The economic, policy, and social transformations of the last several years have greatly affected biopharma companies’ operational performance and strategic effectiveness. These transformations have led to greater complexity in the required skill sets for many roles, increasing the demands on the professionals who work in these companies. Those increased demands, coupled with the post-COVID increase in demand for issues such as work flexibility and professional development, are making it more challenging for biopharma companies to develop and retain great employees. However, learning and development (L&D) teams within biopharma companies can play a key role in addressing this challenge. Ultimately, the companies that work with their L&D functions to mitigate the effects of those changes on their employees are the ones that will be best positioned for success in spite of the challenging headwinds.

Taking a systematic approach to developing core capabilities is one of the most powerful ways for companies to develop staff members and thrive in this challenging time. We define a systematic approach as one that is structured, methodical, and standardized across the organization. Moreover, this type of approach consistently uses ongoing evaluation and measurement, socializes the process with both leadership and individual contributors, and applies a mindset of continuous skills enhancement.

By using a systematic approach, organizations can both enhance employee effectiveness and improve the overall employee experience. In Part 1 of this series about how L&D can develop core capabilities systematically, we described the need for such an approach, its benefits, and its key components. Those components are as follows:

1. Needs Analyses
2. Capability Models
3. Personalized Learning Plans

In this article, we explore the process of conducting needs analyses and developing capability models. We take a detailed look at what it means to approach these processes in a systematic way, and we share a case study that illustrates how doing so helped a biopharma company better support its employees’ development and retention. Later, we will conclude the series with a third article on developing personalized learning plans.

Needs Analyses

Developing a needs analysis is the essential first step toward building a capability model that defines the skills needed for success in a given role. In this process, L&D teams identify and evaluate individuals’ needs and areas for development, with the goal of finding the gaps between their current skills and abilities and those that are required to perform in their specific roles.

While some of the specifics of needs analyses can differ across organizations, a systematic approach to the issue usually includes the following steps:

• Reviewing and analyzing relevant background materials such as job descriptions and existing capability models
• Identifying the appropriate stakeholders to participate in the process, ​​including in-role employees (both new to and experienced), functional area leaders and managers, and cross-functional partners who work with individuals in this role
• Conducting group and one-on-one interviews with stakeholders

The topics explored during the interviews depend on the gaps being explored. Examples may include:

• Current capability gaps
• What good looks like in roles
• Career paths

Companies may choose to work with either their internal L&D teams or with a third party to conduct needs analyses. While internal L&D teams understand organizational dynamics deeply, they also run the risk of being too close to the issue and not seeing some issues as clearly as an external partner may. There are other benefits to working with a third party. One is that someone with an outside perspective is more likely to avoid the bias that can come from being too close to the subject. Another is that third parties bring in external expertise and thinking to the process. Finally, with their relative distance from the topic, third parties have the ability to synthesize the data collected in a needs analysis into documentation that is more understandable to a wide range of users.

Once a needs analysis is completed, its outputs are used to align on core capabilities for the organization and inform the learning pathways that support individuals’ career paths.

Capability Models

Once the needs analysis has been completed, its outputs are used to develop capability models for the organization. These models are structured frameworks that lay out the specific skills and abilities needed to succeed in a given role. They offer insight and direction on expectations for performance, and they answer two key questions: What do employees need to know to optimize their performance, and what actions do they need to take to do so?

Capability models most often include the following elements:

• Details about the knowledge and skills needed for each capability
• Descriptions of how the capabilities look in practice when an employee is using their knowledge and skills
• Definitions of the proficiency levels related to each capability, including expectations for performance by role

A completed capability model often contains components that include worksheets to support goal creation and networking/mentoring conversations, as well as short (often one-page) summaries by role with proficiency levels and select contextual examples.

A systematic approach to capability model development includes multiple key steps that are typically performed in a standard order:

1. Developing the model
2. Communicating and training teams on how to apply the model
3. Evaluating and measuring skill development based on the model

Developing capability models offers numerous benefits, both for individual contributors and for leaders. For individuals, the benefits include:

• Cleary understanding expectations for the role
• Performing the role effectively
• Enabling productive development conversations and performance reviews with managers
• Planning career paths
• Building L&D journeys that support both current performance and future potential

The benefits for leaders include:

• Deepening understanding of employees’ career goals
• Offering higher-impact development coaching
• Empowering individuals to develop themselves
• Conducting performance reviews more efficiently
• Increasing individual effectiveness and retention
• More proactive planning for future recruiting efforts

Once the capability models are complete, an organization may use them to develop focused learning that can be used for developing personalized learning plans.

Needs Analysis and Capability Model Case Study

The commercial operations function of a large biopharma company needed to develop a capability model and learning pathways for customer-facing field teams in a business unit dealing with complex treatments in international markets. Because these teams had high logistical coordination needs, a diverse set of stakeholders, and a complex product-to-patient journey, their work required them to develop new capabilities.

The commercial function began by conducting a needs analysis and then built a capability framework based on it for three functional customer-facing field roles: account managers, medical science liaisons, and patient support managers. Some of the capabilities defined included problem solver, clinical expert, organizational navigator, and influential communicator. As part of the same project, they subsequently defined learning pathways for each of the roles.

Once the needs analysis, capability model, and learning pathways were defined, the functional area’s leadership had a clear roadmap for how to implement the most appropriate trainings and when to do so, based on the organization’s new, evolving customer engagement model for international markets.

Conclusion

Needs analyses and capability models feed the subject of the third and final installment in this series, personalized learning plans (PLPs). That article will examine how to develop PLPs that enable employees to grow and thrive in their current roles, as well as progress to future roles that increase their contributions to the organization. The article will focus on how to build PLPs with a systematic approach, using a standardized process to identify situation-specific insights that drive success in the organization.

While many industries have felt some effects from the economic, policy, and social transformations of the last several years, change has always been a constant for the biopharma industry. For pharma and biotech companies, technological and scientific discoveries, regulatory structures, health policy and politics, payor relationships, and the global health landscape are consistently in a state of transformation. All pharmaceutical and biotech companies need to be agile and adapt to these changes as a reality of doing business—and the ones that do so most effectively stand the greatest chance of success.

But as much as constant change presents an opportunity for biopharma companies, it can also put pressures on them that can strain their operational performance and strategic effectiveness. The potential effect on employees is significant. Working in an organization in the midst of transformation can create an environment of uncertainty that can lead to a drop in employee satisfaction, higher staff turnover, and a decrease in employee effectiveness.

This article is the first in a series about how learning and development (L&D) teams can use a systematic approach to developing core capabilities, not only to improve team member effectiveness, but also to enhance the overall employee experience. In Part 1, we describe the need for this systematic approach, its benefits, and its key components. The articles that follow will go into further detail about each of those components: identifying needs and developing capability models, and building personalized learning plans.

The Need for a Systematic Approach

Given the changes that biopharma companies face and the risks those changes bring, L&D teams play an instrumental role in supporting employees and having a positive effect on overall employee satisfaction. This support can help reduce uncertainty, turnover, and other challenges caused by rapid change, while simultaneously helping increase employees’ professional and career development.

To do this, L&D teams must take a systematic approach to developing core capabilities,  the specific knowledge, skills, and behaviors that are essential to an organization’s success. A systematic approach requires planning that is structured, methodical, and standardized across the organization, with ongoing evaluation and measurement, socialization with leadership and cross-functional stakeholders, and a mindset of continuous skills enhancement. L&D teams that bring this approach to their work have the greatest likelihood of success in supporting employee professional development, retention, and advancement of corporate objectives.

Benefits of Systematic Approach

A systematic approach by L&D teams to developing and implementing core capabilities offers benefits for both organizations and staff members.

Organizational

Capabilities that support company objectives can help increase employee satisfaction and, in turn, staff retention. There are multiple reasons for this. First of all, defining core capabilities shows investment by the organization in professional development. It also demonstrates clarity and consistency in the organization’s expectations for individuals’ skills. Finally, having defined capabilities like this lays the groundwork for career advancement, because people know what they need to do to be promoted into the next role or roles.

Staff Members

In addition to the organizational benefits of a systematic approach to capability development, there are also advantages for individuals at all levels of a biopharma organization: leaders, managers, and individual contributors.

Leaders

For leaders, a systematic approach helps lay the groundwork for a learning strategy that reflects their priorities, which can help them become more effective leaders. Such an approach also has several benefits for hiring. For one, it enables more strategic recruiting because it helps leaders and the HR team more effectively identify which attributes to look for in new hires. In addition, by allowing for a skills-based hiring process, it offers tangible ways to evaluate candidates based on their practical capacity for doing the job rather than simply using subjective insights about how well they talk about their experience and qualifications. Finally, it supports strong succession planning, because it helps identify the skills needed to backfill roles and enables more proactive recruiting.

Managers

Managers benefit from a systematic approach because it offers them a set of tools for guiding their teams. For example, it gives them more inputs beyond performance reviews alone that they can use to recognize high performance by members of their team. These can include dynamics such as customer feedback, completion of training programs, and attainment of KPIs. And in cases where team members are not meeting expectations, it helps identify areas of development. Importantly, a systematic approach also creates opportunities for development conversations to be both more productive and more frequent, as opposed to being held only during performance reviews. And finally, it helps make performance reviews more effective because it offers objective measurement criteria and data-driven assessments.

