Inside IALR

Balancing Flexibility, Strategy and Exponential Growth: A Conversation with IALR Leadership

• Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

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In this episode of Inside IALR, we sit down with President Telly Tucker and Executive Vice President of Operations Dr. John Hughes for a wide-ranging conversation about growth, leadership and the mission of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. From managing exponential expansion to filling workforce gaps, Tucker and Hughes reflect on how IALR continues to transform lives in Southern Virginia and beyond. Along the way, they share candid insights on challenges, opportunities, and the people who make it all possible. 

This episode offers a thoughtful look behind the curtain at IALR’s momentum, future regional economic transformation, leadership in action, and how innovation takes shape across research, manufacturing, workforce and education.

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching.

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Caleb Ayers:

Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR. Thanks for joining us today. We got a fun one today. We got two of the top dogs at IALR. We got President Telly Tucker and Executive Vice President of Operations Dr John Hughes. Thank you guys for being here.

John Hughes:

Thank you for having us. Thank you.

Caleb Ayers:

All right, first things first. Very serious Boneless wings or bone-in wings, traditional bone-in wings.

John Hughes:

Definitely bone-in. A boneless wing is described as a nugget.

Caleb Ayers:

Yes, and that is why I love it. I'm on the boneless team, so, yes, I will take my chicken nuggets with sauce. So I think this is fun just for the sake of. Since I've been here, I've seen this place grow a ton and I know that trend is not stopping. You know there's a lot of growth opportunities all over our organization, so I just thought it'd be fun to kind of talk shop with you guys about how do you try to manage that, how do you approach growth and those sorts of things. So when you all are out in the community talking about what ILR does, what's kind of like your one minute explanation that you all give as far as what in the world we do here? Because it can go a lot of different directions and I've worked on my pitch in different ways and I'm still tweaking it. So, just interested in what does y'all's one-minute elevator pitch look like?

Telly Tucker:

My initial response usually is how much time do you have? Because it's going to take longer than one minute. But if I'm forced to give an elevator speech, I usually talk about. We transform the lives of the people that we serve in this region, and we do it through one of five ways. We do it through research, we do it through workforce training, we do it through educational partnerships, we do it through economic development, job growth, helping people start businesses, and then we do it through tourism, which includes the conference center. So if that was my 60 seconds, I'd try to explain it. Then people usually ask well, how, how do you do it through those? And then that's when we have to get into a much deeper conversation.

Caleb Ayers:

Right, so that's basically our mission statement. Just you stepped in to transform lives instead of the economy. I like that.

John Hughes:

Yeah, I really do look at it from a learning perspective and an educational perspective, and so first thing I usually say is that we are a unicorn in many ways, but we look forward to having education from K through 12, all the way through adulthood, and it's really related to workforce for each division, and so that's usually a springboard for some additional information, because I say that we only our elevator right here in this main main building only goes to the second floor. So that speech really is short.

Caleb Ayers:

That's a good elevator, though, right the glass elevator. Even though it is short it's got a got a nice little view. So you know, as I was saying in the beginning, you know we're growing very fast. It has been even just since I've been here in the last two and a half years. It's been, I mean, it seems like every couple of weeks we're adding, adding new positions, adding new staff. I think it's about 170 people we're up to now, give or take.

John Hughes:

As of as of August 4th, it was 166. And I think we've added some, so you're right in the ballpark.

Caleb Ayers:

How do you all approach managing that kind of growth?

Telly Tucker:

That's a very open-ended question for you all to have at it patience you have to be patient, you have to ask, um, I think, the people that you work with and you have to set the expectation that it's not a matter of if something's going to go on unexpected, um, it's a matter of when and how you handle, um, those bumps in the road, those detours being flexible, being nimble, being willing to adjust and giving people a little grace as we continue to grow, to manage those unexpected bumps in the road.

