Editorial
The holiday season is always a good time to reflect, reset your intentions, and to purposefully plan your actions for the year ahead. In that spirit, I am spotlighting a talent leader with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working during 2023, as he embodies all those dimensions.
Here's Brian in his own words.
Leading the Transformation of Delta's Learning Function
Why is a focus on skills so important now?
My question is why not now? Why haven’t we been doing this all along? The development of skills has tremendous potential to impact the business overall as well as our people individually. For me, this work is all about equity. Instead of just focusing on previous jobs or academic achievements, we can assess and develop our people in ways that support their career goals while also fulfilling Delta’s operational needs. By focusing on skills, we can be more consistent and transparent in our approach to growing talent. When we lift people up, ultimately that translates to pay equity which then positively impacts families, communities and society overall.
How would you describe Delta’s culture and philosophy about talent?
Delta has an amazing culture, and that culture creates a strong sense of loyalty with our people. Our CEO, Ed Bastian, says our culture is the single biggest driver of our success, because it can’t be replicated. We think about talent as being a virtuous circle. If we take care of our people, the impact on our customers and shareholders will be positive. We absolutely listen to our people, as our employees know us best.
What challenges have you encountered in your move towards a greater skills focus?
Our people have such diverse skills, backgrounds and experiences. That’s no accident — we cultivate our diversity as it makes us stronger and more resilient. As a learning leader, that means we need to meet people where they are, not the other way around. From a talent management perspective, we want to leverage our people in cross-functional assignments, so it’s critical for us to know their skill sets and where developmental opportunities exist.
How are you connecting skills to career planning?
Our employees consistently ask for clarity, not only in what’s expected of them but also how they can grow their careers. We believe in a growth mindset orientation and that people perform at their best when they feel a sense of belonging and optimism about their future. Delta’s people are our competitive advantage, so we want a learning culture where people can continually grow and choose to stay.
We are working to create greater transparency and foster more career agency with our people — putting the steering wheel in their hands. When we make a learning investment decision, we consider both the value to the employee and the impact on the success of our business. Our goal is for the connection between the success of our people and the success of Delta will be clear and seamless.
How are you changing your learning strategies to enable a greater focus on skills?
Across our L&D team, we are mapping all our assets to our skills foundation. We’ve redesigned our Skills First career framework with a clear orientation towards the required skills for specific jobs. Because our career architecture is based on foundational skills, it enables employees to identify adjacent jobs that reflect skills they already have or are pursuing. We want our people to build skills however they want, whenever they want. That means we need to leverage technology to reach our global audience at scale, providing seamless access and delivering great content.
Learning is not “one size fits all” purely driven by cost constraints. Our employees expect and deserve personalization, just like our customers do. Ideally, learning happens in the flow of work, so the more we know about how our people work, the more tailored our solutions can be.
How are you starting to think about AI and knowledge vs. durable skills?
The talent industry is still very early in its thinking about AI, but it’s for certain that Delta is deeply committed to the effective use of technology. AI has the potential to help learning organizations redirect time and resources away from less creative tasks and focus on more complex or relationship-based work. Our divisions are highly interdependent, and we are heavily reliant on how we interact with one another. We care deeply about one another and expect our leaders to demonstrate servant leadership. The ability to demonstrate empathy, compassion and resilience are the durable skills that make Delta’s culture great, and we don’t expect AI to deliver those human-centered capabilities.
What skills are necessary to lead a learning transformation?
If you’re not transforming, you’re already behind the curve. When I talk to other talent leaders about what it takes to lead a transformation, here is my list of critical skills:
- Emotional Intelligence – Demonstrating empathy, connecting with people, and knowing how to listen for what they need
- Social Intelligence – Understanding that what happens in society outside of Delta impacts what happens inside Delta
- Grit and Agility – Demonstrating resilience, being optimistic, not letting contrarians stop you, and collaborating with business leaders to meet their needs
- Digital Literacy – Scaling learning and creating a compelling mobile experience
- Storytelling – Sharing, even proving, how learning is a business imperative, not just a cost center.
Any final thoughts?
Conference
Oct
27
Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
Conference
Nov
17
KMWorld Washington 2025
Register
Webinar
On demand
AI in Customer Service: Faster Resolutions, Happier Customers
Don’t let rising demand burn out your team. See how to build a smarter, more resilient support org.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Accelerating Healthcare Ops with AI
Sign up to see how your peers are putting AI to work — and making it stick.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Nice-to-Have to Non-Negotiable: Prove the Value of Your EX Stack
Transform your tech stack: prove its value, secure your future.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
The Great Workforce Breakdown (And How to Stop It)
Disconnected employees. Failing communication. It’s time to turn things around.
Watch Now
There’s a wealth of opportunity for learning organizations to serve the business and employees at the same time. People want to leverage and expand their skills in this post-pandemic world, so we need to lead that charge. I appreciate the need to be creative, to experiment and to continually evaluate our impact so we can adapt.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