Individual Contributors

A systematic approach helps individual contributors by showing them the skills and behaviors they need to perform successfully in their roles. It also creates the opportunity for team members to have more productive professional development conversations with their managers. Finally, it can make performance reviews more productive for individual contributors because it consistently aligns individuals’ work with corporate objectives, for example when an organization that prioritizes developing cross-functional collaboration tracks and quantifies interaction between departments.

Key Components of a Systematic Approach to Capability Development

There are two primary components to a systematic approach to developing core capabilities:

• Identifying needs and defining capabilities
• Building personalized learning plans

Needs Analyses and Core Capabilities

A needs analysis is the process of identifying and evaluating individuals’ needs and areas for development. It does so by finding the gap between their current skills and abilities and the capabilities needed to perform the duties of a role. One of the benefits of a needs analysis is that it provides a 360-degree understanding of the support individuals need from leaders, managers, and the individuals themselves. Components of a needs analysis include the following:

• Defining the current state
• Defining the desired future state
• Identifying the knowledge, skills, and capabilities needed to bridge the gap between the current state and the desired future state

Together, these elements become key components of aligning on core capabilities for the organization and informing the learning pathways that are used to support the next one to five years of individuals’ career progression.

Capabilities include the knowledge and skills that the roles need to adapt and flex to meet future needs. By focusing on capabilities, organizations can focus development on the knowledge and skills that allow individuals to thrive in fast-paced, cross-functional, and constantly changing environments.

Core capabilities are used to develop capability models, which are structured frameworks that outline and articulate the specific skills and capabilities required for success in a specific role. Capability models can include the following:

• Knowledge and skills for each capability
• Details about contextual examples that describe what the capability looks like in practice when a person is deploying their knowledge and skill
• Definitions of proficiency levels that share expectations for how each role should be performing related to each capability

Aligning to a core set of capabilities has several benefits, including making it more likely that individuals’ professional development supports corporate goals, offering direction on career paths, and providing consistent and clear expectations. By developing robust capabilities and aligning roles to them, organizations can help ensure that they have the necessary resources and future-focused skills to meet customer, market, and organizational needs and expectations.

Personalized Learning Plans

Personalized learning plans (PLPs) are the other key component of this systematic approach. PLPs are professional development roadmaps that are customized for individual employees. They provide curriculum options to develop and enhance individual and team capabilities, and they can be included in capability planners or leaders can refer to them during discussions with their direct reports about ways to improve in specific capabilities. Among the benefits of PLPs are skill development targeted to the individual, greater employee satisfaction and retention, and alignment with corporate objectives. Employees generally appreciate PLPs because they are personalized to them, as opposed to the “one size fits all” approach that many biopharma companies have historically taken.

Conclusion

In part 2, we will take a deeper look at needs analyses and identifying core capabilities and skills. The article will demonstrate how taking the time to conduct a needs analysis and identify the capabilities to meet those needs helps organizations ensure that they have the necessary resources and future-focused skills to meet customer, market, and organizational expectations. It will also detail the key steps and best practices for conducting needs analyses and developing capability models and aligning them using a systematic approach, with specific guidance for building the models in the most impactful way possible.

Senior leaders are important and influential people within any organization. It’s necessary that they stay at the “top of their game” and are well-equipped with the capabilities needed to drive their organizations forward. In Part 1 of this series, we outlined why executive leadership development is so important for these individuals, their teams, and the organization and identified some common development needs. Part 2 addressed the unique challenges associated with creating and fielding development programs for senior leaders, offering some solutions along the way.

At the end of Part 2, we noted that a well-orchestrated communications strategy is essential to the success of any development program for senior leaders. Without that, senior leaders will likely be unclear on how to take advantage of a program or dismiss its value, resulting in low participation rates and minimal impact. In this installment, we address the key components of a good communications plan, unique challenges in communicating with senior executives, and some high-level solutions to those challenges.

Key Components of an Effective Communications Plan for Senior Leadership Development

An effective communication plan for any change initiative–which is what an Executive Leadership Development Program is–should have defined objectives, consider cognitive constraints in absorbing information, and be developed in stages.

Recommended objectives for a communication plan include the following:

1. Communicate how the program is linked to business strategy and impact, and why it is a priority for the company
2. Educate executives about why their development is critically important for themselves and why they should commit to participating in this program
3. Clearly and concisely show how they should participate in the program, what they are supposed to do, and when
4. Enable them to track their progress and see how others are doing
5. Provide a platform to give the learners a voice and provide feedback

This might sound relatively straightforward, and perhaps accomplished by simply preparing and sending out a few emails. Unfortunately, that is exactly how fantastic programs fail to reach their potential. In any change initiative, there is usually a lot of important information to communicate, which often results in a mad rush to get the information out, neglecting the learners’ ability to process, internalize, and act on it. One must keep the learner at the center, and importantly, consider the ways in which cognitive constraints impact a human’s ability to absorb information.

The intricate processes of human memory can significantly impact one’s capacity to absorb and retain information. Working memory is often a bottleneck, as it restricts the amount of information that can be processed at a given moment. Moreover, encoding, which determines how information is initially registered, can be influenced by factors like attention, prior knowledge, and emotional state, affecting successful processing.

In addition, long-term memory storage, essential for retaining absorbed information over time, is impacted by the frequency with which information is processed and if the leader has elaborated or crafted meaningful associations during that processing. As our recommendations highlight, it is essential to account for the cognitive constraints all leaders have in a communications plan in order for leaders to first remember and then act on a development journey’s opportunities.

Finally, a communication plan is not a one-and-done deliverable. While back-of-the-napkin ideas are great and creativity should be fostered, developing, socializing, and deploying an effective communications plan typically follows five core stages:

• Define your audience and any additional stakeholders, and understand their priorities
• Develop key messages that are closely linked to the business and company context
• Identify the best tactics to communicate the key messages
• Develop a communication plan and validate with the right stakeholders
• Execute the communication plan, track progress, and improve on an ongoing basis

Objectives, awareness of cognitive constraints, and a solid development approach will put any communications plan ahead of the curve. That said, specific nuances and watch-outs should be incorporated and accounted for in communications plans that target senior executives.

Unique Challenges in Communicating with Senior Executives

Everyone is drowning in communications. Emails. Teams chats. Yammer posts. Slack streams. Not to mention LinkedIn articles, white papers. Reddit feeds, and on and on and on. Senior executives are no different – and in reality, likely even worse off.

Senior executives receive a very high number of communications.

Senior executives are the key drivers of a company’s vision and strategy, critical decisions, and change initiatives. Every internal stakeholder with a deliverable and a dream likely wants to inform, discuss or gain a senior leader’s input, advocacy or stamp of approval. It is impossible for a senior leader to read every communication. Hence they have Executive Associates and make choices or they would never sleep, not to mention achieve their business objectives.

Senior executives often don’t consume common communication channels.

In addition to receiving a boatload of communications, senior executives are often privy to privileged and confidential information that goes way above and beyond topics disseminated on common, all-access communications channels. Add in the reality that they are usually in meetings all day and travel frequently, and typical communication channels that cater to broad sections of the organization likely won’t be on their radar.

Senior executives have constantly changing agendas and priorities.

Lastly, in an era of a constantly changing external landscape, being a good leader requires the ability to quickly adapt and pivot. Senior executives have highly dynamic agendas that are continually reshaped by changing business needs. A priority today might not be one tomorrow. The value proposition of an Executive Leadership Development Journey must be continually measured against what senior leaders need at that moment, with clear links to current corporate priorities. If not, the journey risks becoming irrelevant, falling off senior executives’ crowded radars.

Best Practices when Communicating with Senior Leaders

Is communicating with senior leaders challenging? Yes. Is it impossible? No. Below are some recommendations to customize a communications plan for senior leaders to drive impact.

Get the C-suite to say it

Hearing messages from above goes a long way. Having the C-suite deliver the value proposition of an Executive Leadership Journey increases the likelihood the message is taken to heart. How to do this? Meet corporate communications.

Almost all C-suite members have a dedicated corporate communications team member.  These individuals typically reside in the Corporate Affairs function, which can stand alone, be embedded within a public affairs or compliance function, or be a component of the executive leadership team. Along with many other responsibilities, corporate communications team members are responsible for coordinating, drafting, and approving the high visibility communications a C-suite member sends or delivers internally and externally. Their partnership and support is critical.

An L&D team should partner with the leadership communications team members to identify the optimal C-suite leader to advocate for the journey as well as the most appropriate content, platform, and timing for communications. A key here is to connect the value proposition, vision or objectives of the Executive Leadership journey to a C-suite member’s other priorities.

For example, if the Executive Leadership journey focuses on diversity and inclusivity capabilities, then the Chief Diversity and Inclusivity Officer would be key (note, this might be the CHRO). If driving innovation or new ideas is a focus, consider a Chief Research Officer or Chief Commercialization Officer. Connecting the Executive Leadership journey’s value proposition to a C-suite leader’s other organizational priorities creates a win-win for the C-suite member to participate and advocate for the initiative.

