It’s one thing to launch a bold strategic plan. But it’s another thing entirely to deliver that bold strategic plan to every professional in your company so that they not only understand it, but know how to execute it in their everyday jobs and feel empowered
and excited to do so.
This venerable global consumer goods manufacturing firm delivered the largest portion of their recent leadership development cascade on the Intrepid platform. The program design placed leadership content from a prestigious business school in context by leveraging the Intrepid platform’s collaborative features, short-form approach, and easy administrative features.
Because at the end of the day, it’s not about the ideas, or the content, it’s about what your people are going to do with it. That was the learning and performance team’s ultimate goal: the learning as the means to an end, not the end in itself.
Employees, management, and executives have noted an immediate cultural change in day-to-day approaches based on learners’ new understanding of the company’s big picture after just the first wave of the program, and its effectiveness as well as user experience has been rated well above benchmark.
and excited to do so.
This venerable global consumer goods manufacturing firm delivered the largest portion of their recent leadership development cascade on the Intrepid platform. The program design placed leadership content from a prestigious business school in context by leveraging the Intrepid platform’s collaborative features, short-form approach, and easy administrative features.
Because at the end of the day, it’s not about the ideas, or the content, it’s about what your people are going to do with it. That was the learning and performance team’s ultimate goal: the learning as the means to an end, not the end in itself.
Employees, management, and executives have noted an immediate cultural change in day-to-day approaches based on learners’ new understanding of the company’s big picture after just the first wave of the program, and its effectiveness as well as user experience has been rated well above benchmark.
Challenge
This venerable consumer goods manufacturing company had a clear vision to transform itself from what had been essentially a holding company to a truly unified global operating company. The company had already shifted away from an organizational structure based on independent business units which made it difficult to collaborate across brands, departments, and regions. But there was more to do to release trapped capacity and encourage aggressive growth in current and new markets.
Under the aegis of a new CEO, the company began disseminating their clearly articulated business strategy and an aspirational document stating the company’s corporate values and growth focus, both organizationally and as individual employees.
A small group of executives attended the company’s annual leadership summit at a top-ranked business school for an immersive 4–day workshop. The event, facilitated by professors and senior company leaders, was designed to challenge and prepare them to deliver stronger outcomes, address key business opportunities, and model the behaviors listed in the company’s values documents. An additional group of VPs and directors received training in the form of a virtual learning series delivered by the business school.
But what about the rest of the company’s 9,000 employees worldwide?
THE CASCADE, AT SCALE
The executive team didn’t just want to “launch” the subsequent phase of their strategic plan, but to cascade this learning to employees worldwide and truly drive employee adoption of these changes throughout the entire organization.
First up, 800 senior managers—and that’s where Intrepid’s innovative cohort learning platform and blended learning approach came in. This phase of their change management transformation was delivered via Intrepid’s learning experience platform (referred to within the company as The Hub).
Under the aegis of a new CEO, the company began disseminating their clearly articulated business strategy and an aspirational document stating the company’s corporate values and growth focus, both organizationally and as individual employees.
A small group of executives attended the company’s annual leadership summit at a top-ranked business school for an immersive 4–day workshop. The event, facilitated by professors and senior company leaders, was designed to challenge and prepare them to deliver stronger outcomes, address key business opportunities, and model the behaviors listed in the company’s values documents. An additional group of VPs and directors received training in the form of a virtual learning series delivered by the business school.
But what about the rest of the company’s 9,000 employees worldwide?
THE CASCADE, AT SCALE
The executive team didn’t just want to “launch” the subsequent phase of their strategic plan, but to cascade this learning to employees worldwide and truly drive employee adoption of these changes throughout the entire organization.
First up, 800 senior managers—and that’s where Intrepid’s innovative cohort learning platform and blended learning approach came in. This phase of their change management transformation was delivered via Intrepid’s learning experience platform (referred to within the company as The Hub).
"Intrepid’s platform surpassed my expectations and provided robust engagement, easy administration, and most of all real business impact."
Vice President - Learning and Performance
This company’s learning & performance team views learning as an enabler to speed adoption of strategy and culture, and from the CEO on down, it was agreed that it is crucial to embed the business strategy across the entire company. Historically, the majority of learning at the company had been delivered via ILT or elearning.
