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408 Chapter 12

levels and across all functional silos. They often have as a primary objective to change
their organizations ’ mind-sets from training (usually defi ned as a classroom-based
delivery system) to continuous learning and human performance improvement and
to use a wider variety of delivery methods such as virtual learning options, corporate
universities, and self-directed learning.
Chief learning offi cers are not glorifi ed training directors. Baard (2002) points out
that the CLO role began as being primarily concerned with organizational learning
and initiatives such as e-learning, but the role has expanded to help transform the
organization into a learning organization. The primary success factor for being a CLO
is being a businessperson fi rst and understanding how to drive through a strategic
initiative. CLOs must be able to communicate in business-tangible results, think stra-
tegically, and talk the language of other executives. CLOs are strategic leaders who
help senior management translate learning into strategic business capabilities.

Box 12.2
An example: The CLO at Dell

Gale (2003) describes Dell ’ s CLO role, fi lled by John Con é who retired as Dell ’ s chief learn-
ing offi cer in August 2001. The company never replaced him. The reason was not because
the CLO position is a passing concept. It was because Con é believed that his work as the
CLO was done. He had been with Dell since 1995 and was given the offi cial title of CLO
in 1999, although he says that he really always worked in that capacity. His job was to
defi ne the policies and infrastructure that would make Dell a distributed learning organiza-
tion where employees have access to training whenever and wherever they needed it.
Ultimately, that meant making learning such an inherent part of how they did their jobs
that it became an unremarkable event in employees ’ lives, he says. He achieved that goal
in part by making training a necessary piece of every new-product release. “ We wanted
training to be a natural part of the development process, ” he says. Today, new products
at Dell do not move forward unless the necessary training for the product release is in
place and deployed. Since Dell comes out with thousands of new products every year,
training quickly became a constant in employees ’ lives.
During his six years at the company, Con é also oversaw the organization ’ s vast e-learn-
ing program. His team transformed more than 90 percent of the company ’ s learning
content to technology-based formats, putting employees in control of their own learning,
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Admittedly, Con é is not sure if he was suc-
cessful in making learning a permanent part of the culture at Dell. The traditional measures
for training success, including the number of hours people are in training, executive
involvement, and the percentage of payroll dedicated to learning, show that his efforts
are still going strong.