Retail Project

Functional Loyalty

Behavioral Training and Complementary Manager Development

Behavioral Development and Vertical Integration of Customer Service and Management Staff in Retail Organizations

Rationale

The times we live in are marked by rapid and constant change — the old paradigms no longer exist.

Understanding the turbulent and dizzying changes we are both agents of and witnesses to, and the speed with which these transformations reshape our values, calls for reflection and for investing in the practical application of behavioral science.

This is the tool required for the new Industrial, Technological and Social Era, and it demands far more from professionals, in any field, than simple, in-depth technical knowledge alone — it demands knowing how to interact with people.

Society, in a global context, has also been going through profound changes that, within companies in particular, show up as a growing need to work on transforming people — the real protagonists of this new millennium.

It is well known that a society's economic performance depends fundamentally on that society's own actors and on the outlook of the organizations that employ them. So if a society's economic performance is doing well, it can be assumed that those organizations are paying attention to social development and anticipating new trends in Behavior, Economics and the Market.

Accepting an organization with no social outlook — one sustained merely by its own traditions — would be naïve and shortsighted. Organizations must always be ready for a Paradigm Shift; ready to act on New Trends and ready to undertake New Challenges, both economic and social.

And, anticipating trends, it can already be seen, in this age of information and knowledge, that the New Order imposes a biological paradigm across a set of transformations, notably: the horizontal management model replacing the traditional vertical, pyramidal one, through the formation of working cells; the replacement of traditional fads with tailor-made diagnostics; and internal and external human relationships within organizations that stop being merely formal and professional and become the principles of a new social ethic.

Training new players for the productive sector and adapting those already in professional practice — under the modern outlook in which an intelligent, multi-cellular logic replaces the traditional hierarchical pyramid — is what this proposal for Experiential Training and Manager Development is built on, rooted in the Behavioral Development and Vertical Integration of Customer Service and Management Staff in Retail Organizations.

Goal

To build Functional Loyalty within the organization by spreading cooperative, multiplying practices, in which interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships, conflict resolution, aspirations, motivation levels, organizational culture, team energy, affective bonds, and the ability to read the organization's climate, along with its precision, strategies and conditions, all come together in a harmonious regime across professional activities.

Objective

The proposed experiential training aims to reach all staff involved in the Organization's activities, at every level, with the goal of developing their behavior and achieving vertical integration for management and sales leadership — taking into account solidarity and respect as the foundation, personal relationships as a humanist concern, and the full recognition of each person's potential as an agent for anticipating trends, all within the proposed Goal.

Strands

The experiential training program is made up of two strands:

Vertical Integration — under this approach, the company (organization) will nominate, from across its whole network, employees for the Complementary Courses in Consumer Behavior, Sales Behavior, and Strategic Sales Planning.

Behavioral Development — under this approach, the company (organization) will nominate, from across its whole network, customer-service and support staff for basic and advanced training in Behavioral Development.

Composition

For this proposed experiential training, the Organization, through its relevant units, will nominate, from across its whole network, 360 employees with whom it intends to build a program of exceptional functional loyalty and quality. Those nominated will be divided, in a vertical progression, across three levels:

Level 3 – 60 employees who will take the Complementary Courses;

Level 2 – 180 employees for Advanced Training in Behavioral Development;

Level 1 – 360 employees for Basic Training in Behavioral Development.

Distribution – all 360 nominees go through level 1, and of those, 180 go on to complete level 2; of those, 60 are nominated for level 1.

10 groups of 36 participants will be formed for level 1, with 24 hours of activities per group over 3 consecutive days, completing the entire training, for everyone, within 7 weeks;

5 groups of 36 participants will be formed for level 2, where each group will take part in a live-in program of 44 hours of activities and shared living, completing the entire training within 4 weeks;

Two groups of 30 students each, made up of level 2 graduates, will be formed for the level 3 Complementary Courses, lasting 4 months.

Once level 1 activities are complete, a new group of 360 employees undergoes training at that level, following the same vertical sequence, and so on successively. Each new group, from the second onward, will always be staggered by one semester.

Complementary Courses

The complementary courses offered at Level 3 grant graduates the corresponding certification, with the following curriculum and career possibilities:

Sales force manager, sales manager, sales team leader, sales analyst;

Distribution logistics manager, sales information systems analyst;

Customer relationship analyst, commercial advisor;

Sales training analyst, corporate sales manager, and virtual/e-commerce sales manager.

Advanced Experiential Training in Behavioral Development

Intended for the 180 level-2 participants, this training is delivered in a compact, live-in format over a 44-hour technical and shared-living program. In this training, participants develop the ability to explore conscious perception, creativity, bodily and emotional awareness, aspects of decision-making and negotiation, as well as issues involving communication, voice and language.

Basic Experiential Training in Behavioral Development

This training is a prerequisite for the entire program and gives the 360 trainees the chance to recognize the basic, fundamental aspects of human and business relationships through purely experiential activities in a compact 24-hour program.

Selection

It is up to the Contracting Party to nominate the 360 program participants, as well as the 180 who will move on to level 2.

In terms of selection, it is up to the Contracted Party to provide guidance and criteria so the Contracting Party can select the level-1 trainees.

Level 3 Approval

Although selection and nomination are handled by the Contracting Party, level-3 students in this program will be subject to the traditional academic rules of the courses in question, including in terms of academic performance and attendance.

Internship

The supervised internship for level-3 graduates (where applicable) will take place at the very company where they work, which carries out their formal evaluation and puts them forward for the issuing of Academic Transcripts, Certificates and Diplomas.

Venues

The program's stages will take place at three venues:

Level 3 – venue designated by the Contracting Party

Level 2 – live-in format at a venue agreed by mutual consent

Level 1 – venue agreed between the parties, though preferably held at the organization's own premises.