But for this effort, they needed a collaborative, online experience that would not just deliver great academic content to a larger audience, but be engaging, actionable, prescriptive, and immediately impactful.
But for this effort, they needed a collaborative, online experience that would not just deliver great academic content to a larger audience, but be engaging, actionable, prescriptive, and immediately impactful.
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Weeks in Program
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Managers in a Cohort
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Industry Awards
Solution
The core of the course was to teach employees how to better execute the business strategy, build a consumer-centric organization, and implement the values and behaviors identified in the company’s values document.
Learners had the opportunity to self-register for a course that best fit into their schedules, considering their other professional and also personal obligations. Each course also had at least two language options for the learner to choose from.
Content was broken up and delivered in short pieces, easily consumable during a busy workday (available on any device anytime anywhere), and to cover all kinds of learning modalities for all kinds of learners, including visual, written, and interactive content, and more, in multiple languages (eight total).
The 8–week program included:
A typical self-directed learning path in a typical week might include the following content, ending with a live webinar:
THE SECRET SAUCE: CONTENT IN CONTEXT
The company’s mission, outlined in the values document, is incredibly important to the organization, and central to the leadership initiative, so a great deal of context was required to make the academic content really work for this company specifically.
The team leveraged the flexibility of Intrepid’s platform to wrap the third-party business school content with thorough company context by adding additional short-form videos, voice memos, and other content, as well as individual and team assignments directly related to their real work. They were able to customize the academic content to their business needs. Content was available each week for learners to access and complete on their own, plus live webinars for everyone in a cohort at each module’s conclusion.
TOP-DOWN SUPPORT MADE EASY
Support from all the company’s leaders was and continues to be instrumental in making this program a success, with particular attention paid to soliciting support and offering clear explanations of the role Leadership plays in the success of their leadership development. The CEO himself is an advocate of the program, and his vocal support and enthusiasm was a great help in highlighting the criticality of the culture change the company is working to create with this program.
The company added motivation and prestige to the business school’s rich content by incorporating recorded video segments from senior executives relating to each module’s focus.
Company leaders served as online community coaches by participating in online discussions for each module, answering questions, pre-recording video segments, providing general support and, most importantly, encouraging learners to complete the program. Intrepid’s easy-to-use, intuitive platform made participating in this way fast and easy for the busy senior leaders.
The presence of high-stakes company people helped push enrollment numbers up. They added invaluable context, and the flexibility of Intrepid’s features made it simple to keep content fresh and updated.
Learners had the opportunity to self-register for a course that best fit into their schedules, considering their other professional and also personal obligations. Each course also had at least two language options for the learner to choose from.
Content was broken up and delivered in short pieces, easily consumable during a busy workday (available on any device anytime anywhere), and to cover all kinds of learning modalities for all kinds of learners, including visual, written, and interactive content, and more, in multiple languages (eight total).
The 8–week program included:
- Self-study content including videos, documents, and voice memos
- Discussion forums
- Webinars
- Missions (assignments directly tied to real work)
- Premier business school content
- Custom content adding company context
A typical self-directed learning path in a typical week might include the following content, ending with a live webinar:
- A quote from the corporate values document
- A video from a high-ranking executive about the new emphasis and momentum of this leadership strategy
- Content from the business school to read or watch
- A discussion thread
- Another chunk of content about the company’s values or strategy
- A wrap-up homework assignment (called a Mission) captured visually and submitted as a ‘field report’
- Colleagues’ field reports to review
THE SECRET SAUCE: CONTENT IN CONTEXT
The company’s mission, outlined in the values document, is incredibly important to the organization, and central to the leadership initiative, so a great deal of context was required to make the academic content really work for this company specifically.
The team leveraged the flexibility of Intrepid’s platform to wrap the third-party business school content with thorough company context by adding additional short-form videos, voice memos, and other content, as well as individual and team assignments directly related to their real work. They were able to customize the academic content to their business needs. Content was available each week for learners to access and complete on their own, plus live webinars for everyone in a cohort at each module’s conclusion.
TOP-DOWN SUPPORT MADE EASY
Support from all the company’s leaders was and continues to be instrumental in making this program a success, with particular attention paid to soliciting support and offering clear explanations of the role Leadership plays in the success of their leadership development. The CEO himself is an advocate of the program, and his vocal support and enthusiasm was a great help in highlighting the criticality of the culture change the company is working to create with this program.
