Joan Lynch on recognizing the skills of veterans

Thought leaders sit down with WorkingNation Overheard at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2022
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Employers need to have a greater understanding of the skills learned from military service, according to Joan Lynch, chief content and programming officer, WorkingNation.

WorkingNation sat down with Lynch at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2022 in Beverly Hills.

“Veterans need to value the fact that they have already had a job. They’ve already been in a position that many people coming out of college or programs have not had – which is employment and having to do a job under sometimes very difficult circumstances,” says Lynch.

However, Lynch notes that the skills gained in the military are not always those that some veterans are looking to use long-term. “One of the most misused pieces of data when talking about veterans and work is retention. Employers say they’re worried the data shows that veterans don’t stay as long in their first jobs. That is not dissimilar to people coming out of college and going into their first jobs. One of the things about going into the military is, oftentimes, you’re selected and put into a student job or group, not because it’s what you want to do, but because it’s what you’re assigned to do.”

She continues, “We often have veterans coming out with certain skills in an area that they really don’t have an interest in, but they often take their first job based on what their skills are and where they fit. And throughout that first year, perhaps they find what their passion is or a program or something that drives them in a direction of doing a job that is more aligned with what they would like to do.”

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.