Story:
The TELUS Leadership Philosophy: a collaborative, engaging and open leadership framework for 35,000+ team members
The TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP) supports the evolution of TELUS (a national telecommunications company in Canada) into a customer focused, highly collaborative, connected and engaged enterprise, and addresses our corporate priorities to continue to improve operational efficiency & to be best in class in the market.
The TLP is a leadership framework recently implemented across the organization emphasizing a behavioral model where all 35,000+ team members are encouraged to engage and explore options and ideas, openly and collaboratively, prior to commencing any execution or explanation actions.
It embeds a connected learning model (formal, informal and social) into the framework itself and through the use of social technologies across the organization, empowers team members to drive forward our brand promise, "the future is friendly".
TELUS is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.8 billion of annual revenue and 12.3 million customer connections including 7.0 million wireless subscribers, 3.7 million wireline network access lines, 1.2 million Internet subscribers and more than 300,000 TELUS TV® customers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video. In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our 35,000+ team members and our retirees have contributed $211 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 3.7 million hours to local communities since 2000.
TELUS’ strategic intent is to: unleash the power of the Internet to deliver the best solutions for Canadians at home, in the workplace and on the move. This means staying in front of industry trends, embracing smart ways to deliver exceptional customer service and outpacing the competition.
Our number one corporate priority is to deliver on our brand promise – the future is friendly. To do so, every team member must become a brand ambassador, be empowered to lead each customer interaction (whether direct or indirect) with a business ownership mentality, and approach customer experiences as a team, viewing our functional responsibilities as being interconnected; each team member is responsible for honouring our commitment of - “A promise made. A promise kept.” - with our customers and each other.
In late 2009, our annual team survey confirmed a significant leadership gap, with leadership viewed as classically hierarchical, not linked to the overall health, engagement and/or performance of the company. Team members said we were very clear on strategy but not high on empowering them to address business and customer issues. In parallel, functional business units were addressing leadership development through asymmetric leadership concepts that were not aligned across the organization or with overall corporate strategy.
TELUS was also experiencing significant changes in our workforce. Our organization engages 4 different generations of team members, each with different motivational drivers, preferences for learning and views of the concept of leadership. Complicating matters, roughly 40% of TELUS team members can be classified as Baby Boomers or Silent Generation; with retirement looming, knowledge transfer and capture was becoming imperative.
In addition, our operations continued to expand internationally, engaging employees from across the globe including South America, Asia and the United States of America. The way we experience work was also evolving quickly, and the benefits of the virtual workforce had a significant impact on how we operate. TELUS no longer confines employees within the 4 walls of the proverbial corporate office, but encourages team members to work both when and where they are most effective. Our Work Styles initiative has a goal by 2014 of having 30% of team members working in one of our offices, 40% being mobile workers and 30% working 100% of the time from their home. Impact will be major reduction in real estate costs and environmental footprint, improved efficiency, increased team engagement and enhanced customer experience.
Given the vast amount of information flowing throughout TELUS and our expanding workforce make-up and structure, knowledge transfer, sharing of information/experiences, open and collaborative environments and access to learning and leadership development opportunities had become paramount.
In 2000, TELUS developed a focused growth strategy based on six strategic imperatives one of which is to “Invest in internal capabilities”. Although significant effort had been given to supporting team member and leadership development, and TELUS had grown to be the best performing incumbent Telco globally, there was still a desire to drive our business ownership culture philosophy (Our business, our customer, our community, our team …my responsibility) across the organization and instill the belief that leadership is incumbent in all team members, not only for those in senior positions or supervisory roles. Best practice research from McBassi, Bersin, ASTD and McKinsey overwhelmingly demonstrates that a consistently applied leadership framework will result in productivity, engagement and overall talent management improvements; the time was right for a new, more holistic leadership and learning approach across the organization.
The business challenge was multifaceted, but intertwined - to provide the best customer experience in our industry by:
- Increasing team member engagement
- Supporting the move to a tight-loose culture (high on clarity and high on empowerment)
- Increasing organizational collaboration and supporting a blended formal, informal & social learning model
- Focussing relentlessly on quality
These factors needed to be addressed whilst adapting to our changing workforce, continued focus on increasing operational efficiencies and simultaneously growing the business. All of this is being accomplished at TELUS through the introduction of the TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP); an open, collaborative and connected leadership model touching all team members across the organization.
The TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP) nurtures leadership in all team members, providing a consistent, simplistic model, regardless of business unit, tenure or title. The TLP empowers team members to share their thoughts to enhance the customer experience, proactively solve problems and grow our business. The TLP has been embedded across HR programs, is now integrally linked to our formal corporate values and underpins our learning strategy. The TLP augments traditional leadership development with initiatives that provide learning opportunities to all team members, rather than focusing on people leaders, high potentials and senior leaders. It is also supports the way we work, interact and collaborate.
