This document discusses training intelligence and how it can provide competitive advantage through learning and development. It defines training intelligence as a blend of competencies like creativity, cultural intelligence, emotional intelligence, collaboration, trust, and resilience that empower extraordinary learning when developing executive training programs. It provides examples of how training intelligence competencies like collaboration and trust, creativity, cultural diversity, and resilience can be applied to design impactful programs and ignite learning. The document advocates for viewing these competencies not just as skills but as virtues that can lead to excellence in training.

1. Training Intelligence
Kostas Axarloglou, PhD
ALBA Graduate Business School
at The American College of Greece

2. How can Learning and Development be connected to Competitive Advantage?
•Competitive advantage is the ability of the company to consistently offer a unique value propositionto its customers.
•Competitive advantage leads to your organization’s superior market performanceover your competitors.
Distinctive and hard to duplicate resources and capabilities.
Superior Resources(e.g. brand equity, distribution coverage, inspired leaders)
Distinctive capabilities(management systems, corporate culture, accumulated employee knowledge)
Sources of Competitive Advantage
L&D

3. Vision and Strategy:The 4 Dimensions
Financial Success:
What does it mean?
How is it measured?
Customers:
How should our customers perceive us
in order to be successful?
Internal Procedures:
What are the key procedures
for our success?
Learning and Development:
What is the fundamental structure to
support our improvement?
Vision
&
Strategy

4. Financial
Learning and Development
Internal Procedures
Customers
«and thus we will improve
our financials...»
«If we develop and
empower our people..»
«we will do the correct
things...»
«then our customers
will be happy..»
The Dimensions of the Balanced Scorecard

5. Learning and Development: A Strategic Competence for the Organization
L&D is associated with the process and the content of learning in an organization.
Enables employees to acquire and create knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to provide value to the company stakeholders.
Empowers employees to engage in learning, in a critical and reflective way.

6. Training Intelligence: A Strategic Competence for Learning & Development
Training Intelligence is a blend of competencies and traits that are nurtured and combined with passion and ambidexterity, in order to ignite extraordinary learning.
With the term Training Intelligencewe refer to the competencies associated with the development of Executive Training Programs as well as the main attributes of a unique partnership between HR departments and their Training & Development providers: creativity, innovation, empathy, cultural intelligence, inspiration, customer centricity and collaborative content development & co-branding may become the fundamental elements in developing and delivering state-of-the-art executive learning programs.
Trust
Collaboration
Cultural Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence
Resilience
Creativity

7. Training Intelligence: Trust
•Trust is a universal competence and a starting point for every learning journey.
•Once trust is established and developed , learning collaborations can result in extraordinary learning.
•Trust applies in almost every stage of every learning process and interacts with emotions and processes.
•Trust is a delicate competence that must be constantly nurtured and renewed
Key Words
Confidence –Integrity –Honesty -Reliability

8. Training Intelligence: Collaboration
•Extraordinary Training is the outcome of a joint effort. The provider works closely with the Organization in order to perceive, understand and translate the learning aspirations and priorities of the Organization and its executives.
•Collaboration leads to a constantly evolving partnership.
Collaboration -Partnership -Synergizing -Alliance
Key Words

9. Training Intelligence: Creativity
•In Masterful Training, imagination blends with resourcefulness and inspiration in order to produce originality and authenticity, in terms of content, context, instruction, delivery, facilitation and support. Above all, learning is an experience and creativity lies at the heart of an authentic learning journey.
•Creativity is not a goal per se. It is a powerful means to build programs that leave their mark on the learner’s mind and on the Organization’s memory.
Creativity -Inspiration -Authenticity
Combinatorial Thinking -Innovation
Key Words

10. Training Intelligence: Emotional Intelligence
Understanding our own feelings about each collaboration and project, is key to building sincere relations and outstanding collaborations. Sharing our feelings and concerns and understanding those of every party involved (provider, Organization, HR, participants) enables us to seek new options in order to constantly reinvent, review, improve and develop each program and each learning process.
Empathy -Understanding -Emotional Awareness
Social Awareness -Relationship Management
Key Words

11. Training Intelligence: Cultural Intelligence
•Understanding and adapting successfully to the values, the culture and the attitudes of the learners as well as identifying, utilizing and appreciating the value that each organization and each learner adds to the learning process, is key to outstanding training.
Diversity -Intercultural Understanding
Openness -Adaptability
Key Words

12. Training Intelligence: Resilience
•Being able to timely perceive and adjust to unforeseen challenges and to emerging problems during learning programs as well as to provide instant remedies to the learner’ resistance is very important. Rebounding in any adverse situation requires perseverance, optimism, resourcefulness and collaborative problem solving.
•Learning processes often present unforeseen challenges. Having the ability to prepare for a “turnaround” is an important training intelligence competence.
Positivity -Perseverance -Problem Solving
Optimism -Strength
Key Words

13. Training Intelligence: Experiencing Collaboration and Trust
Imagine an In-House MBA:
Specially designed for a Bank’s executives
Accredited by the Association of MBAs
Repeated 7 times in the last 11 years
Counting more than 250 alumni
Close collaboration and trust is developed through the design, constant re-development and re-customization of the curriculum and the careful planning of the whole academic process (call for applications, interviews, academic evaluation and selection, smooth operations, project and final project coordination).

