Case Study: A Stanley Black & Decker HERO Empowers Employee Learning

Rob Sharpe, Stanley Black & Decker's director of sales training, exemplifies a HERO persona (highly empowered and resourceful operative), described in Forester's book Empowered. Through his efforts to combine top-down and bottom-up training, the sales training group delivered a combination of leadership skills, product knowledge, and hands-on experience to Stanley Black & Decker sales staff. Most impressive is Rob's success with an employee-generated video library of short clips on product features used for learning delivery in the Construction & DIY (do-it-yourself) division. This program succeeded so well that plans are now underway to implement it companywide. The sales training group, Stanley Black & Decker University, provides a blended approach with self-paced online training, instructor lead training (ILT), and both "push" and "pull" reinforcement tools coupled with employee assessment metrics. The company is also working with learning management system (LMS) vendor CERTPOINT on handheld technology innovation for learning.