A student of continuous improvement, Christine Simmons is a certified executive coach whose passion for coaching, leading and living an empowered life of excellence is displayed in the programs she designs. As the Director of Learning and Development at WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone, Christine's responsibilities include overseeing learning & development for the company’s customer care organization, all sales channels (inbound, outbound, field sales, B2B and B2C), field operations, engineering, corporate HR and all other corporatewide functional areas. Christine’s innovative L&D efforts earned her the distinction of being a 2022 Aspiring HR Leader.

5 Questions for Christine Simmons In addition to sharing insight into her work life, we asked Christine to get a bit personal. Do you have a favorite quote?  "Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom." Jim Rohn What is your guilty pleasure?   "Fake" shopping (online) for my dream home in Paradise Valley, Montana, Sedona or anywhere in the mountains of Western North Carolina. What do you do to relieve stress or self-care?  I love to get lost in a good book or a good movie. Something that takes me out of my own thinking and allows me to disconnect from reality for a while. What is something about you that people would find surprising? I am one of 13 children in my family, #9 of 13. I have 6 sisters and 6 brothers from the same parents! Can you share a pivotal point in your approach to L&D? My executive coach once asked me, "Are you that married to your own wisdom?" It created one of the biggest shifts in my thinking to date.

Christine's vision is to pull people beyond their own perceived limitations and build a community of resilient leaders. As Director of Learning and Development at WOW!, Christine has brought several high-impact initiatives to fruition.

Anytime, Anywhere Learning

Recognizing that employees aren’t always able to make an instructor-led class work with their schedules, Christine said, “Sometimes learning needs to come in the moment, having the most impact because it answers an open question or fills a gap in an employee’s current workday.”

Christine envisioned online internal learning portals specific to WOW!’s functional organizations but open to all for cross-functional learning. Through these portals (customer care, leadership, field operations, etc.), the WOW! L&D team builds and constantly refreshes all the training, resources and development information needed to help employees better do their jobs and expand their knowledge whenever it works best for their unique schedule, job responsibilities and timing challenges. Christine and her team have designed and launched eight WOW! Training Academies and envision several more as they continue to expand their reach to new partners.

Christine is also dedicated to broadening employees’ understanding of the customer journey and how departments intersect and complete work handoffs. To that end, in 2021 Christine created WOW! Learning Workshops, a series of 45-minute virtual weekly workshops to help employees raise their WOW!-specific business acumen. Over 1,400 employees have participated in the workshops.

Next-Level Leadership Development

Starting in early 2021, Christine designed and implemented Leadership Reimagined, a multi-pronged leadership development program (LDP) that included three different focus areas for WOW! leaders at all levels. During 2021, over 60% of WOW!’s entire leadership team participated in meaningful ways in instructor-led courses that included a 5-step program to building high-performing teams and WOW! Leadership Competencies in Action and Leadership Coaching.

The quality of the learning and the resulting buzz surrounding WOW!’s LDP compelled over 50 non-leaders at the company to request leadership learning for non-leaders. In response, Christine quickly developed and implemented a new learning path: LDP 100: Leadership Learning for Individual Contributors.

In early 2022, Christine took advantage of the initial LDP success to launch additional programming for WOW!’s leaders. In alignment with Christine’s goals of scalability, sustainability, and increasing reach, WOW! now offers three pathways for leadership learning, making it even easier for leaders to engage in WOW!’s programming in a way that works for them.

Christine has designed instructor-led content that is aligned with WOW!’s strategic business needs (agility, change management, essentials), while continuing to maximize a curated eLearning path for those who need to learn on their own time. Her new efforts have included 6-8 different team-based courses to be delivered at the request of a senior leader. Already, this new option is driving engagement and skill levels across the organization in a new and profound way.

Vice President of Talent Management for WOW!, Allyson Crawford, summarized Christine’s impact, “Christine never gives up. She leads the way and is an inspiring example of an engaged and curious employee. She is excited to constantly learn – about herself and others, about organizational systems, individual motivations, feedback, skilled collaboration and beyond. Her boundless energy and willingness to try new things have helped to create and drive a powerful learning culture for all employees at WOW! She absolutely embodies an Aspiring HR Leader, and we are happy to celebrate her efforts and support her ideas because they are good for our employees and good for WOW!”

RELATED RESOURCES For a curated collection of articles on learning & development (20 more topics), please visit the HR Knowledge Center at HR Knowledge Center — C2HR.