14. Imagine a mini MBA:
For a subsidiary of a multinational pharmaceutical company in the Gulf Region
6 intakes during the last 10 years
and more than 150 proud Executive Alumni from different countries and functions.
Close collaboration and trust is developed through a constant refreshing of the program curriculum, in close cooperation with the HR department. Faculty traveling from Greece and teaching in Dubai. Extraordinary customer service bridging Athens with Dubai.
Training Intelligence: Establishing Collaboration and Trust

15. Training Intelligence: Establishing Collaboration and Trust
Collaboration -Partnership -Synergizing AllianceConfidence-Integrity -Honesty -Reliability
Key Words

16. Training Intelligence: Establishing Collaboration and Trust
Collaboration -Partnership -Synergizing –Alliance
Confidence -Integrity -Reliability
Key Words

17. Training Intelligence: Igniting Creativity
Masterful Senior Leadership Programs
Biography©Artful Leader©
value art as an archetypal learning power and interact with inspiration, intellectual curiosity and storytelling.
The setting and the context empower the content.
Learning venues include museums, artists’ ateliers, concert halls, theatrical stages, wineries, libraries.
Instructors compose a mosaic of academics, artists and management experts that inspire reflection and combinatorial thinking.

18. Training Intelligence: Igniting Creativity
Creativity -Inspiration -Authenticity
Combinatorial Thinking -Innovation
Key Words

19. Training Intelligence: Igniting Creativity
Creativity -Inspiration -Authenticity
Combinatorial Thinking -Innovation
Key Words

20. Training Intelligence: Igniting Creativity
Creativity -Inspiration -Authenticity -Combinatorial Thinking -Innovation
Key Words

21. Training Intelligence: Igniting Creativity
Creativity -Inspiration -Authenticity -Combinatorial Thinking - Innovation
Key Words

22. Training Intelligence: Understanding Emotions
Positive Organizational Culture Seminars
Positive Leadership Programs
aim at empowering executives to positively deal with adversity and change and to cope with the emotions, the challenges and the events that take place in their lives.
These programs can be life changing when the learning partner and the HR team work together to design, develop and deliver the programs with patience, empathy and understanding.

23. Training Intelligence: Understanding & Sharing Emotions
Empathy -Understanding -Emotional Awareness - Social Awareness -Managing Relationships
Key Words

24. Training Intelligence: Respecting Cultural Diversity
International Executive Management Programs
are organized in diverse locations and address the aspirations of learners of different nationalities, cultures and functions.
Cultural intelligence is key to program design and delivery. Sharing and celebrating diversity becomes a powerful learning tool and a universal experience. An international executive management program is a true success once it manages to create “hotspots” of collaboration between the learners.

25. Training Intelligence: Respecting Cultural Diversity
Diversity -Intercultural Understanding
Openness -Adaptability
Key Words

26. Training Intelligence: Building Resilience
Leadership Development Programs
often present major challenges:
They usually begin with a journey of self-awareness and include various assessment tools (360 questionnaire, self –assessment tools, group coaching, one to one coaching).
In some cases participants become overloaded with some findings and project doubt and negativity to the program, to the partner, the Organization and the HR team.
In these cases, resilience is key. The learning partner has to collaborate closely with the instructors and with the participants in order to turn the program around, to diffuse positivity and confidence, to fine tune the process. Feedback by every participant is taken on the spot and the curriculum is automatically adjusted and enriched with experiential and bonding team activities in order to reverse the climate.

27. Training Intelligence: Building Resilience
Positivity -Perseverance -Problem Solving
Optimism -Strength
Key Words

28. Extraordinary Training: When Competences become Virtues
The Greek word for virtue, Arete, refers to a unique combination of ethos, excellence and perfection.
For all of us working in the field of Education, Extraordinary Training is not solely about competences; it is also about virtues.
Sophia/Σοφία: wisdom and knowledge
Sthenos/Σθένος: resilience, bravery persistence, vitality, integrity.
Pathos/Πάθος: passion and appreciation for beauty and excellence, humor and playfulness, spirituality, mindfulness, sense of purpose and coherence.

29. Training Unusual/Business Unusual
It is all about “Training Unusual”.
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