How We Work

Building relationships with our clients is at the heart of how we work. Through mutual commitment, communication, and collaboration, together we empower your employees' development and continued success.

business professionals with arms outstretched in a huddle

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

African Proverb

Our Approach

Put simply - when we engage with our clients, we become a team. With everyone contributing their unique strengths to achieve our common goal. Sharing in the successes. And learning from the setbacks. Relying upon one another, encouraging one another, and holding one another accountable. Putting egos aside because no one person is bigger than the team or more important than our goal. The team’s success outweighs individual accolades. This is our approach to work. If the kind of working relationship we’ve just described appeals to you, contact us today to get started on your project.

Portfolio Snapshot

To read details about a project, click its name in the list on the right. Or continue scrolling to browse.

To return to this section, click the home icon located in the bottom right corner of the Description tab of each project snapshot.

15-Minute Fridays

Ideation and execution of live microlearning experiences to help meet the professional development needs of busy leaders

Aspire

Design of 4-month cohort-based hybrid leadership development program for high- potential individual contributors

Developing a Social Media Strategy

Design of 2-day ILT course for international client incorporating practical activity to develop and implement a social media strategy

Easier to Learn

Proposal to enable a culture of continuous learning at the client's organization by making it accessible, broad-based, and convenient

Faculty Teambuilding Retreat

Design and delivery of 1 1/2-day ILT session on healthy team dynamics, improving communication, and meeting best practices

Is Training the Answer?

Design and delivery of 1-hour VILT session for people leaders and human resources business partners on training prescriptions

Leading from a Distance

Design and delivery of 4-hour VILT session for people leaders on the four components of the remote management commitment pyramid

Learning Campaign

Proposal for year-long campaign and associated components to help build a culture of learning at client organization

Using the Six Thinking Hats Method for Critical Thinking

Design and delivery of 60-minute virtual lunch and learn on the critical thinking method

Weebles Wobble But They Don't Fall Down

Design and delivery of 2-hour VILT on keys to building and strengthening personal resilience

15-Minute Fridays

THE NEED: It is not uncommon for people leaders to spend upwards of 15 hours a week in meetings. Factoring in their other work obligations, project commitments, and administrative tasks, this leaves little time for their professional development. A common lament expressed by leaders and individual contributors alike was they lacked sufficient time to invest in building their skills and strengthening their capabilities. Paradoxically, they also acknowledged the importance of devoting at least some portion of their work week to learning.

THE SOLUTION: To meet employees at their point of need, we introduced 15-Minute Fridays. As the name implies, these schedule-friendly 15-minute virtual learning experiences were hosted every Friday of the month. To facilitate the sessions, we leveraged members of the organization's L&D team. We also recruited volunteer facilitators serving in various roles, representative of a cross-section of business areas. Some were seasoned presenters, while for others this presented a valuable opportunity to hone their public speaking skills and presentation acumen. Facilitators selected the topic for their presentation. We supplied them with a PowerPoint template, responsive feedback on their content, and in-session technical support. The organization's communications team marketed each upcoming month's session topics and presenters in the L&D electronic bulletin distributed to all employees. This provided ample notice for employees to calendar time to attend the sessions of most interest to them. To drive more traffic to the organization's LMS, the facilitator shared links to additional relevant topical resources at the conclusion of each session.

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Feedback from the participants was overwhelmingly positive.

"Helpful information in small sessions makes it easier to squeeze in between meetings. Love all of the great content on each subject and referrals to additional information. Keep up the good work! I know a lot of people have said they like the 15 minute sessions and the content."

"I think there's a lot of great tips offered in a nice compressed time-package, which is great for our busy schedules!"

"They are brief but impactful so that I do not have to commit a large portion of my day to development. I can do these and still receive some benefit."

"I love that they are short, very informative and have recommended them to my entire team."

