What to Do When a Shift in Market Strategy Requires Talent Transformation

Changes in an organization’s strategic direction almost always require new knowledge and skills for those affected. These large-scale, mission-critical talent transformation efforts require an effective strategy to plan, design, and execute effective learning and development efforts. They also require leadership buy-in and engagement as elements of the strategy continue to be defined over time.

In this case study, we’ll share our experience in bringing the marketing and sales effectiveness teams together to define a learning strategy to support a reorganization of the sales organization and a complete shift in the go-to-market strategy impacting sales teams, retail channel sellers, and customers. We’ll explain key elements of the strategy and the role of a key external partner (Vivayic), discuss lessons learned from working across key functions, highlight core components of the strategy, and share our early-stage feedback and impact on the business.

Join us for a real-life, concrete example of defining a learning strategy to support an organization’s mission-critical transformation. Learning leaders responsible for ensuring that talent will be capable when an organization shifts strategy will walk away with a complete example you can use to inform how you might respond in similar situations. This guided experiential learning provides an opportunity to reflect and consider new ideas or the application of existing theory. We will explain the context of the talent transformation request because of the shift in go-to-market strategy impacting sales, marketing, our retail channel, and our customers and examine the challenge of aligning the existing training efforts of the marketing team for retailers and customers with the training efforts of the sales enablement team as part of a newly formed Center of Excellence. We will share how we identified key priorities in the overall learning strategy. And, you’ll see how that strategy has materialized into learning experiences, assets, and supports. We hope this session is driven by your questions to help illuminate what might be interesting to you about our experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• How one organization defined a learning strategy to support a talent transformation
• How multiple functions and an external partner can align quickly to support a shared learning strategy
• Insights and lessons learned that align to your interest and curiosity