At a time when companies are shifting priorities, strategies and resources to better position themselves in a post-COVID recovery environment, employees are also thinking about how they can best move forward with their career plans. As the enterprise learning and development function, we must be prepared, flexible, adaptable and globally consistent to support business challenges.
During our first 100 days as a newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery learning team, we created an experience for employees that met them where they were. We thoughtfully discussed what employees needed at a time when there was so much happening in the world. We knew this event could be a learning solution for everyone to gain new perspectives. Utilizing our first learning initiative as WBD, we saw the opportunity to support employees and leverage the team’s interests and strengths. In addition, this approach was a pseudo-team-building exercise for our learning professionals.
While strategizing in several brainstorming sessions, our thoughts centered on what would help people no matter where they were in their career journey. Although creating a webinar series was a great team bonding event, we performed better than we expected in the forming stage of team development. The outcome of our collective expertise made it evident that everyone put their hearts into the work. I am proud of the program the team delivered and felt compelled to share insights from our learning initiative.
Team approach
With a new L&D team forming, we focused on building relationships within the team to effectively deliver a solution that would resonate with employees. This learning initiative was an opportunity to break out of the norm and expand our knowledge of each other by utilizing everyone’s skills, strengths and interests. We started the journey with the following:
● What were each team member’s skills, strengths, and interests.
● What problem(s) were we solving, and what story will we be able to tell afterward.
● What learning methods in their experience worked well for this challenge.
Understanding the team’s skills, strengths and interests allowed our learning professionals to contribute to the learning initiative in ways that supported their career goals.
Strategy development
Based on the environment at that time, we used the following areas to understand the opportunities and the indicators of success:
1) Overtones and undertones. Deciphering what was happening on a macro-, meso- and micro- level aided in identifying what would resonate with people. Change was the consistent theme, and career development and career advancement have been heightened priorities for employees during the pandemic. Using a career-focused perspective allowed us to hone in on tangible areas that would help an individual navigate to a solution they deemed appropriate.
2) Individual strengths and interests. This was a unique opportunity to break out of the regimented and often theoretical recommendations for change initiatives. So, providing the space for team members to explore and bond ushered in the room for creativity and innovation. As a newly formed learning team, understanding individual strengths and interests before collaborating on goals and executing the plan were imperative to achieving success.
3) Appropriate learning strategies. With a global workforce, there are many ways to deliver learning solutions. However, managing through various complexities led us to the right solution at the right time. Usually, a live session can have a long tail for consumption if designed and appropriately produced to engage learners who access the training as an on-demand option. A byproduct of this effort also enhanced the team’s ability to deliver just-in-time learning solutions amid transformations.
4) Storytelling strategies. Most times, the impact of training can fall flat if a data strategy is not considered part of the deliverable. Identifying our stakeholders and detailing the benefits of the training led us to ask this simple question: How are we connecting the dots for business leaders and employees? Learning initiatives have at least two main ways of signaling the benefits: business justification and learner impact. We used qualitative and quantitative data to create communication for leaders and employees, aiding in messaging the initiative’s outcomes.
Learning solution
There were five themes identified to support employees no matter where they were in their careers. We used internal subject matter experts and renowned external speakers to deliver the content and facilitate the conversation.
● Mindset — How can one’s mental model prohibit them from achieving career goals?
● Brand — How can one build a personal brand that aligns with their career aspirations?
● Impact — How can one perform at a high level through significant changes?
● Wellness — How can one improve balance for physical, emotional, and mental health?
● Influence — How can one advocate for one’s self and others?
Using a multi-modal approach that included a live webinar with on-demand replays made it easy for everyone to participate. After each session, participants had access to one-page practical application tips for using key learnings. We edited the 60-minute webinars to five-minute micro-learning videos for busy employees. Both versions were available with surveys for employee listening feedback loops. Finally, each webinar theme also featured self-paced courses for learners to go deeper in their areas of interest.
Favorable outcomes
The first learning initiative was an excellent opportunity to help employees navigate change professionally and personally. We utilized quantitative and qualitative data to understand how employees responded to the training. The data collected were from surveys that aided in understanding how the participants felt about their current situation, what they valued and what were their priorities for learning, among others.
While gauging how the learning solution resonated, we found that the data also provided validation that our approach aligned with participants’ expectations. Employees were already starting to think as one team. They wanted to build trust, support others and display a positive mindset as we began our new chapter. Participants frequently used words such as optimism, positivity, trust (yourself and others), resilience, shared leadership, collaboration, relationships, support, curious, learn, innovate and inclusive.
The data also showed that learner sentiments were positive, and that people were agreeable to using the tips and tools provided during the sessions. Recurring themes like “learn”, “curious”, “collaboration”, “innovate”, inclusive” and “relationships” set a tone for our new guiding principles. This information was input for the next phase of learning strategies and how we could build on the established foundation.
Overall, employees found the program to be useful and felt that they learned something they could apply professionally and personally. The WBD Learning Speaker series served a significant purpose as the first shared event employees of both legacy companies engaged in, resulting in a positive outcome. To support our new culture and embed the guiding principles into the fabric of the organization, we are using pragmatic approaches for modeling our values and providing employees with unique learning opportunities.
As we move forward, the combined successes of our legacy companies are a testament to our ability to create premier global brands. And for the L&D function, it starts with leaning into the challenges of a transformation and seeing the opportunity to deliver just-in-time learning experiences in novel ways.
