Connecting the Dots for More and more companies these days are training employees to be results-oriented critical thinkers. BY GAIL DUTTON Success hen Cigna needs its executives to think criti-cally on a global scale, it sends them abroad. After a week studying specific emerging markets—including how their cultures, economies, health-care systems, and gov-ernments operate—executives develop ideas to advance Cigna’s business in those countries. expecting them to perform. The program is a universal win. The NGOs gain expert volunteers, and the executives learn practical, on-the-ground realities they can use in their daily work. “It’s life-changing,” says John Staines, HR officer, Global IT for Cigna. “Those who’ve worked in those situations say they come up with different views of how people address health care, how they work, and how they communicate. Their mindset is different.” While that program is specifically for senior executives, Cigna has developed training for all levels of employees—from senior level to interns—to help them improve their critical thinking skills. www.trainingmag.com W 52 Those executives spend week two of the program in that developing economy as part of the Cultural Agil-ity Leadership Lab (CALL) program, working with locals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). That often means inserting IT professionals into areas with unreliable electricity, spotty cell phone reception, and sometimes no indoor plumbing, and | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016  training