Every journey has to start somewhere, and the first stop for this Training Talk blog was the dining car, so to speak. I recently shared a few minutes on the phone with Matthew Herzberg, director of training and organizational development for Tyson Foods, Inc., the world’s largest poultry company. What started with John Tyson driving a truckload of chickens from Alabama to Chicago is now a multi-national giant with varied operations around the globe.
Herzberg came to Tyson in part because of that organizational diversity, getting to work in traditional leadership development, but also working hand-in-hand with leaders of business units and corporate executives on talent planning, talent reviews and 360-degree assessments.
With about 25% of his time spent managing the Tyson Leadership College and the rest working in and with the business units, Herzberg sees both the theoretical and the practical sides of training.
“I’m basically conducting needs assessments all the time by seeing what the trends are throughout the organization,” Herzberg said. “I see what all these business units need and it’s been a leadership assessment on the fly for the leadership college. We’re in there. I’m on the ground every day with these guys.”
Learning is, you should pardon the phrasing, a leaner operation at Tyson than it once was. Tyson’s learning team is down to about five people, from a one-time high of 40 associates.
“What we’re finding is we’re nimble, we’re able to execute,” he said. “We do some planning of course, but the focus has really been on execution. It’s really getting these top leaders aligned that there’s a better way. It's not just driving results, now we are focusing on how leaders get those results through people."
Herzberg, of course, isn’t tending the farm alone. He reports to Karen Armstrong, senior director of training and organizational development, and he works closely with Rachel McCone, director of leadership and organizational development.
Their work is making an impact, aided greatly by buy-in from senior leaders, like CFO Dennis Leatherby and Donnie Smith, who heads the Poultry and Prepared Foods Division. And they’re seeing results. Two years ago, he said, Tyson was cancelling classes and reducing offerings. Now, courses are being added often, and classes are closing months before they’re being held.
That commitment to training, to learning is becoming a driving force for change at Tyson, much to Herzberg’s delight.
“It makes all the difference, especially in a company with the rich heritage and history that Tyson has,” Herzberg said. “Now it’s shifting to more people management. I’m not going to say everyday is a cakewalk and we don’t have our challenges. We still have leaders we’re trying to get aligned with this. But as the enlightened ones know, we don’t exist in a vacuum, time doesn’t stand still and people change and the company’s needs change. This is what’s necessary if we’re going to survive in the future.”
