Josh Bersin: Marriott Strengthened Its Brand By Scaling Frontline Leadership Training

Guest post by Teresa Stenson

There’s no denying there’s been a huge shift in the way we train frontline workers and managers. The old models are out; one-size-fits-all or generic courses just don’t cut it anymore. How we learn and grow has evolved, and any new and progressive model of training has one thing at its center: people. 

Recognizing that, and working with that, is crucial to a company’s success. 

In April 2024, NovoEd brought together four key industry figures for a conversation around the future of frontline worker training. In particular, we explored how this relates to — and is dependent upon — great leadership development.

Our Chief Strategy Officer at NovoEd, Todd Moran, was joined by Jessica Lee, Marriott International‘s Chief Learning Officer and SVP of Global Talent Development; Josh Bersin, the leading global researcher and analyst on corporate learning; and Kathi Enderes, SVP of Research at The Josh Bersin Company. 

Great Leadership: The Catalyst for Growth 

It almost goes without saying that the start of the decade saw seismic challenges for those in hospitality. For Marriott, emerging from the pandemic presented a key opportunity to take stock and strategize how to improve worker retention and customer service — and the hospitality chain recognized that cultivating the best possible leaders was essential for navigating the changing landscape.  

“We knew that if we got leadership right, everything would fall into place,” Jessica said. 

This insight is one echoed by Josh Bersin, whose extensive research has shown, time and again, the correlation between developing leaders and company growth. “It’s all about empowering, supporting, and growing people. We need to embrace this idea that the people issues are first, the business issues are second.”

The question is, how does a huge company like Marriott empower, support and grow their people — particularly when it has such a vast workforce? 

With 8,800 hotels across the globe, this multinational brand worked with NovoEd to completely rethink and re-energize its frontline leadership development. 

As Jessica explains, “Our goal was to really figure out the right approach to simplify the way we think about developing our leaders. And it was everything from how we define what good leadership is to, how do we cultivate that? What are the expectations of our leaders? And we wanted to make it tangible and easy for people to digest.”

A Truly Scalable Solution 

The result was En Route, a blended learning model created on the NovoEd learning platform that launched in 2023. En Route is built around a consistent leadership framework, offering a flexible way for Marriott’s current managers to learn and grow by incorporating virtual classes alongside peer-oriented learning circles. 

This flexibility was key to offering the training at the scale required for such a big company.

As Jessica notes, “When you think about the operation of a hotel, not everyone is sitting in front of a computer all day or has their own office. We really had to get thoughtful about different modalities. The only way that we could honestly get to scale was through a blended program design that leveraged a platform like NovoEd.” 

Learning circles contribute to this by providing a way for cohorts to connect and learn together in a scalable way. These self-led calls run in between sessions led by virtual instructors, and are essentially small break-out groups where people can share insights and develop their understanding of the program. 

Leadership At All Levels

Although En Route is a leadership program designed specifically for people who manage others, interestingly, it’s been part of a whole mindset shift around what it is to be a leader at Marriott. 

As well as launching En Route, Marriott has been further examining how the company defines and cultivates leaders at all levels. It’s a company-wide, cultural shift. Interestingly, Jessica and her team identified three simple behaviors which they call their ‘Leadership essentials’: to be curious, to be courageous, and to be connected. These three behaviors act as an anchor, providing a way for people across the company — whether they are frontline or behind the scenes — to discuss what good leadership looks like.

A key piece of this has been an openness to the understanding that every employee is, in some sense, a leader. This means valuing what each person brings to the workplace, and creating an environment that is human-centered, first and foremost.

The human-centered approach is one that Josh fully endorses. “One of the things that Marriott and Jessica’s team did with NovoEd is they didn’t just teach people a bunch of stuff like a course. They brought people together to work on things as a group. Because leadership is a contact sport. You can’t do this without a platform that’s designed for all of this stuff. And the reason NovoEd is such an important part of the story is that it was designed for this kind of multifunctional complex program.”

Looking ahead, Jessica and the team at Marriott are keeping the flame of innovation and progression alive by asking, How else do we smartly use NovoEd? 

And it’s a great question, because, as Josh says, leadership development isn’t a one-time thing. It’s not a bandaid. And it’s not specific to any one industry. It’s how you build a sustainable, enduring company – just like Marriott. Who, if we may say, are really embodying those behaviors they cultivate in their workforce — by staying curious, courageous, and connected.

Lynn Christiansen Esquer also contributed to this article.