Telly Tucker:

I think the good thing about you know, with sitting in the president's seat and understanding the people that we have and this is something that we look for in our future candidates for employment Do they have the right personality? Would they fit into the culture of the organization, meaning we are doing what we're doing to serve our community, to improve the lives of the people who live here, their families, future generations. And if we come from the place of you know, from the right frame of mind, of I'm doing this for the right reasons and I've got the right people in the seat, then we can work through any of the unexpected turbulence or bumps in the roads that we come into contact with.

John Hughes:

I think we have attempted to practice measured growth right. It's been an exponential change in personnel as well as responsibility, not only internally but externally. We had orientation today, and one thing I usually say to our newest employees is that they are now officially ambassadors of ILR, and so that's a big deal. When we talk about having community outreach, touches in the community, responsibility in the community, and so with measured growth, we have a great responsibility to everybody around us, and so we also have to have the ability to be nimble and to be respectful of the fact that we may make some mistakes within that growth and be able to pivot, change, correct and make a difference toward economic transformation for our region and for our larger footprint, which is really worldwide at this point.

Caleb Ayers:

And Telly, you mentioned the words you know, being nimble. You said the word being nimble. How do we balance kind of and I mean that goes to what you were saying too, john of you know measured. So how do you balance that of being nimble and being able to move fast but also being strategic and measured and thinking, you know, more long-term? How do you guys balance those two things, as we're thinking about what the organization is right now versus what it should be next month, next year, next 10 years?

Telly Tucker:

You have to be a good listener 10 years, you have to be a good listener. Many of the programs and the initiatives that are taking place on our campus have never been done before, so oftentimes there's not a playbook to follow, so to speak. When I think about what the Applied Research team is doing in the controlled environment agriculture space, a lot of that's really new and innovative. Similarly what the manufacturing advancement team is doing with ATDM and an accelerated training program, you know, eight hours a day on three shifts a week. There really isn't a playbook for that. And so in order to, I think the first thing we learned to do is to be good listeners, because we've set programs up to mirror either what industry has asked us to mirror in terms of what they're expecting out of the students who graduate, or a collection of best practices from whatever sources that we've gained information to create a program or initiative. And if we weren't willing to be, it's not that we're so smart and we have all the answers and we put together this master plan that we just brilliantly know is going to work.

Telly Tucker:

We really do try to listen and we try to be flexible so that when we get feedback, we want continuous feedback and have that loop of what are we doing? Well, good, bad and different? How do we pivot where we need to to improve things or shed something if it's not working? Hopefully, if we need to fail, fail fast, learn quickly, pivot and then move in the right direction. We as a political subdivision have a little bit more flexibility than we would if we were a traditional unit of local, state or federal government. So I think, by the nature of the creation of the organization, our organizational structure, our governing body, our board of trustees, we have the ability to be and they encourage us to be nimble and continue to be responsive, and when we need to move and pivot, we do that.

John Hughes:

Well said, my eye was going to say that you know we do listen to what our industry partners want. I think that is a mantra that I've heard Dr Lohman say more than once in the research sector. It's not that we're out there saying we can do all of these wonderful things although we can but we listen to what industry wants and we try to meet that need.

Caleb Ayers:

Tally, I've heard you describe us as a we fill gaps. That's kind of a big part of what we do, and that goes exactly to what you're saying, john. If someone needs something that we have the technical capability to pull off, we're a good candidate to jump in and pull that off.

John Hughes:

And also being aware of your limitations and capabilities as well. Right, so we're not trying to do everything and be everything to everyone. We're trying to figure out what that niche is, like you said, fill those gaps and see if we can fill the need, and we'll make every opportunity to do so.

Caleb Ayers:

We have a lot of niches we do. What do you all see as kind of some of the biggest challenges we are facing right now, as well as challenges you anticipate us facing over the next few years?