Specifically the TLP provides:
- Clarity:
- The TLP provides a clear framework that promotes every team member demonstrating leadership in delivering on our brand promise and by extension, our Customers First commitment. Prior to launching the TLP, the concept of leadership at TELUS had despairingly different definitions across the organization. Leadership was seen as the right and responsibility of the few, not the many. The framework of the TLP simplifies leadership at TELUS, provides consistency, and equips all team members with an operating model for behaviour, expectations and actions.
- Alignment:
- The TLP supports our strategic imperatives and corporate priorities by aligning the following 4 key pillars:
- Our long-standing leadership values as the cornerstone of our culture;
- Simplified values attributeswhich will help team members demonstrate leadership behaviours and establish a quality customized career development plan;
- Our business ownership culture - our customers, our business, our team, our communities - my responsibility; and
- Employing fair process (a model to decision making based on a 5-step cycle of engaging, exploring, explaining, executing and evaluating) as often as possible to garner team member input into decisions and participation in initiatives
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- The TLP is integrated into our recruiting model, succession planning, performance development system, coaching framework as well as all forms of communications. It is interwoven into our Customers First program, acting as the basis for customer interactions. It is also key to our flexible work styles evolution, by providing a collaborative leadership framework for those who may no longer interact face-to-face.
- The TLP also aligns leadership development priorities and concepts across different business units, focusing on holistically achieving our corporate strategy
- Collaboration:
- The TLP is the umbrella for increased collaboration and our movement from a Learning 1.0 environment where learning revolves around formal event based development, to “Learning 2.0” , where learning and collaboration unite to drive an experience for all team members that includes formal, informal and social learning options. Through live webcasts, recorded webinars, blogs, micro-blogging, corporate and executive/CEO communications, wikis, video sharing, discussion forums, webjams, idea factories and any formal, informal and social means possible, we drive company-wide conversation which enables all team members to lead dialogue, contribute to discussions and share their voice. This is particularly key as it supports team members in building relationships, gaining access to learning and leadership development opportunities, and allows them to share their thoughts and expertise in an increasingly virtual environment
The TELUS leadership philosophy is about creating an environment where team members, regardless of title, level or experience, feel that they have a responsibility to take a leadership role, and understand that they can add value and make a difference in our organization. Learning 2.0 is about positioning and reinforcing a learning culture that is part formal, part informal and part social. The linkage between the TLP and Learning 2.0 is specific; leadership should also be thought of as part formal, part informal and part social. We have not only transformed how we learn and develop our team, but we have created a shift in our overall culture. We are paving the path for a new way of learning, working and leading, creating the following opportunities for other organizations to follow in the advancement of learning, development and collaboration:
- Simplifying, aligning and integrating the leadership framework
- We are constantly looking for the latest and greatest philosophies, definitions, and better ways of doing things. In doing so we often complicate, confuse and overwhelm employees. They don’t know which way to turn or where to focus. Simplification, defining a common language and alignment to the culture, employee lifecycle and business strategy is key to any leadership framework. By doing so, desired behaviours are reinforced, resulting in actions that will drive and consistently support the corporate culture and business. In addition, a clearly defined framework creates the model and criteria for what talent is hired, how employees are developed, what their performance is measured against, and supports succession planning and career development. Organizations will be able to identify current bench strength and build the capability needed for the future.
- Leadership development is for the many, not for the few
- Each of us bring our own set of unique talents, skills and leadership abilities to the table, however, often leadership development is reserved for a select group of individuals - those leading others, senior leaders, and high potential employees. When the abilities of a large percentage of the population are somewhat discounted, a huge opportunity is lost in creating innovative ways to grow the business and engagement levels remain low. Growth begets growth. Organizations will benefit many times over by nurturing leadership in all team members. Not only will they see increased productivity and innovation, but also a largely engaged and collaborative team. Being a leader, no matter what role one has, is everyone’s responsibility; when individuals are empowered and have the ability to apply what they do best, it creates an inherent sense of personal value, greater commitment to the outcome and increased satisfaction; imagine an organization where this is the norm, and not the exception - everyone wins.
