Transforming Leadership: Embracing Humanity and Authenticity in People Development

We have three amazing leaders who are gonna share a little bit about how they've evolved, some of these like models internally, and specifically like the details of like, how do we identify talent and the developmental plans, how do we make performance management into a performance development and enablement conversation? And some of the other factors within this. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna pass it over to one of our favorite, uh, kind of advisors and members here in our network, the amazing Heather Garrin, chief People Officer for Uncork. I mean, she's been running so many crazy experiments. I'm so excited for her to talk about, like, think about evolution, like evolving and, and revolutionizing this space like Heather is your person to learn from. So Heather, thank you so much for being here today. I'm gonna pin you in here. Welcome. Thanks for being here with us. Thank you so much, uh, Zach and, and the entire achieve engagement team. First of all, what an honor to share the virtual stage with Kristen. Um, I'm, I'm proud to share the stage with her. Also very intimidated, uh, because she is an amazing speaker. Um, so I hope you'll all, you'll all bear with me today. So as we've been hearing, uh, the theme for today's session is Leadership Excellence in Today's Business Reality. So let's first level set on what these realities are. So I'm gonna ask you to either use the chat or use the emoji to like raise your hand or whatever. What I wanna know is, who here has experienced a layoff or reduction in force, either in their household or in their company in the last 18 months whose company has had a layoff? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So now what I wanna know is, has anybody here either in your household or in your company, had more than two, two or more layoffs in the last 18 to 24 months? Yeah, uh, me, me too, my companies as well. Um, and last but not least, who here has experienced our HR budgets and resources lagging behind growth and need, requiring us to do more with less? And so exactly. So what all of this me? Yes. In my company, but not in my household. Yeah, that's funny, Krisha. That's, uh, agreed. Yeah. So what this means is that top talent identification in order to retain the best talent in these times is more critical now than ever. Um, and now combine all those realities that we just talked about with the data that Zach, that Zach shared with us both before the session and just now, specifically, a mere 24% of organizations consider their leadership models are up to date or highly relevant. And that means two things. First of all, it means there's an inherent issue with their identification process for their top talent. And it also means that develop, identifying the right top talent to develop is even more critical than it was before. Um, achieve engagement also shared with us that organizations that prioritize growth and development of their people are five times more likely to exceed financial tar targets and more than twice as likely to retain top talent. But who is this top talent? Um, in the next 15 minutes or so, I will share three revelations about top talent identification that I've sort of come across over the years of doing this type of work. Each revelation will form a building block for a top talent identification framework that I created. And then I recommend using and then I'll share with you today. Um, you'll notice throughout today's, uh, next few minutes, I'm intentionally not going to use the word high potential very much. And by the end of today's session, you'll understand why. Um, and so I will share these revelations and the, the framework momentarily. Um, but before I do that, um, two things. First. First, it's really important to know why you're identifying top talent, um, in different environments. It's all about splashy candidate marketing and employer of choice. That is not the environment that most of us are, are living in today. Um, and so in this environment, why do you identify your top talent? It's not because it's nice to do. It's not even 'cause it's like the right thing to do. It's specifically, and keep this in mind because it ties to the framework I recommend. It's specifically because top talent returns differentially higher yields back to the organization when compared with others. And the truth is, it is all of our jobs as HR professionals and as leaders to help each of our businesses yield greater outcomes and returns. And so what I'll do next is share with you what I've learned over the course of 20 years of doing this. Uh, we only have enough time for me today to share these revelations and a high level view of the framework that I've created. Um, so I would highly, and this is a little bit of a shameless plug, I would highly encourage you to attend my masterclass on this in April, which is being hosted through achieve engagement as well. Um, in April, we will delve into the methodologies assessments and key decision points that you need to make to walk away with a fully fleshed out top talent identification approach that you can go and implement at your own company if you like it. Um, and to prove I'm legit before I go into these revelations, I'm gonna share some of my credentials with you that are pertinent to this work. And then I'm gonna, um, share some slides and I'll take you through the methodology. Um, so first I created a successor scorecard, uh, improving the validity of successor identification across 130,000 employees at a global defense contractor. I led a cross-functional team serving more than 250,000 employees to break down the component piece parts of what has historically been called high potential at a global telecommunications and media giant. And most importantly, um, I've led talent reviews in nine box assessments for hundreds and hundreds of employees across vastly different demographics and vastly different industries, and had the same three revelations every single time. And it didn't matter whether I was working with the former Secretary of Defense of the United States, which was true or whether I was working with the head of a major news network. As I went through these talent identification sessions, I had the same revelations over and over and over again. So now I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen so we can start to dig in. Bear with me for one second. Let's see if this works. And I believe it is, okay, uh, can you, I'm not seeing my screen as a presenter. Can somebody just gimme a thumbs up if you are seeing a presentation? Okay. All right. So I'm gonna do this. I am not going to be able to see you and the presentation at the same time. So Zach, if there are like questions in the chat that you want me to pause and answer right away, please just interrupt me because now I can't see you. But hopefully you can, um, still see me in the slides. Uh, okay. So first of all, thanks again for having me. My name is Heather Garrin. Um, I am privileged to be the chief people officer at Uncork. Uh, we are a pioneer in codeless enterprise application space. Um, in a nutshell, what we do is we help companies get rid of their tech debt by eliminating millions and millions and millions of lines of outdated code that we replace with fairly simple drag and drop technology. Um, happy to talk more about the space at any time because it really is fascinating. Um, I also wanted you to have my contact information. Um, please feel free to call, text, connect with me on LinkedIn. Would would love to stay connected. Okay, so now what we're gonna do is we're gonna dig into these three revelations. As I mentioned, each revelation formed the building blocks of the top talent identification approach that, that I recommend. And again, just one more plug to attend the masterclass because we will dig in, um, in much, much, much greater detail. So here we go. Uh, now for the three revelations. Revelation number one, performance is a prerequisite for potential. So let's talk about what this means. We all know that performance is a critical input into top talent identification. However, a history of performance must be a prerequisite for being identified as high potential. And I'll talk about the word prerequisite in a minute because it's really important. More specifically, what this means is sustained high performance over time, despite difficult and challenging business situations, is a prerequisite for being identified