Telly Tucker:

That's a really good question Challenges we're facing. Right now the labor pool is still relatively shallow in terms of just global demand for talent and workers. So finding the right people to fill the critical roles in a time where we're still expected to execute even while we're kind of building the ship, so to speak, to use that analogy pun intended, I think that's a challenge. It's not unique to just ILR, it's really unique to probably every hiring manager and every company out here that's in need to hire talent right now, and so I think that will continue to remain a challenge for us going forward long, long term.

Telly Tucker:

I think about things like sustainability of programming, because we are piloting a lot of, you know, brand new initiatives. Oftentimes they're funded with grant or contract funding to kind of test the case, improve the model Well, improving that model. We often come to a crossroad where we have to look at what's the sustainability model or the business model that sustains resources and funding to continue to provide that if there's value and we really lean into the value proposition. So for us, if we are confident and we can communicate that there is a tremendous value proposition, it makes it much easier to think about what's the sustainability plan and who are the benefactors of that value, because, ultimately, if people are receiving value, they're willing to help pay for that, and so those are some of the things that I think are challenges that are always on my mind and, keep you know, keep me up at 3 am.

John Hughes:

From an operational standpoint, I tend to lean toward some of the safety and security measures right. Not only physical safety and security, but information technology security. As we have talked about our growth here. We may be a target for those nefarious characters that you see at three o'clock in the morning when you're thinking about things on um and and on your email or on your text messages, and they're. They're ever present.

John Hughes:

And so as we grow in in um, what people sees as ILR, then you know people are looking at us to say how can they get into what we do in a not so nice way? And so the physical security piece access to our buildings, how many people are on campus? What are we doing on campus in relation to our conference center and visitors on campus have increased pedestrian safety, vehicle safety all of those things matter in what was maybe a smaller campus years ago, have become really important in the last year or so or more important, and so we've hired some additional staff to really lead that effort in collaboration with leadership, and hopefully that will bring about a lot of change in the future and have a culture of safety as it relates to not only, again, physical safety but information security as well.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, no, that makes sense that. Yeah, the more people that are involved, the larger the space that is involved, the more different things you have going on. Obviously, there's more factors at play. More exposure yeah, I've gotten those texts from Telly asking for me to buy those gift cards Right.

Caleb Ayers:

I did not buy any gift cards, though. So in talking about just like going back, I guess, to the beginning of, we do a lot of different things. You know, there's Navy training programs. There's middle school, technical, career and technical education that's happening, that we're, you know, leading and putting in middle schools. There's a conference center. There's economic development. There's AmeriCorps members going into schools that we're managing. There's AmeriCorps members going into schools that we're managing. I mean there's a lot of very diverse, I guess, diverse services, but then also diverse audiences that we're trying to reach. So when you guys are thinking like big picture about us as an organization, how does that factor in that, like, our list of target audiences is a very long list of different I mean ranging from large corporations to middle schoolers how does that factor into your thought process when you're thinking about what we do and how we're trying to grow and what we're trying to do?

John Hughes:

That's again the million-dollar question. I think economic transformation starts with the people. The million dollar question. I think economic transformation starts with the people and it's a big deal to me that we advise you know people on that. We interact with the breadth of what we do and how important what we do is to the economic change in this region. And so getting to a point of having the public be interested again in ILR and what is happening here is very key to our mission.

John Hughes:

You can't say so. We train people to make parts for submarines, we do controlled environment agriculture, we have educational systems, but it's really all about the people that are involved in that continuum, even with our community health worker outreach. That's really about the people. There may be some people in that continuum that never set foot on this campus, but they are involved and they know that ILR is a part of what is trying to transform their lives from being an AmeriCorps volunteer to being a community health worker, to being a CNA or further education than that. So really I think we need to drill down and make sure we remain aware that people are really the catalyst for this economic transformation that we're trying to make.

