Clarity Helps Multinational Retailer Update Training
The Challenge
With over 130,000 employees in an extremely dynamic business, this retailer emphasizes training and development to build and retain talent. The company’s Advanced Inventory Management course offering is just one of its training programs: a 9-week course for new hires, it is built to convey core business processes, tools and skills in a consistent, cross-brand approach to training and development. For those who have worked at the company for 12-18 months, a new advance program was launched, offering continued development. The goal of this program was to cultivate “soft skills” such as creative entrepreneurialism, critical thinking, prudent risk management, and passion and flexibility among its present and future leaders.
Among the modules in the Advanced Inventory Management curriculum, the company sought to include sections on managing risk and creative problem solving. The voluntary sections had to be brief, compelling, challenging and substantive to cultivate critical thinking and creative solutions. Clarity was tasked with providing a consultant who could contribute both traditional and innovative skills to help them create fresh training: strong instructional design skills and experience in game-based learning, activity-based ILT, scenario-based classroom work, roleplaying, business strategy and professional development training experience; all with a get-it-done spirit like their own culture: fun, fast and productive. The goals were to grow sales today and to grow people for the future.
Solution: What Clarity Did
Clarity’s consultant was a veteran in learning and development, with a focus on Bay Area companies and institutions. An author, entrepreneur and trainer, she brought an academic background in psychology and certifications in project management, coaching and MBTI®. Her previous experience in improvisational theater was an unexpected plus—the company wanted this training to stimulate creativity, and the consultant understood the serious business value of creative thinking and innovative game design.
Results: The Outcomes
Over a period of several weeks, the consultant formulated a half-day training program called “Creative Risk Taking.” A fast, challenging multi-step course, it comprised a pre-session of self-assessment and reading, classroom work with individual and group exercises, real-world challenges such as logjams and models for solutions, and role-play and discussion. This all worked to help the learners understand their own problem-solving approach, to see alternatives, and to put them all in real-life management situations. The intensive training encouraged learners to know themselves better and to be quick, decisive and innovative in their decisions.
Clarity enabled the client to:
- Help build and retain talent
- Cultivate ‘soft skills’ such as creative entrepreneurialism, critical thinking and prudent risk management
- Cultivate an environment where creativity can flourish