Engage the stakeholder groups close to the senior executives.

To increase the likelihood that a senior executive internalizes the what and why and acts on the how of a communications plan, it is important to engage the key individuals that surround a leader – their proverbial circle of trust. This includes the aforementioned Corporate Affairs team members and extends to the leaders’ Strategy and Operations team members, HR business partners, executive assistants and other company-specific roles that have linked priorities or regular touchpoints with senior leaders.

Finding and connecting with these individuals in a 30,000-employee global organization may seem daunting. Consider leveraging the Learning leadership team or the Chief Learning Officer to establish access and develop rapport. Investing the time to communicate the why, what, and how of the Executive Leadership journey pays returns in their championing and fostering the senior executives to engage in it.

Use highly effective and relevant content.

Following that senior executives are very busy people, they have little time to sift through verbosity. Content must be relevant, concise, and actionable. Asks should be at the forefront, not buried beneath the fold; content and key messages should be in alignment with business priorities.

Balance planning with agility.

All of the above requires planning, networking, and stakeholder management. L&D must identify the right stakeholders, understand their priorities, get on their calendars, gain their buy-in, and get their help in shaping the communication plan. With busy schedules, this takes a long time. That said, as mentioned, senior executives’ needs and priorities can change quickly. Just like their learners, the senior executives, an L&D team must remain flexible and agile throughout the lead up and execution of an Executive Leadership journey.

Effective communication is vital for the success of any senior leadership development program. Without a well-crafted communications strategy, even the most meticulously designed program will likely fail to engage senior leaders and drive meaningful impact. By following best practices such as partnering with corporate communications teams, engaging stakeholder groups close to senior executives, delivering concise and relevant content through effective channels, and maintaining agility to adapt to changing priorities, organizations can increase the chances of their senior leaders internalizing the value proposition and actively participating in the development journey. Ultimately, a thoughtful and comprehensive communications approach is essential for ensuring senior leaders stay at the top of their game and are equipped to drive their organizations forward in an ever-changing business landscape.

“To admit ignorance is to exhibit wisdom” – Ashley Montagu

Senior executive leaders are often the most experienced people within a biopharma company. With double-digit years of industry experience, they’ve often come up “through the ranks”, gaining a wealth of wisdom during the course of their professional journeys. Tenure and tacit knowledge aside, in a complex, ever-changing industry like biopharmaceuticals, learning should never stop.

In Part 1 of this series, we outlined why executive development is important and its ability to positively impact a company’s trajectory when done right. We also covered senior leaders’ most common capability gaps, including decision leadership and change management. Designing and implementing development journeys to address these common gaps is not easy. Along with known, common challenges to educating any adult, some challenges are unique to a senior executive audience. Here, we outline those challenges and explore some potential solutions.

Unique Challenges to Senior Executive Leadership Development

Time-pressed, academic-brand conscious, sophisticated; three characteristics of senior executives that create unique challenges to impactful executive leader development.

Senior executives are very busy people.

If everyone is busy these days, senior executives are busier. Time is senior leaders’ most valuable resource, and there are many different needs, duties, and stakeholders vying for that time. Getting them to carve out time to engage in development becomes a real challenge.

Senior executives demonstrate brand consciousness for academic learning.

Top executives, especially in biopharmaceutical companies, are often highly credentialed. They have one or perhaps multiple advanced degrees: a masters or PhD in their area of expertise, or perhaps an MD or MBA. They are high-utilizers of academic institutional learning. As such, they tend to be “brand conscious” when it comes to their own professional development, showing a preference for development offerings from academic institutions.

Top universities’ executive development programs can be very good. They often address burgeoning topics, bring together learners from across industries, and offer deep subject matter expertise. While valuable qualities, viewed differently these offerings tend to be generalized, rarely focusing on an industry and, less so, a specific company and its challenges or contexts. This broad approach demands more effort on an executive’s part to transfer the concepts to his or her specific company and situation and distill relevant insights to action immediately to drive new ways of working or business results.

This is not to say that broad offerings are sub-optimal. It’s the extra effort required that becomes less ideal when the learners are busy executives and not full-time students. Think back to your days as a full-time student. Most likely, you attended a professor’s lectures to glean concepts from their immense subject matter expertise and then spent additional time on your own–and perhaps with teaching assistants–to transfer the theory and concepts into tangible actions or skills you then applied. Top executives simply have less time to make the abstract meaningful.

While engaging with learners from across industries is valuable, this should be assessed against the value of a cohort of leaders from within a company experiencing and learning together. Universities have shifted to accommodate for this by offering customized learning for specific companies, and this may be a viable option. It is important to recognize that, in the end, the finished customized program often sits outside the company; making the company beholden to the university should there be interest in redeploying or expanding it.

Senior executives are skeptical of their need for development.

Many humans have suffered the slings and arrows of overconfidence bias. Cognitive research has consistently revealed that most adults tend to rate their abilities, whether those be business or non-business related, as above average. Senior executives are not immune to this calamity and theoretically they might be at greater risk. If a leader has been in the same environment for many years, it is possible that their capabilities could become a bit “ossified,” rendering them less able to adapt to—or lead—change.

In addition, senior executives—who neglect their development— may have missed significant developments that would have kept them abreast of change. While a leader may have earned an MBA 20 years ago, MBA programs of today are radically different from those even 5 years ago. The world changes. Key knowledge and capabilities change. Similarly, many senior leaders in key functions rose through the ranks in their companies more than a decade ago, largely before the cross-functional “revolution” took place in the biopharma industry. While leaders may have very deep expertise within their own functions, they can have gaps in the holistic, cross-functional understanding that is so important to strategy and operations today.

Those are just two small examples, but the key point is this: leaders who have been in senior roles for a significant period may not be aware of areas in which they could improve and develop.

High-Level Solutions

Senior executives need development opportunities that are specific to their needs and contexts and that fit within their schedules. This is why individual one-on-one executive coaching is often seen as the best approach for this learner population. And for small populations, coaching is the answer, but it also has drawbacks in its difficulty to scale and hyper-individual focus. The question is:  How can L&D combine the principles of individual coaching and then deliver them on a large scale? Answering that question correctly is the key to overcoming the challenges of creating a learning solution for senior executives.

Make it relevant.

Earlier, we drove home the idea that any learning program must be highly relevant to the learners. This means that the content should not only relate to the biopharma industry, but also to the individual learner.

The key is to communicate from the start that the program will be custom-fit to them as individuals, then actually deliver on that promise as things move forward. To do this, L&D should keep the following points in mind:

• An up-front needs assessment at the macro level is essential. This provides a foundational understanding of the needs that any program must address, and serves as a type of “North Star” that guides subsequent development efforts.
• Given the high visibility and general skepticism around executive leadership development programs, conducting a robust needs assessment is also critical to creating a compelling business case for the program.
• Needs assessments are also needed at the micro—or individual—level. While the macro assessment helps define the prioritized library of learning content that must be developed, the micro-level assessments determine how various pieces of content will need to be curated for each specific learner. These micro-level assessments typically take the form of short self-assessment exercises that learners must complete early in the program.
• As stated, the curated content must be contextualized to the learners’ specific roles, situations and development needs, as will the exercises they must complete throughout the program.

Design to accommodate their busy schedules.

Busy executives do not have time for long sessions held at scheduled intervals. Learning programs must be designed to accommodate the reality of their day-to-day schedules. From a practical standpoint, this means:

• Self-assessments should be short, perhaps requiring a five- or ten-minute commitment.
• Learning sessions should also be short and designed to build upon one another.  The design process should incorporate classic microlearning principles and approaches.
• The learners should have a high-degree of choice regarding when their learning takes place.  Therefore, most content will be delivered asymmetrically.

Make it a collaborative initiative.

A large-scale executive leadership development initiative should be a “big deal” within the organization, with a well-designed communications campaign and visible buy-in from top leadership. They should lead by example and be vocal about it. 

Even though learning experiences will be customized to the needs of individual executives—and learners will have a high degree of choice regarding how and when they engage with the content—the program should still be structured as a collaborative, group initiative. This can make the experience more enjoyable and introduce a healthy bit of social pressure to engage and participate in the program. Potential techniques for doing this can include:

• Providing regular updates on the learner group’s progress
• Setting up the ability for learners to “review” courses, rate their experiences, and share their opinions

Communicate, communicate, communicate.

We’ve mentioned the importance of communicating with the learners the need for development, its relevance to them, and the benefits.  However, we don’t want to give the impression that such communication can be achieved with a few emails and a meeting or two. In fact, effective communications must be done in a highly coordinated fashion that uses multiple channels and that truly engages the learner population in an ongoing way. This coordinated, integrated approach to communications is a highly essential part of any change management initiative…and that’s precisely what a comprehensive leadership development program is: a change management initiative. This aspect is so important that we will dedicate Part 3 of this series to it.  Stay tuned!

When you hear, “leadership development,” what comes to mind? Most think of programs for aspiring or new managers. Programs that empower individual contributors to transform into efficient and effective first line leaders. But what about existing leaders? And specifically senior executive leaders? 

