A post about work....my work...which I rarely write about

 

Immediately upon returning from Jamaica on Sunday night, I threw all the laundry in the washing machine and started packing my suitcase for the following week.  I had our first post-COVID, in-person training event with nearly 100 people from my division + an additional 65 from the second division coming for 3.5 days of training and we had a lot of last minute details to tie up before they all arrived on Tuesday morning. 

I rarely post about my own work here on the blog - in fact, this might be a first now that I think back on it.  Mostly because my work really isn't all that interesting, and in a picture based book about our family, my work just doesn't seem to be something I want to document much.  But, this even in early April is definitely something I'm very proud of - a long term project I've been working on since the end of 2019 and a project I won't soon forget.

Let me take you back a few years here quick.  At the end of 2019, the Sales Training Manager on our team at the time left for another organization, and, being 4th quarter we weren't able to immediately open up her role to fill it, so I started to take on some of the work she was managing.  When I joined Gallagher in 2018, my manager Peggy was already talking about wanting to redo our onboarding program for new production (sales) hires.  That initiative didn't live under me, it wasn't part of my job role, but, when we lost that team member in 2019, I started to think about how I'd design a training program if it was my responsibility.  I wanted to totally replace our existing program (a 2.5 day in person event for new hires who had joined anywhere from 1 week ago to up to 18 months ago).

My proposal included moving a large portion of the content to a virtual program, creating a hybrid program where new hires would complete some amount of pre-work prior to coming into the a live training program.  The live program would be much more in depth, more focused on activities and using the information they'd learned in the virtual program in an in person setting.  This blended program would mean that we could take a lot of the "sit and listen" aspects out of the existing program and really make the most of our time together in person.  

When I proposed this program to leadership in 2019 I was met with some resistance - mostly around the virtual piece because, as I was told more than once, "Gallagher is a relationship company and we value face to face interactions".

To be clear, I wasn't trying to take away the face to face portion, just make it more valuable...but, in any case, in their minds my proposal still needed some work and we weren't aligned and moving forward.  So, fast forward to March of 2020, calling COVID serendipitous is hard to do, but, in this specific case, it did help me force their hand into a virtual program, allowing me the opportunity to prove that content delivered virtually can be engaging, interesting, and can provide value.  While the rest of the world pivoted to virtual everything, I started building out the virtual piece of my big picture training plan.

Throughout 2020 we weren't given the opportunity to reopen the Sales Training Program Manager role so I continued to hold two roles at Gallagher, working towards a Jan 2021 launch of the virtual onboarding program I'd envisioned back in 2019.  In Jan of 2021 I launched a 12 week program to all production new hires.  It included 40 hours of training over then 12 week period and in 2021, we ran over 250 new hires through the program.  The early survey responses to the program were strong though nearly all of them included comments about wishing we could be in person.  I knew that way back in my original proposal...and had been working to build that out the entire time.  I had a vision, it just took time to get there!

In August of 2021 we were finally able to hire a new Sales Training Program Manager to replace the team member we lost in 2019, and I was able to slowly transition the ongoing program management of the virtual program over to Kurt, our new team member.  Kurt took on the day to day and my focus moved towards the capstone piece of the program (the in person part everyone had been clamoring for).

In October of 2021 we brought in a small group of new hires (12 total) to pilot a portion of the capstone that I'd been working to create with a vendor for the last 10 months.  It's an experiential learning game called A Week in the Life (seen in one of the photos above) and it might have been one of the most fun projects I've worked on to date.  It's a blend of time management + using the tools and resources available to you and my favorite part about it is that it's a TOTALLY new way of training here at Gallagher.  People leave thinking they had a great time and learned something along the way. 

Anyways, our pilot was a total success and it was the final piece we needed to complete before planning the first ever full capstone event set to happen in January 2022.  We were all set to go for January.  Invites had gone out, my support staff was lined up, we had hotel contracts signed and about 40 participants headed into Rolling Meadows for an event Jan 18-21....and then, New Years Day, Pat Gallagher sent out a message saying the offices were reverting back to full time remote until the Omicron variant burned itself out and we could be together in person safely again.  Wah wah wah...a full event cancel less than 15 days before our event.  The whole team was bummed - we'd done all the work with none of the pay off.  But, if COVID has taught us anything, it's the ability to be flexible.   

To say that this April event was a long time coming is an understatement.  It's been a 2.5 year journey to get to this point and, just a few weeks ago I finally got to see it all come to life.  I got to see all of our hard work and planning through the eyes of the participants.  We laughed, we celebrated, I may have even cried a little!

When I tell you that pulling off an event like this isn't easy, please believe me.  Imagine a 3.5 day wedding where you not only need to feed and entertain people, but you also need to accomplish learning objectives all while making it fun for them.  It was a long long week, but there was much to celebrate in the end and I'm so very proud of the work I've done here over the last 2.5 years.  So proud, in fact, that I decided to give it it's very own blog post :)

I left this week with a sense of pride and accomplishment.  I left feeling very valued here at Gallagher and feeling like the work I do means something...that we're having an impact on what the future of the organization looks like.  Probably the best compliment I heard all week was when more than one of my support staff (some how have been attending these events for 10+ years) came up to share that they were so very impressed by the participants level of questions.  They said that they are asking deeper, more meaningful questions than they've ever seen new hires ask.  If nothing else this proves, to me, that the slow drip of information over 12 weeks + this capstone event to solidify the learning is working!  Dean told me that we're on track to creating one of the best training programs in the industry right now, and THAT is a legacy I want to be a part of!

There is lots of work ahead, but for now I'm going to relish in this success for awhile (and...maybe take a nap or two!).