WiSE: Your background isn't the traditional sales, L&D, or training background- how did you get into Enablement and how did your skills transfer to make you one of Enablement's top voices?  
Casey Planck: I came from a social work and counseling background, and it took me a while to understand that the skillset I used there would help me tremendously in Enablement. Active listening and ensuring I understand the underlying cause of problems, not the byproducts of them has been big for me. I love building relationships with people. I've been told I'm easy to do business with because being adaptable has always had to be a possibility. We can't control everything, so if it is out of your control roll with it and make the most impact you can in a positive way.  

W: What is your favorite part of the role and how do you continue to derive value from what you create? 
CP: I am an extremely creative person and I love building or improving. Enablement is where I can make a career out of that. Making sure what I build makes an impact is so satisfying for me, which is also why I love the analytical side to enablement. It's not a one and done, I problem solve time and time again to ensure I'm bringing value where people need it most. 

W: Enablement has quickly evolved in the last 5-years and is continuing to change- where do you see the role in the next 5-years?

CP:   

• We are simplifying our processes and decreasing what we say yes to so that we focus primarily on only high impact programs. We want to provide the biggest impact because we thrive on making you more efficient.
  
  

• We are communicating much more and providing clarity into value propositions for what we propose, what we do, and what we have done. -- We are also backing that up with data tied to business goals.
  
  

• We will be using AI to simplify admin tasks, simplify creation processes, and increase the analytics we provide.
  
  

• More microlearning's, playbooks, pitch practices, and just in time learnings.

W: Let's talk Enablement tools.. what are some of your favorites and how do you measure its effectiveness on your enablement efforts?  

CP:   

• For sales teams: we need a centralized repository that is easily searchable, can access it on multiple devices, can edit the formatting to meet individual needs, can store multiple modalities of content, has utilization reporting, and can link to other locations.  You want to think of this centralized repository as Sales' Second Brain where anytime they need resources they can easily find it. We also incorporate standardized ways of organizing this repository and standardized ways of naming everything within it. We have formatting that we follow to ensure this space doesn't become cluttered or overwhelming, and once you understand the organization and naming structure you know exactly what to search or where to look.

• For enablement teams: I'd say a good project management software as they instill a discipline of higher performance. We have a template for every modality of content that we create which provides clarity and it also decreases mistakes. We can easily duplicate the template and then customize it for our specific project. It's easy to forget to create a reinforcement plan or coaching guides when you are so focused on getting the original asset out, this ensures we cover all our bases, and if we discover a new step that improves the process or a way to combine steps, we edit the template.  We also have reoccurring reminder to pull analytics on specific assets and programs, so we get snapshots in time on the impact we are making. 

If you're a woman in enablement and would like to be interviewed for the site,

 email WiSEGlobalContact@gmail.com with the subject line, 'Interview'