This is part of our ongoing series, Interviews with Learning Leaders.
Jason Gardner is the senior organizational development trainer at Southwest Gas Corporation, a natural gas provider serving Nevada, California, and Arizona. He has 13 years of experience in training and development, including leadership development and customer service in the hospitality, healthcare, and utilities industries. He has designed and developed award-winning programs that have helped employees maximize their potential and drive success for both the individual and the business. Jason is one of the first Certified Professionals in Learning and Performance in Southern Nevada, and he is a past president of the Las Vegas Chapter of ATD.
What is it about learning and performance improvement that you're passionate about?
Developing people to the strengths they already possess. Closing the gap between expectation and performance is critical, and organizations can do a good job of bringing it to your attention. There are large areas of deficiency in how to close the gap. Using what a leader already does well to map out a plan to close that gap gets much better results than if they have no guidance and direction, and end up failing.
How can learning leaders strengthen partnerships with business leaders?
Learn to be responsive and not reactive. Change is going to occur all of the time—with personnel, budgets, vision, requirements, stakeholders, you name it. Instead of focusing on what is lost and how tragic it is to your department and organization, move through it quickly and get to what is still available and how it can best be used. Also, cross-training in their departments and understanding their world will get you unexpected support and resources when they rise up to your aid and ask what they can do to help.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in learning & development?
My biggest learning successes have come from a combination of education and real-life experience. It’s great to know all about Maslow and Herrmann. It’s not as easy to connect the dots to help leaders and employees understand what they get out of it if you don’t know what their life is like. Spend time understanding the operational mechanics of your business so you can provide them with useful solutions that improve performance. Avoid rolling out a program that you perceive as useful that ends up useless because you were unable to answer what’s in it for them.
We also have to remember to give a program time before we scrap it and try another one. Some trainers have a tendency to go to a national conference and come back ready to throw out the current program and implement a new one. It’s disruptive to the talent program, and it weakens our credibility.
What was a lesson you learned the hard way?
I once did not wait long enough before I jumped in and flexed my brain muscles about how much I knew and how I could save my company. It’s good to be excited and energetic about changing the world, yet it requires a foundation of relationships in order to get it done. I had to step back and figure out who the key movers and shakers were and get to know them so they could support the cause and become champions of learning. It was tough to get over myself and get over a timeline I was married to. In the end, it helped me be better, and I was able to create and facilitate programs that improved the workforce.
Tell us about a time you were successful in improving a team or group’s performance.
My company’s service territory covers three states. We put together a program to introduce basic communication principles to 340 customer service technicians across that three-state territory. The focus was to understand the style differences and be able to navigate the ever-changing expectations of our customers. It took two of us three months to visit everyone because face-to-face training had been identified as very important to the project’s success. Customer service satisfaction scores rose 3%, and the program won a Tribute to Learning Award from the local ATD chapter.
What have you done to measure the impact of training?
I have done all of the Kirkpatrick/Phillips measurements to help validate and manage the learning function. In my current role, impact is being measured non-traditionally by the promotions and transfers of leaders who have used their learned skills to progress. That shows me we did our homework on the competencies and skills needed for them to be successful.How do you stay current in the field?
I am an active member in the local and national chapters of ATD. I also network extensively with peers locally and nationally to see what they are doing, what is working and what is not working. I have also cross-trained in HR to understand the partnership we have with them and to better align our vision and direction to theirs.
Topics: Interviews with Learning Leaders