Telly Tucker:

My response will probably speak to our listeners who have a business or a business development background. I'm an economic developer at heart, kind of been in that sector for 20 years, that sector for 20 years, and the one thing you have to do you never know who you're going to run into and who your next potential target audience is going to be, and so you develop very quickly. You develop a skill of learning to recognize what your intended audience needs to get from you, to convince them that you know this is a place that you should invest. So, whether we're recruiting a business, one day you could be recruiting a Fortune 500 technology company. The next day you could be supporting a mom and pop entrepreneur invest their life savings into a service-based business on Main Street. Those two audiences are drastically different and you have to be able to communicate in a way that speaks to each one of those audiences, and so it requires you to be able to scan and listen and understand what influences their decision-making and hopefully be able to present something about the community that you work in or the project that you're working on that speaks and resonates with them. We do a lot of whiteboarding, a lot of I guess you would describe it as mind mapping, kind of putting things in a, displaying them visually, looking at Venn diagrams of all these disparate entities, these programs that we administer. What are their goals? What are their objectives? Where do they overlap? How do we find common ground between all the different things happening on this campus? And I'm a visual kinesthetic learner, so seeing it wrestling with it, moving pieces around, helps me rationalize how these things work together for the common mission of an organization?

Telly Tucker:

In this case, for the common mission of an organization. In this case, it's not. You know, I think I wouldn't be honest if I said it's something that you master, right, it's always something that you're trying to get better at, you're trying to improve, you're trying to learn more, you're trying to understand more. And you know, being a I mean I can't overemphasize listening skills enough, because it's how we learn, and there's so many smart people in this organization, people much smarter than I, that I lean on to bring their expertise to the table, listen to them and hopefully learn something from them and allow them to use that technical expertise or that institutional knowledge to be more effective. So it's a long-winded answer but hopefully listeners can get a nugget or two out of that.

Caleb Ayers:

John, you said earlier we're a unicorn. I'm going to start using that line. That's a fun one. I only think of that in reference to basketball players. That's where my context is Of course it is.

Caleb Ayers:

That seems more fun to throw it around for this, but I just wrote down when I was thinking about what we do. So our funding is a mix of federal state grant and revenue. The role that we play can be a consultant, a partner, a contract service provider, a training provider, a convener of different groups, a host, and I think that list goes on. But that's what I wrote down. And then our audiences would include startup companies, large business businesses, the federal government, conference guests, students, people in the community Again, that list goes on as well Middle schoolers. So when you put it like that, I think most organizations don't have that level of complexity to what they're doing. Last question, real quick how has our mission expanded, slash, changed with the growth of the organization? I know that idea of economic transformation has kind of been there since the beginning over 20 years ago, but how is our mission kind of growing, changing, expanding, adapting to who we are today?

John Hughes:

I'll give Telly the last word on this as the president. I think economic transformation for the southern region of Virginia. I alluded before that we really have a footprint that's worldwide. At this point I think we cannot lose sight of that mission. Sometimes it's hard to do and with growth maybe there's a need to conceptually expand that vision. But we really have to keep the southern region of a region as opposed to bringing people into a region stewards of not only sustainability, the environment, but also of our base here in the southern region of Virginia and our initial footprint to say ILR is still here for you. We provide training for the region, we provide economic support and those funds, those people that still live here, work here in our region, they matter.

John Hughes:

So there may be, there is a school of thought to say, yes, our mission does expand into other parts of Virginia and even the world. But we really still have to keep a focus on the southern region of Virginia to see that it does not revert to the way it was, you know, 30 years ago or so, because there was a booming industry here and they did have a lot going on in this region. But one of the things that birthed ILR was an economic downturn, and you know we are not immune to that happening again. So we really have to insulate ourselves, be aware, have a strategic vision that is still focused on the southern region, while serving a greater audience and a greater number of participants and partners in what we do every day.

Telly Tucker:

What Dr Hughes said no, in all seriousness, no, in all seriousness, I'm not so sure the mission has changed in terms of economic transformation. What I would say is maybe how we accomplish it has evolved and grown. Give you an example A lot of people ask the question how does a program, how does a national program that's funded by the Navy, that trains people from 48 different states coming to Danville and then they train for 16 weeks and leave and go somewhere else? How does that help Danville? Why would we do that? Does that fall into economic transformation? And on its surface it's a very good question, because you might think, hmm well, it's a nice program to have, right, it's nice to say we've got a national training program it's funded by Navy in our backyard. But how does that feed into the mission of economic transformation? To Dr Hughes' point here in southern Virginia? So let me just maybe peel the layers of that onion back a little bit. First of all, having a national customized training, accelerated training program in your backyard that you were asked, that this community was asked to pilot on behalf of the Department of Defense and Navy is a demonstration that you have value in how you approach training and that you understand it. They could have asked any community. They probably could have asked any technical school, community college or training institution to put together a program, to pilot this program. That would become a national model. But they chose Danville Virginia. So in some ways it validates the value, the institutional knowledge, the history of this region's approach to how you build training programs. How you build training programs and I can't tell you how many times Linda Green has said, and she will share with prospects that come to the region when they say, can you customize a training program, she said rather than me tell you, let me show you. We're doing this for one of the largest customers in the world, the US government. If we can do it for them, check all the milestones and have success, we can certainly do it for you. So it's an illustration of value there.

Telly Tucker:

Similarly, when industry comes and they see programs like this and they realize that they can hire talent out of these programs, our theory has always been that industry will want to be closer to the well of talent. So an industry decides to locate in this region. To be closer to a training program provides a direct economic impact to Southern Virginia. Thirdly, students from all over the United States now know the name of Danville, virginia. They know the name of Southern Virginia, pennsylvania County. They know the name of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. Many of them are choosing to stay in Virginia. A smaller number of them are even staying in the region because they like the quality of life, they like the cost of living, they like what a um you know, an affordable home looks like in this region and everything that comes along with that, and the people in the region.

Telly Tucker:

Um, there's something special about the region. I truly believe that, which is part of the reason that I'm here. So we are indirectly reversing our population decline by bringing in 800 to 1,000 students every year, because many of those students are looking for opportunities, will have opportunities to stay in this region, start families in this region, um to buy a home and to create a life of their own in this region. So those are just a few ways that I wanted to highlight. On how you know, we are no one ever.

Telly Tucker:

I don't think anyone ever thought 20 years ago, 23 years ago now, when the Institute was created, that we would start a national training program in support of economic transformation.

Telly Tucker:

Give us the flexibility to think outside the box and to go after opportunities, not to be so risk adverse that we become paralyzed and just doing the same thing, but to really think about how could we use an opportunity that's in front of us that could impact the institute today, impact this region for years, maybe generations to come.

Telly Tucker:

That's just one example. I could say the same thing about a program like you know, go Tech, that we're looking to expand and hopefully license nationally at some point in time to help support continuing to deliver world-class career technical education in K-12 schools in Southern Virginia. I could see very easily see that being a continued economic benefit to the Southern Virginia region. And the same thing I think we can say about controlled environment agriculture, this region being recognized as the East Coast hub for controlled environment agriculture and one of the places that companies from all over the world descend to work with our researchers, our scientists and to meet and think about what the future of that is going to be. So those are just a few ways. I think our mission remains consistent, but I think how we accomplish it really does kind of evolve as the days go on.

Telly Tucker:

And when we're long gone. Hopefully, the people that come after us will continue to think the same way.

Caleb Ayers:

Thank you, guys, for the chance to pick your brains about what in the world we do and where in the world we're going, so I think it's exciting stuff. Any other thoughts to add before we go?

John Hughes:

Thank you for having us, Caleb. I always appreciate it?

Telly Tucker:

You got it Done. For the day, my brain is empty. Got, you got it Done for the day.

Caleb Ayers:

My brain is empty. Got it all, thanks for emptying the brain for us.

John Hughes:

Have a good one, not quite. You have another meeting to go to. Thank you.