In this role, Russell Norton will lead CCL’s people strategy, driving culture, engagement, organizational effectiveness, and HR operational management. She will serve as a member of the Executive Team and will report to CCL’s President and CEO, Martin Schneider.

“Janet has extensive global experience in talent management, organizational development, and strategic HR initiatives,” said Schneider. “She’s also worked closely with CCL as a client, which gives her deep insights into our offerings and people. That background, combined with her empathetic and authentic leadership style, makes Janet a strong fit for our culture, mission, and values. We’re delighted that she’s joined us.”

Russell Norton joins CCL with decades of experience in the field, most recently serving as the Head of Talent Strategy, Leader Development, and Employee Relations at Volvo Group, North America. Prior to her tenure with Volvo in 2022, Janet served as Vice President of Global Human Resources at consumer goods company Newell Brands, where she led global HR strategy for a $1.2 billion business unit. She has also held leadership roles in the insurance and financial sectors.

“I’m honored to take on the role of Chief People Officer at CCL. I believe our greatest impact comes from unlocking the potential of people, helping them grow, be recognized, and thrive. Together, we will strengthen how we work across borders, foster a culture of recognition and agility, and build the conditions for high performance that empowers our people and inspires the leaders we serve worldwide.”

A highly engaged civic leader, Russell Norton has served on the boards of medical, educational, and arts organizations in North Carolina. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Speech Communication and Business Management from North Carolina State University and conducted post-graduate work in Psychology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. She is based out of CCL’s global headquarters at its Greensboro campus location.

The post Janet Russell Norton Joins Center for Creative Leadership as Chief People Officer appeared first on CCL.

Founded in 2005, The Cynefin Company is renowned for the Cynefin Framework, a tool that aids leaders in identifying decision-making contexts and guiding their actions. Over time, The Cynefin Company has expanded its offerings to include additional tools and frameworks that facilitate sensemaking in complex situations. The organization’s services extend to the nonprofit, government, and education sectors through the Cynefin Centre.

CCL’s partnership with The Cynefin Company seeks to integrate the Cynefin Framework with our leadership development solutions, creating a unique offering that fully addresses the needs of leaders across the globe. The collaboration will focus on leadership challenges such as:

• Making effective decisions in complex and uncertain environments
• Asking the right questions to understand decision-making contexts
• Gauging the timing of decisions and actions
• Managing complexity during action-taking
• Avoiding biases from prior decision-making approaches

The Cynefin Framework has also been incorporated into Decision Dynamics, a 1-day program offering that equips leaders with the tools needed to tackle today’s complex challenges, take decisive action, and communicate a compelling rationale.

“In today’s increasingly complex world, leaders need more than traditional tools — they need frameworks that help them make sense of and even embrace uncertainty. Our partnership with The Cynefin Company brings powerful new capabilities to our leadership development products and offerings, enabling leaders to navigate complex decision making with greater clarity and confidence,” said Elisa Mallis, Global Vice President, Research, Innovation, and New Content Creation at CCL.

Through a shared commitment to leadership impact and aligned values, the partnership aims to combine the value of The Cynefin Framework with our world-class approach to leadership development, reinforcing our dedication to our mission of advancing the understanding and practice of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide.

The post CCL Partners With The Cynefin Company to Strengthen Leadership Decision-Making in Complex Environments appeared first on CCL.

The Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP) is the premier professional association for the science and practice of Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology, which focuses on the scientific study of human behavior in organizations and in the workplace. The SIOP Frontiers Series focuses on cutting-edge research in I-O psychology and related fields.

The chapter, titled “Framework for Matching Leaders’ Challenges with Leadership Development: A Case Study of AI in Action,” was co-authored by CCL’s Ramya Balakrishnan and Jean Brittain Leslie alongside Scott Tonidandel of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Stephen Young of Caterpillar, Inc. and introduces the Leadership Challenge Ladder framework.

Using data from 37,000 leaders across 6,000 organizations, the research project used AI to identify 42 persistent leadership challenges that researchers organized into 3 key themes: personal growth, people and task demands, and working within a larger system.