Aspire

THE NEED: A robust cohort-based leadership development program was in place for newly hired and recently promoted

people leaders. Leadership recognized an opportunity to create a similar program for high-potential individual contributors who desired to move into leadership roles. The program would equip participants with the basic skills and tools required to succeed as people leaders, further the organization's efforts to engage and retain their promising employees, and fortify a pipeline of qualified talent to meet the evolving demands of their business.

THE SOLUTION: We designed and developed Aspire, a nominative cohort-based leadership development program for high-potential individual contributors employed with the organization at least nine months. Ideal candidates would be identified by their supervising leaders during the annual talent review process as demonstrating the ability, engagement, and aspiration to rise to and succeed in more senior leadership roles. Designed as a hybrid offering, participants would attend two monthly 2-hour sessions over four months. In preparation for each session, participants would be asked to complete eLearning assignments, such as reading an article and posting their reflections in a discussion thread, watching a video, or completing an assessment. To ensure an optimal level of engagement for the in-session activities and group project, the cohort size was capped at 50 participants.

The curriculum comprised practical content aimed at building participants' proficiency in the specific competencies identified in the organization's manager success profiles. The modules covered the following topics:

Leadership Capabilities: foundational leadership topics, leadership styles, branding, and DiSC fundamentals
Strategic Ability: critical thinking, problem solving, and business problem simulation
Career Development: networking, building relationships, and career planning
Group Presentations: business problem presentations

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Over the course of the program, participants could expect to:

Hear from Senior Leadership Team members as they share their leadership journeys and impart advice
Discover their natural leadership style and understand its pros and cons
Create a differentiated leadership brand statement
Identify their DiSC type, understand its associated traits, and learn how DiSC is applied in various contexts
Explore critical thinking models and root cause analysis frameworks to solve problems
Work collaboratively using critical thinking methods and problem-solving skills to solve a real-world business problem
Complete a network assessment to determine gaps in their current network
Design an individualized plan to build and broaden their internal and external professional networks
Explore development opportunities within the organization and map out their personalized career path
Partner with their group members to present their recommendations to solve the assigned business problem

Developing a Social Media Strategy

THE NEED: An international client retained us to design and develop a live instructor-led 10-hour course on developing and implementing a social media strategy.

THE SOLUTION: After several email consultations to understand the client's needs and desired approach, we designed the Developing a Social Media Strategy course and provided the following requirements:

Learning objectives and expected outcomes
Exercises and activities with detailed instructions for the facilitator
Comprehensive session workbook for participants
Facilitator's guide with course outlines and preparation suggestions
Supplemental learning tools including participant handouts and study guides
Visual aids including PowerPoint presentations
Pre- and post-assessments
Marketing materials to promote the course
Electronic delivery of all course materials to client in editable format

The course consisted of five modules:

Introduction
Overview of Popular Social Media Platforms
10 Steps to Creating an Effective Social Media Plan
7 Steps to Implementing Your Social Media Plan
Case Studies/Lessons of Social Media Successes and Failures

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The course incorporated a practical hands-on activity.

Participants were randomly placed in project groups. During designated time on Day 1, participants met in their groups to devise a social media strategy for a fictitious company that lacked a social media presence. Under the activity guidelines, participants were instructed to address each of the 10 steps to create an effective social media plan reviewed previously by the facilitator. Additionally, participants were required to incorporate the use of at least three different social media platforms in their strategy.

Groups were given the option to come up with their own business scenario or use one or a combination of the generic scenarios provided in their participant workbook. The fact patterns in the scenarios included: (1) introducing a new company; (2) introducing a new product or service; (3) promoting a contest, special offer, or upcoming event; (3) answering customer service questions; and (4) driving traffic to the company's website.

Groups were encouraged to use the Social Media Strategy Creation Worksheets included in their workbooks to ensure they fully addressed all steps needed to create a successful plan. At the beginning of Day 2, each group presented their social media strategy to the class. Groups were encouraged to divvy up the presentation topics to ensure each member had an opportunity to present. Further, each group was expected to be prepared to answer questions from the facilitator and their classmates about the strategy decisions they made and the business justification for those decisions.

