Embracing Invisible L&D

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY FOCUS: Learning Culture Embracing Invisible L&D AbbVie Hides Its Course Guide to Equip Its Leaders for Success OVERVIEW AbbVie is a global, research-based biopharmaceutical company formed in 2013 following its separation from Abbott Laboratories. The company s mission is to use its expertise, people, and unique approach to innovation to develop and market advanced therapies that address some of the world s most complex and serious diseases. As the company established its own culture and business needs, its talent development team came to believe it needed a new way to develop its employees. The team s research showed that, in order to succeed, the company would need to develop more leaders more quickly and do so in a way that supported a culture of accepting risk and taking the initiative. A major challenge was that the company s talent development model was rooted in traditional classroom experiences, with managers selecting courses from a catalog based on little more than a title. The talent development team sought to radically change how the company develops leaders by adopting an approach that will enable learning wherever and whenever it occurs in the organization and spur business-focused discussions with leaders about development needs. In this case study, we: Describe the key challenges that motivated AbbVie to rethink its legacy development model Explain why AbbVie embraced an invisible approach to learning as a development strategy Reveal how the company quickly transitioned from static classroom courses to customized, modular solutions Demonstrate how business-focused conversations between leaders and talent executives replaced the course catalog as a development tool bersin.com

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Company Overview 3 Business Environment and Challenges 4 The Talent Development Environment 4 AbbVie s Talent Development Goes Invisible 5 Rolling Out a Development Strategy 6 Moving to Invisible L&D 7 Business Impact 10 Lessons Learned and Leading Practices 11 Next Steps 12 Conclusion 12 Table of Figures 13 The Bersin by Deloitte Membership Program 14 About Us 15 2

3 Company Overview AbbVie is a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois, with more than 28,000 employees in more than 70 countries (see Figure 1). 1 Originally part of Abbott Laboratories, the two organizations divided in 2013, with AbbVie focusing on the research, development, and marketing of specialty-focused biopharmaceutical solutions. 2 Today the organization operates 21 primary research and manufacturing facilities around the world in locations including Lake County, Illinois; Tokyo, Japan; and Cambridge, Massachusetts. 3 Beyond its 6,500 scientists 4, the company relies on a sophisticated and talented workforce to manage regulatory issues, marketing, sales, finance, patient relationships, and much more. AbbVie s products are in use by more than 30 million people in more than 170 countries. 5 Research and innovation are the cornerstones of the company s business, advancing leading-edge science through a dynamic and collaborative approach. This enables AbbVie to find better solutions for treating the world s most challenging diseases. The company is focused on discovering, developing, and delivering drugs in therapeutic areas in which it has proven expertise and can make an impact, including: 6 Immunology Oncology Neuroscience Virology General medicine AbbVie continues to invest heavily in new solutions, pouring more than $3.6 billion into research and development during fiscal year AbbVie has more than 50 investigational programs in clinical development aimed at treating a range of diseases. 8 1 At a Glance, abbvie.com, 2017, 2 More than splitting pills: Health care giant Abbott Laboratories ready to spin off AbbVie, Chicago Tribune / Peter Frost, December 30, 2012, _1_longtime-abbott-executive-abbvie-abbott-laboratories. 3 At a Glance, abbvie.com, 2017, 4 Our Company, abbvie.com, 2017, 5 At a Glance, abbvie.com, 2017, 6 "About Abbvie," abbvie.com, 2017, 7 The most recent year for which research and development investment information is available is See Our Company, abbvie.com, 2017, 8 Pipeline, abbvie.com, 2017, 3

