Workplace Stories by RedThread Research Stacia Garr & Dani Johnson

“Skills are like oxygen, invisible but necessary.” 

This mindset shift is the brainchild of Vidya Krishnan, the Chief Learning Officer, and Peter Sheppard, the Head of the Global L&D Ecosystem at Ericsson.

Much of their job is identifying the oxygen and making it visible so they can do something with it. To do this, they’re taking a top-down and bottom-up approach. They’ve worked with senior leadership to define seven key skills they think everyone in the organization needs. They also work with the job leaders who own the skills to make sure their skills taxonomy is continuously updated.

Vidya and Peter are passionate about what they do. They’re working tirelessly to systemize learning to take care of and serve the individual. Because, ultimately, systems-first means people-first.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...
Join the RedThread Research community today! [4:44] Learn more about Vidya and Peter [6:02] What is a skills-based organization? [9:33]What makes the skills effort worth it? [13:50]The data they use in addition to skills [16:40]Why their organization is passionate about skills [19:00]The scope of skills in their organization [20:38] Determining the important skills for a role [24:55] How they’re motivating their culture [29:01] The lightning round [33:32]How they organize their skills architecture [38:10] Who governs the skills infrastructure now? [45:44] Managing the data in their skills effort [47:56] How they figured out the best technology [53:15] Where to start with a skills transformation [54:49] How they determined global critical skills [57:56] Why Vidya and Peter are passionate about what they do [1:04:57] 
Resources & People Mentioned
Join the RedThread Research communityThe Checklist Manifesto by Atul GawandeTechWolfConnect with Vidya Krishnan and Peter Sheppard
Connect with Vidya on LinkedInConnect with Peter on LinkedInConnect With Red Thread Research
Website: Red Thread ResearchOn LinkedInOn FacebookOn Twitter
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How do we define work and the skills needed to do the work? The way we view and assess skills is often through assessing and appraising someone’s output. But the problem is that most organizations aren’t capturing the right data and using it to gain insight.

According to Matt Donovan—the Chief Learning and Innovation Officer at GP Strategies—Job descriptions and skills in general describe the baseline. They are not what makes someone great at what they do. 

So how do we define the work and the skills needed to do the work? How can we capture a high-performer’s secret sauce? What are they doing that’s making it a successful experience versus what’s written in the job description?

We dive into a fascinating conversation about where we are now, how AI is going to both help and disrupt organizations, and what the future of skills assessment could look like. 

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...Join the RedThread Research Community! [4:18]Learn more about Matt Donovan and GP Strategies [5:03] What is a skills-based organization? [7:20] How Matt approaches scope of work [9:33] Building buy-in in your organization [15:55] Matt’s advice for adopting a skills approach [19:11]Capturing the “secret sauce” in an organization [21:28] Taking a change management approach [28:13] The lightning round [30:14] Measuring the work being done [37:10] Data-driven performance management [43:32] How do we begin to bridge the gap? [47:05] Why Matt is passionate about learning [54:40] Resources & People MentionedJoin the RedThread Research Community!The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things RightConnect with Matt DonovanConnect on LinkedInConnect With Red Thread ResearchWebsite: Red Thread ResearchOn LinkedInOn FacebookOn Twitter
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GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. They aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of 2030.

In her role as the VP of People Data & Analytics, Angela is responsible for generating value from their people data. She has the opportunity to shape thinking and inform strategy. Her job is to translate skills so that everyone can do what they need to with the data.

She shares more about GSK’s scientific approach, how they’re using AI to gather information, and how skills verification ties in. Don’t miss this fascinating conversation.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...
Join the RedThread Research community [4:39]Learn more about Angela and her role at GSK [5:38]Why they’re trying to create a skills-based organization [7:02]The GSK approach = Science x Tech x Talent [8:19]Do we still need skills’ taxonomies and ontologies? [14:44]How GSK gathers and integrates skills data into Workday [16:47]A conversation about the verification of skills [20:10]The lightning round [26:34]How job architecture and skills connect [31:02]When to communicate changes to employees [34:58]The technology and teams necessary to make their ecosystem work [36:30]Unexpected challenges they’ve worked to overcome [41:41]The biggest thing Angela’s learned during this process [43:06]Resources & People Mentioned
Join the RedThread Research communityIt’s Time to Split HR by Ram CharanConnect with Angela Le Mathon
Connect on LinkedInConnect With Red Thread Research
Website: Red Thread ResearchOn LinkedInOn FacebookOn Twitter
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Sandra Loughlin is the Chief Learning Officer and the Global Head of Talent Enablement and Transformation at EPAM, a software engineering and consulting firm. Unlike many of the organizations we’ve spoken about, EPAM has been on a skills journey since its inception over 30 years ago. Building a skills-based organization has been the backbone of everything they do. In this conversation, Sandra shares why the juice is indeed “Worth the squeeze.”


Resources & People Mentioned
Join our RedThread Research CommunityConnect with Sandra Loughlin
Connect on LinkedInEPAM

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When Oliver (Ollie) Drury joined Booking.com, they dove into digital transformation by simplifying their tech stack—and reducing variables—using a middleware to stitch everything together. That enabled them to have a simpler set of variables from which to create their skills ecosystem. Their driving goal was to solve skills for the entire organization. In this conversation, Ollie shares how they’re working to accomplish a skills-based transformation by first focusing on digital transformation.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...Join the RedThread Research Community [5:01]Learn more about Ollie Drury and his work [5:59] Why they’re creating a skills-based organization [7:09]Why they focused on digital transformation first [8:00]How they’re building for reversibility [18:04]Major obstacles they’ve overcome [24:08] How they’re measuring effectiveness [26:08] The lightning round [27:58] Who leads skills at Booking.com? [34:29]Why employees own the skills data [38:05] How culture impacts the journey to skills [42:38] Steering away from the reward use case [47:53]The biggest thing Ollie’s learned [49:35] Why Ollie is passionate about this work [50:22]
Resources & People MentionedJoin the RedThread Research CommunityMuleSoftTech OffWorkdayGloatNeilsoftCrunchrBOOK: Work without Jobs BOOK: InspiredBOOK: Hidden PotentialBOOK: The Technology FallacyConnect with Oliver DruryConnect on LinkedInConnect With Red Thread ResearchWebsite: Red Thread ResearchOn LinkedInOn FacebookOn Twitter
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According to Gina Jeneroux, company culture sets the foundation for skills readiness. If a company culture isn’t supportive of innovation and creativity, is it ready to support an initiative to focus on skills? Skills should be infused into everything you do in your organization and supported from the top down. Gina has spent almost 40 years in the financial services and learning industries. She spent the last few years running BMO’s corporate university and serving as Chief Learning Officer. In this conversation, she shares why a focus on skills is necessary, why company culture plays an important role, and how to get buy-in from company leadership.You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...

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