Later in Day 2, following review of the seven steps to implement a social media plan, participants returned to work with their group to complete the Social Media Strategy Implementation Worksheet. By the end of the session, all participants would have completed a preliminary social media strategy plan.

Easier to Learn

THE NEED: The client organization's L&D department identified establishing a culture of continuous learning as one of its strategic priorities. Included within that multi-pronged effort was the simplification of learning and development for their employees.

THE SOLUTION: We devised and proposed an Easier to Learn framework to return to the A-B-C fundamentals of effective learning, where learning is accessible, broad-based, and convenient. To make learning more accessible, we recommended increasing awareness of the LMS, empowering learners to take control of their learning journeys, and removing systems-related barriers. To make learning broad-based, we recommended using a holistic approach, including a diversity of learning formats, and including a diversity of learning content types. To make learning more convenient, we recommended offering learners greater options, offering learning that respects learners' time, and connecting content to learners' day-to-day work.

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A summary from the accessibility segment of the Easier to Learn proposal appears below.

To make learning more accessible to the client's employees, we offered several recommendations:

Socialize offerings: Implement a coordinated multi-layered campaign, across various media, to educate broader audience about the organization's L&D branded courses and programs
Build awareness: Position the organization's LMS as the POS for all learning and development transactions. Although access to some content may be limited by role-specific permissions, all learning items should be housed within the LMS. Content items stored on individual departments' SharePoint sites should be migrated to the LMS.
Empower learners to drive their own learning journey: Give learners the autonomy to determine how and when they want to learn. Learners should have the capability to create personalized learning pathways, curate content based upon their skills focus, and interact with the content and other learners in ways most meaningful for them.
Make resources easier to find: Learners should be able to type a keyword or phrase in the search box at the top of the page to quickly find and retrieve resources that meet their needs. Similar to recommendation algorithms on Amazon and social media platforms, learners should see personalized content suggestions based on their activity.
Remove barriers to self-enrollment: Learners should have the capability to self-enroll and unenroll in courses through an intuitive, seamless process. Administrative manual enrollment and use of an enrollment link, though available, should not be required.
Use LMS integration functionality: Eliminate the need for facilitators to send manual calendar invites to session registrants. Instead, use the Docebo Outlook connector to auto-populate calendar invitations on learner's calendars when they self-enroll in a virtual instructor-led course.
Support mobile learning: Learners should be able to access courses and resources on their handheld mobile devices with no degradation in the overall user experience.

business professionals seated around conference table

Faculty Teambuilding Retreat

THE NEED: A client requested an onsite workshop during their team's retreat. The client explained team members were experiencing numerous challenges in communication which plummeted morale and negatively impacted their team cohesiveness.

THE SOLUTION: After consulting with the client to understand their needs, we developed and delivered a highly interactive session consisting of four segments on the following topics:

Developing a Healthy Office Sandbox: The rules, roles, and realities of the office sandbox
Building Bridges Across Functional Work Groups: The main causes of communication silos and using the B.R.I.D.G.E.S Model to foster intergroup communication
Planning and Running Productive Meetings: Developing an agenda with B.I.T.E., notifying meeting attendees, exercising control over your meetings, encouraging attendee participation, keeping your meeting on track, and taking stellar meeting minutes
Flipping the Switch in Your Team's Electrical System: Impediments to team effectiveness, pulling your team out of the quicksand, steps to getting out of the quicksand, restarting team momentum after escaping the quicksand, and reinforcing team morale to avoid the quicksand

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This session included numerous activities to help participants synthesize the concepts we discussed and apply them to improving communication and morale on their team:

