eLearning - December 2008/January 2009 - (Page 29) LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT EXCELLENCE This category honors organizations that have implemented innovative learning solutions to increase the quality of a company’s leadership pipeline and show a positive impact on the company’s business objectives. According to Kim Lamoureux, principal analyst for Bersin & Associates: “This year’s applicants demonstrated the design of sophisticated leadership frameworks and supporting programs. These organizations are outstanding examples of aligning leadership development to the business strategy and bringing learning back inside the company.” Sun Microsystems: Leadership Connections, part of Sun’s comprehensive Leadership Academy, prepares senior and executive leaders through skills assessment, coaching, training, and a sophisticated custom-designed simulation. Keys to Sun’s success include CEO and executive team involvement in the leadership framework, the selection of content and topics, and the design and piloting of the simulation. The program has shown great success in improving managers’ knowledge of the company’s strategy and business model. Ratings for understanding the interrelation- ships and dependencies across Sun business units, for example, more than doubled — from 39 to 90 percent — after completing the program. Textron: A winner in two categories this year, Textron has seven leadership programs that target all levels from front line to executive. The Growth Leadership Program is a cross-functional program designed to facilitate growth-focused leadership by applying core marketing processes, tools, and principles to the entire product lifecycle. Nominated participants apply content to a real Textron business challenge. In partnership with Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business Executive Education and with strong executive support, the program has shown tremendous ROI. To date, 87 growth-enhancing projects have been launched across the company as a result of this program. U.S. Air Force: This progressive, careerspanning development program targets 42,000 junior officers, field grade officers and general officers of the U.S. Air Force. Its foundation is a new Institutional Competency List, which defines the competencies and level of proficiency required at every rank. The program, developed in conjunction with Vangent, Inc., includes distance learning, virtual exercises, custom simulations and automated assessments. Mentoring, a core Air Force activity, is a requirement for all officers throughout their careers. LEARNING INITIATIVE EXCELLENCE This category honors organizations that have implemented a program, project or process that was well designed, skillfully managed, and resulted in recognizable business impact. “Each applicant focused on very diverse areas of talent management — measurement, strategy and learning,” says Lamoureux. “These organizations demonstrate how effective very different initiatives can be as long as they are tightly aligned with one or more business objectives.” KPMG LLP: This audit, tax, and advisory firm — a U.S. limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG international network of independent member firms — created the Performance Measurement Group (PMG) to maximize the ROI of its learning and development initiatives. The PMG has implemented enterprise-scale measurement technology infrastructure and sophisticated analytics methodologies. A rigorous measurement Vendor Innovation T he number of submissions in the vendor category was considerably higher than in previous years. According to Chris Howard, this is due in part to the innovation that is taking place in the learning and talent management vendor community. “The theme this year is the recognition that both blended and rapid learning are being adopted as standard practices,” Howard observes. Allen Communication Learning Services: The Allen Learning Portal is a fully functional, on-demand, portal-type LMS solution targeted at the corporate market, especially those corporations where flexibility and translation are key. Its price is fixed, no matter how many learners use the system. Brainshark: The Brainshark Content Network is a YouTube-like open market for e-learning and other content. Companies and individuals can search for instructional content, purchase, and then easily integrate into their own LMS. InnerWorkings: InnerWorkings offers a structured learning and testing environment integrated within Microsoft Visual Studio. InnerWorkings Developer offers a 500+ hour library of learning challenges, so that developers can hone the skills they need, when they need them. Kognito Interactive: Kognito’s The Investigator is a Web-based, interactive learning simulation that teaches human resource managers how to effectively and legally investigate complaints of workplace misconduct including sexual harassment, retaliation, and unethical behavior. Mzinga: With the Social Learning Suite, Mzinga combines LMS and performance management with social media and networking technologies, collaborative authoring, and virtual classroom capa- bilities within a single SaaS platform for organizations wanting to jump into Learning 2.0. NIIT: For electronics giant Philips, NIIT provided a product that includes a global LMS implemented across three geographical regions in more than 80 countries. The product supports 90 processes, 200 training providers and more than 500 training locations globally. PDI Ninth House: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Interactive Edition” is a new personal and professional development solution that uses Hollywood-style video drama and interactive activities. Richardson: Richardson QuickSkills, a package of Web-based courses drawn from the company’s world-class sales curriculum, helps sales professionals build stronger relationships, exceed sales objectives, and close more business using a wizard-style interface. Saba: The Saba Knowledge Center is a portal extension to Saba’s enterprise LMS, adding search engine functionality. It enables easy contributions and leverages Saba Centra to capture live interactions. Suddenly Smart: The company’s SmartBuilder v3 is a Flashbased Web e-learning development platform. Its intuitive, dragand-drop authoring environment enables users to quickly lay out content, incorporate rich media, establish robust interactivity and customize content from templates. Elearning! December 2008/January 2009 29
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