Gorana Sandric, The Energy of Words

By Gorana Sandric, Former Head of Group Talent Development, Coca-Cola HBC

I am starting this year with well-being in mind, to be sensitive to my needs and to the needs of others: I will work on my balance, flow, and reciprocity.

I recently chaired Talent Management Europe, charmed by knowing how iVentiv is running the ‘show’. The Chairwoman role requires adaptability, spontaneity, and being in the flow, quite the opposite of the skills I was asked to demonstrate as a leader during my corporate service.

Gorana Sandric, with curly hair and sat at a laptop, sits and smiles at the camera

The event was a mix of ‘golden nuggets’ on the relevant topics shared by participants and numerous networking opportunities. The iVentiv setup creates an ecosystem of experience, practices, knowledge, and support mechanisms. This is not the first iVentiv event I have chaired and I dare say that what remains after each conference is the strength and interaction of the network.

‘Go where the energy is’

If there would be a tagline of the event, this is the title that would take my vote. How to overcome resistance of the individuals whose jobs are soon to be  significantly transformed to engage in upskilling? How to implement a Talent Marketplace if everyone is not onboard?

It’s not easy to convince the whole organization about a Talent Marketplace. Nowadays, a ‘solution for most HR or Talent challenges’ is a worthwhile investment of leaders’ time. A specific piece of advice we heard several times during the event was to ‘go where the energy is’.

The onset of Industry 4.0 is already started to impact jobs, introducing a higher level of automation and urging companies to manage the transition of their workforce to remain employable and skilled for the new requirements. This transition holds several benefits if the organization prepares for it, and one of the requirements is to sharpen the focus and span of activities of our leaders and the system. Less is sometimes more and simple does not mean shallow.

How can you prepare your organisation for Industry 4.0?

I’m calling for a Strategic People Plan, with a clear purpose: build a targeted and focused set of interventions on the individual, team and system level that prepares the organization and its members for the impact of Industry 4.0 on their roles, jobs and skills.

Upskilling and reskilling is a part of it, but without holistically seeing the impact on the whole system, it will not create the desired outcomes.

What if you are challenged while introducing a new initiative and it seems impossible to mobilize the whole organization? What if you are faced with the organizational or leaders’ limited beliefs and an ‘old fashion style’?

No need to back off, go where the energy is, test it, adopt it and scale it up.

Does Talent Management institutionalize discrimination?

No worries, this was not a topic on the agenda: it is purely my conclusion. I allow myself to be a critic in the area I love, speaking from my own experience as a corporate citizen and, more recently, as an entrepreneur.

What would happen in your organization if someone said to the boss that they are struggling with mental health challenges? Where would they land in the next ‘boxing’ exercise during a Talent review (assuming that the organization is still using talent boxes)? I call the outcome of a Talent review ‘Boxing’. In simple terms, because they place employees in a matrix (or ‘boxes’).

I also want to research the link between mental health and the impact triggered by our ‘beloved’ Talent review, or the Performance Management cycles we force on individuals. We design the processes with the best intention and purpose, wanting to be fair and transparent.

In the past maybe it was not trendy to take into account the kind of criteria as the impact on the employees’ wellbeing. Maybe at some moment in time, such practices were helping leaders to manage, attract and retain their team members.

How do you create inclusive leadership?

How do we help leaders lead in today’s world? How do we help them hold meaningful conversations and remain curious, humble, creating a psychologically safe environment?

I recently read the following quote from Henry Mintzberg: ‘I don’t want to be a Human Resource, I want to be a Human Being’. It has so much truth in it and I feel that nothing else needs to be said.

This situation calls for inclusive leadership, especially to face the challenges of the future workforce: the most diverse ever and at the same time a rapidly shrinking workforce. Leaders need to be able to navigate the paradox of contrasting needs within their teams, ensuring wellbeing and outstanding performance.

We, Talent leaders, should embrace the change and democratize the processes to ensure that leaders are enabled to lead humans and not machines.

As a final thought, I place this question for you all: To what extent does the Performance Management process or Talent reviews enable leaders to hold performance and career conversations with an individual who may currently be struggling with mental health challenges?

Is it a Great Resignation, a Great Rotation, or a Great Renewal?

Another buzzword everyone talks about is the ‘Great Resignation’. I think it is relevant to create those buzzwords, so I need to familiarize myself or, otherwise,  I risk looking as if I am not UpToDate.

