The Business Financial Services team at RBC came to Benchmark with an exciting request – help them design and develop a week-long, case-based simulation for advisors who assist large commercial clients. The learners would be highly experienced professionals at the top of their game.
The workshop needed to be virtual. The case needed to be complex, with an international client requiring highly customized advice and solutions. The target audience for the workshop included not one, but three roles who would often complete entirely different tasks.
In addition to these challenges, the team wanted to use an online virtual collaboration tool in conjunction with the virtual classroom. We hadn’t seen the tool and neither had our client, but we knew there would be a steep learning curve for all involved.
Despite the challenges ahead of us, we couldn’t wait to start working with this client who we knew from experience to be smart, thoughtful, and innovative.
Through our work with a focus group, a dedicated advisory committee, and a tireless working team, we catalogued almost 50 learning objectives and identified a complex case, based on a real-life situation, that allowed us to meet two-thirds of the objectives, with the rest achieved through a mixture of micro cases and coffee chats with visiting guest experts.
We created situations and challenges that require each role to contribute their unique expertise to find the best solutions for the client, all while applying their role capabilities in an integrated fashion.
We leveraged the new technology, MURAL, to create dynamic and responsive learning with a shared workspace that encourages real-time, multi-directional conversation. Facilitators and participants navigate through MURAL in response to the discussion and activities taking place in the workshop, recording collective, shared notes that all learners can access during and after the workshop.
The result is a complex program that feels light and flexible, providing opportunities for learners to stretch themselves and achieve their unique learning goals while still finding community.
We couldn’t be prouder of the work and how the RBC and Benchmark teams worked together in a true partnership! And, we’re delighted our work has been recognized an Award of Excellence from the Institute for Performance and Learning!