Small group discussion on the five characteristics of a healthy office sandbox
Small group discussion with prompts on the application of their assigned rule of a healthy office sandbox
An Office Sandbox personality assessment to uncover participants' dominant and secondary office personalities
An improv activity using the examples of workplace challenges participants anonymously submitted via the pre-session survey to demonstrate their understanding of the sandbox office personalities and how they interact
An assessment to identify which characteristics of ineffective teams applied to their team
Small group arts and crafts activity using popsicle sticks, glue, and Sharpie markers to build a bridge consisting of ideas to improve their team dynamics that corresponded with each principle of the B.R.I.D.G.E.S Model
A "meeting gone wrong" role play where meeting facilitators practiced addressing distractions and detractors
Focus groups to discuss and decide which five impediments apply to their team and rank them by order
Small group discussion to identify a quicksand situation in their office and work through the seven steps to escape it

manager leading creative brainstorming activity

Is Training the Answer?

THE NEED: HRBPs at the client organization acted as a trusted advisor and partner to the organization’s leaders and provided advice on all HR matters, including talent management and performance management. HRBPs also oversaw and led the entire talent management cycle for client groups, including 9 box, individual development plans, and training and development. In working with their client groups, HRBPs would regularly encounter gray situations when it was unclear whether a recommendation of a training prescription or some other non-training intervention would be appropriate.

THE SOLUTION: We developed a 1-hour virtual instructor-led session entitled Is Training the Answer? The session included the following topics:

Types of training modalities
When training is not appropriate
When training is appropriate
5 Whys root cause analysis
Group activity

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The session included a practical group exercise.

Following a brief introduction to the topic, the facilitator uploaded the exercise document to the chat. The facilitator carefully reviewed the instructions with the participants. Participants were to assume they were Learning & Development professionals working at a fictitious company. They were given six scenarios to read individually and then discuss with their group members in breakout rooms. Specifically, participants were asked to determine whether training would or would not be an appropriate solution based upon the facts in the scenario. They were also asked to be prepared to explain their answer during the later debrief. Participants were given 20 minutes in their groups to complete the exercise.

Each scenario involved instances that would be covered during the subsequent teaching portion of the session when participants returned from their breakout groups. For example, one scenario included facts where training would not be appropriate because a root cause analysis was needed first to uncover whether a team's dip in productivity was potentially attributable to a system outage.

After completing a review of the material, the facilitator returned to a discussion of each scenario, giving a synopsis of the most relevant facts. Using the poll feature, participants then voted anonymously - either yes or no - as to whether training would be appropriate. The facilitator told participants it was possible the original conclusion their group reached during the breakouts may have changed based upon the new information introduced during the review. After the vote results were revealed, the facilitator asked for a volunteer to share whether they believed training was appropriate in the scenario and to explain why or why not. Following light discussion, the facilitator revealed the answer and explained why training was not appropriate in the scenario. Participants were encouraged to ask questions to ensure they left with a clear understanding of the rationale.

Leading from a Distance: 4 Principles to Building Committed Remote Teams

THE NEED: The Covid pandemic ushered in new ways of working. Managers who previously led in-office teams needed to quickly pivot to leading a remote team. Emerging from the pandemic, numerous companies opted to continue employees' work-from-home arrangements. This presented a unique set of challenges as employees who had originally been assigned to an office had since relocated, adjusted their lifestyle, or otherwise made choices that contributed to an increased dispersal across geographic regions and time zones. Not dissimilar to hundreds of employers around the country, our client recognized a need for their leaders to learn effective strategies to manage their remote teammates.

THE SOLUTION: We developed Leading from a Distance: 4 Principles to Building Committed Remote Teams, a 4-hour virtual instructor-led learning experience for people leaders with a minimum of four remote direct reports. During the session, manager participants learn strategies to establish a healthy team culture, promote effective communication, foster productive collaboration, and encourage meaningful connection on their remote teams to gain the commitment of their team members.