In our experience, executive leaders—and, by extension, their companies— benefit greatly from a strategic executive leadership development journey as it unlocks immediate value in leaders’ enhanced capabilities and goes far deeper by impacting teams, functions, and the entire organizational culture. So, why doesn’t senior executive leadership development typically come to mind? And what does good senior executive development look like?

Over the coming weeks, we will publish a series of articles on leadership development for senior executives. Here, in Part 1, we address two key topics:

• Why Executive Leadership Development
• Common Needs of Executive Leaders

Part 2 explores the unique challenges related to executive leadership development, as well as some high-level solutions. Part 3 outlines the value of –  and helpful guidelines for – communications efforts that drive participation to ensure executive leadership development initiatives are a success.  Let’s dive in!

Why Executive Leadership Development

Developing executive leaders unleashes a wealth of untapped tacit knowledge and achieves a multiplier impact on an organization’s culture.

Executive leaders are typically the most tenured people within an organization. They house years and years of expertise in their heads, much in the form of tacit knowledge – knowledge that is difficult to explain and relevant to a specific domain. Executive leadership development builds, elaborates on, and propagates tacit knowledge across an organization, acting as a competitive differentiator. 

Executive leaders are the social influencers of an organization. They have an overweight impact on a company’s culture via the philosophies they silently or expressly espouse and their observable actions, truly leading by example. The example they set may be intentional or unintentional, but make no mistake, their example gets noticed and is often adopted and repeated, whether they want it to or not.

Knowledge and influence become critical success factors for organizations operating in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive environment. Executive leadership development harnesses leaders’ expertise for new, innovative ideas and empowers them with a megaphone of influence to impact everything from day-to-day operating norms to huge transformations. Data supports this. A study by McKinsey and Co. showed that companies who invest in developing leaders during significant transformations (which are quite common in biopharma) are 2.4 times more likely to hit their performance targets. 

Executive leadership development taps into senior leaders’ power and knowledge, enabling organizations to better achieve business results.  

Common Development Needs

Executive leaders often show gaps in their cross-organizational strategic thinking, decision leadership, digital fluency, and ability to advocate for and empower change.

Leadership development programs geared towards new or aspiring leaders typically focus on foundational capabilities such as communication, collaboration, and coaching to name a few. This makes sense, as this audience is transforming from individual contributors to first-line people managers. When it comes to executive leadership development, most senior leaders are experts at these core capabilities and their needs are typically more sophisticated. Like most adult learner populations, these needs are often quite diverse, yet there are a few common gaps.

Strategic Thinking Coupled with a Cross-Functional Mindset

Generally speaking, most senior leaders have a solid foundation in strategic thinking. They define objectives, identify barriers, articulate and evaluate options, and formulate an integrated approach to overcome the barriers to achieve the objective. They do this adeptly within their functional domains. 

However, in today’s biopharma industry, strategy development has become an increasingly holistic and cross-organizational endeavor. As senior leaders grow into their functional areas, they often have a blind spot when it comes to other functions. In some cases, internal political and/or competitive factors can also limit cross-functional awareness and collaboration. Today, with the increasingly integrated nature of the biopharma industry and the more holistic nature of strategy development, SVPs and VPs must more carefully consider how strategic decisions within their own functional areas can affect—as well as be impacted by—other functional areas’ strategies.

It’s important to note that some leaders have been operating with a broader cross-functional mindset for some time. The past 5-10 years saw the explosion of cross-functional commercial planning. For example, a commercial VP planning for a new product launch understands the interplay between Marketing, Market Access, Training, Medical Affairs and Regulatory and Compliance, and can integrate those areas’ strategies accordingly. With the speed to market accelerating and the global marketplace shrinking, executive leaders must also understand and consider other cross-organizational areas’ strategies, dynamics and needs. Creating an optimal launch strategy more often requires that same VP of commercialization to understand and adjust to broader organization strategies.  Think government affairs strategy. Or a health equity strategy.  A good executive leadership journey expands senior leaders’ pan-organizational understanding and enables connections between these leaders to ensure they can craft optimal strategies that move at the speed of business.

Decision Leadership and Innovation

The biopharma industry must innovate to survive and thrive. It must develop new and better therapies on an ongoing basis. This need to innovate extends beyond scientific innovation. Every functional area including research, development, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, medical affairs, market access, business development, and more, must innovate to stay ahead of competitive and market changes, regulatory issues, payer dynamics, and so on. What most senior leaders neglect to accept is that innovation is predicated on what many in these roles consider anathema – failure.

Innovation expert Matt Ridley writes, “Tolerance of error is therefore critical [for innovation]”.  Think of how many times Thomas Edison “failed” before developing a working light bulb (over 1,000 times). Top leaders usually ascend to their roles by being successful. While, don’t get us wrong, success is a great thing, individuals who are accustomed to success have a tendency to develop an intolerance of failure and exacerbate their underlying loss aversion. Loss aversion is a known cognitive phenomenon where, in spite of being quantitatively equal, humans assign disproportionately more pain to losing (for example) $100 than joy in winning $100.

Mitigating for loss aversion bias and developing a mindset of failure tolerance requires decision leadership. Executive leaders with strong decision leadership establish decision architecture across their teams (they enable team members to make decisions within clear parameters and they manage that process, versus simply making decisions).  They view and bundle decisions in a portfolio approach versus individual decisions. These capabilities power a faster, more urgent way of working and also develop failure tolerance. Consequently, they can encourage a culture where new ideas and approaches are welcomed, even if they don’t work perfectly.

Change Management

Much ink, both real and virtual, has been spilled on the topic of change management over the years.  So, we won’t dive into its various sub-topics here.  However, it is a common area of need in leadership development, as articulated by senior leaders themselves.

In a rapidly (and constantly) evolving industry like biopharma, the ability to successfully facilitate and/or manage change is critical.  Highly tenured professionals learn a lot of habits during their career and can become “set in their ways.”  However, as leaders, the company looks to them to forge a way forward in a change-filled environment.

A strong senior leadership development program is often effective at helping these professionals

• Optimize their individual attitudes to change as well as those at the organizational level
• More effectively lead their teams, functions, and companies through change

Digital Technology and Fluency

We all know the cliché about how parents must rely on their children to show them how to operate a smartphone.  Well, senior leaders usually don’t need that kind of development support.  However, with the rapid advent of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), it can be challenging for anyone to understand what a given new technology is, what it can be used for, and how the company might be able to leverage it.

We often see executive leaders who want a deeper understanding of new technologies and how they might impact their business.  Such an understanding can also help facilitate more innovative thinking and better results for the company overall.

In Part 2, we will explore the unique challenges associated with leadership development for senior executives.  But don’t worry: along with those challenges, we’ll also look at some potential ways to overcome them.

Before designing any new learning and development program, most L&D professionals start with some form of needs analysis.  After all, it’s not wise to design a program without first gaining a deeper understanding of the need (or needs) that it’s supposed to meet.  A good needs analysis involves a robust methodology for:

• Defining the current state
• Defining the desired future state
• Determining the knowledge, skills, and capabilities needed to bridge the gap between the two

Recently, the Salience Learning team gathered for a company retreat in Las Vegas, NV. Our goal was to pool our creativity and devise fresh ways to enhance how we deliver solutions to our clients.  In one session, we focused on ways to improve the needs analysis process.  In this short blog article, we share a few high-level thoughts and ideas.

Traditional Methods for Needs Analysis

To kickstart our creativity, we considered a scenario involving a commercial pharmaceutical company seeking to craft a capability model and identify the knowledge and skills required to future-proof their customer-facing roles.  In this scenario, the company (our hypothetical client) also wanted to:

• Represent to “voice of the employee” from all levels and regions
• Leverage technology to incorporate global perspectives

Our initial step was to compile a list of traditional methods for gathering insights from target learners and leaders during project initiation.  These typically include:

• Internal research to assess organizational objectives
• External research to identify industry trends driving change in the company’s environment
• Interviews with learners, managers, and corporate leaders to gather insights into what learners need to know and do differently to improve performance and adapt to change
• Focus groups with cross-functional partners to define opportunities for enhancing cross-functional partnerships and improving matrixed ways of working
• Surveys to validate initial insights with a broader range of stakeholders

Newer Ideas

With these traditional methods established, we then ventured a bit farther afield to generate some out-of-the-box ideas.  We proposed several potential strategies that could more effectively uncover the true learning needs within the company, such as:

• Collaborating with internal departments to access field coaching reports and performance reviews to gain further insight into potential gaps
• Engaging with external customers (e.g., healthcare providers, payers, strategic accounts, and others) to acquire insights into customer engagement needs
• Partnering with external research firms and recruiters to access benchmarking
• Leveraging social media platforms for intelligence gathering
• Exploring analogous roles in different industries to draw parallels
• Implementing a nudge strategy to glean insights over an extended period
• Integrating advanced technology tools for more efficient analysis

Now, it’s true that in various cases, budget constraints may prevent a company from implementing some of these ideas.  For any given situation, the team would need to evaluate the feasibility of any given method and ensure that it’s properly aligned with the company’s strategic objectives and available resources.  As we move forward, we recognize the need for continued innovation, as well as evaluation and alignment with client expectations to ensure successful outcomes for L&D programs.

