CLO

CLO = Chief Learning Officer

What is a Chief Learning Officer? According to Wikipedia:

A Chief Learning Officer (CLO) is the highest-ranking corporate officer concerning talent or learning management of a corporation or agency. CLOs can be experts in corporate or personal training, with degrees in education, instructional design, business or similar.

Qualified CLOs should be able to drive the corporate strategy and align the development of people with the business goals of the organization. A full complement of skills, from business analytics to technology. learning theory, performance consulting and scientific inquiry are important for success.

Qualified CLOs of corporations should have leadership skills and be able clearly handle the training management of their company.

The CLO may report directly to the CEO, but may also report to the Head of HR or Chief Talent/People Officer.

Bersin & Associates shares this perspective on what a CLO is or should be:

The role of chief learning officer has been hard to define for years.  While it is becoming more prevalent (our research shows that approximately 30% of large organizations have a named CLO), the definition of what a CLO does is changing.
Typically the CLO is defined as the “business leader of corporate learning.”  At organizations like WalMart, Caterpillar, GE, EMC, IBM, Heidrick and Struggles Ingersoll-Rand, and many more, the CLO is the business executive who owns the corporations learning and development strategy, programs, and systems.

The most effective CLOs tend to be business people first and then learning experts second.  GE, for example, has rotated business leaders from various functions into and out of the CLO functions for each GE business.  Hewlett-Packard’s current CLO used to run the company’s PC business.  These individuals come to the job with a deep understanding of the talent, process, and business challenges which face their organization.  Such CLOs have institutional power:  they can not only develop and deliver high impact programs, but they can also interact with other business executives to drive alignment.  CLOs which function primarily as senior training executives tend to have much lower impact, because they are often viewed as being disconnected from the business.  A strong CLO focuses on alignment, communication, and strategic learning and development initatives.

In most organizations (70% or more) there is no CLO.  In these organizations the training staff often struggles mightily to find the right level of leadership.

So obviously any organization that considers their employees their most valuable assets and believes that giving focus to the development of these assets would also have a CLO in place, so learning and development staff have the leadership and support they need to manifest this investment, right?

The role and challenges of a CLO is discussed in depth thoughtfully in the book, “The Chief Learning Officer: Driving Value within a Changing Organization,” by Tamar Elkeles and Jack J. Phillips.