The session consisted of five segments covering the following topics:

Introduction: Remote management and intentionality, commitment pyramid, and team assessment
Establishing a Healthy Culture: Characteristics of healthy organizational culture, types of team culture, building healthy culture on a remote team, creating SMART goals, and action planning
Promoting Effective Communication: Choosing appropriate remote communication methods, best practices for communication and alignment with organizational values, and action planning
Fostering Productive Collaboration: Virtual meeting planning checklist, best practices for remote team collaboration, remote collaboration tools and apps, and action planning
Encouraging Meaningful Connection: Practical ways to engage team members, combatting social isolation associated with remote work, encouraging social connection among team members, and action planning

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During the session, participants could expect to:

Assess and rate their remote teams in the areas of culture, communication, collaboration, and connection
Engage in activities, exercises, and small group discussions with their peers to embed their learning
Apply introduced concepts to devise solutions for their remote management pain points and challenges
Create a preliminary action plan to successfully implement remote management strategies with their teams

After the session, participants would be encouraged to:

Ask their team members to anonymously assess and rate their team in the four areas of the commitment pyramid
Meet with their teams to discuss the assessment results and complete the action plan based upon their feedback
Access the remote management playlists in the LMS to explore additional resources and continue their learning
Attend an optional 45-minute follow-up session to share their insights, successes, and opportunities with one another

Learning Campaign

THE NEED: The client made a substantial investment to upgrade the LMS, but data showed less than 30 percent of their employees were using it. Reasons for nonuse stemmed largely from lack of awareness. A percentage of employees did not know the LMS existed. Other employees knew it existed, but were unaware of how to find it. Still others knew it existed and knew how to find it, but reported not knowing how to use it. Or, they found using it complicated and intimidating.

THE SOLUTION: We recommended the client implement an organization-wide learning campaign. The purpose of the campaign was to build a culture at the organization where continuous learning was prioritized to develop the best leaders and equip them with the necessary skills and tools to advance the organization's mission. The campaign's success would depend in part on buy-in and active, visible support from senior leadership alongside a thoughtful, collaborative partnership with the communications, multimedia, and digital experience teams.

The goals of the campaign were to:

Increase month-over-month LMS utilization rate (the ratio of the time spent by learners in the last 30 days compared to the time spent in the previous 30 days) by 30%
Drive higher attendance at virtual learning experiences by achieving a baseline 50% ILT attendance rate (percentage of learners who attended compared to the expected number of learners)
Reinforce the benefits of social learning by encouraging learners to interact with one another by starting a new discussion in a forum or posting a reply in a course discussion
Spark growth conversations between managers and their direct reports about how they can use LMS resources for their ongoing professional development

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To build excitement around the coming campaign, we suggested the client launch an online contest teasing when it would launch and asking employees to submit their creative suggestions for the name of the campaign. A selection panel would narrow the submissions to the top five choices from which employees would vote on the ultimate winner. The employee whose entry was chosen would receive a special gamification badge, 150 challenge points, company swag, and recognition on the dedicated campaign site and in the official launch announcement communication.

The Learning Campaign incorporated several proposed monthly activities:

Individual Challenges: Learners who completed the assigned challenge would be awarded a badge and challenge points. A challenge may include anything from watching a video and posting their reply to the question in the forum discussion to completing specific content within a playlist.
Team Meetings: People leaders would be encouraged to devote 15 minutes during one of their monthly team meetings/huddles to facilitate a discussion on a particular topic. Teammates would be asked to watch a brief YouTube video or read a brief article in the LMS. Managers would be provided with a simple guide including 3-5 questions they could use to facilitate the discussion with their team members.
Learners of the Month Recognition: A monthly contest would be created in the LMS for the learners who completed the most courses. The first-, second-, and third-place winners would receive gamification badges and 100, 50, and 25 challenge points, respectively. Learners would also be spotlighted in the campaign newsletter and on the website.
Video Recommendations: Featuring a member of the Senior Leadership Team recommending a video they watched or an article they read in the LMS and explaining how it was impactful to them. Embedded within an email, the video would be 2-3 minutes long and include a link to the resource for employees to visit.
Five-Minute Surveys: Five-minute State of Learning surveys linked on the dedicated campaign site page with results shared in the following month's campaign newsletter

Using the Six Thinking Hats Method for Critical Thinking

THE NEED: The client requested a 1-hour virtual lunch and learn session on ways their employees could improve their critical thinking skills.

