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Jeff Turner INTERNATIONAL L&D DIRECTOR

Jeff has been working in the Learning and Development arena for the past 20 years. Until recently he was the International Learning and Development Director for Facebook.  There were approximately 1000 people in Facebook when Jeff joined over 8 years ago, there are now more than 35,000.  He has helped the company scale through developing a learning strategy that supported tens of thousands of new hires join the company and learn how to be impactful, quickly.  From leadership development to new hire orientation, he was instrumental in their execution.

Jeff has a master’s degree in Performance Management from Leicester University and was on the Board of the International Coaching Federation, Ireland Chapter.

Jeff’s key philosophies about development are:

1. Build the foundations first

There are certain knowledge and skills that are company agnostic, and these should be foundational knowledge and skills

2. Attending workshops is important

Attending workshops is important, but the research is clear, most learning happens on the job.  Therefore, ongoing supports should be built around all learning solutions

•  Attendance to a workshop should be followed up with practice and feedback.
•  Learning from other participants is as important after the workshop as it is in it.
•  Better results are achieved when many people learn at the same time rather than intermittently.

3. Grow the culture through targeted learning

Initial learning should be focused on how to be successful in this unique environment

•  Build new hire and new manager programmes
•  Use internal people where ever possible to support learning

The company’s values, beliefs and ways of working should be included in all learning solutions

•  Ensure external-facilitators understand the values before working with the company

•  The values and cultural norms should be included in all learning opportunities

4. Build a learning culture

Learning and development should facilitate learning and not own it. The ownership of an individual’s learning is jointly owned by themselves and the company.

•  Allow people to access learning when they need it not when it suits L&D
•  People learn best from their peers, therefore create communities where people continually contribute and consume learning
•  Connect those who have something to teach, with those who are ready to learn

5. Team Development is essential at all levels

Teams are now changing faster than ever before and therefore the linear form of team building is less relevant

•  All teams will go through turmoil at some stage and the leaders need to know how to manage through these intervals
•  All team leaders need to understand and be able to build effective teams

6. Strength of leadership

The strength of the leadership team is directly related to the success of the company.

Attract the best leaders by being known as the best place for leaders to grow

•  Develop leaders to understand themselves, their future, their people and their functions
•  Build a pipeline of future leaders that will ensure the future success of the company

External coaching is an important part of a leader’s development

•  There are times when leaders need an external perspective.
•  Build a team of coaches who will be able to support leaders when needed

Jeff, who is originally from the UK and now living in Ireland, is married to Helen with a son and 2 daughters.