Stay in Touch!

Be sure to check our Insights Center on a regular basis to read short blogs like this one, as well as longer papers, how-to guides, podcasts, and more.  And don’t hesitate to contact us if you need assistance with any learning and development initiative!

Nashville, TN (aka “Music City”) hosted the global annual meeting of the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) just a few weeks ago, March 26-29.  MAPS’ mission is to “advance the Medical Affairs profession and increase its impact across the biopharmaceutical and device industry”  The global annual meeting, the EMEA annual meeting (which runs May 14-16 in Lisbon), and a range of other events are key to MAPS’ mission.

Through those events, MAPS members discuss and share information and best practices about a wide range of Medical Affairs (MA)-related topics.  Last month, we sent a combined team to the MAPS global annual meeting.  This team included people from Salience Learning as well as Blue Matter. 

After the meeting, members of both teams compared notes to see what each thought were the most interesting or relevant themes that were addressed there.  This relatively short article provides a summary of the combined team’s key takeaways regarding those themes and their implications for biopharma companies.

Read the full article on the Blue Matter website.

A lot has changed over the past few years.  Hybrid working has spread dramatically and is now commonplace.  It has driven fast technological change and imposed new ways of working for which many teams feel unprepared. The result?  Well, it’s a mixed bag but a couple of things are for certain: It has made it more challenging for team leaders to maintain team cohesion and morale.  It has also made many team members more likely to explore other job opportunities to find better pathways for advancement and development.

This has led many leaders to work on building (or rebuilding) team culture to create an environment that nurtures lifelong learning and provides clearer pathways for ongoing development.  As a result, many organizations are placing professional development at the heart of their agenda.  However, they often are challenged in identifying where to start.

In this article, we explore three related topics, each of which build upon and reinforce the other.  Specifically, we discuss how to:

• Identify what your team members should be learning or developing vs. what they could be learning or developing in this ever-changing environment
• Create clear career paths that showcase your organization’s commitment to long-term career development
• Accelerate your teams’ ability to learn just the right things at just the right time

Capability Models:  Focus on what team members should be learning

Based on my experience working with pharmaceutical companies, I recommend following a systematic process to define the capabilities that are most critical and will help to future-proof the organization.  This is called a “Capability Model.” But what, exactly, is that?

First, it’s important to differentiate capabilities from competencies:

• Competencies refer to the knowledge and skills needed to perform in the present.  For example, clinical operations competencies might include specific tasks related to conducting clinical research trials.
• Capabilities define the knowledge and skills needed to adapt and flex to meet future needs and are broadly transferable including things like critical thinking, problem solving, insight generation, and strategic planning.

Figure 1:  Competencies vs. Capabilities

A capability model is a clear and concise listing and description of the knowledge, skills, and observable behaviors that individuals need to experience success—both now and in the future—in their specific roles.

The capability model has far-reaching benefits:

• Leadership Level – It helps to align organizational development, ensuring the function or team members are developing in areas that will future-proof the organization.  It also helps succession planning, allowing leaders to identify the leaders of the future and guide strategic hiring efforts.
• Individual Level – It allows individuals to rate their own strengths and areas of development to create personalized development plans to achieve their career goals.

Career Paths: Help team members see the path forward while demonstrating your organization’s commitment to long-term career development

A capability model isn’t just some document that sits on a shelf.  Teams should use them to help guide each team member as they chart their career path.  However, the idea of a “career path” has gotten a bit more complicated in recent years.

Many reports, including one from Harvard Business Review indicate that more and more organizations are flattening their hierarchies by removing middle management positions and moving toward more agile networks of project teams.  The goals are to promote autonomy and innovation, and to drive efficiencies.  While that’s a welcome change, it also brings an unwelcome side effect.  With a less visible hierarchy, employees can be left wondering what path their career might take. When they don’t see it, they stop believing in it.

Even in organizations that have traditional hierarchies, how people move from one role to the next may be unclear.  Even worse, it could be perceived as being based on factors other than merit.  Both situations can motivate your top performers to leave the organization.

Creating clear and visible Career Paths allows organizations to demonstrate the key experiences that different roles offer and to help individuals think about future roles that they would be interested in pursuing.  Through simple but powerful illustrations, career paths allow individuals to see the skills and capabilities they need to develop in order to move into those roles.  They should provide clear examples of professional development opportunities and other career steps that enable them to gain these capabilities. Career paths unlock powerful career development discussions, allowing employees to focus on the skills and capabilities they need to develop to move to their next role.

INSERT FIGURE 2 (in development):  Genericized Career Path

At Salience Learning we have seen clients investing in critical thinking, strategic thinking, and insight generation because they are transferable capabilities that employees can deploy in every role they hold over their careers.

It’s important to help employees understand that following a particular path won’t guarantee their promotion.  Other factors, such as whether the next job opportunity exists at a given time, also have an impact.  However, if they use the career path, coupled with the learning path that we will discuss below, they’ll be perfectly positioned to seize opportunity when it arises.

Learning Pathways: Guide your team’s development efficiently

As mentioned above, a career path is most useful when coupled with a Learning Pathway.  A learning pathways is a structured series of learning experiences that narrowly direct learners along the most efficient route to gain and apply new skills and capabilities. They can be structured by role, subject, or business goal.  Perhaps a better name should be “Learning Highway,” because the goal here is efficiency and speed!

A learning pathway combines a variety of learning activities such as formal training, on-the-job learning, mentoring, and self-directed learning.  A good learning pathway is typically sequenced from simpler to more complex concepts and skills.  Ideally, the design uses carefully spaced repetition of retrieving and using the content to strengthen the memory of that content, enabling it to be built into skills through practice.  

A learning pathway considers the learner’s current needs along with their career aspirations. When a cohort of learners go through the same learning pathway together, they gain the additional benefit of cross-pollinating ideas for applying it on the job.

As an example, a learning path for a newly hired Access Marketer might include their onboarding and role-specific training. While they will already have knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry, including regulatory requirements, drug development and approval processes, they will need to know the processes and standards used in their current company to ensure they stay within the rules of engagement.

Other elements might include shadowing an experienced team member to start building an internal network for collaboration and taking on stretch assignments to develop further skills.  Combined with effective coaching from their leader or a mentor, this path can speed time to performance and drive new levels of effectiveness for the team and the individual.

If you’d like to learn more about developing capability models, career paths, or learning pathways, or if you’re interested in our Capability Academies, then please contact us here.

This video discusses the Salience Learning / BMS Critical Thinking Academy for first-line leaders. It is a component of the 2023 LTEN Provider-Partnership Excellence Award Nomination.

In mid-2022, Pew Research Center reported that nearly 1 in 5 workers are actively looking for a new job while in their current role, a rate we haven’t seen since the 1970s.

One key reason for leaving?   They feel they have no opportunities for advancement.

With the large increase in remote work, many people feel like they’ve lost their connections to their leaders, the purpose of their work, and their opportunities for growth.

But there is hope!  Here are three integrated strategies for addressing this challenge.

Strategy One:  Make Career Paths Clear

By talking to tenured team members about how they advanced through the organization, you can create a single-page Career Path document for each role.

Career Path documents show current team members their potential paths forward.  The Career Path can also help attract new talent who may be looking to move up, and thinking two or more roles ahead.

Strategy Two:  Use a Capability Model to Guide Team Member Development

Well-written job descriptions are pretty good at helping you hire the right person. Job descriptions age rapidly, and are not great at providing guidance about how to do the job well after a person is hired.  

That’s why a Capability Model is so important.  A Capability Model is a concise yet robust statement that describes what a person needs to know and be able to do to excel in their current role, grow into future roles, and meet the demands of a rapidly changing marketplace.

Combined with a Career Path, a Capability Model provides excellent guidance for any team member to develop and advance with confidence.

Strategy Three: Put a Capability Model Into Action With a Capability Planner

While the Capability Model outlines what a person in a given role must know and be able to do, a Capability Planner helps each individual assess where his or her skill level is at the present time, clearly identifying areas of strength and areas where more development is needed.  Then, the individual and their leader can create development goals and action plans that support the individual’s career goals and the company’s performance goals.

Regular development conversations between the manager and team member are essential to keeping things on track. To support your leaders in driving meaningful development conversations, we recommend our leadership guide which provides support that deepens conversations and identifies specific actions leaders can take to support their team members.

Salience Learning’s team of biopharma industry veterans and learning experts is here to help you build a motivated, productive, high-performance team. We help our clients boost performance with concise Career Paths, effective Capability Models, and actionable Capability Planners and Leadership Guides—built for specific teams and roles. We also design engaging and impactful learning experiences that drive development in individuals and teams. We can do the same for you.

Contact us

In this video, Anjani Patel describes the difference between capabilities and skills. She also outlines how “capability development” should be a top priority for biopharma companies, and why it can be critical to individual and organizational success.

In this video, Anjani Patel describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the biopharma industry. In particular, it changed the way biopharma companies interact with their customers and it also altered how they attract and retain talent. Anjani also provides some guidance for biopharma companies who must attract, train, develop, and retain top talent in a challenging new environment.

