The Challenge

When ADM, a global food and beverage manufacturing company, rolled out its first formalized L&D program in 2021, it was at a critical juncture in its business transformation. For over a century, the company had operated under a traditional hierarchical structure and had roots that reached deep into the agricultural manufacturing space. But now, it was branching out into new markets.

After a series of strategic acquisitions and a shift to a matrix organizational structure, the manufacturing giant was poised to expand into both human and animal nutrition—but the company lacked one key ingredient.

“Our leaders had expertise when it came to understanding how the business works, how we make money, how to exceed our customer’s needs,” explains ADM’s Chief Learning Officer Jennifer Alesia, “but the people component was missing.”

A 2021 inaugural employee engagement survey revealed that ADM’s leaders desired more coaching and feedback to navigate the complexities and distributed responsibilities of a matrix environment. The results, coupled with the amount of change they were going through, was the big push to put formalized L&D training together.

ADM partnered with Abilitie, with the goal of supporting ADM’s business transformation by “building a factory of leaders.” 

The Solution

ADM engaged Abilitie to leverage their leadership development simulations to boost business outcomes and engagement. They redesigned their executive development program, Ability to Lead (A2L), integrating elements of Abilitie’s Executive Challenge simulation and customizing the experience to meet their unique business needs. 

In Executive Challenge, participants are immersed into a realistic simulation where they’re tasked with running a business as a senior executive faced with unexpected obstacles. 

Through Abilitie’s simulation, A2L participants learned how to:

• Manage both financial and people resources by competing in a fast-paced environment where they must take on a leadership role as part of an executive team and guide the virtual company to success.

• Lean into their individual leadership style by learning personal strengths and blind spots and how to leverage them. 

• Lead in high-pressure situations where the virtual company encounters mergers, a recession, IP infringement, and information leaks.

• Translate strategy into execution by launching new product lines, researching new features, and forming a development pipeline.

“We chose Abilitie’s Executive Challenge for the interactive component and because we really needed leaders, especially executive talent, to experience what it was like to run the business from a different point of view. We specifically put participants into roles that were out of their comfort zone, and the simulation really gave us the opportunity to expose them to unfamiliar challenges” explains Alesia. 

Abilitie’s full suite of simulations aligns with ADM’s evolving needs

A2L enhanced with Abilitie’s Executive Challenge was such a success that ADM decided to roll out another version specifically for its mid-level leaders. Because these people lead individual contributors, and not a global business, ADM wanted to adapt A2L to their unique needs. Thanks to Abilitie’s variety of products, the company was able to do so with Management Challenge.

Management Challenge is a business simulation that empowers mid-level managers to practice their people management skills with fictitious employees.

Through AI, participants converse with and coach these characters and experience the impact of their actions in real time. The characters include Tamika, the star employee who’s hesitant to accept a promotion; Jim, the overly eager direct report who struggles with being a team player; and Patrick, the office comedian who needs coaching to improve performance.

“The feedback was astronomical,” says Alesia. “People loved it. They felt very emotionally invested in the conversation with the AI employees.”

Today, A2L is a two-day experience that combines Abilitie's Management Challenge simulation with instructor-led training, offering options to attend in-person or virtually. And because Abilitie supports multiple languages, ADM is able to meet the needs of its global workforce by offering A2L in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Mandarin.

The Results

Since adopting Abilitie’s simulations, A2L has earned a 100% recommendation rating from its participants in Latin America and EMEAI and 98% in North America.

An impact evaluation survey of over 2,000 A2L participants, managers and their direct reports, revealed the following business improvements thanks to the program:

• 76% overall increase in team productivity

• 78% of participants said the program increased their interest in growing within the company

• 84% of participants are more motivated to apply new skills because of the program

• 88% of participants reported that the program increased their engagement in being a leader in the organization

Incorporating AI-enabled conversations and gamified environments has significantly enhanced ADM’s leadership training. This approach has not only helped ADM manage change and expand into new product categories but has also strengthened the business and management skills of its leaders.

Additionally, Abilitie provided:

• Customization: ADM’s L&D team saved time by taking Abilitie’s off-the-shelf solutions and customizing them based on company goals.

• Consistency at scale: As ADM added more programs to its L&D offerings, it needed a partner who could adapt to each program and scale with the company.

• Multiple language support: A global organization like ADM needs a partner that can support languages for each target demographic.

• Cost Savings: ADM’s L&D team all became certified in Management Challenge so they could conduct the simulation at any time, in any location.

  
  Alesia adds, “Management Challenge has made so much of an impact that my team all went through Abilitie’s [facilitator] certification so that we are able to consistently offer the same learning across the globe in multiple languages.”