Hearts Afire

Hearts Afire, Episode 68: What the heck does Learning & Development do?

With Tilley Stone, Manager, Learning & Development

David King:
From the Norman D. Kalmin Podcasting Studio in the spectacular BioBridge Global Alamo Admin Building, it's Hearts Afire, the podcast for the team at BioBridge Global, where we're working every day to save and enhance lives through the healing power of human cells and tissue.
I'm your host, David King, with the nasal East Texas twang, and our guest today is Tilley Stone, Manager of Learning and Development.

Tilley Stone:
Hi, David. It's so nice to be here today.

David King:
It was such a long trip over here for you, wasn't it?

Tilley Stone:
I did, and especially in heels. It's quite the adventure.

David King:
How many steps do you think it is? Maybe 20?

Tilley Stone:
You could count because again, I'm wearing heels and we have a echo-y building.

David King:
Yes, we, yes, indeed we do. Yes, indeed we do. So, you're new to this position, right? So tell us, what does Learning & Development do around here?

Tiley Stone:
Well, I'm so glad you asked that. The first thing I usually talk about with Learning & Development is performance - helping people perform in their role on the job. So we can do a needs assessment: We look at any sort of issue or problem a team is facing and determine what type of training might be needed.

And we also can do a gap analysis, which is where we look at what skills they need vs. where they are performing at the time. And this is helpful because you might notice a team needing some more training, but you also have to think about the future, right? And so in order to think about where we want to go as an organization, we have to start thinking now what type of skills and what type of environment does our team need in order to be successful.

And other than that, when it comes to performance, if there's any resources such as job aids or any tools that they need to be successful, we can develop that for the team.

Another thing or another category I would say is that we're what people commonly think of with Learning & Development, which is developing training. So the difference between kind of developing something through us and just going to like maybe a cookie-cutter content library or something like that is that we will make the training custom. We can do e-learning that they can do at their own pace. We can do in-person trainings or even virtual trainings for the team depending on how it needs to be delivered to them.

Another main thing that we look at is aligning people with processes. So again, if there's a big change coming and processes are going to change, you need to make sure that people are prepared for that change. And so it's really more of the strategic perspective of what does it look like in order to set people up for success, in order to perform their best.

So that's kind of learning and development in a nutshell. I wish there was a more concise answer, but I just love it so much. I feel like I have to talk about it all.

David King:
That was pretty concise, actually, considering everything you're doing. People sort of have the perception of Learning & Development that, it's just this list of trainings. And I'm waving my hand here like anybody can actually see it. This is just a list of training, sort of a cookie-cutter kind of thing. But you obviously, you're working on customizing everything.

Tilley Stone:
Yes. And sometimes it depends on what you need. Sometimes we just need to check a box to show like, hey, we trained this person. we're in compliance if anybody checks, right?

However, we are so niche - every department has its own special processes. And so in order to learn beyond your job, learn the context, learn outside of your normal role so that you can be set up to actually solve problems. Because if you just learn a streamlined approach to your job, then you just know that streamlined approach. If something out of the ordinary happens, then it's difficult to think if you don't have the context.

So it really helps for people to be set up to have a deeper understanding of what their role is. And that way they're empowered to solve problems, grow, take initiatives, be proactive, instead of having to basically follow a set of directions.

David King:
It's like you said, we are such a niche industry and so many different kinds of jobs and everything else. This is really the service that we need when it comes to training for people, isn't it?

Tilley Stone:
Yes, of course.

David King:
So there's been some changes happening. Tell me about some recent changes that are happening up in the front of our building here. Angelica and I hide in the back, but what's going on up in the front?

Tilley Stone:
Well, we still have, of course, our Learning & Development department.

Our executive director of HR, Tareka Beasley, had a vision to where she wanted L&D to have another branch to it, and that is organizational design and culture. So if you haven't heard that yet, this is what it is. And you guys are actually going to talk to Brandi, who is the new manager of organizational design and culture, next month.

But I will say that they are going to focus on leadership development. They're going to focus on the culture initiatives. And Tareka really wanted to breathe life into that area, to really expand it and go a little bit deeper with it. And then Learning & Development again is going to focus on performance, skills, and deepening knowledge.

We also have a new person on my team. It's Madeline Moreno, and she's a learning and development specialist. And then Sonja, if you guys know Sonja, she's been here a long time. Sorry, Sonja, I didn't mean to make that sound. I mean that in the best possible way, because we all know you. You're very knowledgeable and seasoned. But you know, she's a veteran here. And so she's reporting to Brandi and helping Brandi get acquainted with the organization. And Brandi is a superstar. You guys are going to love her when she talks next month.

David King:
So what is sort of the biggest misconception out there about Learning & Development?

Tilley Stone:
I would say the biggest misconception is that we're just training, but it can be much more than that. There's a strategic approach to learning and planning, and that's something we get really excited about. And that's where we actually have the biggest success stories - collaborating and working with leaders to strategically set up their teams for success.

David King:
And really, that's the whole idea. And we shouldn't be hiring people and then not telling them how to do things, how to adapt, those kinds of things.

Tilley Stone:
Oh, yeah, for sure.

David King:
So tell us just a little bit about your background. A little bit about how you wound up here, what you did before you got here, that kind of thing.

Tilley Stone:
OK, it's a little meandering, but I do have an art degree. I have two art degrees. And I initially went into art because I love to learn. And in art you get to learn art history, you get to learn all these different skills and media.

It's interesting because when I was in my graduate program, they - and by they, I mean the engineering department - actually contacted us and they said, hey, we need you guys to help our engineers present. And we were shocked that they had come and asked us, but once we started to engage with them, we realized, oh, they came to us because artists are communicators. We kind of understand how to connect visual communication with written communication. And so we would actually take their presentations and modify them to be more friendly to an audience because they would just, they'd basically write a textbook on their slides.

And so I really enjoyed that. I enjoyed learning what they were trying to talk about and translating it into things that people could consume easily. And I took that into my teaching practice. I really focused when I was a science teacher writing curriculum, and I've been on so many curriculum committees.

I was a science teacher for six years. And then I went into art for about five years. And then I was a school counselor until I finally thought, you know, I really want to design and create learning material full-time. And so that's when I started to look and that's how I ended up here. And I love it here coming from an education background because we're a mission-driven organization. And so I didn't lose that like sense of purpose and connection to the community when I shifted over.

David King:
Great, great. And thanks for coming over. I know it's a long trip. We appreciate it very much.

Tilley Stone:
I appreciate it too. Thank you for having me today and supporting Learning & Development.

David King:
Next up on Hearts Afire, we'll be responding to your many Harry's Inbox submissions on Monday, Oct. 27.

The Hearts Afire podcast is a production of BioBridge Global Corporate Communications, Mary Uhlig, Executive Director. Our director today was Angelica Sandoval.

The Hearts Afire logo was designed by Roberto Esquivel, who, despite all the rumors, is not spending all of his retirement on the beach.

If you have an idea for the Hearts Afire podcast, if you'd like to be on the Hearts Afire podcast, If you'd like to be the host and not have to listen to me anymore, e-mail us, heartsafire@biobridgeglobal.org. And thanks for listening.