2019 Winner
Wise 50 Over 50 Award™
Nancy Priest – Glass of Learning
www.glassoflearning.com
I spent most of my career in corporate learning. I started out as a Training Specialist with Sears HQ designing and facilitating across Canada; then moved on to be a Training & Development Officer for a Tier 1 manufacturing company; and a Designer, VP of Learning Solutions and EVP of Global Business Development for a global training company.
In June of 2014, I was temporarily laid off from my job as an Executive Vice President of Global Business Development in a global training company – summers were low business periods for the organization and in an attempt to save money, 25 people were given this layoff status.
Being temporarily laid off meant that I had no severance and no income for a minimum of two months. I knew I needed to work.
I went to the owner and CEO of the company and asked if I could work while being temporarily laid off – he said yes. I said it would be for customers or competitors and if he would be ok with that. His response was yes and he put this in writing.
I immediately started Glass of Learning and went to my network to see about potential work. I took on various contract projects that summer and by the fall, the global training company was not ready to take back the temporarily laid off employees. Customers began asking which company I worked for and I realized it was time to make a choice. I decided to leave my job and focus my energy on my own company.
We work with organizations to understand their performance gaps and design custom learning solutions to improve results. We develop employee skills, change behaviour and improve bottom line results with our learning solutions
We have a team of eight contract employees who work remotely in both French and English.
We give back to the community by supporting local charities including Guelph’s Adopt-a-Family initiative via a partnership with consulting company ODScore; making meals at Ray of Hope with other colleagues and providing charitable donations to various organizations.