Success Stories
Productivity Dynamics helps clients achieve business results with a focus on research-based and action-oriented practices. Here is a sampling of the challenges that have been presented to us by our clients:
Challenge: “Assessing Business Impact”
A telecommunications provider seeks to assess the business impact of a multi-year leadership development initiative targeted to 30,000+ managers at all levels of the corporation.
Solution
- Mapped critical course learning outcomes to desired business results
- Identified and made recommendations around organizational obstacles or enablers to skill transfer
- Assessed the bottom line business impact of the leadership initiative
Evaluation findings played a crucial role in transforming the program from a mere educational event into a strategic action-planning tool for management.
Challenge: “Determining ROI”
A telecommunications provider demands accountability from its learning organization to justify expenses, identify return on investment and demonstrate effectiveness.
Solution
- Formative evaluation – to assess and improve the intervention during development
- Summative evaluation – to assess learning and job effectiveness, and the business impact of the intervention
- Organizational health diagnosis – to assess the vitality of the learning organization in responding to customer needs, achieving strategic objectives, using and improving on operational processes, operating cost-effectively.
Assessment highlighted the contributions made by the organization and promoted client confidence in the learning organization’s ability to deliver. Additionally, the blueprint that resulted is being used to institutionalize a performance measurement system that will provide on-demand accountability for each milestone in development and implementation.
Challenge: “Keeping Pace with Rapid Growth”
A rapidly expanding software company requires workforce re-development to achieve an ambitious business goal within a 3-year window of opportunity: growth from a $300M to a $1B company.
Solution
- Multi-tiered learning strategy that complemented the business strategy
- Three year implementation plan that identified and addressed a range of contingencies (thereby reducing risk)
Planning included an organizational structure for the training function, budgets, practices, and infrastructure requirements. This plan is currently being used by the client to transform her function into a corporate university.
Challenge: “Transforming a Training Strategy”
A multi-billion dollar IT service provider expands into eBusiness. A learning strategy is needed to provide global, on-demand development for thousands of employees world-wide.
Solution
- Eliminate organizational obstacles to employee job effectiveness
- Provide on-demand support for employees anytime, anywhere
Ramp up time for employees has been reduced and the client reports that the workforce is quickly transforming itself to a first-class web-based IT service provider.
Challenge: “Going Global”
A $3.5B hyper-growth technology company has an ambitious goal to become a global enterprise. A strategy for revitalizing and developing its workforce is essential to the success of the business plan.
Solution
- A roadmap for removing performance obstacles and ensuring field buy-in
- A set of benchmarked practices to make our client best-in-class
- A detailed blueprint for creating a new learning function capable of partnering in strategic business planning
Challenge: “Building Consistency”
A leadership development vendor, highly prized for the caliber of its instructors, is tasked by a major client with creating a corporate-wide executive development program. A strategy is required to ensure consistent, effective delivery and post-training support.
Solution
- Audit course delivery and provide informed feedback on style, consistency and effectiveness
- Analyze course materials and delivery strategy for delivery usability, learning effectiveness and student on-the-job support
Our recommendations and designs became the cornerstone of the client’s material development and instructor re-training workshops. Detailed reports were developed for instructors as was a set of internal training options that addressed gaps uncovered in the instructor self-assessments. To guide re-development of materials, Productivity Dynamics created a set of instructional prototypes as well as a set of guidelines for restructuring the course.
Challenge: “Integrating & Focusing the Workforce”
A newly merged major telecommunications provider must quickly yet systematically orient new supervisors to compliance requirements around business initiatives, government regulations, bargaining unit agreements, and industry-leading leadership practices.
Solution
- Worked with regional and line management, and representatives of the target audience to identify critical competencies required for new managers
- Enlisted buy-in and validation of proposed training from all levels in the organization
- Devised an instructional strategy that married in-class experience to post-training self-development
- Developed a design structure and roll-out plan to ensure fit to local field contingencies
Based on our analysis and design, training time was reduced by 50% with the probability of increased attendance. The course is currently being adapted for corporate-wide implementation.
Challenge: “Developing Buy-In”
A industry-leading fiberoptic provider is set to go global. The influx of a young, diverse, highly-skilled and independent workforce is expected to transform management practices throughout the corporation. However, current management development lacks credibilty and buy-in.
Solution
- Worked with management and previous students to identify critical gaps within the existing course
- Developed a set of skill practice situations based on extensive interviews of line managers talking about job challenges and the situations they were daily confronted with
- Re-designed the course to include an action-planning component that would encourage horizontal and vertical collaboration to address the demands of the new workplace
Following a successful pilot, the course became the launch point for a larger organizational improvement initiative involving all levels of management.
Challenge: “Evaluating Success”
A corporate-wide workforce development organization has promised a healthy ROI for a $2M investment in transforming itself into an eLearning provider. An objective, thorough assessment of results is required.
Solution
- Mapped critical learning outcomes to desired business results
- Identified indicators and developed measurement strategies to track results
- Operationalized a four-level performance value chain that objectively linked learning results measurably to business outcomes
- Developed a set of formulas for assessing and comparing conventional with solution costs to arrive at true price/performance metrics
This evaluation design has been institutionalized by the client into a set of practice requirements for monitoring and ensuring training effectiveness.
Challenge: “Redefining skill sets”
A leading global IT corporation re-organized its global professional services division. To support the newly formed practices, the organization needed to define skill requirements and to develop new learning and development roadmaps for 10,000 consultants around the world.
Solution
- Required skill sets for various levels of consultants worldwide are accessible through the Training and Development Website
- Learning and development roadmaps with valid local learning opportunities are accessible to consultants the worldwide
This program has been implemented and has received overwhelming positive feedback from both consultants and their managers.