The chapter also discusses how the framework was applied to redesign CCL’s flagship Leadership Development Program (LDP)^®, resulting in a 100% participant recommendation rate, a 98% relevance rating, and a 50% improvement in team performance metrics.

“The inclusion of our leadership challenges research in the SIOP Frontiers Series underscores CCL’s commitment to advancing the science of leadership while ensuring practical relevance,” said Ramya Balakrishnan, co-author and Data Scientist at CCL.

“By applying cutting-edge, AI-based approaches and embedding these insights into our Leadership Development Program redesign, this work demonstrates the practical application of scientific research to real-world needs and the transformative potential of AI in organizational psychology.”

Learn more about our leadership development research or read our Leadership Challenge Ladder technical report.

The post CCL’s AI-Driven Research Findings on Top Leadership Challenges Published by SIOP appeared first on CCL.

HERO (Health Enhancement Research Organization) is a member-driven national nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and sharing best practices in the field of workplace health and wellbeing. The 2025 HERO forum aimed to bring together like-minded leaders intent on advancing best practices for health and wellbeing into workplace cultures.

For the past 25 years, HERO has been dedicated to turning science into practice in the advancement of employee and organizational wellbeing. Bergeron’s session was recorded and will be available to all HERO members.

Read more about our research-based recommendations for listening skills.

The post CCL’s Diane Bergeron Presents Listening Research at the 2025 HERO Forum appeared first on CCL.

Amplify: Heighten Your Impact

Based on over 50 years of leadership research and experience, Amplify is a flexible online nonprofit leadership program that positions participants to learn new skills to advance their missions and apply insights within their organizations — improving outcomes, increasing sustainability, and heightening impact. It offers engaging online learning, frameworks, and tools tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities faced by nonprofit professionals.

Amplify participants learn to navigate complex challenges, inspire teams, and adapt to an ever-evolving social sector landscape. The learning journey equips nonprofit professionals with the mindsets and skillsets needed to elevate their impact, cultivate resources to build momentum, and achieve outcomes aligned with their purpose.

The program focuses on expanding vital leadership and evaluation capabilities, including:

• Learning Agility: Developing an evaluative mindset
• Theory of Change: Staying focused and evaluating the programs in service of the mission
• Direction – Alignment – Commitment (DAC): Approaching leadership as a social process and engaging all stakeholders
• Social Identity & Emotional Intelligence: Understanding yourself to help inform strategic decisions
• Evaluation Design & Data Collection: Measuring impact and alignment to organizational mission
• Storytelling & Influence: Communicating your story for greater impact

It also features practical applications that participants can develop into actionable insights in real time, applying learnings directly to their work and throughout their organizations.

“Amplify is more than a course — it’s a catalyst for transformation,” said Marie Leonard, Digital Learning Product Manager at CCL. “We’re helping nonprofit leaders build the skills and confidence to lead with purpose, measure their impact, and create lasting change.”

The Amplify initiative was made possible through generous support from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, whose grant and PropelNext program design has enabled CCL to expand access to high-impact leadership development for mission-driven organizations.

The program has also been shaped by our philanthropic partners such as the Scattergood Foundation, which played a vital role in developing its evaluation framework. Their collaboration has helped to ensure Amplify is grounded in real-world impact measurement and aligned with the needs of nonprofit leaders working in behavioral health and social services.

“We believe in Amplify … because this nonprofit professional development program will better equip leaders to evaluate and improve their work and ultimately deliver on their missions,” said Joe Pyle, President of the Scattergood Foundation.

Early program participants are reporting increased confidence in leading teams, evaluating programs, and communicating their missions effectively.

The Amplify program may be offered as part of a larger leadership journey or as a custom program for social sector organizations. Learn more about our nonprofit leadership development expertise or the Amplify nonprofit leadership online course.

The post CCL Launches Online Professional Development for Nonprofits — Amplify: Heighten Your Impact™ appeared first on CCL.

