Leading the Learning Function

Leaders as Learners, Learners as LeadersDrawing upon firsthand experiences and insights from senior practitioners, Leading the Learning Function: Tools and Techniques for Organizational Impact offers best practices, tools, techniques, and processes that successful business leaders use to develop, build, and implement their personal leadership skill sets.The ATD Forum--a consortium for senior talent and learning practitioners to connect, collaborate, and share knowledge, best practices, and company experiences--sought to extend those accruing benefits more broadly in the profession to current and aspiring learning leaders and talent practitioners. In this book, Forum managers and book editors MJ Hall and Laleh Patel and Forum members set out to document the work learning leaders do to help themselves and others build organizational capabilities and successful results. In 26 chapters, Forum contributors--leaders in their respective organizations--offer insights and lessons about setting direction, managing processes, leading and developing people, making an impact, collaborating with stakeholders, using technology for learning, and innovating. Growing leadership skills is a lifelong journey; gaining a portfolio of techniques others have used successfully to solve similar business challenges can provide an edge in your role as a business advisor. Leading the Learning Function is just that portfolio.
About the Author: A strategist, performance coach, and business learning advisor, MJ Hall is senior project manager with the ATD Forum. Her expertise includes designing, developing, and facilitating innovative collaborative employee experiences for delivering organizational results. Prior to ATD, MJ served as a Level IV professor, director of leadership development, and special assistant to the commandant at the Defense Acquisition University, Ft. Belvoir, VA. MJ has also held numerous operational assignments with other military branches within the Department of Defense. MJ has a PhD in educational leadership from George Mason University, an MBA from Long Island University, an MEd from the University of Maryland, and an ABT from High Point University. She has certificates in Design Thinking from the Darden School of Business and LUMA Institute and was an examiner for the Baldrige National Quality Award for over 10 years. She is the author of Designing WorkLearn Networks: Making your Magic Happen and over a hundred articles, blogs, chapters, and reports. She has served as a keynote speaker and has spoken at numerous conferences, including internationally. Among her many honors MJ was awarded the DoD Exceptional Civilian Medal, the U.S. Vice President's Hammer Award for Innovative Practice, and the 2017 HPU Alumni Service Award. Laleh Patel is the senior manager for the ATD Forum, steering the engagement and direction of the senior leader, talent development consortium. In this role, she oversees and manages the overall business strategy and the day-to-day operations of the community and engages with executives to develop research and products to meet their most pressing talent development challenges to drive engagement and content strategy for the ATD Forum. Prior to managing the Forum, Laleh worked as a research associate for ATD, conducting surveys and analyzing and reporting on industry trends. She wrote the 2010 State of the Industry report. She has also worked in the survey research team at the Society for Human Resource Management and as a global advertising account executive at Lowe Worldwide. Laleh holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from University College London, a master's degree in industrial and organizational psychology from George Mason University, and a graduate certificate in survey design and data analysis from George Washington University.