Fads and fashions tend to come and go. For a while, a certain thing is all the rage and then, after a time, it tends to fade away, only to be replaced by something else. This is true of clothing, television programs, music, and more. But it’s also true in learning and development. As an L&D professional, you’ve no doubt noticed this.

Well, I don’t know if this is a fad, but my colleagues and I have been noticing something of late. More and more we’re hearing clients say something like, “Our teams need to tell better stories,” or “If only our teams’ storytelling skills were better.” In addition, I’ve also seen learning programs popping up that claim to teach learners how to become top-notch story tellers.

With all this talk about storytelling, it prompted me to think critically about it. Why all the fuss about storytelling? What need is driving it? Is “storytelling” even the right solution? Do learners in the professional workforce really need storytelling skills…or is the real need something else altogether? 

If you’ve thought about storytelling or think your learners might need to build those skills, then read on.  The rest of this article may help you get to the core issue and save you time and resources when it comes to acquiring or developing a learning solution for “storytelling.”

Don’t call it storytelling

First, it’s helpful to define “story.” Oxford Languages dictionary defines a story as: an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment. The skills necessary to create great stories include defining story elements (like characters, settings, conflicts, and resolutions), applying language to express and explain those in an entertaining way, and (as most writers would attest) an immense amount of patience. So, when our clients and other colleagues in the life science industry say they need their teams to tell better stories, is this what they really need? I respectfully disagree.

In most cases I will argue that what clients are really saying is that they want their learners to be able to communicate information to an audience in a way that gets that audience to do something. Professionals are not telling stories for entertainment. They’re telling stories to drive action: action in the sense of physical movement or, as is more often the case in the knowledge economy and life-sciences industry, action in the sense of thinking movement, like changing opinions or conclusions. 

Account Executives communicate information to move a payer’s thinking that a therapy does not have value to the conclusion that it does – and then putting it on formulary. Marketing leaders communicate information to move a corporate leader’s thinking that a certain program isn’t essential to the department’s success to it being essential – and then securing the appropriate budget.  In either case, the information is communicated to generate movement.

If it isn’t storytelling, then what is it?

The solution is NOT to train learners to create interesting characters in unique settings where they resolve conflicts all tied up with a good nail-biting ending. The solution is to improve learners’ abilities to craft an argument: not an argument involving fisticuffs, but “a reason or set of reasons that someone uses to show that something is true or correct,” as defined by Oxford Languages. That something is the desired future state either as a thinking state (“This drug actually does have tremendous value”) or physical state (the drug is placed on formulary).

Being able to craft and deliver an argument requires two foundational capabilities: Critical Thinking and Effective Communication. It also requires Emotional Intelligence and a few others, but we’ll stick with these two first.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is defined as the effortful and continuous analysis of the validity of a conclusion. Think of a five-year-old asking, “Why is the sky blue?” “Why does milk come from cows?” “Why don’t I have a baby brother?”

Before communicating anything to an audience, one needs to ask “Why?” and think it through to identify the reasons an audience should move physically or thinkingly.

First, one would ask questions and gather information:

1. Who is the audience?
2. What is the desired future state (what is the “ask”)?
3. What are their needs and motivations and perspectives?
4. What are the grounds, causes, rationales or reasons that justify the desired future state? What data, information or evidence supports those statements?
5. Filter the total population of statements in #4 to identify those that are compelling based on #3.

The output of this thinking process is then crafted into a logical sequence of statements to make the case for the ask. Logical and reasonable sequencing take critical thinking to then continually question the rigor of the step-by-step argument assembled. “Would I move based on this?” “Would this move someone to action? To change their mind?” If no, then back to #4 above.

It’s not storytelling, its thinking.

Communication

When it comes time to deliver an argument to an audience—whether it’s via a presentation, video, paper, or some combination of things—it’s important to do so in a way that gets results. First and foremost, that means not arguing! If you find yourself arguing while delivering an argument, go back and think critically. Then ensure that you have:

1. Accounted for power differentials and cultural differences – meaning, include the “ask” in an appropriate way.
2. Ensured verbal and non-verbal signals are aligned – meaning, if it’s a serious decision, dress appropriately.
3. Minimized cognitive overload – meaning, give time to process and don’t read from slides.

When these attributes describe how you deliver an argument, it becomes persuasive…and persuasion yields action. 

What now?

As an L&D professional, if your internal customers say they want to develop storytelling skills—or if you are thinking about acquiring a storytelling curriculum—the first thing you should do is think critically. Why do they need to tell better stories? What outcome do stakeholders want? What’s making it difficult for learners to do that now? Once you’ve identified the core need, you’ll be in a much better position to select the right learning solution.

The second thing you should do is find that solution. Chances are, you won’t really need a curriculum that focuses on character development, settings, and conflict.  It might be better to look for a solution that empowers learners to assess their thinking process, question conclusions and gather evidence (one that helps them argue better, not tell better stories).

As an aside, this entire article was an argument, and not a dragon or damsel in earshot or a single fist thrown. That said, it did take a lot of patience.

Not long ago, success in the life science industry could be attributed to how well one mastered and executed skills:  skills in selling, account planning, customer engagement and more. Someone who perfected a skill could apply it repeatedly across similar situations without breaking a sweat.

Unfortunately, in today’s world it’s rare that the same situation happens twice, and skills are no longer enough. The products are more complex, the marketplace is more complex, the ways of working are more complex. And everything is constantly changing. As the industry evolves, so must you. Success in the life science industry today will be powered not only by narrower skills like selling and planning, but also by broader proficiencies that are called capabilities.

What Is a Capability?

A capability is a set of behaviors and characteristics applied fluidly and flexibility across conditions, situations and contexts. Critical thinking is a capability. It consists of behaviors like asking questions, thinking slowly and assessing one’s thinking. It entails certain personality characteristics, such as being skeptical and comfortable with ambiguity. One could think critically about scientific data or when dialoging with a colleague or when deciding where to go for dinner.

Capabilities come in handy across situations. They are foundational and allow you to adapt to changing circumstances and a continuous flow of information. They enhance information gathering, decision-making, and problem-solving. They’re a kind of all-purpose superpower. 

What Is a Skill?

On the other hand, a skill is a set of actions executed sequentially to achieve a defined outcome in a narrow set of conditions. Cutting vegetables with a knife is a skill. To execute this skill, you would: hold the knife safely, stabilize the item on a surface, and slice the item with the knife. You would carry out these steps in order, to make a whole into parts, and could apply this to tomatoes, carrots, basil or any vegetable of your choice.

Skills come in handy when the conditions don’t change much.

But if too many changes occur, the skill loses its value. Imagine for a second that “vegetable” is replaced with “tree,” and “knife” is replaced with “chainsaw.” Are the sets of actions for cutting a tree with a chainsaw the same as cutting vegetables with knife?

Most of would say no, unless you don’t mind losing some fingers.

Why Do Capabilities Matter Now?

This is exactly why capabilities matter in a constantly changing, complex world with endless amounts of information. Skills typically apply to a narrow set of conditions, but once the conditions change enough: poof, the skill no longer “transfers,” to use the learning science term. Could someone who cuts vegetables with a knife also cut fruit or meat? Sure. What about paper or rope? Hmmm, maybe. But expand to a tree trunk and a chainsaw and you have crossed a line. A new skill is needed. More training to be conducted. More time out of the field.

A capability, on the other hand—such as using a cutting implement safely—can come in handy whether it’s a tomato, rope or a tree. Capabilities flex further. They go farther.

How do Capabilities Impact the Business?

Professionals in the life science industry need to evolve, and capabilities provide that power.

New therapeutic areas and business models—not to mention the pandemic—have created tumult in the industry. New innovations, new types of work and new ways of engaging with customers require new ways of thinking.

Learning capabilities may not seem as urgent as learning skills, but it’s a forward-looking exercise that in the long run pays off. Capabilities future-proofs a business. Oh, and they supercharge skills, too.

Where Do I Start?

The World Economic Forum recently found that “critical thinking and analysis” was one of the most in-demand emerging capabilities across countries and industries. Critical thinking—the ability to test the validity of conclusions—is a broad capability.

It consists of five key behaviors: thinking slowly, asking questions, gathering evidence, checking assumptions, and assessing the thinking process itself. You can see how critical thinking would come in handy no matter the specific task or ability. It can even help you identify what task to undertake and what specific skill to deploy.

The business world will continue to change—likely at an ever-increasing rate. So, focus on improving both the narrow skills that solve the problem in front of you and also the capabilities that will carry over to the next one.

Learn about Salience Learning’s Critical Thinking Academy

Do you work for a small affiliate of a large biopharmaceutical organization or perhaps a small startup that’s eager to hit the ground running? Are you looking to provide development opportunities that allow your team members to grow professionally and gain new experiences?

If you answered yes to both of these questions then, welcome.