- Moving from hierarchy to heterarchy & situational hierarchy
- Although structure is needed when it comes to job descriptions, roles and responsibilities, and approving expense reports, a great deal can be said for a flatter organization. Heterarchy isn’t about making all team members responsible for the same tasks, but about each individual following a business ownership model and understanding their inherent responsibility for contributing to the success of the greater team. It is about Fair Process not necessarily Fair Outcome. In addition, when we integrate cross functional collaboration by engaging team members from the frontline through the executive level, we gain a different and more accurate perspective to drive improvements and increase organizational performance, thus enabling us to implement more efficient processes and increase customer satisfaction. Heterarchy also allows relationships to form with less positional boundaries. This results in stronger connections which are focused on value and not on position, or level. Situational hierarchy is still important as fair process does not equal fair outcome, but heterarchy enables involvement, participation & opinion through the process of building a better organization for our customers
- Ingraining the importance of a tight loose culture
- Successful organizations ensure every employee has a clear understanding of what the vision is and the ability and the opportunity to achieve the goal and drive results. Movement towards a tight-loose culture - high on clarity and high on empowerment -enables all employees to lead and be effective ambassadors for their respective companies. High clarity and low empowerment (tight/tight) results in a bottle neck organization where individuals are very clear on what the goal is, but are not given the opportunity to be innovative or effective in terms of achieving it. Conversely an organization with a low clarity and high empowerment (loose/loose) will result in a disconnected unfocussed organization – the entrepreneurial spirit will be there, but the plan and strategy to achieve goal will be disjointed. The detriment of low clarity and low empowerment (loose/tight) speaks for itself. Learning 2.0 and the TLP ensure the Tight-Loose model can be successful at TELUS.
- Leading the learning and collaboration evolution
- Many organizations are still focussed on traditional formal instructor-led or formal eLearning. The dawn of Web 2.0 and growing world of social media has evolved the way we interact, communicate and learn. Couple this with the fact that a large and growing population of the workforce is Gen X/Millennial and don't just see the web as a tool, but as a way to interact, learn, and evolve. Research shows that up to 80 % of learning happens through informal and social means; the way we learn is changing. To remain competitive and cost effective, organizations need to embrace a more collaborative learning approach; one that blends formal, informal and social learning to encourage individuals to share their thought, opinions and expertise, while enhancing their learning experience. In addition, modalities of formal learning often limit the ability to reach a large audience. By employing virtual, and other informal and social opportunities, the impact is transcended from the few to the many, and a more self directed ownership approach is applied.
- Supporting the alternative/virtual and global workforce
- The way we work has shifted dramatically from a structured office environment to a virtual workplace that is not confined within a corporate structure both physically and metaphorically. The shift continues to occur across the globe, and more organizations are realizing the values of the virtual workforce which enables employers to recruit star talent globally, creates a significant reduction in operational and real-estate costs, and has proven to increase productivity and engagement. The benefits, however, cannot overshadow the structure and programs needed to implement a change of this magnitude. Key to the success of any organization with a large virtual workforce are the technology, practices, behaviours and tools needed to collaborate effectively within a team moving beyond the barriers of distance and time zones. Virtual work environments must also be coupled with the ability of being interconnected, providing a sense of belonging and community. Employees also need access to learning and development, effective performance and career development opportunities and support in leading and implementing this type of work style. In addition, only a self-directed, empowered employee base that acts, feels and thinks like business owners will thrive and continue to generate organizational success.
Over the past year and a half, we developed and launched several additional initiatives to help the entire organization become comfortable with the TELUS leadership philosophy (TLP) and embrace it in their daily lives.
These include:
- Engaging the business in the creation and launch of the TLP
- The creation of the TLP was a clear example of the TLP in action. Fair process was utilized to support the creation of the philosophy. We first engaged and explored with over 1000 team members from across the business (from senior executives to front line team members) in every stage of the of the TLP creation. Through focus groups, surveys, discussion forums, blogs, videos and meetings, we discussed the current state and perception of leadership at TELUS, effective leadership qualities, gaps in our framework, the realities of our evolving workforce/workplace and the inherent benefits of developing a tight-loose culture through a philosophy which supports leadership in all team members. Through organizational wide webinars, wikis, blogs and videos, we launched (explained and executed) an understanding of the TLP, as well as it’s purpose and benefits. We further evaluated and revised the model based on team member feedback, finally coming up with a framework and philosophy that not only resounded with team members across TELUS, but was easily applied into their daily activities
- Development of clear leadership competencies
- Our longstanding TELUS leadership values are our tried and true value statements that remain as real today as the day TELUS team members originally committed to them in 2000. Key to consistent and continuous demonstration of the values is a set of defined and expected behaviours. Prior to the launch of the TLP, we had 41 TELUS competencies that supported our values. As the TLP is about simplification and applying a philosophy that is applicable to all team members, the competencies underwent a thorough review resulting in the creation of 11 values attributes. These attributes impart more up to date leadership behaviours to enable us deliver quality, align to our customer’s needs and support timely development for leaders now and into the future. The 11 values attributes include: being creative, risk taking & implementing, demonstrating integrity, collaborating, communicating, learning, driving results, developing team members, initiating, adapting and deciding.