Our programs recognized this year were centered around building strategic, value-driven leadership across organizations, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and using real-world experiential learning to support leadership development.

CCL and Securitas, a security services company, were awarded a coveted Gold Award for excellence in the “Best Leadership Development Program” category. The Accelerate program was developed in partnership with us and was aimed at cultivating strong leaders and high-performing teams through collaboration, strengthening talent retention, and promoting an enterprise-wide innovation mindset. The 6-month immersive program involved our 360 assessments, immersion learning, executive coaching, and interactive virtual learning sessions.

First Citizens Bank and CCL were recognized with a Silver Award for excellence in the “Best Executive Development Program” category for our partnership in developing the Elevate program. This initiative was a multi-phase executive development journey designed to reinforce a strong leadership pipeline, improve alignment, and help leaders effectively manage cultural integration and change management at the organization. The program focused on both horizontal and vertical development and followed our 70/20/10 model.

Our partnership with Jerónimo Martins, a specialized retail and food distribution company, was awarded a Bronze Award for excellence in the “Best Leadership Development Program” category, recognizing the impact of its Leadership Academy. The “Be a Leader” programs are one of several initiatives within a growing learning ecosystem designed to elevate leadership across the organization. This ecosystem fosters self-awareness, strategic thinking, a culture of feedback, and readiness for future leadership challenges. Each learning journey combines formal assessments, leadership coaching, experiential learning, and peer-to-peer accountability.

A panel of independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall analysts, and executives evaluated award entries for fit, design, functionality, innovation, and measurable benefits. Winners will be recognized at Brandon Hall Group’s HCM Excellence Conference later this year.

We are proud to partner with these clients on award-winning programs that are contributing to the important work of advancing leadership in workplaces around the world.

These client partnerships are among the many awards and accolades we’ve received from the Brandon Hall Group and others in recent years.

The post CCL Client Partnerships Earn 3 Brandon Hall Excellence Awards appeared first on CCL.

The “ArtStock on Display” collection features over 30 artists from the ArtStock community. ArtStock was created in 1996 for local artists to share ideas and develop ways to promote their work. Today, the ArtStock Studio Tour and Gallery Crawl is a non-juried event in the Guilford County area, providing artists with a community-wide opportunity to open their studios to the public.

The exhibit will be available for viewing during the public reception on August 22 from 5 to 7 p.m. EDT, at CCL’s Greensboro location.

“Promoting local artists is ArtStock’s goal, and we are happy to be part of that,” said CCL art curator Laura Gibson. “CCL recognizes the deep connection between art, leadership, innovation, and how art impacts our visitors’ experience at the Center.”

Over 500 artists have exhibited at CCL’s Greensboro campus since 2012. In that time, over 3,000 pieces of art have been displayed; nearly 5,000 patrons have attended art receptions; and over $140,000 worth of art has been sold, with no commission being taken by CCL. Learn more about CCL’s art program.

Public viewings of “ArtStock on Display” are also available by appointment on Friday afternoons. Interested individuals can contact Ms. Gibson at 336-708-2495 to inquire.

The post CCL GSO Campus to Host Public Artists’ Reception Featuring Local NC Artists appeared first on CCL.

The certifications come from Great Place To Work®, an organization that focuses on workplace culture, employee experience, and leadership behaviors. The certification process recognizes companies as employee-validated great workplaces.

The organization is the global authority on assisting companies with improving their internal culture and recognizes several companies per year based on research methodology and employee feedback. More than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply for the Great Place to Work certification annually.

A survey is used to gauge employee experience based on trust between leaders and their teams, opportunity for development, and fair treatment among all employees.

CCL Singapore and CCL India are thrilled to have received this designation, as we are dedicated to building a positive and harmonious work culture. It’s a testament to the effort and hard work team members have put into shaping the organizational culture and creating a positive experience for our employees worldwide.

More information can be found on CCL Singapore and CCL India Great Place To Work profiles.

The post CCL Singapore and India Campuses Receive Great Place To Work Certifications appeared first on CCL.