CorpU Webinars are designed to showcase the work of member companies and noted experts that are having a significant impact on the business. In the past few months we have heard presentations on an award-winning corporate university, forced ranking and other aspects of performance management, and a series of webinars on various aspects of leadership development. CorpU members can view the recorded sessions by accessing them through the CorpU Research Collaboratory, or the webinar archive pages of the website (www.corpu.com). The following is a summary of CorpU's most recent webinars. Click here to view the schedule of upcoming webinar events.

The success of Mars University was evident when they won individual awards in four categories and a Best Overall Corporate University award in the 8th Annual Corporate University Xchange awards competition.

The Debate Over Forced Ranking
GE’s Jack Welch made forced ranking famous, and advocates of top grading continue to perfect methods for slotting work force performance into A, B and C buckets. Proponents of the practice believe it’s the most fair and honest way to evaluate individual performance. Corporate University Xchange (CorpU) research on performance management found organizations that argue for abandoning the practice in favor of carefully recruiting, selecting and coaching processes.

Raj Ramachandran, now at Accenture, presented the pro side of the forced ranking debate, arguing that it’s an essential tool for building a high performance organization. Sue Todd, President and CEO of CorpU, highlighted research and reasons why the practice is outdated and can actually hurt performance. Some of the issues they discussed included: Does a company’s overall performance improve under a forced ranking system? Does it create a true meritocracy? Does the practice fly in the face of teamwork and building a culture of trust? Or is the answer somewhere in between?

Performance Management: The Keys To Making It Work
Business performance starts with a clear, consistent strategy. But, unless that strategy is communicated throughout an organization from the CEO down to the third-shift production worker, there is little chance of that strategy succeeding. Performance management is the tool that enables that communication. A well-executed performance management process holds individuals accountable for their contributions to attaining goals set out in a strategic plan and encourages everyone to feel responsible for the organization’s success. Alan Todd, Chairman of CorpU, and Raj Ramachandran, Accenture, described what it takes to create, manage and sustain a performance management initiative. Their discussion was based on the results of the May 2007 CorpU study, Performance Management: A Key Lever for Using Business Strategies.

Participants learned:

Leadership Development at Pfizer: What Happens After Class
Many companies realize that great Leadership Development can no longer be just an event but must become a process that ends with positive workplace and business impact. Pfizer has more than five years of experience intentionally, persistently, and successfully designing and deploying Leadership Development that does not end at the classroom door, but continues after participants return to work and apply what they learned. Steve Kontra and Doug Trainor, Directors and Team Leaders at Pfizer, shared the critical success factors that enable participants to use new skills and ideas. Cal Wick, Founder and CEO of Fort Hill Company shared the new paradigm of Leadership Development that dramatically increases its value and impact. Participants learned how to measure how well post-program follow-up increases the effectiveness of learning, and how improved workplace results can ensure ongoing funding of Leadership Development.

Staples University: Leadership Development for the Times
As a company matures, its leaders often need to have different skill sets and be focused on new growth goals and ways to reach them. And leadership development has to keep pace with those changes. As Staples grew quickly from its beginning just 22 years ago to become the leader in its market, the company needed strategic leaders that understood not just the mission, but how to achieve BHAG – big, hairy audacious goals. This required leadership development to be equally strategic, linking learning to business goals, changes in the marketplace, international growth, innovation and changing roles of associates and managers. Nancy E. Persson, Vice President, Organization Development, Training and Internal Communications and Willia Cooper, senior training specialist focused on the organization of the leadership development activity, along with the workshops, tools and services that Staples University uses to develop managers, directors and executives and included specific examples of Staples University’s CorpU Excellence Award-winning programs. They described:

Leadership Development Best Practices Webinar: New Research from CorpU and APQC
Corporate University Xchange recently completed a detailed study of leadership development and talent management practices that companies use for their high potentials and senior managers and executives. In this fast-paced webinar, Sue Todd, President and CEO of CorpU, presented some of that study. APQC has been gathering data on many aspects of human capital management, including learning practices, through its open standards benchmarking collaboration (OSBC) activities. Rachele Williams, Senior Program Manager at APQC, explored some of the more interesting data they’ve collected. In addition, there was discussion of a new benchmarking consortium effort on leadership development that APQC is starting, with CorpU as Special Adviser. Participants learned: