3 Use Cases to Help Elevate Your Leadership Development Training 

When building a business case to get buy-in from stakeholders, you may need some examples to support your vision. We’ve selected three use cases to help do just that. Each one highlights how different organizations partnered with AllenComm to tackle their leadership development challenges and get the results they needed—as well as how you can use similar strategies or data to benchmark your own initiative and get the buy-in you need to move forward. 

Use Case 1 (Growth): Bridging the Gap: AONL and AllenComm Prepare Nurses for Leadership Success 

Historically, attrition rates among nurses have varied from around 9–37%, depending on specialty, location, salary, and other factors. The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) needed a way to create sustainability in the work environment and support nurse managers as they transition into vital management roles. 

For learning leaders seeking to retain and develop top talent in leadership, look to AONL’s approach. By determining the right mix of modalities (in this case, on-demand WBT, in-person facilitated learning, and a growth planner), you can reduce the training burden while also allowing learners to personalize their experience, contextualize it with real-world application, and grow into confident, forward-focused leaders. 

“One of our challenges—and it’s also just a tremendous opportunity—is … about the variety of roles and settings in which our members practice and trying to meet all of those needs, [as well as] be inclusive of those that want to develop leadership competency regardless of title, [role,] or setting in which they practice.”  

– Amy Trueblood, Senior Director of Leadership Development for AONL (from the Learner Experience Evolution podcast, Episode 11: Revolutionizing Nursing Leadership Development) 

After taking the program, 96% of participants agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “Learning with a community of peers helped me feel supported in the challenges I face as a manager.” 

Check out the full case study here. 

Use Case 2 (Innovation): O.C. Tanner Scores Big Results with Gamified Training 

O.C. Tanner, a global engagement company, wanted to create a suite of digital leadership training resources to complement their Great Work line of products designed to recognize employees. The project needed to address several challenges: it had to appeal to diverse groups, contain only materials that were relevant and useful, be accessible, and offer practice opportunities in fun, engaging ways. 

The training was also an opportunity to set the organization apart in the marketplace and go beyond rote learning of concepts by focusing on action-based, real-world application—yet it also had to overcome the limitations of moving into a digital, remote space while still achieving great results and performance. 

To do so much at once is a feat many learning leaders may struggle with. But with the right tools, innovation and creativity can thrive. From gamification to memorable microcourses, you can create a leadership development program that fully supports learners in becoming even better at their work. Stakeholders can see the value of the investment, too, as performance and morale improve. 

“We wanted learners to walk away feeling the training was absolutely worth their time and has valuable, retainable information they can use over and over…” 

– Gina Anderson, project manager 

The AllenComm and O. C. Tanner teams also wanted learners to “really feel passionate about the recognition solutions that motivate and support learners’ performance.” 

The mobile-friendly solution has proven to be highly engaging and best in class, with crisp writing, great design, and dynamic gamification strategies that assess the learner’s ability to try out skills in ways that don’t feel rote or contrived. 

Check out the full case study here. 

Use Case 3 (Culture): Simply Pure: Building a Unified Global Culture 

After years of rapid growth, Pure Storage uncovered a need for a comprehensive messaging and development campaign to share the story of their company history, customers, products, and values with more than 5,600 team members across the world. That’s what started Simply Pure, a scalable (and completely voluntary) program that promotes goals through individual leadership, powerful values, and one united, compelling narrative to help team members visualize how their actions can make an impact.   

The reality is: when it comes to developing effective leaders and high-performing teams, culture has never been more important. Team members who feel like they belong are more likely to want to do their best to succeed. And teams that succeed are critical in meeting stakeholders’ expectations and business goals from quarter to quarter. 

What’s the culture like at your organization? How can you make it even better than it is now by taking your leadership development training to the next level? Learn from Pure Storage’s approach and invite learners on a journey that keeps them curious, engaged, and able to picture how they fit into the bigger picture. Support them at every step as they uncover their career goals and aspirations in your organization’s future. 

“What we wanted employees to be able to do was understand, ‘Hey, here I am in my role. How on earth am I connected to the bigger picture?’ By giving them more ownership and more connection to the company’s purpose, we believe that they’ll be able to work more efficiently, have better relationships with their teammates, and ultimately, just be more invested because they want to be.” 

– Jack Reid, Leadership Development Partner at Pure Storage (from the Learner Experience Evolution podcast, Episode 7: Innovating Learning Solutions) 

As for the results? Because the program was voluntary, no one was required to complete it—and yet after six months, more than 2,300 Pure Storage team members participated in the program. Participants said they know more about company and feel more connected personally with their jobs. 

Check out the full case study here. 

Found a couple of insights you’d like to remember? Bookmark this page and come back to it later when you’re ready to start creating your own strategy! 

If you have some ideas but aren’t sure where to start, we can help you the same way we helped AONL, O.C. Tanner, and Pure Storage. Well, almost the same … every organization is unique, so we’d love to collaborate to find the perfect customized solution made just for you (and for the stakeholders who may be putting on the pressure to turn things around). Contact us at [email protected] or through our website, and we’ll come up with some next steps together!