as what was previously called high potential and what I call top talent. There are a number of key concepts embedded in here. So we're gonna take a look at each one, and then when we get to the end, I'm gonna explain what this funnel is. Okay. So these concepts that are embedded in this definition are all interrelated, but really important to pick apart one by one. What we'll do in the masterclass is actually talk about the assessments and methodology and the details that are embedded in this general statement. So first, sustained high performance over time. What this means is somebody who has proven their grit, resilience, optimism, and success over time is more likely to return top talent rewards back to the organization. And so if you are in a position where you need to whittle down your top talent, one way to do that is by prioritizing those people who have sustained the high performance over a longer period of time. Next, despite difficult and challenging business situations, this part of the definition in particular, uh, came to be during my time at Raytheon, which is one of the two global defense contractors that I've worked for. Um, during the masterclass, I'm actually gonna share with you how we defined this, how we assessed it, and how we used it in the formula. But what I am curious right now, uh, because I think we're all experiencing difficult business situations, use the chat, what's an example of a difficult business situation? How about a turnaround? Yeah. Term terminating a top leader, lack of funding, layoffs, cutting of funding, customer turnover, new disruptors, declining reimbursements. Yep, exactly. The new to leading a team, exactly what this means, and what we found over years and years and years of doing these assessments and correlating various data points is that leaders who have not had the necessity or opportunity to persevere through really difficult challenges are actually less likely to return the value back to the organization when compared to leaders who've had to go through a really difficult challenge at work, that could be anything from a turnaround to a round of down funding to cut losing customers. Basically everything that you, that you shared in there, leaders who have persevered through those challenges are more likely to be top talent than those who had not. And now let's talk about the third concept, which I mentioned earlier, which is that having done these things is a prerequisite for potential. The word prerequisite is really important, and it's really critical because it inherently invalidates assessments that plot performance and potential concurrently and independent of each other. For example, a nine box. So, um, I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you a scenario, but first, um, just so that I know who here is familiar with nine boxes, raise your hand or put it in the chat if you have ever facilitated or been in the room for a nine box conversation. Yes. Good. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Yes, exactly. Tons. Good. Okay. So I'm gonna give you a scenario. I'm gonna give you a scenario that I, that I think we, we will all relate to. So we are now in a talent review. We are sitting around that big executive pre covid conference room, and we're talking about everybody. And we, the HR people come in and we pull out last year's nine box results as a basis for this year's exercise. What I wanna know is, how many of you have uttered this phrase thought, this phrase, or had somebody else utter this phrase, the second you pull out last year's results, how the hell did Bob end up as a consistent star? How did he end up in that box? He is clearly not a consistent star. How did that happen? How many of you have been in a situation where you look back at last year's results and go, how the hell did that person end up in that box? Kelly, every single time in the masterclass, I am going to explain the two root causes for why this happens. Uh, and I think every single one of you will resonate with these two root causes. But the bottom line for today is it's enough for you to walk away knowing that in my humble opinion, nine box is old, it's outdated, it's invalid. Given this information, and it is not insightful or action oriented. It doesn't actually help you walk away knowing how to develop these people. And our former speaker talked about that extensively. Well, nine box doesn't do that further. Mark Efron's metadata study of nine boxes around the world revealed that no more than 50% of nine box placements are actually an accurate representation of that person's performance and potential. And what that means is using a nine box is almost no more accurate and no more valid than blindfolding yourself turning yourself around in a circle and throwing a dart at a dartboard. Um, and so what I am sharing with you today is actually an alternative to using that as part of your process. So revelation number one, performance is a prerequisite for potential. We now know that performance means sustained high performance over time, despite difficult and challenging business situations. And so now what I want you to do is look at the right hand side of the slide. We are now looking at the talent funnel. Each revelation builds one part of this talent funnel that I will go over, uh, in the next, Hmm, Zach, I have seven minutes. Is that right? Ish. Okay. Um, okay, so this is the first part of the talent funnel. So what I want you to do is envision every single employee is in front of you, your whole company. All employees are in front of you, and every single one of those employees is a candidate for top talent development. But what happens when you put them through this funnel and you apply this definition is that not everybody comes out the other end. Now, to be transparent, more people come out the end of this than should, but that's okay because there's two more gates left still. So this is the first gate. The first gate is sustained high performance over time. All employees are top talent candidates, but only those who meet the definition come out at the bottom of the first phase of this funnel. Let's look now at the second revelation. The second revelation is to replace the word potential with value. So typically next, after you talk about performance, you talk about potential. This is where the second revelation comes in. You, me, we, most of us are not PhDs in psychometrics. And you, I know, you know, but psychometrics is the valid scientific research-based approach to human assessments. I am not qualified. And, um, not only that, the nine box is not qualified to judge potential. And so what this means is that we should not use the word potential or the concept potential in our top talent identification process. It actually in and of itself is a total crapshoot and a total guess, if I'm being honest. So what do you do instead? Replace it with what your company values in terms of behaviors. So performance is the what, this is the how. And to be quite frank, this is where you oftentimes will root out like the, what are they called, the brilliant jerks. This is the part of the process where we start to root out the brilliant jerks because they probably pass through that first performance lens. They will not pass through this lens. And so again, we've got the first part of the definition, which is everybody's at the top, and then sli slightly fewer come out after the first funnel, sustained high performance over time. The next is your company's behaviors or competencies or values or whatever you call it. And I'll go into multiple different ways you can assess that during the masterclass. And so now you've come out with like a slightly smaller subset of your employees who are candidates to be considered top talent. The third revelation is evidence not aspiration. So typically after performance and potential are discussed, what do we start talking about? Aspiration? Uh, I'm guessing we've all done it. I've done it, um, and I learned from it. But the issue with talking about aspiration is that the concept of wanting to do something is very different than having the chops and the sheer will and the sheer willpower to actually do it. Now, what it takes to get it done depends on the culture, the company and the role. But a perfect example of this is everybody thinks they want to be a people manager. And yet when they find out that there's so much talking and emotions and feelings and coaching, and it's not really all what you think it was when you were growing up, those