In today’s dynamic environment, it’s no secret that more organizations, big and small, are investing in Learning and Development (L&D). From employee satisfaction and retention to protecting your bottom line and withstanding the tumultuous nature of business, investing in effective L&D programs is shown to prepare organizations to succeed in the future. Consider these figures:

• Nine out of 10 millennials rate professional or career growth and development opportunities as a major consideration in job satisfaction.[1]
• Organizations that have made a strategic investment in employee development report 11% greater profitability and are twice as likely to retain their employees.[2]
• Technological advancements are shortening the shelf life of employee skills; a typical business competency now lasts about five years.[3]

To compete, organizations need to quickly adapt to new business realities by empowering their people to build new skills before they need them. Investing in L&D is no longer a nice-to-have but an economic imperative.

However, small businesses may not have the resources or budget of larger competitors for L&D activities. Yet, to grow and expand their business in a world of continuous change and disruption, L&D programs are needed to upskill, reskill and build capacity for employees to navigate the ever-changing marketplace.

But how do you create an effective L&D program for your small business? Where do you start? Here are a few practical steps to help you get started establishing an L&D program:

1. Clarify the business’s goals: Effective learning programs align to the business’s goals. Collaborate with cross-functional business leaders to understand their goals and define the behaviors individuals and teams should start, stop, and continue to achieve those goals. Establishing a strategic partnership with the business at the onset of your program will secure L&D’s role at the table and be seen as a value-add.
2. Conduct a needs analysis: Once you have identified the business’s need and key behaviors, assess the current state and identify opportunities for L&D. This can be accomplished through stakeholder interviews, simple observation, or employee surveys.
3. Develop a set of capabilities: As the marketplace evolves and the rate of demand for new skills is faster than ever, the workforce is pressured to reskill and adapt. The needs for transferrable knowledge and skills, adaptability, and enduring capabilities are critical.Capabilities are defined as a collection of knowledge and skills that an individual applies across various situations. Using the L&D opportunities identified from the needs analysis, identify transferable knowledge and skills that can be organized into overarching capabilities. These capabilities will enable your workforce to endure evolving conditions through application of transferable knowledge and skills to new domains and contexts.
4. Draft a plan: Since resources are often limited, the key for small businesses is to use them as effectively as possible. First, develop a plan that articulates focus areas and goals. Then, identify what resources you currently have and identify the gaps. A thoughtful plan can also help gain buy-in from stakeholders and can be used to communicate what resources are needed and when.
5. Exercise change management: Inciting behavior change is difficult, but a structured approach to change can make it easier and have a far-reaching impact on the organization. That said, implementing and communicating change is more than a simple email. Gain leadership endorsement and identify opportunities for buy-in from the workforce; change agents are your greatest champions. Set success criteria, keep articulating your plans and provide continuous support through reference materials, coaching, and training opportunities. The development of new learnings is only as powerful as change adoption.

We recognize that these efforts require an investment that an individual or small team may not be able to implement alone. In these situations, quick wins or low-investment, high-impact initiatives can still be attained with some help.

In these cases, we suggest taking the following approach to help you deliver impactful learning:

1. Refresh, reuse, repurpose: Often, help is closer than we think. Invest time to investigate what resources are currently available in your organization. Once materials are identified, assess the gaps and focus on curating new content as needed. This process enables you to utilize existing training and resources to deploy more relevant learning faster.
2. Join an industry group: Great ideas are only a click away. Joining online industry groups allow you to stay informed on the latest insights, find and reuse publicly available resources and develop your skills by learning from communities of practice and other leading professionals.
3. Invest in yourself as an L&D professional: In smaller organizations, L&D teams often play multiple roles––content developer, project manager and facilitator––while also balancing high workloads and competing business priorities. Professionals that invest in their development can become more effective in their roles and gain the confidence they need to maximize their value proposition. Programs like Salience Learning’s Trainer Academy aim to help L&D professions build skills to efficiently design, develop and deliver impactful training that empowers teams to learn new skills in fresh and engaging ways.

Regardless of what stage your organization is in, establishing an effective L&D program will foster growth not only in your workforce but your business as a whole. We encourage you to assess what stage your L&D program may be in and dig deeper to explore the learning gaps or needs of your organization. These initial steps will get you started on your approach to an L&D program that gives you, your employees and your organization the desired results.

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[1] Rigoni, B., & Nelson, B. (2020, October 20). For millennials, is job-hopping inevitable? Gallup.

[2] Ratanjee, V. (2021, March 1). 4 ways to continue employee development when budgets are cut. Gallup.

[3] World Economic Forum. (n.d.). Skills stability. The Future of Jobs Report.

By Karen Foster and Krista Gerhard

These days, you probably hear a lot about critical thinking and how the world needs more of it. It’s true.  Critical thinking skills are in great demand, but they are, on average, not really where they need to be. So, on March 17, we’ll be conducting a virtual session with the Philadelphia chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA): Using critical thinking to improve strategies and drive performance. We hope you’ll invest an hour and join us for the session. Our goals are to help you boost your own critical thinking skills and to provide some guidance on how to boost the skills of others.

Why are Critical Thinking Skills Important?

Critical thinking skills are growing increasingly important across a wide range of industries. However, the demand for them is especially great in biopharmaceuticals and healthcare. This is because of our industry’s high level of complexity, rapid advancement and the sheer amount of data that gets generated.

Overall, there are three primary reasons that strong critical thinking skills are needed now more than ever:

1. Cognitive overload
2. High-volume, high-speed decision-making
3. Human cognitive biases

Cognitive overload is a very real issue for both field- and office-based personnel in life science companies. The working environment involves sophisticated customer groups, substantial and ever-changing regulations, rapid market development, complex science and complicated business models. There is a lot of information to process on any given day. It can be a challenge to keep up with all of it and separate the useful stuff from the noise. Critical thinking is like a lifeboat that keeps us from drowning in a sea of information.

In our industry, we don’t just process information for the sake of processing information. We’re expected to do something with it. Life science professionals have to make a lot of decisions, often under serious time constraints. We need strong critical thinking skills to derive insights from information and make good decisions. 

Human cognitive biases also come into play. These biases, such as confirmation bias, overconfidence bias and “the curse of knowledge” can help us in some ways, acting as shortcuts to help us more quickly process information and make decisions. However, they can also hurt us, and we need to be aware of them. In times of cognitive overload, we tend to more easily fall prey to them, which can negatively affect decision-making. Critical thinking is the antidote to cognitive biases.

When it comes to developing critical thinking skills, it’s important to do so within the domain. In our industry, with all of its complexities, it’s much better to build critical thinking skills by leveraging real-world information from the domain, rather than simply learning critical thinking theory in a general sense.

What the Session Will Cover

As we mentioned above, the goals of our upcoming session are to help you boost your own critical thinking skills—within the healthcare domain—and to help you become a more effective “critical thinking coach” for others.  The session will cover these key things:

1. What is Critical Thinking? —We’ll define “critical thinking” so everyone will have a common understanding of what that term really means.
2. Why Critical Thinking Is Important—We’ll expand on what we’ve written here.
3. Critical Thinking Behaviors—There are clear behaviors and processes that people use when they engage in critical thinking. We’ll outline what those are and even dive into the “language” of critical thinking.
4. Strengthening Critical Thinking—Finally, we will share some exercises, tips and techniques that you can use to develop and strengthen critical thinking skills.

Be sure to join us online on Wednesday, March 17 at 12:00 noon EST. You can register here.

We hope to (virtually) see you then! 

Any field of expertise is bound to have its fair share of buzzwords—those terms or phrases that become highly fashionable for some period of time before fading away.  Inevitably, they get replaced by newer buzzwords and the cycle never seems to end.  Learning and Development is no exception.  In fact, our field might be better than most at coming up with new buzzwords!

We could write an entire book on L&D-related buzzwords, but our goal here is considerably less ambitious than that.  Instead, we’d like to focus on a few terms that relate to learning technology, with an eye towards sorting out how those terms have changed over the years.  Hopefully, we’ll clear up some confusion in the process.

From e-learning’s humble beginning…

In general, e-learning is a term typically used to refer to learning that is enabled by electronic technologies.  If you rewind a quarter of a century, back to the mid-1990s, the term e-learning was coined to describe learning that involved a computer in any form.  Back then, it was the height of the dot-com boom, and people were tacking “e” onto everything: e-mail, e-commerce, e-research, E-Trade, e-tailing, e-filing, and so on.  It basically referred to the electronic version of to whatever the “e” was added.

It was the same with e-learning.  Initially, the term referred to any form of electronically-enabled learning, which might include computer-based offline resources (e.g. CD-ROM-based programs) or online learning.  For many years, e-learning as a term retained its catch-all status even as the “e” field branched out into increasingly specialized approaches. 

Today, the term e-learning can be polarizing.  It can be a bit of a turn-off for some, because it hearkens back to experiences that were just glorified slide presentations that people clicked through with a quiz at the end (not the most effective way to facilitate learning).  For others, it generates enthusiasm and promotes effective learning practices. It is a skillset that is promoted and in high-demand: the e-learning designer and developer.  

Ultimately, e-learning is still a relevant and popular term that is intended to broadly describe both synchronous and asynchronous learning enabled by technology.  Its most popular use is to describe self-paced learning that is formalized and often delivered through a learning system such as an LMS. 

