Issue: Aggressive growth goals paired with impending leadership retirements at all levels of the global organization

Solution: State-of-the-art content paired with state-of-the-art virtual and face-to-face delivery

Results: Reduced conflict, improved trust, and more effective communication and teaming

Dow AgroSciences is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. The organization boasts 6,700 employees in 96 manufacturing and/or research and development sites around the world and its business focus includes: Crop Protection Solutions, Vegetation Management, Pest Solutions, and Biological Solutions with a goal of providing an abundant food supply. The organization desired to increase company sales through a balance of agricultural chemical and biological solutions, and as a result, needed to add and develop 550 new internal positions within the next three years. The challenge offsetting these goals, however, was significant in that new people would need to be trained and become capable of leading themselves as well as teams. In addition, the organization faced losing many key leaders to retirement. The availability of current learning offerings from the parent company, as well as funds, were inadequate to meet this challenge. Dow AgroSciences soon realized that it needed to get creative to meet these challenges head on.

In response, the organization turned to long-time partner, The Ken Blanchard Companies, to deliver a solution. Dow AgroSciences had been using the Blanchard Situational Leadership® II Model for decades so it was the natural solution to shore up leadership for a new generation. And Blanchard’s Situational Team Leadership proved to be the perfect companion program for giving Dow’s people the team skills they needed.

Since the participants were located around the world, bringing them to headquarters for training wasn’t a universal or cost effective option. The organization set the task of creating a world-class, dynamic, and interactive virtual design to complement face-to-face training in six languages. Trainers participated in a rigorous internal certification process where they learned the virtual delivery program, practiced presenting with a master trainer, and then presented virtually with a master trainer until they developed the competencies to fly solo.

Whether learners experienced Introduction to Situational Leadership® II virtually or face-to-face, follow-up assignments required them to submit a success story and either teach the content to a colleague via a PowerPoint® presentation, or use the principles of the content to have a development discussion with their supervisor.

The results speak for themselves. In two years, Dow AgroSciences has trained approximately 900 individuals in either Situational Leadership® II or Situational Team Leadership and has seen improved communication from the beginning. Success stories from the Introduction to Situational Leadership® II session indicate that both virtual and face-to-face learners are applying the principles to the same degree. And the 44 intact teams that have been through Situational Team Leadership have experienced less conflict, are more trusting, and are working together more effectively. In addition, internal surveys show that 60 percent of participants are actively using the principles they learned with their leaders and peers.