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ATD Blog

Career Journeys: Pru Sullivan

Thursday, September 18, 2014
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Pru Sullivan is currently the director of culture and workplace at Keurig/Green Mountain. Her fascinating career journey is one characterized by a positive focus on others and on change (figure below).

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Q: Let’s start out by talking a little about your current role.

A: When I joined Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (now Keurig/Green Mountain), I thought I was signing on to a small (400 person) organization near my home. Little did I know that there would be exponential growth (and exponential opportunities) just around the corner. I began as the director of continuous learning, and last year my focus shifted a bit as I took on the role of director of culture and workplace. The title says it all: my team and I are responsible for ensuring a culture and workplace of excellence, which we accomplish through a variety of creative and innovative means.

Q: Whats the most satisfying dimension of your current work?

A: I genuinely thrive on collaboration, so working with a range of people, configurations, and partnerships (both inside and outside the organization) is a true joy. For me, another essential aspect of my role at Keurig/Green Mountain (and really all of the positions I’ve had) involves innovation. Being on the cutting edge, exploring new approaches, figuring out novel solutions…I find them a continual source of energy and inspiration.

Q: What skills, characteristics, or traits have most helpful to you along the way?

A: Coming from abundance has been key. When I think about abundance, I’m reminded of the thought that when we light someone else’s candle, there’s more light in the room, not less. When I am willing to give things away, there’s more for me and for us. And I find that it’s contagious; people are willing to share and try things in an abundant environment. 

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I also think that a willingness to listen at deep level has been enormously helpful to me and my urgency to meet business timelines. In today’s environment, we need to figure out how to make things happen. I’m happy to iterate and have come to appreciate progress over perfection. And, of course, related to that is being okay with failure and using it as a chance to regroup and try again.

Q: Looking back, what one or two choices did you make that helped most to move you forward?

A: When Digital Equipment Corporation was closing, I started my own business. I created a vision board and within six months, my consulting practice looked just like I had envisioned. I committed in advance to doing that work with clients for 10 years and then returning to an organization. I gained valuable experience consulting and leading major transformations. But I also realized the benefits of developing the patience required to lead and implement day-to-day internally. That’s when I joined Green Mountain.

Also, it was important for me to find organizations that resonated with who I am and what’s important to me. Digitial demonstrated a great commitment to employees and the community. And Keurig/Green Mountain aligned directly with my values, allowing me to bring things like appreciative inquiry into the fabric of the organization.

Q: Without having to kill me, what are you working on thats new or exciting?

A: The biggest thing I’m working on right now is a project called the Keurig/Green Mountain Way. It’s an onboarding and re-boarding program designed for both new and existing employees to come together to deeply understand our organization. We’re sorting out and trying to be really intelligent about what people need to do in community to learn and what can be done online or alone.

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We’re getting to work with internal partners from curriculum folks and talent acquisition teams to business leaders and external vendors. We’re sorting out what business and leadership capabilities are required to drive the business.

It’s exciting because of the rapid experimentation and high level of collaboration—and the positive feedback. One participant shared that he’d learned more in this one-day program than in a semester course in business school.

Q: Looking into your crystal ball, what do you believe with be the next big thing in L&D?

A: I see a real challenge around old models related to hierarchy and competition. In our organization, there are incredible partnerships. Take Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. You could say they’re competitors; but they’re also our partners. It’s all about reframing relationships. From my perspective, it’s all about networks vs. hierarchy and partnerships vs. levels.

I think we’ll also see the need for people to be able to learn more quickly, throw out old thinking, and adopt new approaches. We’ll have to accelerate learning by moving away from giving people rule books, competency models, and rigid processes. Things will have to be much more fluid and experiential—building in reflective loops. We can no longer make it just about being busy, rather we must help people build practices and rituals in for renewal. And, related to that, agility will be increasingly important. This too requires people to be grounded in other parts of their lives; and there’s a role in business to support that.

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Pru Sullivan is the director of culture and workplace innovation at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR). In her role she is responsible for leading the development of differentiated and integrated culture development and employee engagement strategies.  Her goal is that each employee can bring GMCR’s Vision, Mission and Values to life in their day to day work. Critical to achievement of this goal is creating a learning organization that engages, ignites and sustains each employee passion, dreams and goals.

Early in her career Pru was the organization and employee development manager at Digital Equipment Corporation and prior to GMCR was the founding partner of The Change Factory, Inc., an international consulting practice focused on individual and organizational breakthrough and growth.

About the Author

Julie Winkle Giulioni is a champion for workplace growth and development and helps leaders optimize talent and potential within their organizations with consulting, keynote speeches, and training.

Julie is the author of Promotions Are So Yesterday: Redefine Career Development. Help Employees Thrive. and co-author of the international bestseller Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees Want. She is a regular columnist for Training Industry magazine and SmartBrief and contributes articles on leadership, career development, and workplace trends to publications including The Economist.

Named by Inc. magazine as a Top 100 Leadership Speaker, Julie’s in-person and virtual keynotes and presentations offer fresh, inspiring, yet actionable strategies for leaders who are interested in their own growth as well as supporting the growth of others.

Her firm, DesignArounds, creates and offers training to organizations worldwide and has earned praise and awards from Human Resource Executive magazine’s Top Ten Training Products, New York Film Festival, Brandon Hall, and Global HR Excellence Council.

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