The last networking session in the event I was chairing made a great impact on many of us. I ended up concluding that I was simply ‘brainwashed’ with a perspective that someone offered and about which I had not  reflected critically enough.

I wonder if there is a need for other perspectives on few more buzzwords. Dramatic buzzwords are catchier, or able to mobilize us to avoid the ‘awful future that is coming’ unless we act upon it. Like the renowned ‘War for Talent’, for example.

What if I offer another perspective: most of the talent shortages you face (if you do) are self-inflicted by exclusive talent management, by being obsessed with overinflated profiles (profiles with unreasonably high expectations related to experience, knowledge, years of service, etc). There are organizations and leaders that overly rely on ‘buying’ skills, not knowing nor tapping enough into the capacity to develop their current workforce.

Coming back to the diverse and shrinking workforce, what are the ‘hidden talent pools’ of candidates that we do not yet have in the perspective because we were focused to win a few side battles in the war for talent. A change of perspective might help us avoid the war in the first place.

I love the idea of creating a variety of ecosystems, there is a positive inspiration in it.

If only I would more often push myself out of the comfort zone of the buzzword someone serves… Do you feel that energy if you change only one word: from Great Resignation to Great Renewal? Or from Great Resignation to Great Rotation?

It was an honour being the Chairwoman of the Talent Management Europe event in January, having such an amazing learning opportunity. I am chairing the same event in May and I do hope to meet many of you there.

Gorana Sandric is the former Head of Group Talent Development for the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company and a HR Leadership Development Consultant and Executive Coach. Her focus areas are Strategic People Planning, and L&D with the outcome to increasing inclusive environments, boosting entrepreneurial mindsets, and Talent Management strategy. If you're a Global Head of Talent, you can join Gorana and others at the next Talent Management Europe. Executive Knowledge Exchange for free. 

Thumbnail: 
News category: 
Talent Management

More Insights

When HU-X Founder Tia Katz first attended an iVentiv event, it marked the start of a relationship that would help shape her business, her thinking, and her sense of what’s possible in Leadership Development. Having first attended as a delegate in a corporate role at Citi, she now attends regularly as a sponsor, helping her connect with the iVentiv community of senior leaders in Learning and Executive Development.

“I was just so pleasantly surprised by everything,” she says. iVentiv events are “professional, of course–but also so human and so connecting.”

In this newly released case study, Tia reflects on her journey with iVentiv, from first-time delegate to multi-session sponsor, and shares how these experiences redefined her approach to learning, organisational development, and executive growth. 

Download the case study, and watch the interview now.

“You need to change the people, and changing the people goes through leadership.”
– Christophe Vanden Eede, Global Head of Talent Management, bpostgroup

As the demands on global organisations evolve in the face of disruption, digitalisation, and competitive reinvention, Christophe Vanden Eede’s work at bpostgroup offers a powerful case study in how leadership can catalyse transformation, not just through top-down mandates but by reshaping the very DNA of leadership across every layer of the organisation.

In a recent conversation with iVentiv, Christophe reflected on the seismic changes taking place within the Belgian postal service and how he’s leading an integrated transformation strategy rooted in leadership behaviour.

Christophe will be leading the conversation at Learning Futures Eindhoven on 10-11 June. Watch our interview and get involved, now.

The work of the Chief Learning Officer has always been dynamic. But the conversations captured across iVentiv sessions in Cologne, New York, London, and Copenhagen suggest we’ve entered a new inflection point—one where learning is more visible, more measurable, and more central to strategy than ever before.

This isn’t about checking-off trends. It’s about what’s happening right now inside global organisations that are restructuring the way they define skills, leadership, culture, and capability. Across breakout conversations, fireside chats, and iVentiv’s trademark Collaborative Café, senior learning leaders have reflected openly on what’s working, what’s evolving, and what’s next.

Read on for a detailed and nuanced synthesis—an exploration of facts that are shaping the L&D profession in real time.

“Are we spending too little on L&D?”

If you’re in a senior role in Learning & Development, you probably spend a lot of time worrying about this question. It’s a question that resurfaces in nearly every budget review and vendor conversation in the Learning space. 

Whether you’re setting your internal strategy or shaping the offering of a learning solution, the benchmark for a “good” L&D budget has never been more important — or harder to pin down.