leaders that are managers but not great people, leaders are because they don't have the will to do what it takes to be an amazing leader. And so the first gate, if you recall, sustained high performance then behaviors, and then will at the very end of this top talent funnel, once you've applied these three gates in this order, which is important, uh, and I'm gonna come back to you now, you will have a valid, lean, effective, efficient, and action oriented top talent identification methodology that is scalable and repeatable. And just a plug for coming to the masterclass because we are going to dig into all of the assessments and all of the methodology behind everything I just shared. Um, and, uh, I don't know if I have time to take questions, but I am, I am happy to Zach, if, if I'm allowed Coming back here. All right? Yes. Well, one first, Heather. Wow. Thank you for that. I think in the essence of achieving engagement and rethinking the ways that we're doing things like this perfectly captures that. And I'm curious of how many of you in the chat and, and yeah, uh, haw, could you actually, Heather shared the last slide just one more time for the group. Um, for those that are using the nine box method or maybe models that you've just been rolling over year, over year, because that's just what you've been doing, I think this is such a great opportunity just to challenge that thought, challenge that question, uh, bring up a new model that really gets you into, uh, some of the things that Heather has been talking about. And I love this idea of like, how do we actually get leaders into roles that align with our values and culture and actually have the strengths to be leaders and not just going through models that put people into positions that they're not ready for. So, um, I love that. So yes, this is great. So one, definitely connect with Heather. Uh, 'cause we're, we're short on time here, so we're not gonna have a ton of time to ask our questions. Um, but yes, we're, we're, Can I just say one thing in closing? Yes, Please Do. There was a, there was a comment in the chat that resonated with me, and it was no wonder I always walked out of a nine box feeling like I was throwing darts at a dartboard. I will say that it didn't matter if I executed that nine box meeting with precision, I walked away every time feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled and just like something was off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. And it wasn't until later in my career that I was able to put my finger on why it felt like it was throwing darts at a DAR board instead of something more strategic. And I don't know about you, but like, I'm not very good at darts, so why would I try to bring that into the workforce too, you know, like, um, no, I appreciate it, Heather. All right, Heather, if you could stop sharing, I'll take over here. Um, I love the questions coming in for the masterclass. I'm gonna share a link right there. That's where one you can learn more about the program and the date. Uh, one thing that we've just been trying to do at Achieve engagement is figure out ways that we can go deeper. 'cause I know we cover a lot in these like 20 minutes. Uh, it's a lot to take in. So we've been doing these masterclasses. Now, just another, another way, one for you to connect at a peer to peer level and actually like, have peer discussions with other leaders in this space, but then also go deeper into the weeds with this, where Heather's actually gonna have the models itself. Like think about like the actual spreadsheet that you could use to take people through this and give it to leaders to have these conversations. Um, and one thing that's really cool is we've been implementing this whole pay what you can model, because one, I know you're not typically given the developmental budget on your own development, right? Like you're given developmental budgets for other people at the company, unfortunately. So we wanna make this really accessible, you know, so honestly put in a price that feels right, put in a number where you can just get involved with the program itself. We have people enroll for five bucks sometimes, like it's not a big deal. We just want you in the room. And this also creates some type of financial investment for you to be more, you know, invested into the program and the learning experience itself. So sign up there. I think we put it the link in the chat as well. We'll share more information about this later. But can we just give a round applause for Heather first off for really kicking off this section? That was amazing. Thank you so much, Heather, for being here with us. All right, so we're gonna keep her rolling here. Uh, next up, another individual that I look extremely highly to. Uh, this is someone that, as I talked about, rethinking the ways that you're doing things at your company. Uh, Rick Ortiz, VP of culture and people, or people in culture at a certain affinity really shared some amazing strategies and things that they're kind of trying to incorporate more science, more research, and how do we merge that into the areas of development and actually rethink the ways performance management looks? How does that turn into more of a performance development conversation and more of a performance enablement side of things? You know, you think about those old performance management conversations that Heather just talked about, like this kind of converts into that section as well. So Rick, I would love to welcome you up to the stage with me. I love, there you are. All right. Really appreciate you being with us and spending some time with our community. Thanks for being here. I'm gonna hand it over to you, my friend. Uh, thank you. Of course. Well, thank you everyone for, um, for having me today. This is, um, a, a pleasure and an honor for me to share, um, my story. So I wanna start out by, um, answering the question that's probably on everyone's mind, which is, um, you know, what's up with the, um, with the title and the explanation is relatively straightforward. Our primary objective was to conceive, execute, and evaluate an innovative method for performance appraisals. And what we accomplished this task, um, we uncovered valuable insights into leadership development, um, that was unexpected, yet very enlightening. So today you're in for a double treat. We'll begin by unveiling for the first time outside of our intimate circle of participants and researchers, our groundbreaking approach and compelling data that, um, that this proof of concept yielded. And then we'll pivot to discuss the invaluable lessons that we gleaned about leadership development from the proof of concept. But before we dive into, um, the details, I'd like to answer the second question that's likely on everyone's mind, which is, who am I and why should you listen to me? Well, I hail from, uh, New Jersey originally, where I began my journey in human resources, uh, about two decades ago. While my expertise encompasses various HR functions, my passion lies in cultivating high performing cultures. And my professional focus has been primarily on performance management and fostering employee development initiatives. Uh, I currently serve as the vice president of People in Culture. As mentioned earlier, at certain Affinity. We are a leading video game developer based in Austin, Texas. And throughout my career, I've worked for and collaborated with, uh, some of the most renowned tech giants in Silicon Valley. And this is really where I honed my skills and gained invaluable insights into optimizing organizational effectiveness and employee engagement. And before anyone points it out, I know Denny's isn't exactly what you'd call a tech company. That was just a slight detour in my career. Um, but let's dive into our story. My tenure at Micron, um, which spanned over 12 years, I had the privilege of supporting a very visionary VP named Steve Casper. And Steve was at the helm of a 2,500 person engineering organization specializing in the development of n memory technology. And to illustrate the team's diversity, our members were scattered across various locations, uh, including Boise, Idaho, San Jose, California, and Folsom, California. Uh, Longmont, Colorado, two locations in Italy, Padis and Arno, two locations in China, Shanghai, and Ang, and a large presence in Singapore. So with such a far reaching presence, cultural and language differences were a natural part of our daily landscape. So sometime in mid to late 26, 20 15, we were gearing