Podcast Summary “Skills Over Roles: A New Approach with
Rico Maranto of WM”
Rico Maranto didn’t start his career thinking he’d lead leadership development for a company with 50,000 employees, but teaching has been in his DNA since his early days. As a young missionary, he discovered a passion for helping others learn and grow. That experience set him on a path that would take him through the Air Force (where he trained firefighters), to his first leadership development course, and ultimately to his current role at WM. Today, he leads a team focused on developing 8,000 leaders across the organization through six to eight core programs, microlearning resources, and a strong emphasis on creating a human-centered culture.
A Mission to Teach—and to Lead
Rico’s L&D origin story might sound familiar to others in the field. He realized early on that he loved teaching, and then asked the practical question: “Can you make a living doing this?” That led him to corporate training. His first exposure to leadership development in the Air Force lit a fire that’s never gone out. He knew then that he didn’t just want to teach, he wanted to teach leadership. And at WM, that’s exactly what he’s doing.
Rico and his team design and deliver open-enrollment and online programs that are focused on transforming leaders across the company. But for him, it’s not about training for the sake of training, it’s about changing how people lead.
Human-Centered Leadership: Changing the Language of Leadership
The real challenge Rico is tackling? Culture change. Specifically, moving WM away from traditional command-and-control leadership and toward a human-centered approach. “Command and control is dead,” he says. It doesn’t resonate with younger generations and arguably, never worked that well to begin with.
But cultural transformation in a 50,000-person organization doesn’t happen overnight. Rico’s strategy is to make “human-centered leadership” a part of everyday language. His team’s programs aren’t just about developing skills; they’re about shaping identity. “You’re not here just to attend leadership training. You’re here to become a human-centered leader.”
What does that look like? Clear mindsets, toolsets, and skillsets plus a focus on how leaders see people. Instead of viewing employees as obstacles or tools, WM leaders are being challenged to see them as people with goals and values just as important as their own. This shift is inspired in part by Leadership and Self-Deception from the Arbinger Institute a book Rico highly recommends.
L&D in the Future: Skills, Not Roles
One of the most exciting trends Rico sees is the shift toward skills-based organizations. And while at first he thought, “Isn’t that what we already do in L&D?” he quickly realized this concept goes far deeper than training.
It’s about transforming how companies hire, develop, and deploy employees. Instead of fitting people into rigid roles, Rico envisions a future where employees are seen as a catalog of skills, matched to projects based on their capabilities and upskilled on the fly for what they don’t yet have. That future will require powerful AI-enabled platforms to manage it all, which is where he’d invest if given 10x his current budget.
And this shift will reshape L&D, too. Instead of developing full-blown programs and hoping learners emerge fully formed, it’ll be about just-in-time, individualized, and ad hoc learning. “Fewer programs, more personalized training,” as Rico puts it.
The Hardest Skill to Hire For?
It’s not what you might expect from a leadership development leader. Rico says the toughest talent challenge at WM is finding commercial licensed drivers to operate the company’s 22,000 trucks. With baby boomers retiring and younger generations uninterested in traditional blue-collar work, the talent gap is widening. The same goes for technicians (mechanics) who keep the fleet running.
But Rico sees hope in WM’s evolving identity. The company is becoming a leader in environmental protection, which resonates more with younger talent than “the garbage business.” Framing the work in terms of sustainability and environmental impact is key to future recruitment.
Go-To Resources: From ATD to Sharon Bowman
Rico is a lifelong learner himself. He leans on a mix of resources, including ATD forums, Josh Bersin’s thought leadership, and i4cp for research and case studies. His inbox is packed with newsletters, and he’s always looking for what captures his interest.
As for book recommendations? He has two must-reads:
- For L&D professionals: Training from the Back of the Room by Sharon Bowman, perfect for those who want to optimize adult learning and move from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side.”
- For leadership development: Leadership and Self-Deception from the Arbinger Institute, ideal for shifting mindsets toward human-centered leadership.
Final Thoughts
Rico Maranto is walking the walk. His team isn’t just training leaders, they’re reshaping what leadership looks like. By leaning into skills-based thinking, just-in-time learning, and a human-centered mindset, WM is doing the hard but necessary work of preparing its workforce for the future. And with Rico at the helm of leadership development, it’s clear they’re in good hands.
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