Learning In Practice FAQ

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Q. What are the Learning In Practice awards?

A. Chief Learning Officer magazine's Learning in Practice awards were developed to recognize industry leaders who have demonstrated excellence in the design and delivery of workforce learning and development programs.

Awards are given annually in two broad categories: practitioners and providers. Practitioner awards include seven individual awards, including the industry’s top honor, the CLO of the Year. Practitioner awards are further split into two divisions: Division 1 for organizations with more than 10,000 employees. Division 2 for organizations with less than 10,000 employees.

Provider awards include eight awards for qualified service providers, including vendors, consultants and partner organizations. There are no separate divisions for provider awards.

For a full listing of categories, visit the Categories page.

Q. What's new in 2012?

A. With the guidance of a committee of chief learning officers and past winners of the awards, the 2012 award categories have been revised. In the Practitioner categories, the following changes have been made:

A new Technology award has been added for CLOs who have best applied new and emerging technologies to their organization's L&D practice.
The Innovation award has been revised to recognize innovation in practice and process, not just in technology.
The Leadership award has been renamed the Strategy award and revised to focus on leader's business acumen and development of organizational strategy.
The Vanguard award has been renamed the Trailblazer award.
The Learning Team award has been replaced by the Collaboration award which recognizes learning teams' work with internal and external organizational partners.

In the Provider categories, the following changes have been made:

The Customer Service award has been replaced with the Community Service award, which is designed to recognize the pro bono work companies in service to their communities or to the learning and development industry.
The Outsourcing award has been replaced with the Vendor Partnership award to better reflect the wide spectrum of partnerships between practitioners and vendor companies.
The Excellence in LMS award has been replaced by the Blended Technology award designed to better reflect the variety of technologies that vendors bring to bear on behalf of their client companies.

For a full description of the categories, please visit the Categories page.

Q. Who is eligible to apply?

A. The practitioner awards are reserved for practicing learning and development professionals at for-profit, nonprofit, government and academic organizations. The provider awards are reserved for vendors, consultants and partnering organizations that provides services to client organizations.

All awards, with the exception of the CLO of the Year award, recognize leaders and providers for initiatives conducted within the past year. In the case of the 2012 awards, initiatives conducted anytime in 2011 up through June 2012 are eligible. Initiatives that were begun earlier are eligible so long as demonstrable results can be documented in the current award nomination period.

Q. Why is the CLO of the Year award different?

A. The CLO of the Year award is designed as a career recognition award and thus is designed to recognize a body of work, rather than a single initiative conducted in the past year. CLOs applying for this award may include work conducted on behalf of their organization outside of the one year period applied to the other award categories.

Q. How are the provider awards different from the practitioner awards?

A. Besides recognizing vendors and service providers, the provider awards require nominees to describe work they have conducted on behalf of a client within the past year. In order to preserve the integrity of the award, that client must be named within the application.

Q. Can we nominate more than one person in the same application for a practitioner award?

A. No. With the exception of the Collaboration award, all practitioner awards are designed to recognize the individual learning and development leader with responsibility for the initiative described in the nomination.

Q. Can we apply for more than one award?

A. Yes. There is no limit on the number of awards you can apply for.

Q. How do I apply for the awards?

A. There is an online application process with available downloadable forms to preview nomination requirements. The nomination process for the 2012 awards is open from May 18, 2012 to July 13, 2012 at 11 pm Pacific time. DEADLINE EXTENDED! The deadline for nominations is now July 27, 2012 at 11 pm Pacific time.

Q. Is there a cost to apply? How can I pay?

A. There is a $195 application processing and handling fee for practitioner categories. Provider categories are $495. When you complete the online application and click submit you will be required to pay the application fee with a credit card. Your application is not finalized until payment.

Q. When will the winners be announced?

A. Finalists will be announced in August 2012. At that point, they will not know which award – gold, silver or bronze – they have received. The final awards will be announced during a special ceremony at the Fall 2012 CLO Symposium from Sept. 19-21 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Q. What do award winners receive?

A. Award winners will receive a specially designed award during the ceremony at the Fall CLO Symposium. They will also be recognized in a special section in the December issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.

Q. What is the judging process and criteria?

A. A panel of judges has been established for each of the 16 categories of awards to ensure the entries can be judged consistently and fairly. Winners will be determined by averaging scores assigned by judges to each entry. In the event of a tie, a select group of judges will review competing entries to determine winners.

The scoring has been set up to be consistent across the award categories and judges will provide numerical scores for each of the following criteria:

Practitioner Awards:

1) Leadership: The degree to which the practitioner or team led the initiative, demonstrated by behaviors such as setting clear goals, providing guidance, coaching and support, working through obstacles and/or celebrating success.

2) Challenge: The scope, difficulty and size of the initiative.

3) Award-specific criteria: See Category page for description of award.

Provider Awards:

1) Ownership: The degree to which the provider took ownership of the client's challenge, demonstrated by behaviors such as helping define outcomes, setting clear goals, providing guidance, working through obstacles and communicating challenges and successes.

2) Challenge: The scope, difficulty and size of the initiative.

3) Award-specific criteria: See Category page for description of award.

Each of the three award criteria is judged on a scale of 1 to 7:

7 (Breakthrough and/or Role Model): For learning practitioners or vendor companies considered "breakthroughs" and/or "role models" for the learning and development industry. The challenge is considered to be extreme (across an entire industry) or global (large numbers of learners, many stakeholders, very difficult to accomplish), and the nominees have demonstrated role-model leadership.

4-6 (Outstanding): For learning practitioners or vendor companies who did an outstanding job, met or exceeded all of the criteria as described and accomplished all goals. The complexity was significant and/or the nominees demonstrated clear leadership.

2-3 (Meets the criteria): For learning practitioners or vendor companies whose initiatives met the criteria, but did not or could not provide clear or reliable evidence to identify initiatives as breakthrough or outstanding.

1 (Does not meet the criteria): Did not meet the criteria established or failed to document how the criteria were met.

Q. Who are the judges?

A. Judges include senior practitioners, learning and development experts, Chief Learning Officer editors and past award winners. Each nomination is reviewed by multiple judges to minimize bias.

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