The company added motivation and prestige to the business school’s rich content by incorporating recorded video segments from senior executives relating to each module’s focus.
Company leaders served as online community coaches by participating in online discussions for each module, answering questions, pre-recording video segments, providing general support and, most importantly, encouraging learners to complete the program. Intrepid’s easy-to-use, intuitive platform made participating in this way fast and easy for the busy senior leaders.
The presence of high-stakes company people helped push enrollment numbers up. They added invaluable context, and the flexibility of Intrepid’s features made it simple to keep content fresh and updated.
“I knew from the moment I saw a demo of the Intrepid platform that this approach to learning is exactly what I was looking for, and that it supported my vision for engaging, collaborative learning."
Vice President - Learning and Performance
RELEVANT INTERACTIVITY
These top-level “community coaches” moderated discussion forums to provide help and encouragement to learners throughout the experience. A recap closed the end of each module, with encouragement and online discussions about how learners can apply the principles discussed in the module to their learning group—skipping typical learning checks like multiple choice quizzes and making it all immediately relevant and clearly actionable.
Discussion forums posed questions relating to the content, but always within the context of the company’s business and the learners’ day-to-day jobs. For instance, one discussion thread was called “What Keeps You Up at Night?” and asked employees to reflect on what aspects of the business strategy concern them most.
APPLIED LEARNING
The Missions, or real-world assignments, were also entirely about applying the learning to the job. Each module concludes with a mission challenging learners to transition insights gained throughout the course into tangible action, such as a written plan detailing the steps they will take to implement new learning, share insights with their teams, and make real change in their segment.
Another Mission example: an assignment to identify a segment-specific problem, how learners can immediately apply new learning in order to solve it, and their resulting recommendation.
GAMIFICATION TO DRIVE ENTHUSIASM
The gamification element of the Intrepid platform provided a way for learners to engage in friendly, lighthearted competition throughout the program. The top 10 learners in each small group of 25 were easily identifiable and visible to learners on the Leaderboard, driving participation and enthusiasm.
These top-level “community coaches” moderated discussion forums to provide help and encouragement to learners throughout the experience. A recap closed the end of each module, with encouragement and online discussions about how learners can apply the principles discussed in the module to their learning group—skipping typical learning checks like multiple choice quizzes and making it all immediately relevant and clearly actionable.
Discussion forums posed questions relating to the content, but always within the context of the company’s business and the learners’ day-to-day jobs. For instance, one discussion thread was called “What Keeps You Up at Night?” and asked employees to reflect on what aspects of the business strategy concern them most.
APPLIED LEARNING
The Missions, or real-world assignments, were also entirely about applying the learning to the job. Each module concludes with a mission challenging learners to transition insights gained throughout the course into tangible action, such as a written plan detailing the steps they will take to implement new learning, share insights with their teams, and make real change in their segment.
Another Mission example: an assignment to identify a segment-specific problem, how learners can immediately apply new learning in order to solve it, and their resulting recommendation.
GAMIFICATION TO DRIVE ENTHUSIASM
The gamification element of the Intrepid platform provided a way for learners to engage in friendly, lighthearted competition throughout the program. The top 10 learners in each small group of 25 were easily identifiable and visible to learners on the Leaderboard, driving participation and enthusiasm.
“Very well done, best training I have ever participated in. Every aspect of it was relevant to what we need to be doing everyday.”
Cohort Participant
Results
Employees, management, and executives have noted an immediate cultural change in day-to-day approaches based on learners’ new understanding of the company’s big picture.
In addition, employees rated the program above benchmark:
This phase of this global consumer goods manufacturing company’s leadership development cascade, which has reached 800 so far, has proven successful, driving positive change in day-to-day company culture and behaviors, which in turn will drive growth and support the company’s ambitious goals.
- 4.85 of 5 for user interaction/involvement
- 4.81 of 5 for overall effectiveness of the learning approach
This phase of this global consumer goods manufacturing company’s leadership development cascade, which has reached 800 so far, has proven successful, driving positive change in day-to-day company culture and behaviors, which in turn will drive growth and support the company’s ambitious goals.