- Our 11 values attributes also include 4 levels of defined behaviours, based on role and responsibilities. The attributes have been linked into our performance development system to support performance and career development conversations, and are also aligned within all leadership development programs. The values attributes are used to help adjudicate new recruits into the company and are being woven into both promotion and succession planning processes.
Leadership development opportunities
- TLP development roadmap
- A TLP leadership development roadmap was built to support team members in enhancing their leadership skills. Learning opportunities are categorized into “leading self” and “leading others” with 3 stages – foundation, progressive and advanced – of leadership development opportunities outlining formal, informal and social options depending on where team members are in their leadership journey.
- Values Attributes and TLP related learning paths
- Learning paths outlining formal, informal and social learning opportunities have been developed to further team member’s understanding and development of each of our values attributes, Work Styles initiative and other key areas that are foundational to the TLP and demonstrating leadership at TELUS such as diversity & inclusiveness, performance development and wellness & worklife solutions.
New leadership programs
- An extensive review and gap analysis was completed on the existing leadership development curricula at TELUS through the construction of the TLP. This included a thorough review of programs, content, desired learning outcomes and a rigorous scrutiny of desired leadership curricula; all business units and key stakeholders were involved in determining leadership development needs. The result was a leadership curricula that supports investing in all team members and the accomplishments of our corporate goals. Some of those new programs include:
- Lead and Grow Series: Launched at the beginning of 2011, the Lead and Grow series offers a variety of learning opportunities around a featured topic running over a period of 6 weeks, to all team members. This series was built out of the ask of our team members for more readily available and short sessions on interesting and informative topics. By leveraging internal senior leaders and subject matter experts we are able to bring a multi-planed educational and relevant learning series to the enterprise. The first topic focused on was “Collaboration”, followed by a series on “Products and Services”. Our upcoming series will focus on Customers First – all built with formal, informal and social learning in mind.
- FIT Series (Food for Innovative Thought): Launched in 2010, this personal leadership series focuses on “growth through people” by building leadership capabilities of our team members an hour at a time. The purpose of each session is to focus on developing personal leadership skills and career ownership. Topics vary from building trust to career leadership to generations in the workplace. Sessions provide insight and information on the subject, but more importantly each session provides models, tools and “build tips” as take-aways on how our team members can work on developing or enhancing their skill set.
- Coaching the Fundamentals: A highly interactive leadership program
designed to provide leaders with practical experience to build a more motivated and engaged team. This program centres on creating a coaching partnership with team members, observing performance in a way that is objective, accurate and relevant, and maximizing the quality and impact of coaching interactions. Focusing on our 4-phase coaching model - Connect-Converse-Create-Commit – and mapping back to the TLP, this course includes formal, informal and social opportunities to inspire performance through authentic, consistent and inspiring interactions between leaders and team members. - Emotional and Social Intelligence (EASI): This offering focuses on improving business results through a strong foundation of emotional intelligence that is grounded with authenticity. It includes understanding the science and physiology of EASI and the connection to personal leadership, career success and improved customer experience. The program links implicitly to the TLP and provides a framework that support team members’ personal navigation system for continuous, life-long learning.
- Managing multiple priorities: This learning opportunity focuses on self leadership and overcoming the barriers to personal productivity. It support steam members in dealing with changing deadlines and shifting priorities. In addition it assists individuals in creating the appropriate balance between their personal and professional life. It also supports team members in navigating and overcoming self imposed obstacles, and understanding the relationship between time and choice.
- Integration of the TLP into core curriculum of existing programs
- Senior Leadership Forum - SLF: In a historically hierarchical organization, the buy-in, understanding and engagement of our senior leaders was critical to the success of the TLP and our creation of a tight-loose culture. In the 2011 Senior Leadership Forum (SLF), the TLP integrated quality, collaboration and our Customer’s First initiative to our corporate priorities, and provided the framework for the curriculum.
- Welcome to TELUS (WTT): Formerly a traditional 2-day classroom induction program that focused on ensuring new team members were properly educated about the company, normally within their first month of employment, but always in an instructor-led classroom model. Under the TLP, via the Learning 2.0 methodology, WTT has evolved to be much more than a classroom event where team members are merely participants; team members are now in the driver’s seat, taking the lead in creating an on-boarding experience for themselves. WTT’s first evolution stage came in the form of Live Webcasts, coupled with discussion forums, a self-serve webinar library and an interactive community space. The second evolution consists of a Virtual World delivery model, online scavenger hunt, and micro-blogging community. We have also instituted an interactive a la carte but friendly tracking system entitled Passport where new TELUS team members can easily review their learning progress on all related WTT opportunities, as well as their direct supporting manager.
