I am very pleased to announce that seven of our teammates have graduated from a special program through New York University’s School of Professional Studies. Each one completed the certificate program in Strategic Thinking and Transformational Leadership.
This partnership with NYU is a pilot program designed to strengthen our strategic thinking leadership.
I believe strongly that the best organizations never stand still. Learning organizations are nimble, high performing, and innovative companies that embrace learning. That’s why we offer a robust NLGroup University and courses through partner colleges and universities, and the Center for Creative Leadership as well as workshops, coaches, mentors and more.
The program with NYU has been a bold experiment for us. Our students were immersed in the program for nine months. In the final three months they were pulled out of their day jobs and assigned to two team projects that focused on components our 2020 Vision.
Team one looked at our workforce strategy while the other focused on how to improve customer experience and engagement. They did excellent work that we will draw on in the months ahead. Their research and findings will help us map our way to 2020. You will hear more about their findings at the upcoming employee meetings.
The students worked with NYU’s Roseanna DeMaria who oversaw a faculty of four National Life senior leaders: Tom Anfuso, Jason Doiron, Craig Fowler and Matt Frazee. The faculty led case studies and classes and provided ongoing coaching and mentoring to the students.
Please join me in congratulating the seven graduates:
- Kristin Cook
- Kerry Jung
- Elizabeth MacGowan
- Greg Mateja
- Angela McCraw
- Eric Plasse
- Ken Weliczka
I would like to thank our faculty for a job well done and Roseanna for her tenacity, passion and conviction.
We will be working with Roseanna, NYU, the graduates and the faculty on how we can improve the program for future years.
— Mehran Assadi