As Procter & Gamble's Global Human Resources Head for Gillette, Venus, Braun, and TAOS, Maria De Cordova is charged with building and maintaining a workforce that can adapt and grow. This requires her to stay a step ahead of changes in business and society that affect the way people live and work—a challenge that led her to attend the Leading an Agile Workforce Transformation program at Harvard Business School (HBS) Executive Education. In this interview, she shares a few highlights of her experience in this program.
I have given a lot of thought to the importance of talent and businesses being present where the talent is instead of waiting for the talent to come to them. When I found out about the Leading an Agile Workforce Transformation program, it seemed like the perfect environment for learning more about this important issue. In recent years, Procter & Gamble has sent many of its executives to HBS Executive Education programs, and when I suggested this program to my CEO, he immediately thought it was a perfect fit for our team.
We are adjusting to a rapidly changing environment, and we need to be forward thinking in how we prepare the workforce of the future. Right now, we are catering to the needs and tendencies of millennials, but we need to look ahead to a new generation of workers who are now in high school or middle school. What are their preferences? What challenges will they introduce, and what are the platforms for addressing them? We need to start moving ahead to make a more integrative workforce.
First, it's not a matter of what but when—that is, disruptions in technology will inevitably force changes in the way we arrange our workforce—and the solution is not one size fits all. We need to look carefully at the problem we want to solve and examine potential solutions that will create real value. Another important concept is that leaders need to allow themselves to be vulnerable enough to be learners, not just knowers, and that’s difficult in an environment where they think they have to know everything. And finally, we need to shift our mindset from probability to possibility so that we truly listen to ideas and focus on intentions rather than expectations.
Definitely. My living group made it easier to build relationships, talk openly, and be heard. The setting felt psychologically secure, and being away from my normal day-to-day role helped me focus and digest information. I loved the discussions I had with all the teams that were there.
Show up with a problem you want to solve. Be engaged and participate and use the program's great resources—the case studies, the guidance of your team, the faculty—to create a solution that you can bring back to your office.