- Leading Your Team - The Fundamentals: This group of leadership development offerings are aimed at helping new team leaders navigate daily management activities and provides the information they need, when they need it. Under the TLP and Learning 2.0, this program evolved from a 3 day face-to-face session into a combination of formal, informal and social learning opportunities including live virtual instructor-led sessions, pre-recorded webinars, wikis, discussions and other online support tools. The new offerings integrate the principles of the TLP and the importance of nurturing and developing leadership, accountability, fair process and a business ownership mentality in their team.
- Engaging Conversations: This series features leaders from across the organization who demonstrate high engagement scores and share best practices with team leaders. Under the banner of the TLP, the 2010 series evolved to focus on business and career ownership, being open for all team members. The 2011 series focuses on personal leadership, supporting team members in developing their leadership skills, taking charge of their direction and leading their career. Hundreds of team members take advantage of the sessions and leverage the books, courses and collaboration tools recommended to support their development.
- New learning partners and outsourcing model
- The TLP and our new leadership development curricula was the catalyst for a rigorous RFP process to support the analysis, design, development and delivery of learning and leadership development initiatives. We intensively reviewed vendors in the area of leadership/professional, business/sales and technology, selecting organizations that provided the best offerings, understood our business/goals, saw value in embracing Learning 2.0 and synergized with the TLP. Reduced cost for development/delivery was key. We recognized to be successful, we also needed to streamline the number of organizations we partnered with. Over the course of 2010, we reduced our vendor base to 61 (a 31% year over year reduction that has led to reduced administrative time and costs) and within this new group, now have 17 premier partners providing the majority of our outsourced education.
- As important as the selection of the partners was the outsourcing model itself, our goal was simple; shift from a “vendor” to a “partnership” relationship. This required us to move from a structure of 3rd party providers of formal training to partners in learning; we began integrating them into our organization, moving content, personnel and expertise inside our corporate walls to provide a seamless menu of learning and leadership development options for team members. We also rely on organizations to partner with each other, and where possible, collaborate to design, develop and deliver the solutions possible, thus focusing on the richness of the content – “what” is delivered, rather than “who” delivers it. For example, we provide laptops and VPN access to our new learning partners as we want them to be a part of the TELUS experience rather than having our team members be part of their own company’s experience. We consider the new partners part of the TELUS team; not simply a training company.
- TLP Wiki
- A highly interactive wiki was developed to support team members not only in understanding what the TLP is, why it’s important and the benefits of the philosophy, but in enabling team member to embrace the TLP in their day to day role. In an organization where the perception was that leadership was for the few and not the many, resources and affirmations were needed to reinforce the value that each team member could provide by embracing and nurturing their unique leadership skills. The wiki consists of 6 sections:
- The TLP Framework (lead your journey) – supporting team members in an in-depth understanding of the 4 components that make up the TLP
- Why the TLP (lead yourself) – supporting team members in understanding why the TLP is important and how it applies to them
- Leadership development (lead your career) – Providing information on leadership development opportunities that are applicable to all team members, whether they are leading themselves or leading others
- Customers First (lead the customer experience) – Linking the importance of each team member taking a leadership role in creating and enhancing the customer experience
- Embracing the TLP (lead by example) – Supporting team members in applying the TLP in their daily roles
- Leadership conversations (lead the dialogue) – Providing opportunities for team members to share their thoughts, opinions and expertise about specific topic
- A highly interactive wiki was developed to support team members not only in understanding what the TLP is, why it’s important and the benefits of the philosophy, but in enabling team member to embrace the TLP in their day to day role. In an organization where the perception was that leadership was for the few and not the many, resources and affirmations were needed to reinforce the value that each team member could provide by embracing and nurturing their unique leadership skills. The wiki consists of 6 sections:
- Development of a coaching culture
- Coaching model
- One of the gaps identified throughout the TLP was a consistent coaching framework that could be used across the enterprise. In 2010 we developed a coaching model that is comprised of 4 phases, Connect, Converse, Create and Commit (4C’s) and provides a simple interchangeable approach to the coaching process. The 4C’s were aligned with the TLP and in particular the 5 phases of the Fair Process cycle. This new model includes information and behaviours to guide not just the individual acting as the coach, but the team member being coached on how to take responsibility to get the most out of the coaching experience.