up for our annual performance appraisal process. And Steve comment, uh, to me and asked a question that would set the stage for, um, for launching our journey. And really, this is what Steve told me, and believe it or not, it's not the first time I've heard this about a decade earlier, Dan Walker, who was Apple's VP of HR at the time, said the same thing to me. So Steve said, you know, you're constantly advocating for us to embrace more experimentation and push the boundaries of innovation in our approach to people management. And I think this presents the ideal opportunity to do just that. So it's important to note that at this juncture, our approach had been quite traditional. So I'm sure most of you are familiar with this. However, there was, this was a really capable team, and we felt they were the right ones to execute this kind of experiment successfully. Um, we were already renowned for embracing unconventional and innovative solutions, whether it was in the technical space or in the people realm. And we had already pioneered numerous groundbreaking practices that the entire company had adopted. While our track record was strong, this venture was unlike anything we'd ever, uh, attempted before. Nevertheless, we were full of confidence in our abilities, and we boldly proposed a radically different approach to the performance appraisal process. Um, we aimed for a fresh start simplifying wherever possible, and with our CEOs and our CHRO support. Um, Steve and I secured permission to embark on a multi-year proof of concept, thus began an extensive research phase that involved numerous focus groups, surveys, one-on-one interviews, and partnering with other companies who were experimenting in the same, um, areas that we were. We meticulously listened to the inside shared by our people, and we aligned their feedback with the latest research data and scientific findings to inform the design of our new process. And now I'm excited to share, um, with you the results of that experiment. So our proof of concept, the first thing was no ratings of any kind. Now, I don't want to get into a ratings discussion, but I will like to say one thing. All of the research and data we looked at, one thing became very clear in the right environment, and with adequate support, ratings can function smoothly. Conversely, also, a system without ratings can also thrive under the appropriate conditions and support structures. However, in our particular case, ratings were met with disdain from the employees. They just hated them. It had been a really bad experience at our company and our internal data, um, corroborated their sentiment, right, revealing that it had a detrimental impact on engagement levels. We also looked at other case studies. One in particular was Eli Lilly, which really echoed the concerning trend that we observed at Micron. You know, following the annual review, uh, rating process, about 80% of employees experienced a significant decrease in engagement. And that persisted for about three months. As we examined closer, we also found that employees receiving ratings of four or lower bore the brunt of that decline in engagement. But more interesting, even those awarded the highest rating of five also encountered a diff albeit they recovered, um, much more swiftly. So the overreaching conclusion drawn from this and similar environments, um, such as Eli Lilly, was that the ratings process precipitated a quarter long decline in engagement and performance. Um, but I think it is essential to note that this data pertains to companies using a five point rating scale with only a mid-year check-in and an end of year review as mandated, right? So it was, you know, a very basic process that they were using that this data showed was not as effective or actually creating a disengagement. The other thing we did is we replaced the midyear and the annual use weekly 30 minute one-on-ones. Our most glaring leadership shortfall revolved around meaningful one-on-one conversations with our employees. We fell short in delivering constructive feedback in fostering relationships and trust and recognizing achievement regardless of their scale. This aspect of leadership was an area that our leaders really struggled with and felt really uncomfortable about. So we're in our quest for a remedy. We initially believed that more practice was the solution, right? Very simple concept, right? It's akin to bodybuilding principles or mastering any musical instruments, right? You want to get good at something, more reps, more practice, do more of it. You'll gain, um, a higher level of proficiency in that particular skill. Um, and we know practice, after all, is the bedrock of improvement. So with this philosophy that we laid the groundwork for our conversation based approach, our aim was twofold. To address the critical deficiency within our leadership team, while involving our employees, in developing our leaders, the conversations themselves, we emphasized the significance of genuinely getting to know our employees, understanding their passions, their strengths, their dislikes, by delving into what truly motivates them and what they're passionate about. We aim to create an environment where every team member felt valued and appreciated. Our commitment extended beyond just mere acknowledgement. We strived to ensure that employees knew they were constantly, we were constantly seeking opportunities to leverage their strengths and talents. It was critical for us to convey that we care deeply about them as individuals. First and foremost and above all, you know, we recognized that building trust was paramount by fostering genuine connections and demonstrating our genuine concern for their wellbeing, we were laying the foundation for a culture of trust and mutual respect within our organization. We didn't wanna impose any strict guidelines. We allowed the employees and the leaders to determine their documentation practices. Um, as a result, what we saw is that many chose to document critical highlights, uh, from their weekly one-on-one meetings, uh, track progress on goals or activities, or simply note that they met for casual coffee chat, and use the time to gain a deeper understanding of each other and basically get to know each other better. And then finally, no forced distributions because no one likes forced distributions. So again, with the number one theme of keeping things simple, we only had four requirements or areas of focus for our leaders. Number one was get to know your people, right? We aim to give the managers ample time to establish a good rapport before initiating feedback sessions with the teams. And more specifically, what I mean, after about three months of these weekly one-on-ones, we had our leaders start asking questions like, what can I do to be a better leader? Um, how can I assist you in reaching your goals? And these questions were designed to foster continuous dialogue. And this approach, uh, ensure feedback wasn't solely top down, but flowed from the employees to their managers. What we found particularly gratifying was seeing how our managers realized that the depth of the relationships and the level of trust that they built, uh, impacted the quality and honesty of the feedback that they received. So they were self-motivated to, to build these relationships because it also benefited Deton. Um, number two was always prioritizing development initiatives. It's essential that everyone feel like they're constantly growing and evolving and development opportunities we explain can come in various forms and sizes. So we asked them to, um, collaborate with their employees and identify each individual's most suitable development paths. We didn't want it to be a one size fits all. We were thinking more about career portfolios instead of career ladders, if you will. The third thing was ensuring that we had clarity on expectations on both sides. Uh, we outlined what the employee can expect, um, from their leader, and equally we outlined what, uh, the leader is expecting from their employees. So both parties had to be aligned on these expectations. And finally, the final, uh, focus areas was encouraging a culture where individuals are empowered to fail fast and learn from their experiences. We really emphasized the importance of pushing decision, making authority to the lowest levels, and fostering a sense of ownership and accountability. And then this approach really encouraged growth and development on its own, allowing individuals to really exercise and strengthen