For this report, I was able to interview three managers at the Health and Safety Council (HASC) (Health and Safety Council, 2022), a non-profit that supports safety and skills training for contractors entering and working in the energy industry. These managers had extensive histories with the organization and have risen through the ranks to become departmental managers and leaders at the organization.
During these interviews, I asked the same series of questions focused on: (a) traditional education and digital education, (b) digital leadership, (c) the organization’s evolution both recently and in the past, (d) their own organizational leaders and the traits that make a good leader and finally, (e) the organization’s focus on training and developing leaders. In each case, it seemed as though the questions were generating thoughts for these leaders that they had not had to focus on before. These were distinct questions about digital transformation and digital leadership that were not a part of their ordinary management roles. The answers they provided, although unique, showed several common themes for the organization and the digital leaders within the organization.
Interview Subjects
The three leaders selected for this project included:
- A departmental manager who has been with the organization for eight years. This manager started as an instructional designer and is currently working as the manager of that department. She is a keystone manager for HASC in that she manages the team that produces and develops one of the organization's primary products, HASC's eLearning courses. She interacts with customers and senior leaders daily and she has been asked to lead an evolution within her department over the past few years to increase the level of engagement by HASC's learners and the quality of HASC's eLearning courses.
- A director who focuses on HASC's second-largest revenue-generating product, the organization's hands-on and instructor-led safety and skills courses. This manager also has worked at the organization for over eight years and has risen from a manager/supervisor position to become a director of multiple departments. His history includes work at a larger company that was a client of HASC.
- A departmental manager who leads the organization's customer service teams. This manager has a history at HASC of over 20 years and has worked in multiple roles and within several departments across the organization during that time. She has been asked to manage and lead several unique digital transformations during that time.
Each of these leaders was selected for their intimate knowledge of the organization's products, power structures, politics, and digital vision. They were all told of the reason for the interview and were allowed as much time as they wished to answer any of the questions. They all consented to be recorded to capture their answers more precisely to create this paper.
Similarities and Themes
Despite not working in academia, all three of the leaders interviewed for this report agreed that they worked as leaders in the education industry due to their positions at the HASC. Another similarity between all of the leaders interviewed for this report was their agreement that the COVID pandemic acted as a change agent and sped up digital innovation in the organization. Many of the readings in this class focus on the fact that the COVID pandemic acted as a catalyst for organizations to begin offering more digital tools to deal with the limited in-person environment. There are other instances where the consumer of different products are the driving factor of the need for digital innovation. Writing in EDUCAUSE, Pelletier et al. (2022) state that consumers are used to the "benefits of being able to do things "anywhere" and (the) appetite for online and remote options as consumers is likely to persist" (p. 7). In the case of COVID, especially from these interviews, it seems as though the digital innovations were propelled forward by the organization's desire to be more cutting edge, but also by the learners who demanded more digital tools by which they could take HASC's training. The leader interviewed for this report who is in charge of HASC's eLearning products said this specifically when she said, the "pandemic was a catalyst. We had been discussing it because everybody is kind of moving towards that distance learning and computer-based online type training. But once the pandemic hit, it was like we had to find a solution and we had to find it fast." The director who oversees HASC's instructor-led training said, "I think COVID became a big-time accelerator." Wade (2022) discusses this in his article when he describes digital acceleration and digital adoption. It is clear to see that like most education institutes and learning communities, HASC was affected by the COVID pandemic and was challenged to find digital innovation to satisfy the demands of their clients.
Another theme that was seen across all of the interviews and the discussions was the fact that digital leaders must be open to new ideas and understand the audience. As Kane et al. (2019) state, digital leaders “must also be change-oriented - that is open-minded, adaptable, and innovative" (p. 36). This was echoed by all of the interviewed leaders. However, there was also an expressed need to fit the needs of the organization’s digitalization of process to the needs of the learners. Both leaders who are involved in training discussed the need to understand the limitations of HASC's learners in understanding digital tools. The leader involved with customer service discussed how HASC's learners and clients need to be led to understand the new tools and technologies. As Brooks (2021) states “The worst student experiences were inevitably linked to policies, practices, and approaches to teaching and learning with technology that was designed without the student experience (especially during a global pandemic) in mind” (p. 3). The focus on understanding the needs of the learners who represent HASC's clients resonated with all of these leaders and speaks toward the mission of the organization, which is focused on improving the workforce within the industry (Health and Safety Council, 2006). This focus on the learner and the workforce is clear to see in all of the leaders' concerns for the happiness, well-being, and understanding of the learner. Additionally, the learning leaders both said, leaders need to be open to new ideas, and that leaders should be able to think outside the box (Health and Safety Council, 2022). An EDUCAUSE report highlights the need to use technology to transform learning especially in terms of remote learning tools when Pelletier et al. (2022) state "as we've learned through HASC's pandemic experiences, different modalities can be blended in much richer, theoretically grounded ways that challenge and expand those frameworks and approaches to teaching" (p. 27). The eLearning leader echoed this sentiment when she said that her team members were being exposed to more adult learning principles and capabilities than she as a developer eight years prior ever had access to.
