term uh HRD strategy many times is something that is a key component of what is being used many times with the term strategic HRD, so that it's a component of that. It not only involves training and development and the development of talent, you could also argue that there are elements of HRD that also involves aligning the business culture or the organizational culture, I should say, with the uh both the broader business strategy, but also with the learning strategies that are taking place within the organization. So uh I think that when you're talking about HRD strategy, it can many times apply at the level of HRD in terms of the different components of HRD. What's our strategy for? What's our HRD strategy for the way we're able to foster uh the kind of talent that we're going to need going forward or be able to recruit the kind of people that we bring in and then prepare them to be successful in the organization? The term strategic HRD for me, uh, and this goes back with perhaps some of the uh writing that I'd done with Tom Garvin, is that uh, you know, that term really started to emerge somewhat in uh the early 90s, 1991, for example, uh, because up till that point in time, uh there wasn't a lot of strategic connection to the HRD practice. But strategic HRD, the way that has evolved over the last couple of decades is it provides, it's both, I would describe it as both an umbrella term for thinking about how HRD strategy needs to form, and then what are the components that need to become part of that and how HRD strategy needs to fit into that? So, for example, uh one of the connections that was made back in 1991 in the early 90s was HRD strategy ought to be also focused on business or organizational performance. And, you know, is our HRD strategy really connecting to and helping the foster and is aligned with performance of the organization? So it's starting to look at both uh what are the talent characteristics that we're developing and the skills that people are getting, uh, but what is also the alignment with and is it enhancing, is it having an impact on organizational performance and how that's actually playing out. And then looking at uh, as part of that umbrella, the need to really look at what's the horizontal alignment that exists between our different HRD practices. Because again, there could be different components to HRD. There could be things that are rooted in adult learning and learning and development practice, and then in uh organizational psychology and OD and then other HR, are those things aligned in some way? Is there alignment taking place or are they just taking place within the particular components? And also is there vertical alignment in terms of how it uh aligns to the broader business strategy and what's the connection? And is it really being tracked? Is the effectiveness of HRD practices really being looked at? Uh, what is the impact that it might be having on the organizational performance in some way? Uh so I see the term strategic HRD as really aligning HRD practice much more with the broader, still still keeping it distinct. It's an area development, but but aligning much more with uh what the organizational strategies need to be with regard to performance. What's our marketing strategy? How does that fit? What's our finance strategy?
SPEAKER_00If if I somehow like sum up what Lyle uh has suggested, is that apparently we have two terms that they do both refer to the development of the human resources within an organization, but I think their main difference to me is their focus. And when I say their focus, the HRD strategy is more about the how an organization develops its people, its workforce in the short or medium term. And it is an action plan, a set of plan activities, structured activities as to how to do that, while the strategic HRD term is more about the why and how, the HRD strategy and the HRD department, probably, if there is one, is abandoned within the organization long-term vision and plans. And even culture, as Lyle uh you know suggested earlier. The HRD strategy is a communication tool of our strategic HRD approach if that makes sense. So it's a tool the professionals use to ensure that they are vertically and horizontally integrated, as Lyle and Bill suggested earlier, and to communicate it effectively, you know, in a clear manner, so for everyone within the organization to be aware of how things work in relation to HRD and their career development, uh, you know, their training, their skills development, and so on.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I would I would agree with everything you both have said. To me, strategic HRD is that broader philosophy of what we're trying to accomplish, but the HRD strategy is much more focused, more specific about the groups we're gonna serve, how we're going to serve them, what percentage emphasis, for example, we might put on the 70-20-10 rule, which is still widely used in many corporations. If you talk to them, it'll come up quickly. And so to me, those are some of the key differences. So I agree with what you both said.
SPEAKER_01I think that takes us maybe then into digging just a little deeper. It makes me wonder what information therefore goes into an HRD strategy, uh, and also like what form that HRD strategy takes. Like, you know, Fotias, I think you were starting to walk us down that path already. So are you willing to grab our hands and continue us down that path?