their, um, decision making skills. So how did we measure? You see here a few of the things that we, um, that we looked at, but we also engaged in some extensive data sharing with other Silicon Valley companies, even a few that we would consider our competitors. So before we look at the data, I just wanna remind you about our approach. It was very simple and straightforward. All we asked is that our leaders and employees meet weekly for an informal 30 minute session. These meetings provide an opportunity to foster comradery. Uh, but we made sure not to neglect discussions around goals, expectations, and development. And then notably, at the year's end, there were no forced distributions and no ratings were involved. That was pretty much the extent of our approach. In the first year, we didn't implement any formal training programs. Instead, we really relied on our employees and leaders to collaborate. And then under the guidance and support of our HR business partners, they could shape how this program was going to go into the future, or the second and third years. Um, so to offer some insights into our progress, I've highlighted just three questions in sake of time from our, um, survey. So we set a, a base in 2015 before we kicked off the proof of concept. And that was, you know, three questions. Do you understand what your manager expects of you? As you can see there, it's about 61%, yes, 12% no. And about 27% said somewhat. Do you know if you're meeting expectations? Again, 64% said yes. 9% said no. 27% said, um, somewhat. And finally, do you understand what you need to do to advance your career? Uh, you see there, 47% said yes. 21% said no, and then 32%, um, said somewhat. Now, after one year, we asked the same questions, right? And there were a lot more questions, but just in the interest of time, and you see, we were surprised to have such an uplift. We had about a 19, uh, percent increase in the yeses. And, um, their clear understanding of expectations, the nos went down to 3% from about 12, and the somewhats also declined, um, to 17%. Second here, I can't, uh, so again, you can see here, um, a big increase in, uh, the responses. And do you understand what your manager expects of you? Um, do you know if your meeting expectations, again, we had a 4% uplift on the yeses, a slight decrease in the nos and a decrease on the somewhat. And then, do you understand what you need to do your to advance your career? Again, we had very positive movement, so we were pleased. You're one, we really simplified, didn't do a lot, there was no training. We left it up to them and we saw increases. So going into year two, we recognized that we had a need to introduce some formal training while maintaining the integrity of the data. And what I mean by that is we didn't want to introduce a bunch of concepts. We wanted to introduce one so we can really see the impact that it had. And so we aim to focus and specialized our training. And thus we partnered with, uh, this handsome gentleman here, Dr. Tony Herrera, who conducted his renowned Courageous Conversations program with our leadership teams. And this training proved to be one of the most impactful and challenging experiences I've ever encountered. Dr. Herrera's approach heavily relies on role-playing scenarios, and it really pushes participants to their limits, um, really testing their patients and composure. So throughout year two, our primary focus was internalizing Dr. Herrera's concepts and integrating them into our organizational culture. And at the culmination of, um, of that year, we conducted another survey to gain the impact, um, to gauge the impact of the training on our team members. And as you see here, we continued to see a significant movement, which again, somewhat surprised us, went from 80% to 87%. Yes, on this question, we had a decrease from 3% to two, and from 17 to 11 in the somewhat area, if we're meeting, you know, if you're meeting expectation, again, there was a lot more clarity, 10 percentage points, which really, you know, blew us away in the yeses. Uh, decreased to 4% on the nos, and 18%, um, said somewhat. And then finally, do you understand what you need to do to advance your career? Again, we saw a 10 percentage point increase in the yes, slight decrease in the no and decrease as well in those that said somewhat. So now we're ready to embark on our third and final year of the proof of concept. And with Dr. Herrera's, um, teachings deeply embedded in our organization at this point, we made the deliberate choice to maintain our focus on the aspects that had consistently shown the most promise, which was really boling communication and relationship building skills through this formal training. So we implemented radical candor. I know that was mentioned earlier. It's a great, um, it's an excellent book and a great program for those who aren't familiar. It's really a communication framework that emphasizes specific and sincere praise alongside kind and explicit criticism. As trust building lies at the core of, uh, radical candor, it seamlessly aligned with the direction that we were heading. So we launched our final survey, and you can see, while it wasn't as significant, and I think that's to be expected, there was no way we were going to continue to see such a large jumps in the percentages. We definitely continued to see some increases. Um, do you know if you're meeting expectations, again, very modest, 2% increase. Um, the no stayed flat, but the somewhat decreased as well. And then do you need, do you understand what you need to do to advance your career? That's the one that stayed mostly flat, but there's so many variables there in understanding, um, what you need to do to advance your career. The availability of opportunities. It's just a conversation that was still uncomfortable for our leaders. So we didn't get to see as much movement there. But again, we improved from, uh, year one and there was some continuous improvement there. And the final data point that I want to highlight underscores the year over year improvement in engagement. Our participation rate participation was never mandatory. We sent out a communication when the survey would open and then a reminder, um, midway before closing. And remarkably, we observed a similar increase in participation rates in our focus groups, in our one-on-one interviews, anything that really had to do with, uh, this proof of concept people really were bought into. And since they were part of creating the solution, the employee participation and engagement was through the roof. So coming out of that, we learned a lot about leadership development. Even though initially the focus was really to create a simpler and more effective, uh, performance appraisal process, we learned a lot along the way. And so this became really the guiding principles for our leadership development program at Micron as we moved forward. Number one thing, we wanted to keep it simple, avoid overwhelming them with unnecessary complexities, right? We wanted to shift the focus away from purely tactical skills and prioritize each individual's holistic growth. We encouraged the development of resilience of self-awareness and the capacity to adapt swiftly to changing circumstances. Um, we thought if we made the development personal as well as professional, it'd be much easier to get buy-in, right? It's the old, uh, what's in it for me? We let neuroscience guide our approach by delving into how the brain functions. We empowered our leaders to craft more engaging experiences and cultivate a workplace environment that really promotes engagement and retention. Um, I've partnered with the Neural Leadership Institute for the better part of the past decade. I think everyone should check them out. Um, they realize that a more concrete science-based approach to growing soft skills would not just resonate with the business leaders, but it would also make any change initiative, uh, much more effective. Clear communication, no substitute for that. It's the linchpin for ensuring everyone understands the goals, the strategy, the expectations. Clear communication also serves to align the team toward a common objective, right? We all are rowing in the same direction. Building relationships, it's important to cultivate those relationships. They're more than just connections, right? They're the platforms that we used for personal growth relationships, had the power to energize the teams, and they offered a sense of vital, um, support and belonging for each team