John Zorich
Head of Global Enablement Solutions, Qualtrics
How do you define enablement?
Enablement is about helping our revenue-generating teams find success. At its core, it's about empowering those teams by simplifying what they need to know, say, do, and show to reach their targets. This is achieved through a number of critical functions including training and curriculum, systems, tools, processes, and data-driven insights.
Describe your current role.
I currently lead the Global Enablement Solutions team at Qualtrics. I launched the team about a year ago and we're now a team of 8 that's responsible for global enablement strategy, curriculum development, enablement systems and delivery vehicles, leading global initiatives, and reporting and analytics. We work closely with the various regional enablement teams who directly support our sales and customer success teams.
Briefly walk through your journey to get where you are today.
My entire career has been centered in the Learning & Development space. I started out as a Training Specialist in the contact center industry. I was lucky to have a mentor who got me interested in instructional design and curriculum development and guided me through my first large-scale project and soon after I became professionally certified. In order to achieve the depth of expertise in L&D that I wanted for myself, I knew I had to work in a wide variety of industries and that eventually brought me to Adobe, where I built their first-ever sales enablement program for their direct-to-consumer and SMB markets. About three years ago I joined Qualtrics and now lead the Global Enablement Solutions team.
What’s your proudest accomplishment?
Building my current team and seeing all that they've accomplished this past year. Just a little over a year ago, eLearning at Qualtrics consisted of little more than a video recording of a talking head. In the course of the past year, we recruited and hired a team of 7, gelled together as a team, fleshed out our future-state vision for enablement, developed a competency-based curriculum, created our first-ever global onboarding program and a robust online library supported by a blended learning strategy tied to metrics that matter to the business.
What’s your advice to someone getting started in enablement?
Be curious and never stop pushing yourself to learn. But that curiosity should extend beyond the knowledge and tools of the enablement function and even beyond the broader business you support. Be curious about the broader world and a wide variety of subjects. Not only will that give you additional depth and credibility in your profession, but more importantly, it will enrich your life.
What are you doing to develop yourself?
I'm concentrating my self-development in two areas lately:
Being more proactive in reaching out to connect and network with other enablement leaders and listening to what they are working on and their approach to doing things.
Augmenting my business/industry reading with subjects that on the surface would seem to have nothing to do with it. I was an English Literature major and I'm still a bit of a nerd, so I actually enjoy the classics and I find that they enrich my life, and that helps keep me sharp with my work. I recently finished Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and a book on the works of Salvador Dali.
Connect with John on LinkedIn!