Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Todd Warner
How to Turn Individual Talent into Organizational Excellence
by James Fulton and Todd Warner March 12, 2026 David Madison/Getty Images At the start of 2026, the CEO of a financial services firm sent a firmwide email that included a clip of NBA star Stephen Curry taking an almost full-court shot. The ball drops cleanly through the net. The crowd erupts. The email read: James Fulton advises senior executives on leadership, culture, and succession.
As a conservative lawmaker, here's why I oppose Gov. Lee's school vouchers plan | Opinion Original
As a lifelong Tennessee conservative who’s watched generations of my family graduate from our local public schools, I need to speak some plain truth about Gov. Bill Lee's rushed voucher push. Something doesn't add up, and it ain't just the math. In most rural areas across Tennessee, we don't have a single private school. Not one. So when Governor Lee talks about "school choice," I have to ask, who is this choice for?
Bald Eagle Area gets big win over Central Cambria 39-14 (photo gallery included)
Bald Eagle Area gets big win over Central Cambria 39-14 (photo gallery included) Billy Splain | August 31, 2024 Written by Todd Warner Photos Jeff Jodon WINGATE — BEA started the season as a state title contender. Then a funny thing happened along the way. They took a big loss to Bishop Guilfoyle in the season opener. Almost double the losses as All State qb Carson Nagle left that game pretty banged up and was questionable for the start last night. Nagle has some good trainers.
Bringing a growth mindset to the learning function
Despite advances in learning delivery through digital transformation and content libraries, learning functions often are one of the least innovative parts of the business. The mandates that organizational leaders hand down to learning functions, and the acceptance of those mandates, is the heart of the problem. by James Fulton, Todd M. Warner May 3, 2021 Carol Dweck’s work on “growth mindset” has caught the fancy of organizations the world over, and why wouldn’t it?
3 reasons external benchmarking is bad for corporate learning
This is the third in a series of articles in which the authors explore their reflections on the future of learning, given the tumult and chaos of the past year, and how learning needs to evolve to serve organizations differently. Read part 1 and part 2. Various apps are available that enable users to compare gas prices among different gas stations near where they live; this is an example of good benchmarking. Etymologically, “benchmarking” emerged in the 19th century.
Educating the ask: getting your stakeholders to make smarter learning requests
This is the second in a series of articles in which the authors will explore their reflections on the future of learning, given the tumult and chaos of the past few months, and how learning needs to evolve to serve organizations differently. Read part 1 here. A common complaint that we hear from senior learning leaders is frustration with the “bad requests” that they often receive from senior stakeholders.
The Tyranny of the Status Quo
Since McKinsey & Co. published “The War for Talent” more than two decades ago, organizations have run amuck trying to figure out the right recipe for ranking, attracting and retaining the “right” people. Let me be heretical: This is a waste of time. The problem is not getting the “right” people; the problem is that most organizations take incredibly able, smart people and then make them stupid.
Learning vs. Embedment: The Core Problem for 21st Century Learning
I have delivered thousands of learning programs to organizations and executives around the world. Not to brag, but I always got great “happy sheets” — people loved to come together and be “edu-tained” by me. But here is the existential problem: I don’t think it made much of a difference. Sure, people had a great time, learned some new tidbits to talk about at a weekend barbeque and got excited, but I don’t think they ever did anything materially different.
Learning vs. Embedment: The Core Problem for 21st Century Learning
I have delivered thousands of learning programs to organizations and executives around the world. Not to brag, but I always got great “happy sheets” — people loved to come together and be “edu-tained” by me. But here is the existential problem: I don’t think it made much of a difference. Sure, people had a great time, learned some new tidbits to talk about at a weekend barbeque and got excited, but I don’t think they ever did anything materially different.
Organizational Learning Is A Social Act
We make many assumptions about organizational learning. Most of them are wrong. On the surface we seem to know what organizational learning is: People attend programs or complete e-learning modules, they learn something new and they somehow become better. But this approach doesn’t represent how people in organizations actually learn. Hence we see massive failures across the board in the effectiveness of organizational learning.
Corporate Learning Programs Need to Consider Context, Not Just Skills
Spending on corporate learning, particularly leadership development, continues to increase at a staggering pace, and learning departments are frequently part of the problem. The result is learning that isn’t clearly tied to strategy execution. Learning departments need to reorient from what they’re trying to teach to where these things show up in work.
To Address Gender Bias at Your Company, Start with Teams
In the past decade organizations have invested significant resources to try to address the gender gap in senior management. But these efforts aren’t really working. Women account for just 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs and fewer than 15% of corporate executives at top companies worldwide. The only area where women pull ahead of men is in human resources, where they account for 71% of all HR managers.
Overcome Resistance to Change by Enlisting the Right People
Change initiatives fail when senior leaders don’t see that their organizations are social systems. Organizations are defined by bundles of local relationships, social expectations, and unwritten rules that exist between thousands of people. These people create tribes — collections of like-minded people who build patterns around how work gets done. This system is highly resistant to change, as anyone who as ever tried to “impose” change on a system knows.
Doing the Wrong Things with High Potentials
Almost every organization goes through a painstaking process to identify high potentials. But what leaders do with high potentials then is just wrong. We isolate them, give them some posh-abstracted development program, and then send them back to work. If we really want to benefit high potentials, we should recognize them for what they are: People who have the right routines to thrive in our social system. I’ve worked with high potential populations around the world.
Doing the Wrong Things with High Potentials
Almost every organization goes through a painstaking process to identify high potentials. But what leaders do with high potentials then is just wrong. We isolate them, give them some posh-abstracted development program, and then send them back to work. If we really want to benefit high potentials, we should recognize them for what they are: People who have the right routines to thrive in our social system. I’ve worked with high potential populations around the world.
3 Reasons Why Talent Management Isn’t Working Anymore
Every CEO claims to struggle with the challenge of getting the right “talent,” but what does this really mean? Their real concern is: Do I have the people who will understand my agenda and be able to really change how work gets done, at pace? This is the wrong question. Individuals can make a difference in an organization, but a social system — particularly in large organizations — is always stronger.
What Separates High-Performing Leaders from Average Ones
Research shows that employees dislike their jobs, don’t trust their leaders, and aren’t engaged. If you’re a leader — or aspiring to be one — you should be frightened. Are organizations in the modern world built for leaders to fail? Or can you overcome these leadership challenges, and if so, how? How can you become a better leader, if not a great one, in this environment?
How to Make Learning at Work, Work
The 70-20-10 mantra is bandied about in most corporate learning discussions like a toy weapon by a bunch of toddlers. But this intensity of focus lacks rigour — the “how” to do it. Most solutions to access the “70” are a combination of e-learning modules, new performance management frameworks and tools, and other processes that land with a thud on the floor of most operational leaders’ offices.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Todd
Contact Todd, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack