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Innovation in Compliance

Innovation in Compliance: Lisa Levy – Succession Planning and The Evolving Workforce: From Millennials to Gen Z

Innovation comes in many forms, and compliance professionals need to not only be ready for it but also embrace it.

In this episode, Tom Fox visits with Lisa Levy,  a thought leader renowned for her expertise in addressing succession planning challenges. We take a deep dive into this topic on this edition of Innovation in Compliance.

Lisa believes that succession planning in 2024 is more important than ever due to the complexities introduced by having five generations in the workforce, each with diverse expectations and work ethics. Lisa advocates for embedding succession planning into company culture as a strategic, intentional exercise that involves understanding employees’ skills, aspirations, and institutional knowledge to nurture and grow talent internally. She champions the use of technology, such as AI tools, to personalize growth plans and emphasizes the need for continuous evaluation, transparency, and communication to implement a successful succession planning framework, ensuring organizational resilience and smooth leadership transitions.

We discuss how the younger generations, including millennials and Gen Z, have shifted the employment paradigm by seeking roles that align with their values. Lisa reflects on their own journey of becoming ‘wholly unemployable’ over 15 years and highlights how Gen Z entered the workforce during the pandemic, taking on gigs like Uber and DoorDash as traditional roles were shut down. This generational shift shows a move towards prioritizing personal fulfillment over conventional job security.

Key Highlights:

  • Lisa Levy on her Unemployable Journey
  • Millennials and Value-Driven Careers
  • The Paradigm Shift in Employment
  • Gen Z’s Workforce Entry During the Pandemic

Resources:

Lisa Levy on  LinkedIn 

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Succession Planning in the Multi-Generational Workforce: Insights from Lisa Levy

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Lisa Levy, a business strategy and organizational development thought leader. Our conversation delved into the complexities and importance of succession planning, particularly in today’s workforce, which spans five generations. In today’s blog post, I will relate key insights from our discussion and explore why succession planning is more critical than ever.

The Need for Succession Planning

Given the diverse age groups in today’s workforce, we discussed the increasing importance of succession planning in 2024. We began with the traditional assumption of linear succession, where roles are handed down the hierarchy, no longer holds. “The hierarchy of organizations has been blown up,” Levy said. With people staying in the workforce longer and new generations entering with different expectations, succession planning has become a dynamic and strategic exercise. It’s not just about filling roles when someone leaves but embedding succession planning into the organizational culture.

Impact of Generational Diversity

We explored the challenge of managing a workforce that includes Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and now GenAlpha. Levy emphasized that each generation brings its own set of expectations and work styles. For instance, Baby Boomers, protected by legal frameworks against age discrimination, may stay in their roles longer, potentially blocking career progression for younger employees. This situation mirrors the “Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles problem,” where long-lived leaders delay the ascent of the next generation. Similarly, in corporate settings, prolonged tenures of older employees can hinder the career growth of Gen X and millennials, who are ready and eager to take on leadership roles.

Shifting Perspectives on Career Progression

Levy underscored the importance of recognizing and adapting to the changing expectations of younger generations. Unlike previous generations, Millennials, Gen Z, and GenAlpha are less likely to stay in a job that doesn’t align with their values or offer growth opportunities. They prioritize work-life balance, purpose, and continuous learning over long-term job security. Levy pointed out that while Baby Boomers and Gen X might have stayed in roles out of a sense of duty, younger employees are more willing to move on if their needs aren’t met. This fluidity in the workforce requires companies to be more proactive in their succession planning efforts.

Implementing Effective Succession Planning

Levy provided a detailed look into how organizations can approach succession planning strategically. It starts with understanding current employees’ skills, aspirations, and potential. She advocated for a holistic approach that involves:

  1. Regular assessments are done by continuously evaluating employees’ skills and career aspirations.
  2. Institutional Memory by capturing and documenting the knowledge and experiences of long-term employees through interviews and other means.
  3. Growth Opportunities by providing training and development programs to prepare employees for future roles.

“Succession planning is a project,” Lisa noted, “but embedding it into the culture is a process.” This process requires ongoing effort and commitment from leadership to ensure that the organization remains resilient and prepared for unexpected changes.

