Customized Learning Touchstones

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Learning Touchstones develop knowledge and awareness of complex concepts or systems in an understandable and digestible form. Large, creative visuals are used to illustrate company-specific business situations, systems and challenges. Participants, working in teams, interact with each other and the touchstone as they respond to questions, explore concepts and content, and work on learning activities linked to the illustration. Connections are made to individual job responsibilities and organizational objectives.

Business Strategy Touchstone
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The Business Strategy Touchstone offers a customizable learning design and format for explaining an organization's business strategy and its importance for achieving key business goals. Participants learn about critical success factors, key metrics, and the role of cultural values in fulfilling the corporate mission. They also gain a deeper knowledge of competitive challenges, the importance of meeting or exceeding customer requirements, and building loyalty. Participants see and appreciate the "big picture" -- and have fun in this engaging discovery learning experience.

Caret Corporation Touchstone

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Participants learn how a company works as a whole, and the interdependent relationships among departments as an interconnecting system. Caret Corporation is a fictitious company that makes sports drinks. Participants analyze some of its most critical business and cultural problems then develop recommendations as a special employee taskforce. This touchstone builds awareness of the impact of internal issues, conflict, and poor interdepartmental teamwork on productivity, efficiency, morale, and overall company performance; then develops commitment to action that is transferable to the job. A post touchstone action-planning process captures participants' commitments to apply the concepts.

Where did the name Caret come from? Here's what participants learn in the program kickoff:

A caret is:

• ^
• Up arrow
• Editorial mark to indicate where an insertion is to take place
• Wedge shaped symbol above the 6 on a computer keyboard
• Symbol for hat
• Symbol to indicate an exponent in math, when sending email (5^2 is 5 squared) -- indicating a jump in power and size
• Migrating birds fly in a caret (^) formation -- more so than a V formation since they are flying forward.
• The caret formation creates an uplift for the bird immediately following, reducing drag, and preserving energy. It enables the entire flock (including the lead bird) to fly at least 71% further and up to 24% faster than if the birds were flying solo or in a random formation.
• Pilots call this phenomenon "wingtip vortex." Like birds, when planes fly in a caret formation, significantly less lifting power is needed and they can fly further on the same amount of fuel.

People in organizations achieve their goals and the goals of their organization more efficiently, faster, and more easily when they create uplifts for one another, minimize friction, become and stay aligned (in formation), and fly in a common direction and with a strong sense of community.

Our job today is to help the Caret Corporation fly 71% further and 24% faster with the same resources.