Case Study: Why Kellogg’s embraced social learning to drive organizational transformation
Whether driven by technological advancements, shifting market demands, or the need to pursue operational excellence, organizational change is an inevitable process in today’s fast-paced and rapidly-changing business landscape. FMCG companies in particular must navigate multiple emerging trends such as integrated ecommerce, the need for omnichannel, customer demands for sustainability, and Private Label brands, on top of the broader technological advancements they must adapt to, like data-science, AI, machine learning, and digital automation, etc.
However, organizational transformation doesn’t come without its challenges, as it often involves redesigning processes, restructuring teams, adopting new technologies, etc. Employees may be resistant to change due to the fear of uncertainty, loss of job security, or a perceived threat to their current roles and responsibilities. Implementing successful organizational change necessitates having a clear vision, strong leadership, effective communication, and the alignment of all stakeholders. It requires balancing the organization’s shifting strategies with the need to support and prepare employees to seamlessly adapt to and help drive the transformations.
Tomissa Smittendorf, Kellogg’s Director of Learning and Development, is well aware of the discomforts and challenges inherent to change. Her personal and professional experiences have prepared her to not only embrace change but to find opportunity within change. Losing her dad unexpectedly at a young age – a loving and compassionate leader she looked up to and who shaped the person she would become – jump-started her journey of change. As a long-time Kellogg’s employee, Smittendorf had the opportunity to move into many different roles and functions within the company, from finance, customer service and supply chain, to retail sales and HR, etc.
“When you move into different parts of the organization, it’s a change. You have to learn a whole new function, how they’re organized, and their strategy, etc. I started thriving in change,” says Smittendorf.
Her transformation journey within Kellogg’s certainly colored her perspective on change and made her the perfect champion for a people-centered approach to change. Driven by her commitment to continuous learning and her desire to stay abreast of industry advancements, Tomissa sought a solution that would genuinely empower individuals during times of change, ultimately contributing to the prosperity of the commercial organization. This led her to social learning – which she felt was going to be key in providing a safe space to learn and making people feel valued – and to eventually discover Tigerhall.
After researching multiple other platforms, Ms. Smittendorf selected Tigerhall as the social learning platform of reference for Kellogg’s, impressed by its range of options and capabilities:
Kellogg’s needed a platform that would allow the company to upskill the organization across multiple roles and competencies (sales, marketing, finance etc.) as employees’ roles and responsibilities evolved; Tigerhall provided functional competencies that could be customized within the platform.
The company also needed a scalable and reasonable approach, which Tigerhall provided in the form of learning “trails” that could be customized as needed, as well as different content formats (Podcasts, PowerReads, etc.) that would offer endless opportunities to allow people and their teams to upskill and invest in themselves. Kellogg’s was able to leverage the scalability to put together learning paths on ESG, Omnichannel and for their Business Employee Resource Groups, among other skill sets.
Additionally, the platform connected the company to a global network of 800 “Thinkfluencers” who could be leveraged at any time. These were real world leaders who had been through change themselves and who offered their unique insights about transformation through the platform’s library of content; these thought leaders could also be leveraged in real time as part of company livestreams. For Ms. Smittendorf, “this was a real game changer.”
Ms. Smittendorf wanted a platform that would be user-friendly, interactive and win over Kellogg's employees. “Social learning should be fun and we have fun in Tigerhall,” she says. With its interactive features, TigerHall allowed people to interact with the content, learn from others, and share insights and recommendations.
Employees were more likely to engage with and return to the platform thanks to the bite-size, digestible pieces of content (e.g. 12 to 15 minute-long podcasts, insight-packed long-form reads, blog posts, etc.), curated from experts and real world leaders, delivering valuable insights and easy-to-leverage nuggets of information.
“It’s very exciting and we’re just getting started,” says Ms. Smittendorf about her journey deploying TigerHall for Kellogg’s thus far. “You want [people] to feel inspired and supported as they go through change”.
Smittendorg didn’t need to resort to any arm-twisting to get Kellogs’ executive leaders on-board. Her business case, backed with her solid vision, communication skills, and execution plan, spoke for itself. “It makes things simple for executives to know that you’re taking the lead with your team. Once the plan is approved, the fun of getting the rest of the organization on board starts.”
With the team's meticulous planning, cross-functional collaboration, and a strong focus on the organization’s objectives, they successfully rolled out Tigerhall within the organization.
In terms of ROI, Smittendorf didn’t want to track compliance and force the adoption of the platform. “Our mantra is put people first and you can’t put a price on that,” she explains. She was confident that once people tried the platform, they would be “hooked”. The results spoke for themselves. Within 10 days of launch, Tigerhall achieved a remarkable 48% adoption rate, surpassing industry standards. Within 120 days, the adoption rate rose to 72%. The platform empowered employees to confidently navigate change, fostering a positive learning culture within Kellogg's. Feedback and conversations reflected the success of the social learning approach, reaffirming Tomissa's belief in its effectiveness and further confirming Kellogg’s choice to position TigerHall as an optional tool.
Kellogg's Learning Culture was particularly conducive to Social Learning, as the company had been fostering an intentional learner mindset internally for several years. This factor also contributed to the high adoption rate of Social Learning within the organization.
For companies looking to cultivate a learning culture and explore social learning, Ms. Smittendorf advises starting small, experimenting, and getting feedback to refine and scale the initiative. While Tomissa aspires to see the entire organization on Tigerhall, she and her team will continue to get as much value (and fun) from the platform as possible.
“We’re gonna continue to develop these trails because it’s so important to us to have this scalable approach to learning. For us to be able to take thinkfluencers from Tigerhall in our own internal content and develop trails around that and be able to get that out to everyone really fast, literally overnight, [is amazing],” she says.
3 Actionable steps to become a changemaker in their organizations and their lives:
To become change-makers in their organizations and lives, Ms. Smittendorf offers three actionable steps:
1. Remembering that change holds immense potential and embracing change as an opportunity.
2. Staying educated and informed about industry advancements to be able to quickly adapt and solve business problems.
3. Having fun while experimenting and inspiring others.
