Company: Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning, Boston, MA
Entry Submitted By: PAN Communications
Company Description: Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning is a leadership development company. We partner with clients to create world-class leadership development solutions for managers at all levels in global organizations and governments. For more than 20 years, we have developed and delivered innovative, technology-enabled solutions that drive meaningful business results.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Categories - Software
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Software - Corporate Learning/Workforce Development Solution

Nomination Title: Harvard Business Publishing’s New Harvard ManageMentor®

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 650 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date:

Today’s evolving leadership development landscape requires learning solutions that are immediately impactful in management and skill development. The newest release of Harvard Business Publishing’s Harvard ManageMentor helps organizations drive performance through learning to more rapidly achieve business goals.

Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning partners with clients to create world-class leadership development solutions for managers at all levels. By leveraging the management insight, thought leadership, and expertise of Harvard Business School faculty and authors from Harvard Business Review the organization creates tailored leadership development solutions. With more than 20 years of practical experience, HBP’s innovative, technology-enabled solutions drive meaningful and lasting business results.

Through an innovative work-based approach, Harvard ManageMentor (HMM) guides learners to apply what they learn directly to their work, to accelerate learning and drive business impact. Designed to equip managers and individuals for the business challenges they face every day, HMM integrates an action planning process that prompts learners to work toward specific goals over time. In 2014, a major new release of HMM launched that delivers new and proven content from world-renowned business and leadership experts, hundreds of new media elements, and a highly engaging learner experience.

The continuous change characteristic of today’s business environment demands that employees adapt quickly to market shifts and new requirements. Organizations need ways to continuously build skills and enhance performance so that employees at all levels are able to consistently make sound decisions, innovate, and lead their teams toward strong business results. HMM is designed to provide organizations with a solution to that challenge.

HMM is an on-demand learning and performance support resource for leadership and management skill development that delivers critical management skills at the time and place that managers and leaders need them most. Hundreds of organizations worldwide use HMM for performance support. The resource offers just-in-time, moment-of-need access to a wide variety of content, videos, resources, and tools on 40 management topics including business leadership, communication skills, personal development, and strategy essentials. The program’s architecture allows organizations to embed all or parts of a topic in a variety of implementations.

Central to HMM is its high quality, structured content: regularly updated topics, videos, tools, and on-the-job activities. Content is designed to engage and motivate learners, and draws on the latest thinking and proven practices from Harvard Business Publishing’s trusted experts, faculty members from Harvard Business School and other leading institutions, and other management experts. Organizations leverage the trusted brand and high-quality content to attract busy managers to use HMM.

A major innovation in HMM is the focus on application and integration with work. The Learn-Practice-Reflect cycle in each lesson increases the impact of the learning (or learning transfer). In the On-the-Job component, learners set performance goals and create action plans to work on post topic. Then, over a 90-day period, learners are emailed content, tips, and reminders to keep them motivated and on track with their stated goals.

Since its launch in February 2015, 173,000 learners have registered to use the new version across 80 different clients. 17,000 of those learners are actively using the program today. So far, clients are impressed by the quality of HMM’s smooth and varied learning experience:

“Excellent, very professionally done. The learning experience was seamless and diverse. The content was concise, focused and relevant.”

“The reflections were good – caused me to pause and think instead of rushing through to the end.”

“… I think HMM is a superior solution.”

Harvard ManageMentor is fueled by the latest in thinking and proven practices from Harvard Business Publishing’s world-class experts and designed to drive learning transfer and business impact for organizations.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 150 words).

•Highly relevant multimedia content, including hundreds of new videos in varied formats, and concise, regularly updated lessons that keep learners engaged.

•Content elements are designed to be easily threaded into an organization’s existing learning programs.

•Greater business impact via more effective learning transfer and behavior change. Learning is applied directly to work and continuously reinforces skills. “Learn, practice, reflect, and on-the-job” is built into every topic.

•A work-based approach extends learning through on-the-job skill application, including a new component that allows the learner to develop a 90-day action plan to meet a personal goal with tips and reminders.

•For group learning, the “Café” resources include materials to help learning organizations and team leaders facilitate rich discussions and action around important topics.

•Easy-to-use measurement dashboards and reports show how effectively managers are applying skills on the job and provide insights for learning professionals to refine programs and show progress and impact.