Finally, in terms of the organization's willingness to be innovative and a digital leader within the industry, all three leaders interviewed for this report agreed that HASC acted as an early adopter and tester of new digital tools. One leader who had been at the organization for over 20 years discussed the changes that the self-serve kiosks created for learners. The leader in charge of the learning products discussed how her team was changing the way that they create and develop training to keep up with the new expectations of the learners and to keep up with the competition. As Grajek and Reinitz (2019) state digital transformation "initiatives can succeed only through the strategic application of a changing set of technologies in support of the institutional missions" (p. 9). Additionally, writing in EDUCAUSE, McCormack et al. (2019) found that the COVID pandemic “acted as an inflection point for what quality entails” for learning institutions (p. 30). HASC was well positioned for the acceleration that the the COVID pandemic caused as they were already an innovator in digital transformation. This made the change to a more digital learning environment less stark as it might have been and will continue to be for safety councils that are not as digitally oriented as HASC.
Conclusion
These interviews (Health and Safety Council, 2022) were illustrative of several major themes including: (a) how HASC is continuing to be an innovative leader, (b) that the COVID pandemic acted as a digital accelerator for digital tools, and learning, and (c) that digital leaders need to be open to ideas and be adaptable and flexible to the changing nature of HASC's learning community and business. In several instances, the pace of change and the nature of change left these managers feeling overwhelmed and wanted a chance to catch up with the changes. This leaves HASC with an opportunity where HASC can provide: (a) better digital help to their employees, learners, and leadership, including helping leaders understand digital leadership, (b) an organization-wide learning and growth plan for both traditional leadership and digital leadership, and (c) opportunities for solidifying the digital gains HASC has made in the past few years and continued use of the catalyst type action that the COVID pandemic causes to help accelerate the pace of digital innovations within their organization.
References
Brooks, D. C. (2021). Student experiences learning with technology in the pandemic. Educause. Edu. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.educause.edu/ecar/research-publications/2021/student-experiences-learning-with-technology-in-the-pandemic/introduction-and-key-findings
Grajek, S., Reinitz, B. (2019). Getting ready for digital transformation: Change your culture, workforce, and technology. Educause.Edu. Retrieved May 17, 2022, https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/7/getting-ready-for-digital-transformation-change-your-culture-workforce-and-technology
Health and Safety Council. (2022, May 16). Digital leadership interviews project. https://ksuemailprod-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/rgh8373_ksu_edu/EtpSEXFzu9NJuMgRcJeA7EMBLaubfCfw0uKKHRCrW5wvig?e=1OuOok
Health and Safety Council. (2006). Vision and Mission Statements. https://www.hasc.com/about-hasc/vision-mission/
Kane G. C., Phillips A. N., Copulsky J.R. and Andrus G. R. (2019). How digital leadership is(n't) different. MIT Sloan Management Review (Spring): 34-39
McCormack, M., Brooks, D. C., & Reeves, J. (2021). 2021 EDUCAUSE horizon action plan: privacy 2021 educause horizon action plan: privacy. Educause.Edu. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://library.educause.edu/resources/2021/10/2021-educause-horizon-action-plan-privacy
Pelletier, K., Mccormack, M., Reeves, J., Robert, J., Arbino, N., Al-Freih, M., Dickson-Deane, C., Guevara, C., Koster, L., Sánchez-Mendiola, M., Lee, S., & Bessette, J. (2022). Thank you to our teaching and learning horizon report sponsors. Educause.Edu. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2022/4/2022hrteachinglearning.pdf?la=en&hash=6F6B51DFF485A06DF6BDA8F88A0894EF9938D50B
Wade, M. R. (2020, May 27). Scenario planning for a post-COVID-19 world. IMD Business School. https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/reports/scenario-planning-for-a-post-covid-19-world/
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