THE SOLUTION: We developed and delivered Using the Six Thinking Hats Method for Critical Thinking.

The session covered the following topics:

Definition of Critical Thinking
Types of Critical Thinking Skills
The Six Thinking Hats Method
Benefits of Using The Six Thinking Hats Method
Use Cases
Application Activity

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The session featured a Six Thinking Hats practical activity, modified for time.

Following a review of The Six Thinking Hats Model, we uploaded the activity instructions. For this activity, participants worked in groups in breakout session rooms labeled with the color of the hat their group would "wear" for the exercise. For example, learners assigned to the Red room would brainstorm answers to the questions associated with the Red Thinking Hat (The Instincts).

The activity was based on a hypothetical scenario, where learners worked on the HR Benefits Team of a large management consulting firm, headquartered in Atlanta with 7 office locations around the country. As part of a cost-cutting measure, the Executive Leadership Team asked the HR team to examine the current benefits package and recommend benefits that should be discontinued prior to the beginning of the upcoming enrollment cycle. One of the benefits their group was considering discontinuing was the free gym membership to Planet Exercise. Additional facts were provided for groups to consider as they answered the questions for their assigned hat.

Groups were instructed to use the Six Thinking Hats template to answer the questions for their group’s assigned hat. They were given 10-12 minutes to brainstorm with their group. They were also asked to agree upon a spokesperson who would report out for their group during the debrief.

Acting as the Conductor (blue hat), we asked the spokesperson from each group to provide a two-minute synopsis of the answers to their questions. Afterwards, we administered a two-question poll. The first asked whether, based upon the discussion, they would recommend discontinuing the gym membership benefit. The second question asked whether the activity helped them to think more critically about their decision.

Weebles Wobble But They Don't Fall Down

THE NEED: The country was in the midst of the Covid shutdown. The client's employees, many of whom were working from home for the first time, were struggling with feelings of isolation, loneliness, and uncertainty.

THE SOLUTION: We developed and delivered Weebles Wobble But They Don't Fall Down - 10 Keys to Building Your Personal Resilience. This was a 2-hour instructor-led virtual learning experience open to all employees, offered in conjunction with the Benefits Team's wellness programming

The session consisted of five segments covering the following topics:

Resilience stories from famous public figures
Definition of resilience and explanation of why it is important
Debunking common myths about resilience
Review of the 10 keys to build personal resilience
Review of organization's available health and wellness resources to help with resilience

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The session featured:

Opening breakout rooms activity where participants introduced themselves and shared what they wanted to get out of the session
Anonymous whiteboard activity when participants used the text tool to share an example when either they or someone they know demonstrated resilience; followed by quiet reflection
Interactive Slido polls
Assessment for participants to gauge the frequency with which they demonstrate resilient behaviors
Return to their original breakout groups to discuss which of the 10 keys they wanted to focus on over the next 30 days; discussion prompt questions were provided
A comprehensive participant guide which included action items and questions for self-reflection and journaling for each of the 10 keys, links to available organizational resources, a template for their 30-day resilience action plan, and a list of books to help adults and children build resilience

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How We Work

Our Approach

Portfolio Snapshot

15-Minute Fridays

Aspire

Developing a Social Media Strategy

Easier to Learn

Faculty Teambuilding Retreat

Is Training the Answer?

Leading from a Distance: 4 Principles to Building Committed Remote Teams

Learning Campaign

Using the Six Thinking Hats Method for Critical Thinking

Weebles Wobble But They Don't Fall Down

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