A collection of “specialized” buzzwords

Now, a broader collection of specialized buzzwords are available to help us distinguish between different forms of…well…e-learning.  And that has caused some confusion, so we’ll attempt to clear up some of that.

Digital Learning

Digital Learning is sort of like today’s e-learning.  It’s a broad term that refers to various forms of learning where the delivery is facilitated via digital technologies and mediums. Because of the broad nature of this term it is often positioned as a learning strategy. It can refer to learning delivered via a web browser, e-mail, a learning management system, or even offline digital media.  That learning can be self-directed, but it doesn’t have to be.

Virtual Learning

Many people use “virtual learning” to refer to any form of online learning, where the internet is required.  However, these days, its definition has morphed a bit, primarily referring to live, synchronous learning approaches, such as live webinars, virtual instructor-led training (VILT), or other forms of synchronous learning that’s enabled by online technologies (whether instructor-led or not).  It’s fair to say that all virtual learning is digital, but not all digital learning is virtual.  Confused?

Platform-Based Learning

Platform-Based Learning refers to any form of digital learning that must be accessed via some type of portal, LMS, or some other system that integrates various services like data analytics and assignment management.  It’s not one you often hear, but when you do it is usually meant to call attention to the system functionality nuances and services that differentiate the experience.   You might hear people refer to a learning curriculum or program as a “learning platform.”  That’s not a correct usage of the term, as the “platform” is the digital system that hosts the learning experiences and the portal through which they can be accessed.  The curriculum is delivered through the platform.  In the end, this term is a nuanced way to talk about digital and virtual learning experiences.

Where do we go from here?

Most assuredly, digital learning technologies will continue to expand and proliferate.  As they do, more buzzwords will be developed to describe them. 

However, other buzzwords not related to technology will also continue to blossom in the field of L&D.  Just think about synchronous and asynchronous learning.  A few years ago, nobody outside of specialized L&D circles used those terms.  And even then, they didn’t use them much.  Now, everybody is using those terms…a lot.  Thanks to COVID-19, schoolkids all over the country know the difference between synchronous and asynchronous learning, as their schools now routinely use those terms to describe their pandemic-altered approaches to education.

In future articles, we’ll tackle other buzzwords and digital learning nuances that are emerging and explore them with you.

It’s no secret that the life sciences industry is getting more complex each day: Customer and stakeholder groups are becoming increasingly sophisticated, evidence requirements are getting more stringent and the need to engage more effectively with key stakeholder groups is paramount.

This growing complexity is driving an important phenomenon: The rise of Medical Affairs as a highly strategic pillar for biopharma companies, alongside Clinical Development and Commercial & Market Access.  McKinsey & Co., in their recent report, A vision for Medical Affairs in 2025, documents this trend that many of us have seen with our own eyes over the past few years.

There is a challenge, however: As Medical Affairs gains in prominence and strategic importance, the capabilities that medical affairs professionals must possess are compounded.  It used to be that strong scientific acumen was the key qualification.  However, as needs in medical affairs have changed, so have the job requirements.  Now, medical affairs professionals need to be highly strategic, think critically, have excellent communications skills and possess strong business acumen to be successful in this evolving environment.

Excellent training is needed to ensure these professionals are prepared for the tasks at hand.  Medical affairs teams are aware of this need, but they’re confronted with a challenge:  The traditional approaches to medical affairs training — and the resources available for it — have not advanced as rapidly as the job requirements.  Here we explore the challenge and what can be done to help.

Read the full article here.

There are a lot of top 10 lists out there.  Some are just for fun and some are useful.

Consider the list created by the World Economic Forum in its 2022 Skills Outlook.  That list identifies the top 10 capabilities employers are looking for in their team members and includes skills like critical thinking, complex problem-solving, technology design and programming, emotional intelligence, systems analysis and evaluation and others.  Unfortunately, most working professionals have never learned these skills.

To be successful in today’s work environment, professionals must be able to learn and continue learning as things evolve.  This is especially true in the complex biopharma industry.

But there’s a challenge: Learning is a skill all by itself.  And for many of us, it’s not a skill that is very well developed.  This has implications for learning and development (L&D) teams tasked with helping develop team members and begs the question, “Does L&D have an opportunity to boost outcomes for all by actually training learners how to learn?”

We think the answer is yes.  Let’s explore why and how.

Read the full article from LTEN here.

Speaker programs are a common tactic of most biopharma companies’ peer-to-peer education efforts.  The Office of Inspector General (OIG) in the US Department of Health and Human Services refers to speaker programs as marketing “presentations” or “speeches” that pose, “fraud and abuse risks,” for which the OIG is, “skeptical about their educational value.”  As a recent Fraud Alert indicates, OIG is ramping up its scrutiny of these programs.  This article shares several steps biopharma companies can take to demonstrate that their peer-to-peer programs do, in fact, prioritize education, are “conducive to learning,” and help improve patient care.

Why the increased scrutiny?

The OIG’s core concern is that biopharma peer-to-peer programs are primarily marketing tools to drive prescriptions rather than educational programs that can enhance patient care.  They also cite a range of characteristics that can indicate fraudulent programs, such as:

• Remuneration for speakers that’s tied to meeting targets for a certain number of prescriptions written
• Events held in venues that are not conducive to educational presentations (such as wineries, sports stadiums, golf clubs, fishing trips, etc.)
• Events at high-end restaurants with expensive meals and alcohol served
• Attendance at events by people with no legitimate business reason for being there (e.g., spouses and friends of physicians)
• Programs that present no new data or “repeat” programs that the same physicians attend multiple times

Most biopharma companies do not engage in peer-to-peer programs with these characteristics.  In fact, most companies have established in-depth internal controls and hired individuals, if not teams, dedicated to ensuring that peer-to-peer programs are deployed in accordance with the OIG and other regulatory agencies’ guidelines (for an example, see Pfizer’s White Guide here).  Unfortunately, that compliance can be overshadowed when a few “bad” actors skirt the rules, thus drawing the attention—and criticism—of the OIG. 

Nevertheless, OIG is skeptical about the educational value of such programs in general.  Our intent as a learning company is not to focus on the compliance and the legality of peer-to-peer programs, but the true intent of what we all hope to achieve with them: education.  Below, we look at steps pharma companies can take to demonstrate the educational benefits of programs that leverage adult learning principles and cognitive science.

What to do about it?

First, following all applicable regulations is clearly a must.  Beyond that, leveraging adult learning principles and employing active learning activities establishes educational value and enhances learning.

Of course, that starts with delivering new and relevant information to the health care providers (HCPs) in attendance, not just key marketing messages.  But, what about how that information is delivered?  That’s where you can add some significant value.

The traditional format for peer-to-peer programs involves little more than didactic slide presentations for upwards of an hour or longer.  In that format, it’s challenging for anyone to retain—and in the future recall and apply—even the most interesting information.

In recent years, medical and healthcare education curricula have been moving away from didactic methods and proactively toward active learning.  A good overview of active learning and its growing use in medical education can be found here.

Incorporating active learning into your peer-to-peer programs improves retention and recall and delivers educational value to the HCPs by establishing social/experiential learning opportunities that far exceed reading articles online or processing alternative sources where HCPs might, “gather information..[for the] treatment of patients.”

For example, peer-to-peer programs could incorporate:

1. Patient Clinical Scenarios – HCPs are asked to think through a series of patient case scenarios and discuss how they might vary their treatment decision-making based on the factors specific to each case.
2. Peer-to-Peer Dialog – HCPs engage in discussions around an issue or challenge relevant to the disease or its treatment process to share their best practices, outline potential solutions or draw conclusions.
3. Critical Thinking Exercises –Rather than passively receiving information, HCPs review the relevant clinical data and then formulate questions, conclusions, or concerns that could then be discussed in open forum.

These are just a few examples.  The possibilities are only limited by the creativity and expertise of the individuals you have partnered with to design and develop your peer-to-peer program and materials.  However, the right program design is only one link in the chain.  The two additional links are how it’s facilitated and setting attendees’ expectations.

What is necessary for success?

Previously, the individual who delivered these programs was a “speaker” and was accustomed to presenting a didactic presentation.  As a result, these same individuals may not be 100% comfortable or proficient shifting to an approach that is less “presentation” or “speech” and more learning facilitation. As such, empowering facilitators with their own opportunity to learn and practice facilitation techniques only further reinforces that peer-to-peer programs will have educational value and be “conducive to learning.”

There is yet another key link in the chain: the learners. Those who attend peer-to-peer programs need to come with the mindset that these programs are more akin to continuing education than a dinner out.  We recommend that learners receive communications and even pre-thinking exercises before they arrive to see these experiences as learning-focused and providing educational value.

If peer-to-peer programs empower facilitators and learners while employing adult learning principles and active learning techniques, then the results will be positive in all sorts of ways.  By making programs about the educational experience, we improve our ability to have participating HCPs see the company and its program as a valuable resource.  In addition, patient care will improve, as HCPs use what they’ve learned in their day-to-day clinical practice.

Salience Learning has already helped other biopharma companies ensure their peer-to-peer programs bring educational value and are, “conducive to learning.” Contact us for more information on how we can do the same for you.