4 Figure 1: AbbVie at a Glance 9 Year Founded: 2013 Annual Revenue (FY 2016): $25.6 billion 10 Team Members: Approximately 28,000 Headquarters: North Chicago, Illinois Source: AbbVie, Business Environment and Challenges In 2012, executives at Abbott Laboratories announced their decision to spin off the company s successful biopharmaceutical business into a new venture called AbbVie. The new organization entered a business environment that is both highly competitive and highly complex. The competitors include wellknown and equally well-capitalized biopharmaceutical brands that compete across a similar spectrum of diseases, as well as start-ups that focus on a single solution. 910 Executives had to move quickly to focus the new company on its mission and fulfill its mandate to research, test, develop, and bring a pipeline of biopharmaceutical solutions to market. As part of this change management effort, the company s leaders needed to establish a new culture that could propel the organization forward with positive business results, develop a workforce comfortable with risk and ambiguity, and empower leaders and teams with the skills to be successful. The linchpin in these efforts would be AbbVie s 6,000 team leaders. Equipping these leaders with the right skills was critical for the company s long-term success. As a director of talent development at AbbVie put it: We knew that if we were going to succeed, we had to build better leaders faster. KEY POINT AbbVie had to move quickly to establish a new culture that could propel the organization forward, develop a workforce comfortable with risk and ambiguity, and empower leaders and teams with the skills to be successful. The Talent Development Environment Talent and development at AbbVie comprises four different teams consisting of 32 people total (see Figure 2). The talent development team engages in performance consulting across the organization and delivers leadership and team effectiveness solutions primarily for leaders. The talent management team works with the business to drive talent-related outcomes and supports talent management 9 At a Glance, abbvie.com, 2017, 10 Financial Release: AbbVie Reports Full-Year and Fourth-Quarter 2016 Financial Results, investors.abbvie.com, January 27, 2017, 4

5 processes. The executive development team delivers executive-level solutions geared toward leaders identified as key talent and those in a leadership role transition. The people insights team analyzes talent data to help the organization make data-based development decisions, manages AbbVie s engagement survey, and supports people-related assessments. The leader of the talent and development team reports directly to the chief human resources officer (CHRO), who in turn reports to the company s chief executive (CEO). Figure 2: AbbVie s Talent and Development Organization CHRO Talent and Development People Insights Talent Management Talent Development Executive Development Source: AbbVie, AbbVie s Talent Development Goes Invisible During its first year in business, AbbVie moved quickly to establish a vision and culture that honored its origins with Abbott Laboratories but that was also unique. The company ultimately defined its vision as follows: Our destination is to become a biopharmaceutical company delivering a consistent stream of innovative medicines that solve serious health issues and have a remarkable impact on people s lives. 11 To help the company deliver on this vision, executives within the company s talent development group knew that a legacy approach to designing learning could actually impede their ability to deliver the company s vision as efficiently and quickly as possible. Instead, the group looked to shift: 11 Delivering Science with Remarkable Patient Impact, AbbVie / Tim Richmond, April 20, 2015, services/news/newsfeatures/masterclass/delivering_science_with_remarkable_impact.pdf. 5

6 From an exclusive focus on classroom learning to building solutions that drive business results. A learning catalog with hundreds of courses and an almost exclusive focus on classroom-based experiences was not something that AbbVie wished to re-create. Instead, the talent development function knew that building solutions connected to the company s new learning culture would be paramount. From a belief that classroom training equaled development to an expanded definition of development. Many in the organization believed at the outset that attending training meant an employee instantly developed those skills, and attending more classes was therefore always better. Says the director of talent development at AbbVie: We knew that simply was not true and that development happens in many places and in many ways. AbbVie s new strategy needed to instill a mindset that development is broader than classroom training. From a check-the-box approach to learning to a business-driven approach to development. Managers believed that they were satisfying their role in developing their teams by simply ensuring that their team members went to their assigned courses. Says the director of talent development at AbbVie: It was an air-traffic-controller approach. Managers had done their job if they just got the right people to the right place on time. Moving forward, talent development would need to work with managers to craft a business-driven approach to development. With this in mind, the talent development group made a pitch to the company s CHRO to consider an entirely different learning model. Says the director of talent development at AbbVie: Our CHRO encouraged us to move as quickly as possible on this. The talent development group began to research and lay out a strategy that would guide development for the company s 6,000 leaders. Rolling Out a Development Strategy Given AbbVie s foundation in science and research, the company's talent development team knew the value of gathering and analyzing as much data both quantitative and qualitative as possible to inform a new development strategy. The team examined 360-degree employee review data, employee engagement survey results, and talent management reviews, and spoke to senior leadership to start to piece together its strategy for approaching talent development. The team also looked at published research on the pharmaceutical industry. The talent development team quickly learned the company needed a different approach to development one that would enable learning throughout the 6