member. Of course, we all know how the shift has happened in, in the last, uh, 10 years or so to more of a coaching model, and it really does spark greater intrinsic motivation. Uh, we found that by coaching we ignited more self-directed eagerness to explore new avenues and make ground ba aching discoveries, which is really critical if you're in an industry that relies on innovation to stay ahead of the competition. And finally, accountability really is what fuels the results. It fuels engagement and overall company performance. It really served as the bedrock for our thriving company culture where responsibility and commitment were esteemed and transparency really reigned supreme, um, even when acknowledging mistakes, right? Because we encouraged people to experiment, to not be afraid of failing, right? If it was a very calculated and safe risk, uh, and again, just learn from it and, and we move forward. Fail fast was one of the mantras that we had. So you see there, what started out as a, um, as an experiment and how to improve the performance appraisal process really taught us a lot about how to develop our leaders and the areas that were critical to make them much more effective in their roles, and to engage our employees and ensure that they had a better experience in, in their work on a day-to-Day basis. And since then, we have used this as our guidance for developing our leadership, uh, programs. And since I've left Micron, I've stayed in touch with them. I've implemented this, um, at other stops along the way. And so far we've had a lot of success. We're still learning a lot, but it, um, it was a wonderful experience and I feel very fortunate to have worked for a company that really allowed this level of, uh, experimentation, especially in a, in a global enterprise that's over 50,000 people strong to really allow an entire organization to deviate from what the company, the entire organization is doing is not, uh, an easy, uh, decision or task. So I really am thankful for that. Um, and that's it. I thank all of you for having me. If you have any questions or want to explore the data further, please feel free to contact me. I'm, we can provide my, uh, contact information. Sorry I didn't put this on the slide, but thank you very much. Love it Rick. Thank you so much for digging into that. Yeah, for starters, uh, Rick, I just shared your LinkedIn in the chat with everyone, so encourage you to reach out, connect with them, especially if there's certain questions you wanna go deeper into this. Um, you know, one just quick question that came in there that, uh, as we close, close things out and kind of move on to the next section here, um, someone just asked, you know, were there certain changes in performance within the organization that like aligned with some of these initiatives? Just wondering if there are overarching impacts that you saw as well. Absolutely. And that's a little harder, especially in such a large organization when you have just a control group. What we did notice is, um, more innovation coming out of our group. And now whether we can point to the experiment that we ran as, um, a big, uh, influencer in that or not. Again, that's hard to prove. You also look at during that timeframe, the company performance also increased because as word, uh, got around of our proof of concept, we had so many organizations that were dying to jump in, right? Hey, can we join this? This sounds really great. It's taking the stress away from these, um, from this yearly process that the managers. So we did see an uplift in in team performance for sure, uh, in individual development. Um, how much I can say that was, you know, 10% or you know, 80%. It was very difficult to, uh, quantify. But we definitely have data that showed improvement in performance, both at the individual and the company level. I love it. I love it. Well thank you Rick. This was awesome. Uh, I encourage everyone to connect with, um, Rick, thanks just for spending some time breaking that down with us and, and really volunteering your expertise to our community and being here. Thank you. Yeah. Alright everyone, we are through our second impact accelerated speaker. I mean, definitely encourage you to really rethink some of those things you talked about, like the rating system, less paperwork and pro like having to push through that. I know that's always a dreadful part of our roles. Um, and I think one thing I would also reaffirm especially is you might be really excited to rethink and implement these new practices. Getting buy-in and engagement from your executive team might be the biggest barrier. And the way Rick really laid out, like how they're measuring these things and showcasing impact year over year, that's gonna be crucial to getting that buy-in is saying like, Hey, this is what I wanna do. This is how we think it's gonna make an impact and here's how we're gonna measure it. And I think that will alleviate some of the maybe barriers that executives have. A lot of times they just wanna know, how do we know if we this is working or not, right? So, um, Rick, appreciate you showcasing that. So we are gonna move to our last speaker within this Impact accelerator, the amazing Ellen Gomes, the senior director of marketing at Torch, been a huge strategic partner of ours at Achieve Engagement. When we think about some of the leaders out there and organizations that really supporting this space from a tech enablement standpoint, from a thought leadership and research standpoint, torch and Ellen is, is really spearheading a lot of those things. So we're grateful that she and this organization are with us today. Ellen, I'm gonna pass it over to you right away. Uh, thank you so much. Um, Thanks and so excited to see everybody. I've been listening to all the speaker presentations and I feel like there are definitely some synergies. So that always feels good. Um, let me do the inevitable fumbling while I share my screen. Gimme one second. Um, and I will get up what we're gonna talk about today. So yeah, today, uh, and I think actually Heather and Rick's, um, presentations were excellent and they really addressed a lot of what we're gonna talk about today, which is really just like the urgency in manager development. So making waves with manager development is what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk a little bit about today's work environment, but we kind of covered it. Uh, so I'm not gonna spend a ton of time on it. And again, um, Zach, I don't have like chat up and so feel free to just interrupt me like with any amazing questions that come in. But otherwise, I'm just gonna kind of of jam through because I know we're a little tight on time. Um, then we'll talk about just kinda like what are the man, what role are managers playing as a strategic lever across all of the different organizations? Um, how we're delivering, how we can deliver sustainable manager growth. And then for questions, if we don't get to them, like please find me on LinkedIn. My, I didn't put my email on this presentation, but um, maybe Zach can put it in the chat for me. It's very simple. It's just ellen@torch.io and I'm happy to answer any questions or, uh, even connect you to a member of our team that can answer more questions for you. So, uh, let's just jump in. The world of work has really changed. I think this is, I don't wanna belabor these points 'cause we've talked about it, especially, uh, when Heather was asking like, who's done layoffs? And I was like, oh, we feel this. We see this in all of our customers and partners that we work with, is just the economic uncertainty is really, um, created a, a challenge for most organizations, right? Inflation, slowing growth, layoffs, just like we're all feeling it. It's also culminating along with a distributed work environment, right? So, um, coming out of covid, everybody like working remotely now with return to office mandates, organizations are really trying to navigate like what is their new normal and how, um, are they achieving in this like really tight environment? And so that brings me to the kind of like the third thing is this focus on performance. Like, I think about the time that I joined Torch, um, coming out of LinkedIn as a much larger organization into Torch, it was an employee's market, right? And so, uh, like the great reshuffle, the great resignation was in full force that said like abrupt sea change, right? Like record scratch. I think now we're in a much different environment where, um, every resource is looked at