Her Story
About Natalie
I work with learning and development at FedEx, where I develop programs for our leadership - specifically leadership development programs. I'm essentially a program manager. My main area of expertise is leadership development and instructional design, with a strong focus on putting entire learning ecosystems together. I'm known for coming into organizations and building programs from the ground up when there isn't a program in place. For example, at General Motors, I created and developed a brand new standardized training process to bring in a huge amount of people in a short amount of time. I did the same thing with FedEx Supply Chain's new business division, and I'm currently doing it with our L&D department as well, because it's fairly new. My role has expanded beyond just new business to focus on all of FedEx Supply Chain's frontline leadership. I'm responsible for our strategy and how we train and develop team members at new locations, as well as developing our leaders on the front line. A typical day starts at 7 a.m. with coffee and emails, followed by meetings throughout the day with different departments and SMEs to determine training needs and how we can support various business units. I also facilitate training for our leaders, design content for upcoming workshops, and develop e-learning. FedEx is a very high-paced, constantly changing, dynamic environment where one day does not look like the next.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Natalie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to being able to come into an organization and see the impact I have by building something from nothing. For me, I'm leaving a legacy behind. What drives me is knowing that what I'm creating and building will have an impact on others' lives. We're developing people and developing leaders, and that gives them the opportunity to better their lives as well. If they take what I'm developing and apply it to their lives, they can succeed. That's what drives me and gives me my purpose in what I do. That's my biggest impact right now - not just impacting the company, but making others' lives better.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The world is changing and evolving, especially with technology and AI, and I think that's going to be challenging for someone within the L&D realm. We're going to be tasked with showing people and developing them on how to work in this new world with AI and develop those skills. I think the challenge is that people are so used to doing things a certain way and learning things a certain way, and they're kind of nervous about this technology and AI. As an L&D professional, we're going to have to figure out how to bring people aboard and get them to work with it, not against it. We have to approach it in a positive way, showing them the benefits and how this new technology is going to make their lives better and use it as a collaborator. That's another reason why I decided to go back to school and get my degree in artificial intelligence - because it's not going away. The better informed we are on it and how we can utilize it to make our lives better and enhance and amplify what we're doing already, the better. I need to be on the forefront in understanding it so I can help people learn what they need in order to successfully use it.
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