Blog - Bull City Blue

May 28, 2019 Leadership Organizational Excellence andrew

Avoiding POA Chaos, Part III: Implementation Best Practices

By Sue Iannone Ah, the plan of action (POA) meeting. It can be a fantastic tool for making sure the field teams are ready, willing, and able to get the message out. Unfortunately, it can also be an exhausting and frustrating fire-drill—a mad dash to the finish—particularly for the Learning and Development (L&D) team. It […]

May 20, 2019 Leadership Organizational Excellence andrew

Avoiding POA Chaos, Part II: Planning Best Practices

By Sue Iannone Famous general and former President, Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” When it comes to life sciences plan of action (POA) meetings, I’d say I definitely agree with the second part of that statement. Good planning is quite indispensable. In part I […]

May 14, 2019 Leadership Organizational Excellence andrew

Avoiding POA Chaos, Part I

By Sue Iannone According to Dictionary.com, “chaos” is defined as “a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.” Any L&D professional who’s been involved in planning a pharmaceutical company Plan of Action (POA) meeting knows about chaos first-hand. In fairness, “chaos” is probably too strong a term for describing […]

April 22, 2019 Learning Principles & Techniques andrew

Using Microlearning for Stand-Alone Training

By Carla Torgerson and Sue Iannone In previous blogs, we’ve discussed how microlearning can be used to prepare learners for learning events, and as follow-up after learning events. In this article, we’ll consider how microlearning can be used as stand-alone training. Key Benefits Of course, using microlearning as stand-alone training can provide all the core […]

In this session we will explore a challenge that training organizations face on a recurring basis—the need to redesign New Hire Training (NHT) to better align it with the changing needs of the sales organization. Portfolios change, organizational structures change, marketplace challenges change and budgets change—but training organizations will always be expected to produce new hires who can succeed from day one in the field.

The session will focus on key aspects of NHT redesign including:

Scale: Determining how broad the redesign effort will be. Will we include a “deep dive” into curriculum and content? Or will we focus more on the logistical and administrative aspects of NHT?

Research: Identifying the best research methods for gaining insights into your NHT’s current state and identifying and categorizing opportunities for your desired future state. Will we conduct interviews or working sessions? How wide a net should we cast? Will we include learner perspectives—or focus on managers’ observations? Will attitude and awareness research be valuable?

Prioritization: Applying a framework to determine which opportunities will produce the greatest value for both the sales organization and the training organization. What principles will guide our decision making? How will we evaluate one opportunity relative to another?

Socialization: Defining your vision for the ideal future state of NHT and “selling it” to your stakeholders. How much rigor will be required to garner stakeholder approval? How detailed does our workload analysis have to be if we are requesting new resources?

The session will introduce core NHT-redesign concepts in a fun and engaging way but will be underpinned by a case study based on Sunovion’s 2021 redesign of NHT.




Workshop Facilitators:

 	Garry O’Grady, President, Bull City Blue
 	Richard D Beers, Senior Director Sales Training, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals
        Trish Hanrahan, Senior Sales Training Manager, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals



Date, Time and Place:

 	Wednesday, June 15 @ 8:30am – 9:30am



Learning Objectives:

 	Attendees will be able to list critical decisions that must be made before initiating a redesign effort, as well as the most common challenges companies face during a redesign effort
 	Attendees will be able to describe what a “guiding principle” is and how it can be employed to ensure a redesign effort stays on track.
 	Attendees will be able to employ a prioritization framework to assist them in comparing the relative value of opportunities—even if those opportunities are in very different categories (e.g., Learning Technology vs. Roles Delivering Training)

As the learning leader, your team takes care of everyone else in the organization, from salespeople to field reimbursement managers to clinical educators. But who takes care of your team? How can you ensure they are equipped with the right capabilities that they need to support their learners?

Learning professionals often leverage competency models for customer-facing roles to identify key capabilities and inform the build out of new hire training programs, however competency models are not often used for their own L&D team. By identifying and outlining expectations on key capabilities, competency models lay the groundwork for development in any kind of role — L&D professionals included.

When AbbVie Canada wanted to elevate and formalize the expectations of its Learning Partner team, it used a new competency model as the catalyst. The new model defined expectations for the Learning Partner role across eight competencies, covering the role’s broad range of capabilities while still capturing the team’s culture and reflecting the different levels of experience that individuals in the role may have.

Once the Competency Model was built, AbbVie Canada brought it into action by building several tools to help managers and learning partners optimally apply the model toward development. These included a competency ‘Experience Map’, a Learning Pathway, a Developmental Journey Overview and Leader Guide. These tools inform team members and their managers of representative experiences on how to perform in the role and attain readiness for the next role. In addition to facilitating development, these tools also play a role in AbbVie Canada Learning’s recruiting and hiring practices.

By attending this workshop you will recognize the benefits of introducing a competency model for learning professionals and determine if a competency model is right for your learning team. You will hear how AbbVie Canada partnered with Bull City Blue and created, implemented, and built on their own model. This collaborative project was nominated in 2021 and earned Industry Partner LTEN 2021 Finalist status—come to the workshop to get an update on how this has impacted the L&D Team at AbbVie Canada.




Workshop Facilitators:

 	Iain Boomer, Global Director – The Academy, AbbVie Corporation
 	Sue Iannone, President, Bull City Blue



Date, Time and Place:

 	Tuesday, June 14 @ 3:45pm-4:45pm



Learning Objectives:

 	Recognize when a competency model is appropriate for your learning team
 	Identify common learning team competencies and recognize relatable and observable performance levels that enable self-evaluation and support development (e.g., novice to mastery)
 	Identify the types of tools and resources that support competency model implementation and/or “pull through”