Case Study: A Major Financial Institution Embraces Virtual Team Training

This case study profiles the type of decisions that many organizations are facing during the current business climate when the traditional ways of doing business are disrupted by circumstances beyond their control.

This includes team training. Senior IT leaders are faced with many challenges when it comes to managing a remote workforce. Here is a case study showcasing why a savvy and forward-thinking financial institution took a leap of faith and chose to put a group of IT managers through virtual team training. We also profile the reasons why they choose the Lean IT methodology.

The Customer
For many years, this Pink customer, a  large multinational financial institution, has been committed to providing IT service management training to its workforce that has included ITIL®️ and now has a specific focus on the Lean IT methodology. Hundreds of its IT practitioners have taken the Lean Foundation training and, depending on their roles and positions, subsets of them have moved on to take Lean IT Kaizen and/or Lean IT Leadership courses.

The Need
This financial institution’s Lean IT journey began as a result of a shared IT services team that was looking for ways to increase their productivity and effectiveness because they had more incoming work than they could complete within the expected time frames. The leader of the team, who had had some exposure to Lean IT, understood it was possible for the team to work smarter by removing waste and focusing more of their capacity on higher value work. He secured Lean IT foundation level training for his team and also included a few members of the organization’s network and database teams. The results were positive and spawned further foundation level training within the IT department and was then further expanded to include Lean IT Kaizen training.

At the same time, the organization was going through a major digital transformation that was concentrated on increasing collaboration, as well as the acceleration of value creation and speed to market. Several senior IT leaders who had been exposed to the Lean IT classes saw the cultural fit between the Lean IT concepts and their digital transformation efforts. As a result, most of the organization’s mid- and senior-level leaders who are leading the shift in culture required for a successful transformation have been/are being provided with Lean IT Leadership training.

Amidst the increasing evidence that the strategic effectiveness of the Lean methodology on the growth of the organization was paying off – the organization acquired another entity. Now the question became, with their workforce working remotely, when would the incoming practitioners be able to receive the same in-house training as their colleagues?

The Challenge
The organization’s merged workforce now consists of its original Lean IT-trained practitioners as well as the incoming IT practitioners who do not possess the same training and are unfamiliar with the organization’s Lean work practices. The decision-makers had to choose one of two options:

  1. Wait many months and resume their usual practice of onsite training, which involved all participants sitting in the same room as had previously happened, or;
  2. Step outside their comfort zone and engage in virtual training – where their staff would attend virtual, live instructor training, in real-time, from their remote work locations

Prior to making their decision, leaders weighed the following factors:

  • They are in the process of undergoing significant change at the organizational level to merge their operations, right down to redefining some of their services. Senior management anticipates Lean methodology will benefit this process by giving them a way to continue providing their services with their current streamlined processes, while continuing to integrate the acquired entity.
  • Because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is no way of knowing when onsite training – which typically gathers people into a single physical space with a live instructor – will be able to resume. Delays in training carries a risk because of complications and timing involved in bringing their new practitioners up to speed with the existing workforce that already subscribes to the Lean way of thinking and uses Lean IT best practices.
  • One major concern with delays in training incoming practitioners is related to major disruptions to the delivery of products and services to the organization’s customers, which could result in lost business revenue.
  • Senior management was extremely pleased with the success of the Lean IT training from its trusted supplier (Pink Elephant) and is committed to building on this success. But, because they were unfamiliar with utilizing virtual team training, they were unsure if this type of training would deliver the same results.

The Decision
Pink Elephant’s senior account manager addressed the stated concerns, providing detailed information about the delivery of the interactive virtual training.  In addition, our account manager gave very positive feedback from similar organizations that have undertaken the same type of virtual team training from Pink.

The decision-makers realized their Lean journey, which began as a grass roots movement, has grown over time and plays a major role in supporting the organization’s overall strategic objectives.

They also have a pressing need to ensure the momentum of their merger continues to positively impact their business goals and objectives. So, despite their initial hesitancy, senior management took a leap of faith and made the decision to proceed with the virtual team training approach for Lean IT Leadership training.

Virtual Training - A Powerful Learning Tool
In the past, many of our customers have utilized Pink’s virtual, instructor-led training to bring IT service management learning to their staff. There are two ways to take advantage of live, virtual training: 

  • Take part in scheduled public dates for virtual training classes delivered live via webcam and interact with other students through voice, video, and live chat. See our catalog of virtual training courses here.
  • Or – you can bring a Pink expert consultant on-site “virtually” as described above in the case study. Request a quote here.

 

 

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