The Role of Technology

We also discussed the role of technology in modern succession planning. AI and other digital tools can significantly enhance the process by:

  • Identifying Skill Gaps: Analyzing employee data to pinpoint areas where training is needed.
  • Automating Processes: Streamlining the creation and implementation of development plans.
  • Enhancing Communication: Facilitating better communication and feedback loops between employees and management.

Levy mentioned how these tools can save time and resources, making the succession planning process more efficient and effective.

The Human Element

Despite the benefits of technology, Levy stressed the importance of the human element in succession planning. Effective communication and understanding employees’ needs and aspirations are crucial. Leaders must be willing to listen and engage in meaningful dialogues with their teams. She shared a powerful example: “Imagine if you’re listening to a retiring employee tell their story of the last 30 years, including their successes, failures, and lessons learned. This helps in knowledge transfer and inspires and prepares the next generation of leaders.”

As we concluded our conversation, Levy reiterated that succession planning is not a one-time task but a continuous, strategic effort. It’s about building a resilient organization capable of adapting to change and nurturing talent from within.

For those looking to implement or improve succession planning in their organizations, Lisa offered this advice: “Succession planning requires time, effort, energy, and commitment. But it ultimately makes your business resilient to unexpected change.” Succession planning is more critical than ever in our multi-generational workforce. By taking a proactive, strategic approach and leveraging both human insight and technological tools, organizations can ensure they are prepared for the future while fostering a culture of continuous growth and development.

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Innovation in Compliance

Uncertainty – The Blinders Are Off with Lisa Levy


 
Lisa Levy, CEO of Lcubed Consulting and author of Future Proofing Cubed, started her career in IT. “I grew up as a project manager implementing systems”, she says, “and watching those system implementations fail because people didn’t understand what the new technology was doing or why it was important to them or how it was supposed to actually make their jobs easier.” That early experience led her to focus on “process and building teams that would understand how work is done and then how to use the technology.” She eventually founded Lcubed Consulting to champion better ways of doing work in order to become more agile. Tom Fox welcomes her to this week’s show as they discuss cross-functional collaboration, future proofing, and building agility within the corporate culture through adaptive transformation.
 

 
It Starts With People
“I realized that it’s really about getting the right people doing the right work in a repeatable process and then using technology to enable it,” Lisa comments. Business success depends on people first, then process, then technology, she adds. She says that she established Lcubed Consulting to offer middle-sized companies expertise in four key areas: project management, process performance management, internal controls, and organizational changes. Working with her expert consultants helps her clients’ employees build their capacity in these crucial areas. 
Cross Functional Collaboration
Understanding what’s going on around you as an employee is important, Lisa iterates. She advocates for cross-functional collaboration, so that each employee and team knows where they fit in the big picture. “If everyone understands where they fit in the flow of the business, we can then tie that into the work value that customers and clients receive,” she remarks. This makes certain that resources aren’t being wasted.
Future Proofing and Being Agile
Tom comments that the pandemic has made “the unknown unknowns almost business-as-usual.” He asks Lisa how companies can future proof their operations for whatever comes along. Lisa responds that you must build agility within your business as the first step of “future proofing.” This is the core of their adaptive transformation framework. “Future proofing is about building a basis in corporate culture that embraces change,” she remarks. “A visionary leader is always looking to the next thing that they want to do…Operations is supposed to happen flawlessly and move with the needs of that visionary leader. And so if we start with a culture … and everybody understands that we really want to change on a recurring basis – that this is natural, it’s how we grow, it’s how we scale – and we have that foundation, and we know how to do our jobs, and we know how to use our technology, a business leader can do just about anything, and the business will follow.”
Getting the Message Out
Lisa wrote her book, Future Proofing Cubed, in 2019 before the pandemic. She tells Tom that COVID-19 has made the message that businesses need to be agile, very clear to leaders. She shares insight on how to create an adaptive culture throughout an organization. The tone from the top is important, but employees need to hear the same message from their direct supervisors. “In order to be successful we need to be able to get our people to move in the directions that we need them to…. with the least amount of resistance,” Lisa remarks. 
 
Resources
Lisa Levy | LinkedIn
LCubedConsulting.com
FutureProofingCubed.com