SPEAKER_00Yes, indeed. Uh, we need to draw on the alignment you know suggestion. We need to make sure that the HRD strategy vertically and horizontally aligns you know with the business objectives and all the other, you know, uh uh, let's say departments and HRM practices, for instance. With that in mind, with that in mind, uh, the information that an HRD strategy should include, first of all, it should offer, I would say, an overview of the purpose of the HRD strategy and how the purpose of the HRD strategy relates with the business goals. In other words, how the HRD strategy aims to address the business goals through its practices. Then it should also highlight the gaps, the ask gaps. The ask stands for the attitude, skills, and knowledge that the existing workforce has and the gap that we need to address for the respective asks needed in the future. To me, an HRT strategy should also offer smart objectives. They need to be specific, as we know, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Another kind of information that it needs to include is the roles and the responsibilities of the HR professionals and not only, maybe the line managers, even the employees, people at all levels, what would be their roles and responsibilities towards meeting those objectives, towards collectively working towards meeting those objectives. And at the end, I feel that the HRD strategies should also include uh the feedback mechanism. How would we know that what we have proposed and we have worked on that it's actually successful? So I guess we need to include the HRD strategies needs to include uh the evaluation, I would say, uh key performance indicators, if that makes sense. So maybe uh training completion rates, if we do reference to uh you know training, how we have improved employee performance post-training, employees' engagement rates, satisfaction rates in relation to training and development programs, and the most important, the business impact. How have we contributed to the business prosperity through our offerings? And the last thing, I feel that because everything I've said uh acts more or less as a value proposition of the value proposition of the HRD strategy, it should also indicate its reduction, risk reduction capacity. How through our offerings, how through actually believing, let's say, in us, and by saying in us, I mean I refer to the HRD professionals, we can uh reduce the associated business risks. So if we educate our people, if we ensure that uh they have the necessary skills and the knowledge to perform their work effectively, then we're gonna reduce the related accidents. Uh, we might uh reduce the resistance to change in the future. Uh, we would be able to support you know leadership development uh when needed, and so on.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I would agree with what you've been saying. No question there at all. And uh one of the things that you had mentioned that uh uh I think is right on board is the idea of needing to be able to keep the organization forward looking, but also have everybody in the organization looking forward-looking. I always like to use some quotes many times when I'm working with saying, uh, you know, Jelly Roll famously said that uh there's a reason why the front window of the car is a lot broader than the rearview mirror. Uh you got to be really looking ahead and what's, you know, what's what's in front of you, what's going to happen. In fact, if you're looking at the rearview mirror and you don't see the bus in front of you changing lanes right in front of you, well, that could be a disaster. So uh uh, or also uh, and of course, a lot of young students might not have listened to Fleetwood Mac, but don't stop thinking about the future, which is a very good song to be going with. So, or you know, Patty Scopella, you can't go back again. You got to be looking forward uh and being able to, while at the same time learning from the past. And uh the other thing that I would put up there is that uh uh part of the role of HRD strategy ought to be with how do we contribute to the facilitation of strategic learning at the most senior levels of the organization? And how do we actually turn strategy discussions into learning processes? And that may reflect my own bias, but as a colleague of mine at the Columbia Business School, he's a former CEO, he's a professor of practice, Willie Peterson has written a couple books, one called Strategic Learning, and he makes a distinction between learning and planning. And he says, learning is outside in. The early part of strategic learning is you've got to be looking at what's changing in the outside world, what are the things going on, and then starting to focus. Once you have your strategy, then you can engage in strategic planning, which is the allocation of you know resources. So if we had Willie online here, he would say, you know, strategic learning is distinct from strategic planning. Both are critical, but if you confuse the two, it can be a little toxic. You got to be always looking at how can things change. And in fact, I would say one of the this goes back to my other question, one of the impediments for organization success is when you have an attitude in the organization that, look, what we're doing is working. Well, yeah, that may be great. But what might mean that it doesn't work uh a year from now or two years from now, which doesn't mean we automatically have to change, but you've got to so I think part of the HRD strategy is how do I actually facilitate those kinds of conversations at the C level of the organization? You know, how do you make that happen?
SPEAKER_02That that leads right into Some of the research I've been doing and sponsored by ATD. And ATD, as you well know, has a individual certification program. And I was instrumental in creating that. I was one of two people that created the original proposal for the ATD certification. But more recently I've been working around something called the talent development structure. And that's a term that refers to a framework by which we can determine what are the priorities of the talent development function. What should it be doing? And that conversation is often lacking with senior executives. As a result, we end up with a very diffused, unfocused, lacking in that vertical alignment that Lyle was talking about. And it's a common problem. A lot of organizations have that. So we developed a puzzle model that can be used either hands-on or online to help the talent development director had with his his or her staff have a conversation with senior leaders about the shape of their direction, where they should go, where the priorities should be. Ongoing conversations with senior leadership about what should be the priorities of the HRD function. And often that conversation is lacking. And so as a result, this is why training or HRD is often first on the chopping block when the organization hits hard times, the leadership is unaware of what the talent development function is actually contributing to the organization. The feedback pipeline is often lacking. So that's what I would say, and that goes right to what form should that strategy take? How do we communicate it best? And I'd say in as many ways as possible. I'm particularly fond of internal training councils made up of representatives from different levels on the org chart, different levels on the hierarchy, different facilities, different shifts, if it's a shift organization, union representation, in other words, a broad net of stakeholders who can have a voice in the direction of the organization's HRD or talent development function.
