Learning Lab leader unlocks power of improved productivity

What excites you about the Learning Lab?

I have always prided myself on doing the best work possible and have been fortunate to have had much success throughout my career. But helping others do better innovative work has always excited me the most. Individuals and innovation teams can do great work by themselves, but you need external perspective, questions, guidance and coaching to make a noticeable difference in consumers' lives.

Describe a day in the life of your role.

My role includes proactively contacting our 1819 corporate partners and various UC departments to inform them of the Learning Lab and our program offerings. Before arriving at UC, I gained the practical knowledge and experience of doing this work inside a Fortune 50 company. My team and I help individuals identify specific learning needs and intentionally design programs that serve them directly or connect them to other resources in our innovation ecosystem with leading-edge experts at UC.

Can you share the top three priorities you are currently working on?

The world is shifting from a knowledge economy to a learning economy. Equipping people with the tools, skills and behaviors to learn at a higher velocity is key.

My top priority is enabling individuals to learn and unlearn different mental models to cultivate clear thinking and uncover novel insights. The second is building cultures of learning and collaboration, fostering resiliency within teams to work more effectively. Third is unlocking bigger, better, faster innovation by identifying current and future business growth opportunities.

What is one early business mistake you would never make again?

Thinking I have all the answers. I am a fast thinker and can intuitively see opportunities amid chaos. While this can afford an advantage of quickly creating ideas and opportunities, the shadow side is that it's easy to fall in love with your idea and become closed to what others have to bring.

Whom would you choose if you could "job shadow" anyone at UC for a day?

Selfishly, I would have to say, Dean Marianne Lewis. She's a tremendous leader whom I could learn a lot from. The Lindner College of Business impacts so many parts of the ecosystem in Cincinnati, and I'd love to get a peek behind the curtain to see how she manages to get so much done each day.

What is the best advice you've ever received?

“Be the pad” — Steve Gilbert. Steve was my first mentor, and we were working on inventing processes to make a new global product. “Be the pad” was his shorthand for encouraging me to see myself as the product and all the forces and influences that affect the materials as they transform into the finished product. He taught me empathy to understand others and what is happening in their world from their perspective instead of from my own.