7 organization quickly and effectively. First, the strategy needed to be less about one-size-fits-all courses and more about targeted content and workshops aligned to developing talent to meet the needs of the business. Second, the team needed to revamp its reputation and image. Existing solutions for development were adequate, but business units often looked outside of the company for generic workshops to meet their needs. Third, the team knew it needed to move from daylong, classroom-only learning to delivering learning in multiple formats, anywhere, and at any time. Moving to Invisible L&D Today, some of the most forward-thinking talent development organizations are embracing an approach we refer to as invisible L&D. 12 This term describes a mindset that enables and assists learning wherever and whenever it occurs in an organization. This focus on enabling learning necessarily changes the tasks and responsibilities of L&D organizations not to mention the capabilities needed by L&D professionals. Invisible L&D is typically characterized by four characteristics, moving from: In-your-face learning to stealth learning Creating content to enabling performance Programmatic learning to systemic learning Event-based learning to infrastructure-based solutions As previously discussed, AbbVie was looking for a way to break free from a traditional learning and development approach to be able to develop talent with the speed and efficiency required by the business. One of the first steps the group took represented a fundamental change in mindset about the role of the talent development group in the organization. Invisible L&D Facet 1: From In-Your-Face Learning to Stealth Learning Moving from in-your-face to stealth learning meant a shift in thinking about the role of the talent development group, including what content it offered and to whom as well as what metrics were important to measure. As the development group decided to go stealth, even the name it chose for itself, talent development, strove to make a distinction between itself and traditional learning and development. The group also chose not to create a branding logo or internal website and even decided in early 2015 to completely hide its course catalog, no longer publishing it for managers to view. Instead, the group worked with its partner-providers to develop a curriculum that could be fine-tuned for leaders and team situations. What the group eliminated was the ability for managers to select courses without having a conversation as to why. KEY POINT In 2015, AbbVie's talent development team hid its workshop catalog in order to generate deeper conversations about development 12 Invisible L&D, Bersin by Deloitte / Dani Johnson,

8 Says the company s director of talent development: We knew what we were offering, and we knew it was really good, but we had to get our leaders out of the habit of just picking menu items. We had to engage them. AbbVie also moved away from logging success based on hours of learning, number of workshops deployed, and number of seats filled. Says the director of talent development: We are less concerned about traditional postworkshop smile sheets. We are more interested in looking at talent and their behavior development as well as how leaders then lead their teams as a result of this development. We want to see an increase in certain behaviors. Invisible L&D Facet 2: From Creating Content to Enabling Performance The second facet of Invisible L&D involves moving the focus away from creating programs to enabling learning wherever and whenever it occurs in the organization. For AbbVie, the first component of this (shifting the focus away from creating programs) involved developing an implementation strategy that outsourced much of the company s content development to external vendors. The talent development team created several key criteria for selecting partners to deliver solutions, including: A global footprint. AbbVie s workforce is spread over 70 countries and 21 research and manufacturing facilities, so its partners would need the ability and infrastructure to work around the world across multiple languages and cultures. Modular and customizable designs. Offerings couldn t be simply prepackaged options; instead, partners would need to deliver a range of solutions, including a balance of live, in-person sessions; virtual sessions that could be facilitated or self-paced; short workshops; full-day intensive programs; learning on the job; and more. Sustainability. To have a significant impact, partners need to incorporate action planning and development accelerators into their designs. AbbVie was looking for learning that would focus leaders on immediate skill and behavior development. The second component enabling learning wherever and whenever it occurs began with establishing relationships with the company s leaders. It would be through these relationships, the talent development team realized, that it could best learn how to offer tailored development solutions to meet the needs of the business. For example, while the HR senior leaders had bought into the new model, the talent development team now needed to make its case to the company s 8

