Leadership Training

Today we’re speaking with Eric Dingler, who recently joined Deloitte Service LLP (“Deloitte Services”) as the Director of Learning and Talent Development for the United States for Deloitte Consulting. Prior to that, he held the role of Senior Director, People & Organization Effectiveness at the Gap.

• Please tell us about your educational background and what influences and/or people led you down the Learning and Development career path.

I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Stockton in accounting, and went to work for Arthur Andersen in 1987 to pursue my CPA. But I really wasn’t certain that accounting was going to be my long term calling. So after I earned my CPA 18 months later, when Arthur Andersen’s consulting division was split off to become its own strategic business unit, I saw that as an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new enterprise. I knew that I enjoyed project-based work, being creative, and thinking strategically, so becoming a founding member of this new initiative was a very exciting career move. It also meant that I didn’t have to worry about payroll, cash flow or growing equity (even though it was a very entrepreneurial role) thanks to it being under the Arthur Andersen umbrella.

The business was very successful, but after a few years our group was still struggling with the issue of how to differentiate ourselves as consultants. We realized that although many clients were happy with us once we completed a project (so long as we left them with a three pound binder of data and results), six months to twelve months later they were dissatisfied because nothing had really changed. So the question our leadership team was asking ourselves was, “how do you actually get sustainable change?” We realized that creating that tangible result, a new organizational habit so to speak, was the most valuable thing we could do for an organization.

Then in 1991, our practice contracted with Peter Senge’s organization out of MIT at the time, author of The Fifth Discipline that focuses on the concept of the learning organization. Arthur Andersen had managers from around the world to work with Peter’s concepts for two years, and I was one of them. That experience really opened my eyes and showed me the way to achieving that sustainable change we had been looking for. Ultimately, I learned that creating new capabilities at the individual level leads to new capabilities at the organizational level.

So I began my pursuit of a career in Organizational Learning and Development in earnest, which led me to a new role with Coca Cola as a learning coach where I focused on how to build learning capabilities in executive teams. I then moved to Bristol-Myers Squibb where I led Global Organizational Development. And that brought me to the Gap as the Senior Director of People and Organization Effectiveness. Each of those roles has allowed me to approach the question that drives me (how to obtain sustainable change?) from a different lens. I viewed each of those positions as both an opportunity to add incredible value to the company, as well as a time for me build my own intellectual net worth.

• You recently left the GAP after four years as the Senior Director of People & Organizational Effectiveness. What is one of the accomplishments you had with this role that you are most proud of?

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