That’s why we put together the iVentiv L&D Budget Report 2025: to provide a clearer picture of what companies are actually spending on L&D today — and what those numbers really say about priorities, value, and the future of work.

Based on responses from 126 senior L&D leaders across global organisations, the report dives into both total budget figures and spend-per-employee breakdowns. 

The headline? L&D budgeting is anything but standard.

Download the report now.

At a time when organisations across the world are rethinking the way they develop and retain talent, Sandvik is taking a holistic, integrated approach to talent optimisation. 

Eva Wikmark Walin, Global Head of Employee Experience at Sandvik, sat down with iVentiv’s Content Manager, Hannah Hoey, to reflect on how the Swedish engineering company is building a connected talent ecosystem, and what others can learn from their journey.

Watch our interview with Eva now to see how you could optimise your talent strategy.
 

In a special episode of The Learning Hack Podcast, recorded live at iVentiv’s Learning Futures London Executive Knowledge Exchange at the Shell headquarters, host John Helmer spoke to three of the leading minds in L&D. 

Against the backdrop of a world that feels more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) than ever, this episode explores how organisations are rising to meet the pace of change, and what it really takes to thrive in 2025 and beyond.

Featuring expert insights from:

  • Kevin Oakes, CEO of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and author of Cultural Renovation
  • Kim McMurdo, Head of Organisational Development, Standard Chartered
  • Terry Jones, Head of International Talent Development at Palo Alto Networks

this episode delves deep into the core themes shaping today’s workplace: transforming culture, fostering team-centric leadership in an age of hyper-individualism, and harnessing AI to elevate - not replace - human capability.

Whether you're leading a learning function, evolving your company’s culture, or rethinking the role of performance in a tech-driven age, this episode is a must-listen. Find it here and read on to learn more.

“Learning doesn't necessarily have to just be the partner,” says Stacey VanderHeiden Güney, Global Head of Learning at ArcelorMittal University. “It can actually, I think, be the futurist.”

In an era of relentless disruption and global complexity, Learning is no longer a support function – according to Stacey and many Heads of L&D, it’s a strategic lever for transformation. In this conversation with iVentiv, Stacey shares how the world’s leading steel company, ArcelorMittal, is building a future-ready workforce through agile, scalable, and human-centred learning strategies.

Read more and watch our interview with Stacey now.

In the fast-paced world of Learning, Talent, and Executive Development, finding the right events to attend can be overwhelming. Your inbox is overflowing with conference invites, your calendar is packed, and the challenge remains, which events are truly worth your time?

Enter iVentiv, a global leader in Executive Knowledge Exchanges. In 2025, iVentiv is bringing invaluable conversations directly to you, hosted by top global organisations such as Citi, Shell, KPMG, AXA, Bosch, Visa and more.

If you’re seeking more than just another conference, iVentiv’s events are designed to deliver real impact. Read this blog to find out why an iVentiv event should be on your calendar this year.

As digital transformation reshapes the corporate landscape, organisations are rethinking how they manage talent and skills. At E.ON, AI is at the heart of this evolution, revolutionising skill management, employee development, and internal mobility.

Markéta Alešová, Vice President of Global Talent and Diversity, shares how E.ON is leveraging AI to create a more transparent, skills-based workforce while balancing technological innovation with cultural transformation.

Watch our interview with Markéta now to explore how AI-driven insights, an employee-centric approach, and a shift toward an opportunity marketplace are shaping the future of Talent Management at E.ON.

The world of corporate learning, talent, and leadership is undergoing a period of intense transformation. As organisations strive to build resilient workforces and agile leaders, Chief Learning Officers and Heads of Talent, and Leadership face an array of challenges and opportunities.

The conversations at iVentiv’s recent Learning Futures sessions in Atlanta and Paris highlight the pressing themes that are shaping the future of workplace learning. Leadership and Executive Development, Reskilling and Upskilling, AI, and Learning Culture were the four most popular priorities identified by Global Heads of Learning at iVentiv events in 2024, so it’s no surprise to see all four represented in the top priorities of attendees at last month’s events as well.

These sessions, attended by senior learning executives, surfaced key trends, strategic shifts, and organisational imperatives that will define 2025 and beyond. Read all about what's top of your mind for your peers here.

Pages