- Coaching model
- Coaching development opportunities
- A number of developmental opportunities have been and are in development to support both coaches and those being coached in enhancing the experience and increasing it’s effectiveness, some offerings include:
- Coaching the Fundamentals (for leaders)
- Coaching the Fundamentals (for team members)
- Having difficult conversations
- A number of developmental opportunities have been and are in development to support both coaches and those being coached in enhancing the experience and increasing it’s effectiveness, some offerings include:
Mentoring and Coaching Community (MCC)
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A comprehensive wiki was developed and is available to all team members that houses robust content around being mentor and/or protégé and building the mentoring relationship. This wiki also includes an abundance of practical coaching information, housing our coaching model and explaining it in full detail. Powerful questions for each phase of the model are outlined, as well as tools, templates, videos, articles, job aids and additional resources around coaching and mentoring.
- The second component of the MCC is the community group comprised of HR representatives and team members from across the business. This group meets monthly to share what is happening across TELUS around mentoring and coaching, discuss best practices in the field, and to ensure continued alignment and collaboration; an excellent example of informal learning in action
Linkage of Customers First to the TLP
- A fundamental component of the TLP is to support team members in understanding how their unique leadership skills and business ownership mentality can impact our customer’s experience. Our number one priority is to deliver on our future friendly brand promise to our customers. Regardless of title or role, we are all responsible for enhancing the customer experience. By embedding Customers First into our culture, leadership model and priorities, we are leading a transformation to be the number one service provider and deliver the best experience possible for our customers by Q4, 2013. The TLP creates the linkage for team members to understand that through our collective leadership, we make TELUS a preferred service provider for our clients and a great place to work. This has been done via:
- Closer to the Customer: This initiative has touched thousands of team members and customers by engaging senior leaders and high potentials in shadowing a day in the life with one or our frontline team members, enabling them to gain insight into the roles of our customer facing employees, as well as identify issues that are impacting both the customer experience, and ability for our team to do their jobs effectively. Issues are brought back to the business, consolidated and worked through in various leadership forums across.
- TLP Wiki: As the doorway into the TLP, this wiki explains the what, why, how and who of the TLP. One of the most important pillars is our “Customers First” section which explains the connection between team member leadership and our customer, ensuring every team member understands their impact.
- Customer First Wiki: In an effort to focus our actions on improving the customer experience, we created the Customer First wiki, a transparent community to highlight successes and failures and promote discussion around the customer. The wiki space hosts documents, success stories, strategy discussions as well as crucial statistics relating to our Likelihood to Recommend customer initiatives.
- Customer first collaboration opportunities: From Buzz (our internal Twitter micro-blogging system) to various wikis to TELUS Tube (our internal YouTube video-sharing system), team members are collaborating, sharing and having corporate wide conversations on issues related to our customers, sharing best practices and coming up with innovative ways to make a positive difference.
Collaboration initiatives
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- Learning 2.0 and collaboration adoption
- 2.0 Adoption Council: A company-wide early adopter council of roughly 50 individuals who meet bi-weekly to ensure we are driving a more collaborative and connected culture across the business. These folks have become champions of the TLP, Collaboration and Learning 2.0 cause, and helped to drive the necessary adoption and the value team members can bring by collaborating and sharing through the new model.
- 2.0 Adoption Site (Entitled “What If”): An interactive site launched to help TELUS team members get introduced to Learning 2.0 and Work 2.0 in general to support collaboration, social media and the implementation of our Work Styles initiative. The site was developed to act as a guide for all TELUS team members looking to both understand a more collaborative way of working with one another, and to serve as a ‘how to’ help site at the same time. Many short clips have been providing introducing technologies such as RSS, Wikis, Blogs, Micro-blogging, Video-Sharing and user generated content in general. Through discussion forums, ratings, etc. we provide an avenue for our team members to adjust to the 2.0 world, and to better understand why we are shifting to such a model.
- Learning 2.0 and collaboration adoption
Collaboration platforms and tools
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- Learning and Collaboration site: An interactive single-stop-shop wiki that promotes the TLP and Learning 2.0 vision, but also provides discussion forums, blogs, video blogs and recorded webinars relating specifically to both the vision, and ways in which team members can participate in the Learning 2.0 plan. This collaborative space was developed to support team members, leaders and learning professionals across the organization in understanding Learning 2.0, development options available, as well as programs and resources that support learning and career development/ownership. It includes a support guide for leaders, information on putting together a development plan and maximizing the learning investment.
- Work Styles wiki: A site that support both team leaders and team members in understanding the Work Styles initiative, determining the most appropriate work style option and subsequent implementation of a new way of working. The TLP is foundational to the success of our Work Styles initiative; the site consists of a team leader toolkit that supports leaders in building trust and empowerment while increasing collaboration and communication in a virtual workforce. The team member toolkit focuses on self-leadership, taking initiative and the importance of continued collaboration to being a successful virtual team member.