with a lot of scrutiny. Um, and this is true on marketing teams too. I actually think, uh, marketing and HR in many ways pace together in how our resources are evaluated and, uh, like, um, scrutinized. And so yeah, I think the focus on performance is definitely like a shift. Now, I think also I was reading a recent person article who was just saying his argument was basically like, everybody needs to get used to the fact that we're just gonna have less workers. And so like what we do with those workers and how we enable them, um, is going to be really critical. And so that changes how we think about basically like our people strategy and our talent development. So yeah, it's basically, and with that, like all of that is a new demand on leaders. I recently wrote a blog and basically as part of it as I was doing my brainstorming and I just wrote a post-it note, and then I just included it in the actual blog. And it was, you think about all of the resource, all of the things we ask a manager to do, whether they're a new manager or a middle or senior manager, uh, there are so many individual operational activities. Then there's the day-to-Day work. Like are they pulling through finance procedures? Are they like implementing, um, what's their role in a performance management, uh, process? How are they acting in modeling out, like the culture for their teams? How are they supporting and coaching their teammates? And then in many organizations, especially in this more constrained environment, managers have player coach roles where they have individual IC work that they're performing as well. And so, um, back to the post-it, I was just jotting down like all of the tools that myself I use as the senior manager, and which of them are actually just for me to like help me with my, help me be a more successful leader. And out of a list of like 20 tools, it was one, right? And so I think, um, all of these other things enable work, but do they help alleviate like the burden, the overwhelm that a lot of managers are feeling? The answer's often no, right? And so it's kind of a compounding factor of this, like economic uncertainty, distributed work, diversity and inclusion is shifting rapidly in the environment, but I think it's still a consideration for many organizations and should be, and actually while DEI programs are starting, uh, to get defunded and there's a lot of politic politicization, ugh, uh, around it, uh, what that ultimately looks like, I think, and um, I was doing a little research on it, is that it's getting, uh, pushed down to the manager level, uh, in terms of like how are the, like equitable hiring practices, how are they creating that container in that space on their own teams? And so it's yet another skill that we're asking managers to be the holder of. Um, and so those, the skills that kind of got us here aren't what's gonna get us there from a manager perspective. And we need to be thinking about how are we upskilling our managers in a really effective way. And I know this is not a new conversation for HR organizations at all. Um, and really the truth is like things are always gonna change. I put the pendulum because I just think like the market will swing wi not wildly, but it will swing back and forth many times. And I like made this joke to my partner the other day is like, well, it's kind of a weird like economic funky time, but like, unless I win the lottery, like I'll probably see another similar environment. So like all the lessons I'm learning right now are really good, um, from a toolbox perspective of how it's gonna help me make more informed decisions going forward. And, um, I see that in, in HR teams is that it's our job to have the organizational resilience to be prepared, prepared and effectively absorb the change. Um, and that's what our organizations expect of us. And so it's hard because you're having to think around the curve a little bit, um, or look around the curve, but I think there are some things that we can do about this. And so really my argument here is that in any environment, highly skilled managers are going to help you drive success, right? So things are, um, like a much looser like, uh, better economic time environment. You're highly skilled managers are gonna help you win in a tighter environment. Those highly skilled managers also will help you win. And they're may be even more important, um, because you are running in a more resource constrained environment and every single resource has to be kind of operating at top, uh, value, right? And so here are some of the stats that, um, when I was doing this research really popped out for me of just like the importance of managers and then we'll juxtapose them with like, how, how effective are we in supporting them today? Right? So highly effective managers, I think we all know this really pos, they are more likely to have a positive NPS score. They're people with, um, highly effective managers say their org's more innovative, they're more engaged. Um, a lot of 77%. So almost, uh, three quarters of a little over three quarters of senior leaders see managers as important to helping achieve business goals. And I think this is anyone who's had a great manager, like all these feel like Yes, I get it. But I also think, like, when you think about the macro across an entire organization is great managers drive significant business outcomes. They motivate high performance from their teams in direct reports, and, um, they also improve retention. There was a stat that I didn't include of just like 55%, and it's also just I think a standard knowledge now. It's just that 55% of people consider leaving because of their manager, right? So, and then a manager is such a critical, um, linchpin in an organization, uh, when it comes to getting things done. But the thing is, is managers are really aren't well equipped, and I wouldn't say that's for lack of effort from HR and, uh, learning and development teams, right? So people who are receiving training say that only 10% say it's effective, and that's consistent kind of across the different, um, sources that we've looked at. And then, uh, 26% of HR teams rated their mid-level leader as very good. And so this is another thing that kind of teased out as we were starting to do research around, um, manager specifically is like a lot of manager programs are really like new manager or frontline manager focused. Um, because that, uh, transition from IC into manager is a kind of a known speed bump, right? In an employee life cycle. Um, but I think that mid-level manager, um, is an area where there is almost like what we would call like a development desert. And so, uh, either the tools that are in place like don't address the evolution of skills that they need, or the, there is like a little bit, there are just less resources there for them, right? And so, um, that's something that we can talk about more later too. And then most managers want more training. And if they're not getting training, it's like a big part of their employee satisfaction and how they think about their future of an organization. Um, very few feel really fully prepared for their role, especially in that like middle management where, um, like we were talking about the development desert, they're really seeing that, um, the evolution of skills that they have to have. There isn't a lot of support for them in that. Um, there's a lot of come figure it out. Um, and then, uh, for 58% of managers, they just haven't ever received manager training. And, um, having made all of those transitions myself, I think I've been lucky to work in organizations that were really focused on it. But I would say, um, given the scenario that we've just painted of like the overwhelm from managers, often the, the tools that we're providing them just aren't landing or they aren't, uh, being accessed or engaged within, um, kind of like the volume or the way that we want to see. So this is kind of data coming outta, um, Bersin's latest study around, uh, leadership and leadership development. Um, and so really what it's showing is just that developing in leaders and managers is kind of like the biggest expectation, um, coming out of for HR from an organization. And it's also like where we see, uh, like high growth companies make big waves in comparison to, uh, lower growth companies. So this is, um, showing a growth differentiator that this, if this is something that you're investing in and that you're effectively investing in, it actually unlocks like growth potential for your