WHITE PAPER

Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability,

Tee-Up to Innovate

Kristin Shackelford
Organization Transformation,
Digital Business and Leadership
White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Adaptability is far and beyond the most valuable trait for which to develop in the digital age; an
adaptable workforce breeds an innovative one. But organizations require a blueprint to tap into
employees’ existing skillsets and to further develop their capabilities.

The T-shaped model is the bridge that helps organizations create versatile talent that
is well-poised to adapt, especially as it relates to the understanding and use of
disruptive technologies.

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White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

INTRODUCTION

The knowledge that organizational performance is directly tied to talent strategy is not a new revelation. Nor is
cultivating talent equipped with the right capabilities to meet current business demands. However, today’s challenge is
not just enabling talent to address current demands, but rather to adapt as the business transforms and evolves.

Adaptability is far and beyond the most valuable trait for which to develop in the digital age; an adaptable workforce
breeds an innovative one. Organizations looking to develop a versatile and adaptive workforce require a blueprint to
tap into employee’s existing skillsets and to further develop their capabilities.

“The ideal workers of the next decade will be T-shaped, meaning they will bring deep understanding of at least one
field, but can converse in the language of a broader range of disciplines.”1 The T-shaped model is the bridge that helps
organizations develop master problem solvers and innovators. With deep functional expertise in a single field, the
T-shaped employee maintains proficiency in their area of expertise, but adapts and expands their proficiency across a
broader range of capabilities.

The T shaped employee development model solves for the growing challenges related to workforce mobility and
sustainability. This model allows organizations to tap into their existing talent pool to identify those with the “will” to
learn so they can create a highly skilled workforce that evolves along with their future building strategy. Companies
FAIR
who work to develop T-shaped employees maintain workforces composed of individuals who have a growth mindset,
that know how to manage projects and people gracefully, and can collaborate and communicate well.

Excelling at being T-shaped includes a belief that teams, not individuals, are heroes; a willingness to decentralize the
decision making to those on the front lines; and an emphasis on leaders at all levels.

1 “10 New Skills That Every Worker Needs: Are You Fit for the Future?” Devin Fidler and Marina Gorbis, IESE Insight, 2012. 3
White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

INNOVATIVE TO A “T” “All failure is failure to adapt.”

Popularized by IDEO CEO Tim Brown, “The vertical stroke of the T is a depth of skill that allows them to contribute
Max McKeown
to the creative process. That can be from any number of different fields: an industrial designer, an architect, a
social scientist, a business specialist or a mechanical engineer. The horizontal stroke of the T is the disposition for
2
collaboration across disciplines.”

Organizations must aim to not only survive the coming waves of workplace change but thrive in the new landscape. To
succeed, companies must foster a pliable mindset of adaptability in their workforce where individuals are accustomed
to learning, applying and interpreting skills, processes, systems and data, or risk becoming obsolete. As speaker,
CROSS-DISCIPLINE SKILLS
author, and strategic consultant Max McKeown once wrote, “all failure is failure to adapt.”2
3

Ethics & Respect Professional Skills

Professtional Digital Skills
Emotional
Emotiona Intelligence
Intelligence Skills`
Yet an organization’s current talent pool is not always able to address evolving business issues, thus requiring business Leadership Skills Business Acumen
leaders to consider a new approach for capability development. Seeking to prepare for the future, organizations are
left wondering how to reskill workers to can adapt to a rapidly changing environment—at scale. Novice

EXPERTISE IN A SINGLE AREA

Today’s high-performing organizations recognize that in addition to traditional recruiting strategies, having an
Advanced
intentional plan of action to develop, upskill and reskill existing employees who have the “will,” but perhaps not yet Beginer
Beginner
the “skill,” reaps many rewards. And they’re reaping impressive savings: employees can develop the same skills as a
new hire in 9-12 months at 1/6th of the cost.43 As employees upskill and reskill, company culture gets preserved, team Competent
Compentent
effectiveness increases, cost structure improves, and engaged, agile, project-ready workers deliver results quickly.

The most effective learning programs are curated and directive, offering learners a clear path to new skills, Proficient

competencies and opportunities within the organization. Learning should be digestible and available in the flow of
work and contain multiple modalities that reflect how modern learners learn best. Learning journeys that map users’ Expert
progression to a new skill or role can help employees deepen or broaden their knowledge.

2 “IDEO CEO Tim Brown: T-Shaped Stars: The Backbone of IDEO’s Collaborative Culture.” Morten T. Hansen, Chief Executive, January 21, 2010.
3 “Adaptability: The Art of Winning in an Age of Uncertainty.” Max McKeown, 2012.
4 “Keynote.” Josh Bersin, Skillsoft Perspectives, 2018. 4
White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

TEE UP FOR SUCCESS

For organizations, investments in preparing a T-shaped workforce pay substantial dividends. The
company grows a diverse set of skills amongst individuals who can communicate across disciplines.
Collaboration is improved as empathy, respect, professional and leadership skills, business acumen
and emotional intelligence are valued and nurtured across all functions.

Particularly impactful in technical fields, the increased emphasis on collaboration helps create more
dynamic business processes and workflows, opposed to the linear order-and-execution approach
of yesterday. In the collaborative paradigm, individuals more freely espouse ideas and brainstorm
without the fear of judgement, leading to better innovation and ideas surfacing across the
organization and creating better employee satisfaction and engagement

CHANGING NATURE OF WORK

SILOED INDIVIDUALS MISSION-DRIVEN TEAMS

DISTRIBUTED
Shared values Transparent goals DECISION-MAKING
and culture and projects

People reward for

Free flow of
skills and abilites,
info & feedback
not positions

HACKATHONS

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White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

Today’s employee has made their desire for learning and development opportunities very clear. In tandem with good
pay and benefits, employees of all generations crave learning opportunities and professional development.52 Embracing Deloitte found that engaged
a T-shaped learning approach with the right online solutions helps organizations bolster engagement and employee
employees were 87% less likely
contentment, making them more likely to stick around: Deloitte found that engaged employees were 87% less likely to
to leave their organization.
leave their organization.63

But for the employees, too, aspiring to a T-shaped individual has become a professional imperative. Aside from the need
to maintain a broad technical proficiency, today’s employees must be prepared to compete in a talent economy which
demands someone who can do it all: soft skills, business acumen and an understanding of various workflows to name
just a few. In the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning, it is our uniquely human ability to collaborate and
communicate—to engage our emotional intelligence—that keeps us forever ahead of machines.

HOW LEADING ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORT THE T-SHAPE

TEAMS, NOT INDIVIDUALS, ARE HEROES

The T-shaped philosophy was made popular through personification of a single employee, yet it’s also a defining trait
of mission-driven high-performing teams—teams who succeed in large part because of the belief that it’s teams, not
individuals, who are the real heroes.

The T-shape is represented in teams, as it’s how we work together to solve problems. When team members come
together with a shared mission, it’s the diversity of experience and ideas that brings about successful outcomes.
For this reason, collaboration has become a business imperative for high-performing organizations.74 And many are
succeeding. But how? By realizing that every project is an opportunity and catalyst to use and develop digital dexterity.
And by drawing upon the skillsets of each team member, while also bringing a mindset to learn new skills that will
contribute to a successful outcome.

5 “Meet the Millennials.” Sitara Kurian, KPMG, June 2017.

6 “Engaging the Workforce.” Josh Bersin, Deloitte, 2016.
7 “Developing and Sustaining High-Performance Work Teams.” Toolkit, SHRM. 6
White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

DISTRIBUTED DECISION MAKING

With innovation as the penultimate goal for organizations, and adaptability through a T-shaped workforce as the
clearest path there, distributed decision making, too, must become engrained in the organization’s DNA. Innovation
requires a willingness to try new things, brainstorm and offer up radical ideas.

The corporate milieu is one often plagued by stalled approvals and delayed information, especially in organizations
where leaders still operate in a top-down, hierarchical, command and control approach. Organizations which
decentralize and distribute the decision making from the executive team to leaders at all levels are able to more
quickly understand what ideas resonate, which products work and increase the overall pace of innovation.85

T-shaped workforces have a different opportunity. Because their employers emphasize collaboration, democratized
leadership and adaptability, T-shaped employees generally have the autonomy to make decisions that enable them to
affect change immediately. And freedom to make decisions helps people prioritize, re-think workflows and innovate.

LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS

Organizations aspire to be T-shaped in order to drive innovation. One of the best ways to do so is to enable leaders
at all levels. At Skillsoft we’ve been advocating for the democratization of leadership for a long time. We’ve always
believed that individuals who are leaders of a project or program, even if they lack the corresponding title or formal
position, are still leaders and have great influence on business outcomes. These leaders are worthy of receiving
leadership development to help them hone their abilities and grow their own strengths and style to drive business
impact and innovations.

With a culture of T-shaped talent, management at organizations can truly action a plan to develop leaders at all levels.
A philosophy that necessitates a sense of ownership for one’s ideas, and a willingness to share them openly with
collaborators, a strong belief in having and supporting leaders at all levels brings to the foreground fresh ideas and
helps deepen and broaden the talent pool of the organizations. And by implementing a T-shaped framework for L&D,
organizations will have no shortage of those ready to step to the helm and take the reins.

8 “When to Decentralize Decision Making, and When Not To.” Herman Vantrappen and Frederic Wirtz, HBR, December 26, 2017. 7
White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, took this idea even further. Long considered a modern-day business maverick, Tony Hsieh’s
leadership philosophy has been more centered on creating the right environment in which his employees can thrive
than a command and control approach. Operating under these tenants, in 2016, Zappos converted its management
structure to a holacracy, an environment where employees do not report to a manager and have autonomy in their
day-to-day work. Instead an employee may serve as a “lead link” on a particular project, with the authority to make
decisions, much like a project manager. Hsieh eliminated all bosses, manager, and titles to reduce bureaucracy and
drive productivity and innovation at the online shoe retailer. Hsieh’s only regret in the process? That he waited so long
to do it.96

9 “Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh On Getting Rid of Managers: What I Wish I’d Done Differently.” Zack Guzman, CNBC.com, September 13, 2016. 8
White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

CONCLUSION

Organizations have long faced the challenges of skills shortages and the war for top talent, yet the digital age has
amplified these obstacles. Technology’s pace of change is ever-increasing and we will soon find ourselves faced with Try Skillsoft content for 14 days
the need to near-instantaneously fill roles needed to support these advances. Beyond upskilling and reskilling their
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workforce, organizations must foster the mindset and ability of adaptability.

By approaching learning and development from a T-shaped perspective, companies help employees both broaden
and deepen their skillsets. With technical expertise in a given field, the T-shaped employee works to further extend
this knowledge while expanding the horizontal stroke where soft skills, empathy, business acumen and emotional
intelligence are stored.

The duality of development helps T-shaped individuals thrive while working on the cross-functional teams that drive
businesses across all industries today. Contributions to the creative process are drawn from the vertical stroke—
engineering, design, product knowledge, while the ability to solve problems, work together and communicate well
emerges from the horizonal stroke.

As a leader in pan-organization transformation, Skillsoft is positioned to accelerate your advances in digital readiness
by upskilling and reskilling your workforce from end-to-end. By partnering with your organization, Skillsoft provides
personalized learning solutions for diverse audiences that align with your business needs to ensure your employees
have the skills and behaviors critical for success.

LEARN MORE

Experience Skillsoft’s innovative learning resources for free. Start a 14-day trial today.

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White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KRISTIN SHACKELFORD

Kristin Shackelford serves as Skillsoft’s Organization Transformation Solution Principal for North
America and EMEA. A seasoned strategist in the talent and learning industry, Kristin has over 20
years’ experience bringing relevant industry insights and practical experience to many of the largest
global enterprises.

As a seeker of insights and customer partner in building the workforce of the future, Kristin is
passionate about helping organizations develop new capabilities for the digital age to ensure they are
Kristin Shackelford
armed with the right knowledge to future proof their organization. With the objective of a stronger
Kristin Shackelford,
DevOps culture, Kristin’s expertise secures greater confidence amongst Senior Leaders to break Organization Transformation,
down organizational silos and accelerate projects. Digital Business and Leadership

linkedin.com/in/kristin-shackelford-b7842ba/
Kristin regularly speaks and consults on current topics including developing leaders for the digital
age, women in leadership, gender parity and its impact on business, digital transformation, and
impact technology and globalization have on culture, people and organizational talent strategy. The
power of continuous learning and innovation are key themes across these customer discussions.

She is instrumental in two of Skillsoft’s premiere customer centric forums:

• Skillsoft Digital Council: a cross-collaborative council where executives, practitioners, and thought
leaders across lines of business come together to discuss the implications digital transformation
and what forward thinking tactics will accelerate transformation and contribute to a future
proof strategy.

• Innovation Day: a lively, relevant, workshop among business leaders and practitioners, in
collaboration with Skillsoft and industry transformation thought leaders intended to identify ways
to accelerate digital readiness within your organization, demystify technology trends, improve
cross-functional team performance

Kristin has served on the advisory board for the Center for Talent Reporting, is a member of various 10

professional groups.
White Paper | Tee-Up for Continuous Adaptability, Tee-Up to Innovate

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