- Habitat Social: A collaborative learning platform that promotes the sharing of information by surfacing documents, team member skills, learning opportunities, user generated content and facilitating direct communication between team members across the globe. The overall goal of the Habitat Social initiative is to provide an environment that either consumes and displays knowledge, skills and information from other applications and repositories or migrates content into the platform to reduce the number of applications needed within the TELUS landscape and create a single point of entry for all team member content. (eg. a window into the organization) The end result is increased collaboration, knowledge transfer and connection between team members, making TELUS a more future friendly place to work. This also includes preliminary work to deprecate our existing Learning Management System, and to federate a new LMS into the platform itself further tying content to people to learning.
- Career Development Portal: Designed to be a one-stop-shop for career planning, growth and leadership. Our goal was to create an informative and collaborative space to meet the needs of employees looking for support with career development and to instill a career ownership mentality amongst our team. The Portal consists of interactive information categorized into three sections including Career Paths, a Learning launchpad and Career Guidance. In the first six weeks following its launch, we had over 95,000 hits, and it continues to be one of our top collaboration sites.
- Buzz: To promote sharing of information, opinions and inspire dialogue across the business, Buzz, our social micro-blogging network was formed in 2010. Buzz reduces the degrees of separation between team members, and drastically reduces the time to action. Team Members are no longer forced to rely on existing relationships, and can leverage the strength of others to quickly solve problems or find information.Team members can form/join groups and participate in conversations about a wide range of topics from leadership to Work Styles to customer experience. With over 300 groups, there is something for every team member to buzz about. Buzz also provides an avenue to inform team members about events, learning opportunities and other newsworthy items that may be of interest, helping to create a community feel as the organization moves to a more virtual environment.
- TELUS Tube: In 2010 we developed an internal version of YouTube, enabling employees to upload videos to share information, learning and ideas with other team members across the organization. TELUS realized the importance of user generated content and although blogs and wikis are necessary sources for collaboration, videos enable individuals such as field technicians, to clearly document problems and solutions in quick learning nuggets. The entire workforce can view, comment and rate the content. Just-in-time knowledge is not a new concept for many Gen Y learners, and by creating a video channel that allows any user to post content, TELUS is helping provide learning opportunities that satisfy various styles of learning and allows senior technicians to easily share experience with new team members.
- TELUS Collaboration House: A unique interactive based platform that utilizes a virtual world experience to engage participants directly in the learning experience. Individuals create avatars and enter a world where they are able to walk, run, jump and communicate with others. This platform is utilized for learning opportunities such as Welcome to TELUS – our orientation program, to create a feeling of inclusiveness and enhance the engagement of the virtual learning experience.
- TELUS Passport: An online and interactive tracking mechanism that allows team members and their managers an opportunity to see how they are doing and where they are throughout the rollout of a learning program. (eg. The first 90 days of new employment at TELUS through the Welcome to TELUS Passport Program)
Leadership is about creating ways for team members to contribute and reach new levels of performance. The TELUS Leadership Philosophy energizes and unites our organization for the benefit of our team, our customers, our business, our communities and our investors. The TLP (along with its related framework, Learning 2.0) has impacted many different components of our business from increased overall team member engagement and operational efficiencies, to improved customer process and significant cost savings, to overall morale. The following highlights some of the key benefits & metrics:
- Employee engagement
- In 2010, overall engagement increased from by three basis points, exceeding the 2% benchmark for significant change over one-year as attested to by AON Hewitt. These results were focused on our top engagement drivers: career, recognition and performance management. Our targeted initiatives emphasized the importance of coaching conversations between team members and managers. Performance development was aligned to fair process, giving team members a voice in setting their goals and driving their results, and team members were given the tools to take a leadership role in their careers. Business ownership and accountability was emphasised wherever possible resulting in a more empowered and engaged collective team.
- Increased collaboration
- The connection between the TLP, Learning 2.0 and collaboration had strong uptake by our team by promoting inclusiveness and empowering individuals to share thoughts and increase collaboration to build relationships
- Site visits on our collaboration pages increased more than 700%, to over 80,000;
- Page views increased 1100% with 250,000+ more than the previous year
- Buzz, our internal social network launched in 2010, has been a huge success with more than 6000 users, over 300 groups, thousands of conversations and new members joining conversations daily.
- Our TELUS tube platform has had close to 15,000 visits and over 550 videos uploaded
- The connection between the TLP, Learning 2.0 and collaboration had strong uptake by our team by promoting inclusiveness and empowering individuals to share thoughts and increase collaboration to build relationships
- Cost Savings
- Own.it initiatives
- In 2010, we completed Own.it sessions with 1079 participants. Own.it productivity improvement initiatives delivered an incredible $13 million in business benefits.