SPEAKER_00Definitely, I would say that those conversations are needed. But when it comes to the HRD strategy, the HRD strategy should not stay as an oral statement, if that makes sense. It should take the form of a formal document, a structured document, you know, a detailed, a much detailed document that, you know, it covers the HRD or the HR policies in general, the initiatives that there are in place, the long-term goals, and how all these integrate with the business strategy and the business objectives. So in that sense, the HRD strategy should also take, let's say, the form of a clear document, an actionable, if that makes sense, document, and equally an adaptable and comprehensive document. Because as Lyle suggested earlier, we need to look forward. So we don't develop a strategy, we don't sit down and write like a formal detailed structure, all these things that I have mentioned earlier, you know, document, and that's it. We need to constantly update this document, our strategy, to fit the current needs. Just to uh take into consideration, for instance, all these latest uh things that happen in the world, like you know, the economic crisis, uh, the COVID, uh, the wars around the world, all these have a direct or indirect impact on organizations and eventually on HRD or HR strategies in general. So that's why this structured, formal document should also be adaptable and very comprehensive for everyone to understand, not just the senior management, but all the stakeholders, as Bill suggested.
SPEAKER_01We'll be back in a moment with more from Bill, Lyle and Odeon. First, though, here's a reminder that today's episode is brought to you thanks to the wonderful sponsorship support of Concordia University, Wisconsin. Unlock new career opportunities with a PhD or Doctor of Fitness Administration from Concordia University, Wisconsin. Are flexible online programs designed for ambitious professionals seeking to lead, innovate and drive meaningful change in their industry. With expert faculty, research-driven coursework and specialisations in financial and economic management and organizational performance and change, you'll gain the skills to excel in executive leadership, consulting or academia. Take the next step in advancing your career. Visit earnyourdoctorateonline.cuw.edu today. Right, let's now return to the episode. Yeah, I wonder I want to take us into like some of the practical steps of how we build a strategy. But I wonder if it's worth first talking just a little bit about what the consequences are of us not having an HRD strategy, as in like if an organization chooses not to do this, what are the consequences? Lyle, I think you touched on this a little bit earlier when you when you were talking. Are you willing to dive us into what you see as some of those consequences of not having an HRD strategy?
SPEAKER_03Well, I think in today's world, one of the consequences, and the ones that do emerge, are going to vary somewhat by industry and things of that nature, but it means that we, you know, organizations won't end up with having the talent mix that it needs going forward. Not only today, but tomorrow. You know, one of the big issues I hear from a lot of organizations is how do we retain our key talent. If we aren't uh being able to have an HRD strategy, uh, we we ain't going to have the talent mix that we need going forward. It also may mean that we don't have an organizational culture that has to increasingly learn, it has to increasingly be able to move forward. Uh, one of the biggest uh you know dilemmas that can impact an organization is when you have, as I referred to earlier, people at the top thinking that, you know, look, what we're doing is really working. Well, yeah, that may be true, but we'll still be working two years from now, one year from now. One other thing I would add to the conversation we've been having is that it's important that the HRD professionals have a good degree of, you know, business acronym. They not only are well grounded in the learning practices at the individual organizational team uh levels and so forth, and what are the different strategies, but they got to be able to communicate and be able to understand and uh uh what the implications are in terms of the business itself. You know, I really like the quote that uh Ike used. He actually took it from uh a Persian general back when they were first forming Germany, but you know, Eisenhower said, planning's everything, plans are nothing. You always gotta be ready to be agile. Uh well, uh, if anything, I mean, that was a great quote for Ike to use back in the 50s, but uh it's more relevant than ever today. And that says to me that uh the whole notion of organizational level learning and strategic learning, one of the HRD has got to be right at the top and facilitating that throughout the organization and creating a culture for that to happen. But to have credibility in doing that, they gotta be able to talk in terms of the specific businesses that they're talking about, not sound like this theorist.
SPEAKER_01I feel like the conversation's done a great job of describing, you know, what a strategy is, why it's important, what the consequences are of not having one. So I think it transitions us nicely into starting to help listeners think through how do I build one? Uh so if I'm in an organization that is lacking this, and I've been convinced by the conversation that I need to start doing it, um, how do I go about creating that? Um, Bill, you touched on this a little earlier in one of your initial responses. I'm wondering if you're willing to take us into a little deeper on that. I think what advice do you have for how to build and maintain an HRD strategy and to have it aligned?
SPEAKER_02Well, I've actually done this with multiple companies. In one case, they called me in and it it takes up where the last question left off. What happens without a strategy? I was working for an industrial plant, a small one with about 300 people. The CEO of that plant, he was also the CEO of the company, called me in and said, last year we spent $300,000 on training. We do not have a training department or a training director. We spent $300,000 on videotapes of W. Edwards Deming and others, and we herded our employees in from the assembly line and made them watch all of those videos, and then they went back out on the assembly line and nothing changed. And he said, We were shocked, the management was shocked that we had made that level of investment and got absolutely no return. So he said, We've read some of your stuff, we'd like you to come in and help us set up a program, we don't care what you call it, a training department, a corporate university, a professional development division, whatever you want to call it. And so I worked with them for three years, and during that time we focused on three areas initially. This was initial. The first area was company policy. What did they want out of their HRD function at a strategic level? And so we engaged the senior leaders as well as workers represented in a training committee that represented different shifts, different levels of the org chart, different locations, and so forth, uh, on that question of what do we want out of our training and our professional development over time. So that was one area of focus. A second area of focus was around curriculum development or program development. What was happening is each department had its own rules. For example, the safety department insisted that every employee go through safety training every year to uh to prevent OSHA from giving them big fines. And other departments also had rules about training that all employees or certain groups of employees had to go through, but there was no control over who went to what training at what time. So we use that as a focal point to develop department specific and work group specific training requirements that a new hire could be handed and told over your entire career here's a list of requirements by your level on the work chart, your department, your career stage. You can add to this for your own professional development, but to meet company requirements, we would like you to engage in these professional development opportunities. So that was the second point of focus. The third point of focus was on the job training, and the company had none at all. They had the typical follow Joe around the plant or sit by Nelly approach to OJT, and so we trained all supervisors and all veteran workers on structured OJT. So we took a threefold approach, and at the policy level, we were really talking about setting strategy, but at the same time, we were setting strategy through our efforts with the formal training and the on-the-job training. If I were doing that today, that was about 10 years ago. If I had were doing that today, we would add a third component which would which would address the 70 and the 20 in the 70-2010 rule, because most of those efforts I just described were focused on the 10%, and I didn't cover the 90% of weaving learning into job requirements, day-to-day work assignments, and interaction with peers through mentoring or coaching methods and so forth, we would have added a couple of elements. So that's one way I would say we could start the effort. But I think there are other ways, easily other ways. For example, we can engage our senior leaders and use the steps in the classic strategic planning model as a focal point. There were actually vendors who offered training on how to do that. They suggested that on day one, the company talk about their strategic business plan, and then on day two, they focused on their workforce plan and their HRD strategy to make that plan uh capable of implementation. So I think there are, Darren, I think there are many ways that we could get a start. I've given you a few.
