GOLD: Bradley Samargya, Chief Learning Officer, CA Technologies
Software company CA Technologies’ management team wanted to institutionalize a culture of innovation and collaboration that would enable employees to get the right information and contacts easily, thereby increasing efficiency and productivity.
The challenge was to merge three disparate needs into one vision that would enable employees to find, access and store certain information; find and interact with each other; and allow the company to effectively communicate to its employees.
To accomplish this, the company created OneCA. OneCA leverages social and Web 2.0 technology, combining a redesigned intranet with networking and collaborative Web portals under one umbrella.
Search functionality within OneCA reaches across all documents, articles, employee profiles, communities, posts and blogs. Employees can conduct searches based on skills, location, expertise, products or roles. They also can join communities, participate in discussions, post a blog or contribute to a wiki.
OneCA developed an approach for learning delivery that focused on these specific business needs:
- Continual innovation: Deliver on current customer requirements in an engaging and stimulating way.
- Adaptability: Embrace change in requirements and processes to successfully deliver value as business needs evolve.
- Improved time to market: Deliver while there is value and maximize ROI.
- Reliability: Support the business needs by constantly adapting to meet goals.
Upon release, OneCA was received positively. This was largely attributed to a team effort that focused on getting the “people part” right and giving people what they need to be successful.
SILVER: Betty Cotton, Assistant Vice President, AT&T University Management Development, AT&T
In 2008, AT&T University launched its first strategic leadership development program to help achieve a culture that it has named One AT&T. The program, Leading with Distinction, focused on enhancing leadership capabilities to achieve business alignment. Delivered first to officers, then executives, the program now has been successfully delivered to all of the company’s senior leadership.
While this program was successful, a full-scale program was needed to change the management culture at AT&T. In 2009, the AT&T University management development team, led by Betty Cotton, realized that reaching AT&T’s management population of 105,000 front-line managers would not be possible with an in-person program. However, a virtual program with a similar design could achieve the same desired result. Such a solution had to be launched and completed in 2010 and address alignment to One AT&T.
The virtual summit program expanded AT&T’s ability to reach and engage leaders and managers. cotton and her team designed and delivered a flexible and rich program to ensure that managers at all levels are moving toward the one AT&T culture and finding value in learning and collaboration with colleagues in other regions and business units.
BRONZE: Michelle M. Young, Learning and Development Consultant, Microsoft
Faced with the uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity of today’s business environment, Microsoft Finance determined that its worldwide team members needed to grow from being finance professionals to become value-added business partners. Michelle Young, a learning and development consultant at Microsoft, recognized that this transformation of individuals into business leaders had to be highly efficient. Professional development classes were available to finance employees on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Wash., but the challenge was to extend top-quality learning to all finance professionals throughout the world. Young partnered with TRI Corporation, a company that specializes in experiential learning, to transform a three-day in-residence class into a virtual classroom offering that enabled online distance learning.
Catherine Connolly accepted the award for Bradley Samargya.
