Training Transformers
Bridging the Gap: Aligning L&D with Stakeholders With Caner Akova of Olympus EMEA
Caner Akova went from teaching language at the University of Toronto into learning and development, and found the two had less in common than he expected. Now at Olympus EMEA, he tells Tejas Pitkar why L&D gets cast as an order-taker, how to talk to finance and HR in their own terms, and why relationships, not better slides, close the stakeholder gap.
- Series
- Training Transformers
- Length
- 28 minutes
- Guest
- Caner Akova
- Access
- Free to watch
The recording plays through YouTube and follows your cookie preferences. The opening image is illustrative.
The conversation
Stop playing the sage.
In a classroom, students have to be there. In a business, salespeople have to sell. Caner’s point is that L&D loses stakeholders when it acts like the most knowledgeable person in the room, and wins them back by understanding what keeps them awake at night.
He is candid about his own mistakes, and practical about the fixes: take the order but shape part of it your way, borrow the business’s data through relationships, and speak money to finance and retention to HR.
On the episode
One guest. One host.
Guest
Caner Akova
L&D Manager, Olympus EMEA
Caner taught language in Turkey and at the University of Toronto before moving into blended learning and corporate L&D, where he focuses on closing the gap between L&D and stakeholders.
Host
Tejas Pitkar
Senior Product Marketing Manager, KITABOO
Tejas hosts KITABOO’s video podcasts, Training Transformers and Inside Associations, talking to learning leaders and association executives about how they build, deliver and measure learning.
Inside the episode
Go straight to what you need.
Pick a chapter and the recording starts at that moment.
What to take away
Relationships are the strategy.
Caner’s advice, each starting the episode where he gives it.
After the episode
Show stakeholders what training changed.
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