organization. It's kind of how you get from here to there. Um, and the latest report, I think it was released last month coming outta LinkedIn, is just that the skills that managers need, and this is actually for everyone. Necessary jobs skills are changing and the most necessary are human skills, which I think just totally applies to the behemoth. I know it's many multiple layers of manager, but, but the he behemoth layer of managers. Um, so let's, this all leads to basically the culmination, which is our tried and true tool toolbox isn't working right? So, um, there are, so there is basically a learning and development stack, a toolbox that you have used what we call tried and true. And at this point I feel like, um, what the data's pointing to is that it's tried and that the true is fading, right? There's really low completion, there's low engagement. Um, learners aren't remembering, uh, the different, uh, learning that they're getting, especially at these point in time pieces, uh, of learning like a one or two day training, whether that's virtual or in room. I have been to those I leave feeling energized and amazing. But does that translate to what happens when I get back into the flow of back to back-to-back meetings and, uh, the day-to-day operations of my role? Like I was even just reflecting on like, nope, not really. Um, and then, uh, there's also just low trust in kind of the, the status quo toolbox, which is 67% of execs say there leadership development programs don't work. So it brings us to like, well, what do we need? Like what, what sits at the base of this, which is that managers need to overcome some, uh, key challenges in order to feel, to be successful in a way that's going to build successful teams in a successful organization and also feel like they are developing, right? So some of the challenges they face are manager burnout, feeling stuck in the middle, and then supporting their direct reports. And, and here are some of the skills that map to that, right? So, um, how are we creating a strategy that supports them and their development of stress management, delegation, self and organizational awareness, coaching skills, and also like creating psychological safety. Like when you think about, um, really running an effective team, especially when you're thinking about like retention and engagement, these are all super important. And it also relates back to that LinkedIn stat of, um, just these human skills is where the focus is. It's also where like we AI can't compete, right? Like, uh, the humanity part portion of a role is really critical. Um, and so coaching like is part of what I would say a toolbox. And in many organizations, coaching's not part of a toolbox because it might have traditionally been too burdensome or it's seen as too bespoke for a select few. Um, and so the argument here is, hey, like coaching, scaled coaching actually can get you the gains that you're looking for. Um, and because of what we have done, and I'll share a little bit at the end of this on like the coaching ripple effect, um, coaching an individual especially, uh, I think Heather was talking about it, about like, um, like being really, uh, specific in selecting who you are, like in putting into these programs. Um, for these coaching cohorts, you can be really, um, strategic in that selection process and really unlock, um, not only the potential of the individual that's getting coached, but also kind of the direct reports and teams around them. And so I'll share that research, um, towards the end. But coaching's really designed to help leaders develop skills and change behavior. Um, 'cause it's personalized, because it's safe and because it's accountable. Um, it's also like over time, right? And so, uh, it addresses some of what I showed in that like forgetting curve, uh, where you are accountable to an individual that you've created a trusted relationship with and you're going to digest it in the flow of your work, um, and deal with your opportunities instead of just a broad based set of like, here are the generic skills, try and make it work for you. And so coaching's really effective, um, at developing those skills and, and really creating sustainable behavior change. Um, I wanted to share this from some of our internal torch data, just some of the top 10 areas of behavior change that we see both on the personal side, the interpersonal, and then they blend into like what are some of the work outcomes? And you can see that they um, really clearly map to addressing some of the big challenges that managers face, right? Um, connection to purpose, a growth mindset, coaching and mentoring team members, improving relationships with team members and then improving communication. And I know especially in this like, uh, what would I call it? Like tight economic environment. I think managing difficult conversations, 'cause many of our organizations have been either going through a macro difficult time or like having to manage performance in a different way, um, becomes a really important skill set to have. So this, I'm just gonna run us through 'cause I think we're pretty close to time and I wanna respect everybody's time. I appreciate you being here. This is, um, a report. This is a, the infographic version of a report that we produced. Uh, Zach will share the link in chat, I think. And this is called from one to many, the impact of the coaching Ripple effect. And so it's showing basically, uh, we did a study asking the question, when managers receive coaching, what is the impact, uh, on their direct reports? And so we looked at, um, I think it was 300 US based respondents. And out of those respondents, 94% of them reported seeing, uh, positive changes in their manager as a result of coaching. Communication was just the top skill overall. Um, and that positive impact spreads to others, right? So you going back to psychological safety, like 65% say they can be felt like they could be more of themselves at work. They felt safer in offering their opinion. They felt like their contributions were valued more often. And so you can see that with coaching, there's just a shift in how a manager starts to operate and communicate with their team. And with that, the team itself starts to like absorb those lessons through the modeling. And even through explicitly talking about it, um, 91% of uh, team mates whose manager got coaching, uh, saw their own skills change. They experienced improvements in continuous learning setting and achieving goals. And they, uh, had a greater ease in coordinating with others, which is really a back to that communication piece of it. And so, uh, really when managers get coaching, it benefits kind of everybody who is in their surrounding, uh, vicinity and their day-to-Day work. Uh, we also found that the duration man matters, right? So, uh, and Torch like our customers, we're fairly flexible in working with organizations. We have 3, 6, 9, 12 month engagements. We wanted to know, hey, like where is the sweet spot? We always recommend, uh, at least a six month engagement to really see that behavior change. Um, and especially with the population for managers where everybody's really busy, um, and you're trying to get them to, uh, feel like this is a benefit to them and you wanna make sure you get enough SEC sessions in to like get the value of it, right? Uh, when we looked at the data, the longer a manager is coached, the more that Ripple effect has on their direct reports and extending organization. So, um, what we've seen and heard when we are going to events and speaking to customers and speaking to prospects is really, um, a lot of people are looking for building a culture of coaching. Uh, and it sounds really good and big, but it kind of is like, where do you start? And one of the things that, um, we've come to is starting with coaching managers is a really strong place to start, uh, because all of these, um, all of these behavior changes culminate in habits in the organization and that actually becomes your culture and your culture of coaching. And so that is what I have for you today. I, um, am very passionate about this. We've done just a bunch of new, uh, thought leadership creation around high impact managers, uh, and how to structure programs for them. And so, um, I think Zach is gonna put the link into the chat, but also if you wanted to talk to anyone on our team about like what coaching looks like for you or, um, how to get started, we're happy to do that.

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