At a time when employees can go anywhere for their learning (and they do), how do you get them to come to you first? At the same time, what approach can an L&D team take to get employees to focus on their individual development in support of increased performance? The solutions also need to scale across time zones, geographic locations, traditional training and development preferences, and reach employees at all levels of the organization. You have one shot, a limited amount of time and a shoestring budget. Now go!

AbbVie created an employee development juggernaut that defied the odds. Events regularly sell out, employees take to social media to tweet about their own development and employee engagement scores have jumped. Almost two-thirds of global employees participate, close to 65% of senior leaders are involved in teaching, and almost all of the C-suite have actively and publicly participated. The solution includes webinars delivered by content experts, a 24-hour radio program, multiple in person events, functional viewing parties, a TED event and a go-to online portal with additional resources for development.

To get it right, you have to get started. Things will not go as planned. Stay on target. These are just a few of the things the AbbVie team learned along the way. While the story behind Learn.Develop.Perform is amazing, it’s also full of lessons about agility, focus and letting go of ownership.