9 leaders. In that first year, the team spent time with a variety of different groups, explaining why talent development was changing the way it did business and what that meant for leaders and managers in the organization. Says the director of talent development: Once we explained what we were doing and why, we started to hear about specific issues and challenges. In the past, they would just ask us for the course catalog, and now we were looking to help solve business problems that are underscored by the data. One business leader who asked the talent development group for a course catalog so he could find a course on situational leadership for his team was met with a deeper conversation about what problem this executive was truly trying to solve. During the course of the conversation, the team pulled out engagement scores for the leader and his team and noticed that the scores were lower than the company average. Says the director of talent development: Then we asked why he thought they were so low and to look for the key skills gaps. And in this case, the executive realized and said, You know, as a group, I think my team could really use help on influencing and coaching. At that point, the talent development team offered up competing options. There was indeed a generic situational leadership course that would take 10 weeks to book, but instead the team offered to create a customized development solution anchored by a 90-minute workshop on building influencing and coaching skills that could get rolling within a few weeks. The executive signed his team up immediately for the customized approach. Says the director of talent development: Once we started having conversations like that, other leaders started knocking on our door. We didn t manipulate the conversations; we just started asking different questions about their goals, and we used data when we had it to guide the discussions. Invisible L&D Facet 3: From Programmatic Learning to Systemic Learning The lack of a published course catalog, which naturally decreased the physical presence of development programs, also contributed to an overall more systemic approach. The talent development team s method of talking with business leaders before offering learning solutions shifted the focus from selecting programs to identifying what information was truly needed and how to deliver it most effectively. Says the director of talent development: We are constantly engaged with what is happening out there, talking to leaders, watching, and monitoring. Without hesitation, we let business leaders know we are capable of delivering solutions that will get the results they are after. 9

10 For example, a global team leader knew her team would be challenged with a forthcoming change and came to talent development to find a solution. The team was scattered throughout several countries and continents and would need a solution they could implement virtually. The talent development team worked with this leader to create an approach that included a short assessment, one classroom workshop, a virtual practice-as-you-go gated workshop, a structured feedback session, and manager-leader coaching. Of course, there were challenges with this new model of learning as well. With so many business leaders and managers accustomed to ordering up classroom-based learning from a catalog, some were resistant. Says the director of talent development: We did lose some people in this process. And, as a group, we were fine with that. We knew it would be an ambiguous period, but our goal is to steadily move toward providing aligned solutions across the business that build the talent AbbVie needs. Invisible L&D Facet 4: From Event-Based Learning to Infrastructure-Based Solutions The final facet of invisible L&D, developing infrastructure-based solutions, is in its early stages at AbbVie. Infrastructure-based solutions focus less on content and more on context and conditions, enabling learning to happen wherever it occurs. The talent development group is beginning to use data in more proactive ways now that the organization has been collecting metrics for a number of years. AbbVie is currently using internal data to understand exactly who is engaged in solutions by business unit, by area, by vice president, by function, by geography, and so on. The talent development group is working on building an infrastructure that will allow it to proactively identify leaders and teams who could benefit from customized solutions, and has already begun to micromarket to specifically identified leaders and leader pools. Business Impact AbbVie s talent development team has been able to pinpoint some precise impacts its new approach has had on the business. The team is reaching its target audience more than 90 percent of its clients are managers or director-level employees. The talent development group also reports that more business leaders than ever are turning to the team to collaboratively develop learning solutions. At the same time, managers and directors are reporting that they have learned new skills under this invisible approach to development. Says the director of talent development: 10

11 This is important because opportunities to learn new skills that help employees be successful is one of the key drivers of engagement within AbbVie. This in turn has a direct impact on productivity, satisfaction, and retention of our employees. Further research showed that 92 percent of participants in AbbVie s talent development solutions said they gained confidence in their ability to improve their job performance. This confidence was also reflected in their performance, with nearly one-fifth of employees 17 percent having received an increase in their overall performance rating immediately following their participation in a solution. Lessons Learned and Leading Practices AbbVie s talent development team described some of the lessons they learned as a result of their transformation to more invisible L&D: Move quickly. One key advantage at AbbVie was that the organization s CHRO challenged the talent development team to move as quickly as possible in completely rethinking development within the organization. Let the data guide you. AbbVie s talent development team mined both quantitative and qualitative data including engagement scores, performance reviews, and more to help it focus on developing leaders quickly across the entire organization. Communicate the new approach. Once the talent development team outlined its leadership development architecture and a model for implementing it, the team canvassed the company explaining its new approach. Soon leaders were knocking on the team s door to help them solve business problems and develop as better leaders. Hide the course catalog. Given a choice, many managers will simply select a course from a catalog and assume their development work is done. Hiding AbbVie s solutions encouraged executives to begin a dialogue with the talent development team about their specific needs. Create custom content that users cannot ignore. In a time when leaders can obtain content almost anywhere, AbbVie s internally designed leadership development content needed to be aligned with leaders specific development concerns, resonate with workers, and be connected to the needs of the business. Creating content on specific topic areas with a design focus in mind ultimately resulted in business leaders turning to talent development first, instead of other external options. Create an invisible mindset among your L&D team. In order to be invisible, the talent development team needed to adopt a give it away mindset in regards to its content and even its brand. The team was less concerned about receiving credit for development solutions or recognition as KEY POINT Company research showed that 92 percent of participants in AbbVie s talent development solutions said they gained confidence in their ability to improve their job performance. 11

12 content owners; instead, the goal was to move content into the organization and develop talent regardless of recognition. Next Steps After almost two years of using an invisible talent development model, AbbVie s talent development team is focusing on several key areas for The first is an ongoing review and assessment of the group s curriculum to identify weaknesses and strengths in its offerings. The second is to promote and develop a tighter integration of technology into its offerings, which will include integrating digital performance support tools and digital development accelerators designed to improve knowledge transfer and increase speed to behavior change. The third is to proactively use data to drive the right talent and talent pools to the right solutions. Due in part to the group s invisible approach, business leaders, HR leaders, and other functional learning functions have come to appreciate and assume that the solutions from the talent development group will not only be of the highest quality but also drive performance improvement. With this reputation, the talent development group now has earned the right to go directly to leaders with more direct and focused messaging about development. Conclusion For an organization in which 1 in 10 employees has a doctoral degree 13, a classroom-based model for development could have easily been embraced by leaders, scientists, and frontline employees alike at AbbVie. The company s talent development group, however, recognized that a new model for development, one driven not by a course catalog but by the needs of the business, would allow the organization to achieve its vision of delivering a consistent stream of innovative medicines with the speed and efficiency needed in today s competitive pharmaceutical marketplace. The solution, AbbVie found, lay in an invisible L&D mindset and approach to learning, a strategy that enables and assists learning wherever and whenever it occurs in the organization. Since rolling out its invisible strategy less than two years ago, AbbVie has already begun to see positive results. By hiding its course catalog, collaborating with business leaders, and using data, the group has been able to deliver targeted and high-quality solutions more rapidly for the business. Moving forward, talent development plans to build upon its success, continuing to drive conversations with the business and deliver high-quality learning solutions quickly and efficiently. 13 At a Glance, abbvie.com, 2017, 12

13 Table of Figures Figure 1: AbbVie at a Glance...4 Figure 2: AbbVie s Talent and Development Organization

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