SPEAKER_00I was listening to you know to Bill, and uh I feel that he has offered a very practical way, you know, a live way of how to do things, you know, of how to develop an HRD strategy from a real example, you know. Uh from a more theoretical, I would say, point of view, I would probably, and correct me if I'm wrong, feel free to step in at any time, Bill. Uh, from a theoretical point of view, I would probably suggest five steps that an HRD strategy should take into consideration, you know, or you know, while being developed. The first step is to make sure that it is aware of the vision and mission of the business. And that goes back and forward to the alignment suggestion that we have all agreed with. The second step is uh you know, is the analysis of the internal and external environments and the competitive advantage through the ask of our workforce, the knowledge, the skills, and the attitudes that we have. The third step is the to identify the HRD strategic choices that we have in terms of the policies we have, the you know, the resources and everything that we have at hand, you know, to put forward with our suggestions. Then the fourth step is the actual implementation of all the previous steps, and the step five is the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the HRD strategy. And if needed, we go round and round again through those five steps, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_03Well, I would agree with uh what both of my you know colleagues here have said, and uh I think you know Bill has laid out a very you know practical way of thinking about what this whole approach is, and to understand too that going back to what you you were just saying, Fitos, it's a uh it's a process that has to follow a certain sequence of steps and so forth. I think uh the kinds of things that whether we're talking about building strategy at the HRD level or facilitating strategic learning uh within other functions or at the top of the organization, it's a process of first of all getting people to do a good assessment of what are really, as I was saying earlier, the trends that are taking place that would be impactful on them and what are those trends and how much did they really know? Sometimes when I've done workshops, done workshops for some companies, firms down on the you know Wall Street, as well as some that are in the manufacturing operation elsewhere, you got to spread it out with some breaks where people gotta go out and really look at what's the day. Are they really testing their assumptions? You know, what are the assumptions that they're really making about those trends and so forth? Because if they're not clear on what their assumptions are and they don't have any real data, you know, who have they talked to? How do you have those kinds of conversations and really assessing what are the trends that are happening? And once you know what the trends that are happening, then starting to look at uh what would be the way in which you can think your way through using scenarios and scenario thinking in order to be able to start to formulate what your strategy is. And that itself is a cycle, you know, where you've got to look at what are your key uncertainties, you know, what do we know we know, what do we think we know, what do we know we don't know, what are the key uncertainties, which of those uncertainties are most likely to be impactful in terms of thinking about where we want to go, and then start from that to start to build what the actual strategy itself will look like. You gotta be able to deal with uncertainty and how that uncertainty plays out, and that requires a certain mindset, a certain, so I also think that part of what HRD needs to be functioning on, in addition to skill training and whatever, is actually the development of more agile mindsets. You know, whether you use the work of Bob Kigan, whether you use the work of Bill Torbert or John Heron. But uh, you know, in today's world, if you have a set mindset, you know, I well just get ready for being frustrated most of the time. Don't worry about it. You know. But if you're able to adapt and uh be able to be very fluid and looking at what are the trends that are continually happening, uh now you gotta be rethinking your future strategy even while you're implementing the existing one. And by that I don't mean that you have chaos, you can't have chaos, but you you know when I had my first job at Traveler's Insurance Company, strategy was something that left in corporate methods, systems and methods. Yeah. Strategy was something that lasted for fifteen years. Now it lasts a year, two years. You better be ready to start to move.
SPEAKER_02As as recently as the nineteen sixties, Xerox had a 100-year strategic plan. Today, when we hear that, we all burst into laughter, but that's the truth because long-range planning meant just extend the trend lines out from what we have today, and that's what the future looks like. But today, because of disruptive change, we can't really predict with certainty what that future will be. So I think strategic HRD starts by training each worker on how to think more strategically.
SPEAKER_01I'm conscious that we're hitting the top of the hour. I wanted to say a big thank you to all three of you for your time today. Um, I think you've done a fantastic job of inviting people into the topic of HRD strategy, of thinking through the importance of it, the consequences of not having an HID strategy, and then also given some useful pointers on different ways of building an HRD strategy. Um, uh my hope is we can get back together again at some point in the future to then talk more about implementing it and maintaining it. Uh, but for now I wanted to say a massive thanks to all three of you for kickstarting this conversation, and I look forward to continuing it at some future date. So thank you all so much indeed.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_00I enjoyed it. It was a pleasure talking to all of you, and uh till the next time. Yeah, till the next time.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much for joining me for this episode. It was wonderful spending time with Bill Rothwell, Lyle Yorks, and Fotios Mitsakis. If you enjoyed this episode, check out our other 47, which contain conversations with over 100 leading scholars from around the world. To learn more about the series, check out HRDmasterclass.com. And to learn about the Academy of Human Resource Development, check out ahrd.org. Support the future of human resource development. Give to AHRD, a 501c3 non-profit, today. Your donation powers research, scholarships, innovative programs and vital operations that keep our HRD community thriving. Every tax-deductible donation makes a difference. Join us in ensuring AHRD remains a beacon for research, collaboration and professional growth for decades to come. Visit ahrd.org forward slash donate and invest in the future of HRD. Together we can make a lasting impact. Also, please check out our episode sponsors, Thomas Garavan and Michael Gaffney of Positive Career Options. Obtain the career advice you need by visiting them at Positive CareerOptions.com and also by Concordia University Wisconsin. Earn your doctorate in business administration online. Please visit them at earnyourdoctorateonline.cuw.edu today. Join me again next week when I'm exploring the question of how to implement people analytics with guests Alexis Fink, Sunguon Yoon and Brad Shuck. Until then, stay safe. This is Darren Short signing off from the HRD Masterclass. Humorous Source Development Masterclass podcast is brought to you by the Academy of Humorous Development and is a production of All MyPodcast.com.