- Own.it initiatives
- Corporate learning value for money initiative
- Use of the TLP and Learning 2.0 framework helped support the Value for Money initiative implemented throughout our organization. Our new learning model and increased focus on the TLP and Learning 2.0 resulted in a learning budget savings of over $6 million. This did not reduce, however, the overall value, impression or opinion of learning at TELUS; in fact, it has been quite the opposite.
- Learning cost per person
- Learning cost per person has decreased significantly. We have integrated virtual instructor-led sessions, TELUS Collaboration House, social collaboration tools, e.learning and online books to drive down hard external vendor costs and increase learning offerings/availability; we have also experienced increased uptake in the use of collaboration tools including instant messaging, web conferencing, Cisco Telepresence and corporate wiki software. Within the TLP leadership programs we offer, our costs decreased from $1,221 per person to less than $900 per person.
- Customer impacting productivity improvement
- Our Senior Leadership Forum (SLF) and Directors Leadership Forum (DLF) had 1000+ leaders job shadowing frontline team members, each collaborating, agreeing and bringing forward to their respective forums, one issue impacting our customers. At 144 suggested improvements in total (after redundant issues were consolidated), through the spirit of the TLP, Learning 2.0 and collaboration in action, we have actioned 64% of the recommendations with the remainder set to close by the end of 2011.
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Impact on learning and leadership development
- Return on Learning (ROL)
- Our new ROL measurement is providing us with insight into how team members learn and the impact it has on performance. We have demonstrated resounding evidence of the importance of measuring informal and social learning in addition to formal learning, as a large percentage of our employee base participates and sees value in informal and social learning in addition to formal learning. We are fortunate to have witnessed our Return on Learning metric increase to roughly 70% of the organization confirming their productivity has improved in their roles as a result of the TLP and the formal-informal-social learning framework.
- Return on Learning (ROL)
- Availability and utilization of content
- The adoption of the TLP and Learning 2.0 enables us to cost effectively reach larger audiences, often providing learning to those in remote locations that would not normally have access to opportunities without travel. The self-directed, self-serve and contribution nature of informal and social learning enables team members to learn what they need, when they need it, regardless of location; access is available anywhere, anytime with an internet connection (including mobile devices), without the need for travel expenses or classroom real-estate. For example:
- We recorded 16,537 e.learning courses accessed as well as 21,044 e.book accesses. We also saw 30,089 classroom course completions, and 216,382 e.learning course completions in total.
- Website usage saw time on site increase from 3 min 16 seconds to 4 minutes 3 seconds and pages per visit go up from 2.4 to 3.6 in the same period. e.book usage increased to 22,283 hours
- To help measure team member uptake of informal and social learning via our web sites, we initiated the use of Google Analytics. We've seen 22,976 page views on our various TLP site pages last year. but by mid-year, there were 142,268 page views.
- The adoption of the TLP and Learning 2.0 enables us to cost effectively reach larger audiences, often providing learning to those in remote locations that would not normally have access to opportunities without travel. The self-directed, self-serve and contribution nature of informal and social learning enables team members to learn what they need, when they need it, regardless of location; access is available anywhere, anytime with an internet connection (including mobile devices), without the need for travel expenses or classroom real-estate. For example:
- Learning and leadership development credibility
- Learning and leadership development for all team members has become a more strategic proposition; senior leaders across various business units within the organization have evolved their partnerships with the learning team, inviting learning partners to increase their support of strategic people plans and ensure that business critical training, career plans and leadership development align to the TLP and are delivered under the 2.0 philosophy to reach maximum results.
Barbara Ann Smith, Benny Ramos, Bryan Acker, Caroline Alashhab, Claudia Gomez, Doreen Hoskins, Frank Nuis, Gwyn MacGregor, Heather Foucault, Jane Leeb, Jennifer Naert, Joanne Munroe, John Mcintosh, Kelly Davies, Kevin Yuan, Kiran Mohan, Lynda Weeks, Lynette Van Steinburg, Maria Uchacz, Paul Bleier, Roxanne Danylak, Sandi Kowalyshyn, Scott Hubbs, Pam Halverson, Dave McPhail, Theresa Gibbon, Ben Bajaj, Ryan Giesbrecht, Renee Cheung, Andrew Turner, Curtis Braun, Rob Sharpe, Kathryn MacKinnon, David Dai, Dee Brown, Sharon Maddison, Michelle Gaites, Alison Chu, and the entire TELUS team.
Quite comprehensive and well documented.Videos are very helping.
Should be promoted at the very beginning of your post....some may be impressed byt the quantity of info and not get down to the materials section.
Great job.Thanks a lot for sharing the experience.
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Thanks Frederic ... and good point. Just not sure how to place the videos higher up within the form.
Appreciate the feedback.
cheers
dp
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