Stryker

Demo
Customer Stories → Stryker
Developing leaders
ready for change

Stryker uses micro-learning to achieve 92% lesson completion rates and a new era of learning.

Two people sitting in chairs, one with a laptop, in a cozy room with wooden floor and dark walls. The word "Stryker" is overlaid on the image.
The Background

Stryker is a world leader in medical device technologies, with more than 50,000 employees from 75+ countries.

Innovation and continuous improvement are foundational to its mission — a relentless drive to work with its customers to make healthcare better. Stryker’s leaders recognize that employees are the driving force behind its progress and achievements.

And if some of its awards are an indication: 2023 100 Best Companies to Work For; 2023 Best Places for Manufacturing and Production — the company’s approach is delivering positive results. However, senior leaders recognize that an ever-evolving business landscape requires a workforce and skilled leadership team prepared for — and equipped to embrace — the inevitable changes and challenges coming their way.

A medical professional in surgical attire operates equipment while observing a monitor displaying patient scans in an operating room.
The Challenge

Stryker had a number of leadership development programs in place. However, the team wanted to expand their reach by developing an emerging leaders program focused on building resilience and EQ that they could run at scale. At the same time, they needed to find a way to build, launch, and facilitate this new program in a way that was close to resource-neutral.

Office desk with a laptop, plant, pens, notebooks, and a TV remote, featuring the Stryker logo in the center.
Stryker’s Approach

Stryker chose to partner with Big Think+ to develop a custom program to:

Select target areas / Stryker targeted 2 critical leadership skills: Resilience and Emotional Intelligence

Create insights / Deliver high-impact insights that would build resiliency and emotional intelligence

Engage learners / Engage and excite learners, resulting in high and participation rates

Apply new knowledge / Create opportunities to effectively apply new knowledge in everyday skills and habits

Woman in a white shirt sitting at a table, looking at a laptop with a notebook and mug nearby.

528 individuals from the company’s emerging leader population were divided into two cohorts that moved through a six-week program that leveraged Big Think+ content, small group conversations, and fireside chats with leadership.

Utilizing two Big Think+ courses, Resilience 2.0 and Emotional Intelligence, allowed the L&D team to focus on the live, interactive elements, enabling participants to asynchronously move through a guided learning experience that included:

Close-up of hands typing on a laptop keyboard, with one hand holding a pencil.

Engaging Microlearning 

Dozens of easily accessible video lessons designed to convey essential information in 10 minutes or less that allowed easy, frequent access by busy leaders.

A person with long hair sits at a conference table with arms crossed, looking to the side. A clipboard and pen are on the table.

Reflection Opportunities

Prompts to identify key takeaways and opportunities for action or further reflection.

Two women walking and talking in an office hallway, one holding a phone.

Real-life Practice

Step-by-step activities that take the learner all the way from theory to practice in 15-30 minutes.

Two people high-fiving over a table while others sit around clapping and smiling in a bright, modern office setting.

Building Community

Interactive discussion boards with thought-provoking prompts which enabled learners to reflect on and discuss content with each other.

A man in a suit leans over a desk, looking at a computer screen in an office setting with shelves and binders in the background.
The Results

In short, the pilot program significantly exceeded expectations.

528
Initial Participants
87%
Participation Rate
72%
Completion Rate
1000+
Hours of learning without L&D team facilitation
52
Avg. minutes learning per learner
25
Courses

Based on program feedback, learners not only engaged with the micro-lesson content, they actively reflected on what they were learning — demonstrating both an uptake of knowledge and employment of it in their day-to-day work.

As one learner commented: ”This was a really interesting course, in that I have heard concepts covered before, but didn’t have a name for it. I appreciate this course and am looking forward to putting these concepts into practice.”

For the L&D team, taking advantage of the Big Think+ content saved significant time from both a course creation and facilitation standpoint – over 1,000 hours of learning happened without L&D having to facilitate.

By enabling learners to have an engaging and comprehensive learning experience on their own schedule, L&D was then able to use their time more strategically to coordinate and facilitate the peer and leader-led experiences internally.

Conclusion

What began as an experiment has grown into a multi-phase cohort program that has developed hundreds of leaders to-date and contributed to a culture where resilience and emotional intelligence are pursued and celebrated.

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Student reviews

See what the students are saying.

“Tony Coles talk was particularly useful for me as it frames the four domains of EQ. Self-management is an area that is particularly challenging for me, and identifying tools to manage this area is very important for me.”
a BT+ learner at Stryker
“I really liked the segment about starting a support network to make better decisions and continuing that as you climb the ladder. People who you work with and trust to provide truthful opinions and insight. I see good examples of that in my work area and would like to expand my support network and be more conscious of it.”
a BT+ learner at Stryker
“I think the biggest thing I can do better is to prepare for meetings & conversations – to do my due diligence on the people, their preferences, and how I might best be able to flex my style to lead more effectively.”
a BT+ learner at Stryker
“I really liked the 'have to' and 'want to' goals discussion and linking this back to the previous class 1 I think if we identify with our values every day and link to the goals we can help ourselves cultivate a more value driven mindset, certainly something I will be focusing on moving forward.”
a BT+ learner at Stryker
“Really good content on covering. And how as leaders, we need to be our true authentic self, not cover, and be vulnerable to enable our teams to feel like they can follow in our footsteps.”
a BT+ learner at Stryker

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