Client Success Story: American Management Association (AMA)

The American Management Association (AMA) is a global leader in training and professional development that drives performance and business success for its clients. Serving a majority of the Fortune 500, AMA supports individuals and organizations through a range of products and services, including seminars, e-learning, conferences, and research. Since 2013, we have worked with AMA to drive decision-making and learner engagement via more rigorous and automated insights. Leveraging MTM, AMA also continues to share critical learner feedback across its global knowledge sharing community.

Client Challenge:

Prior to MTM, AMA collected data via paper-based surveys at the end of each class. Following completion, surveys were sent  to a scantron center to await processing. Results reporting relied on the completion of this process and the availability of reliable data generated through the paper survey method. Most evaluative feedback focused on overall and instructor ratings. In addition, no qualitative learner feedback was collected. Finally, scantrons and reports were exchanged internally via mail over several weeks, which created additional time and resource constraints. The end to end process limited AMA’s ability to drive accurate and timely course and program decisions.

MTM™ Solution:

The Metrics That Matter team worked with AMA to develop a robust measurement strategy incorporating MTM. Leveraging the SmartSheet methodology, AMA shifted from measuring just overall and instructor ratings to evaluating learning effectiveness, job impact, and business results with more rigor. AMA was able to incorporate this approach into a variety of courses, including informal and e-learning assets.

Critical factors for successful adoption of MTM at AMA included:

• Socializing key metric purposes and definitions with different business units and partners globally
• Building consistency into survey tools across learning methodologies
• Enhancing team capabilities to maximize the value of MTM standard evaluations and reporting.

Results:

AMA was able to scale a repeatable measurement process across programs and courses. In addition, the AMA team built MTM evaluation content into its online learner registration site, enabling learners to select and enroll in courses based on real-time feedback. Additional results included:

• Using MTM data to enable sales in the private client space and improve AMA’s global presence
• Incorporating MTM data and insights into quarterly leadership and business partner meetings to drive decision-making for courses, programs, and pivotal roles
• Increasing the comprehensiveness and quality of learner feedback to drive participation in evaluation, increase activity on AMA learning portals, and build a corporate culture of excellence
• Driving engagement for both AMA learning providers and corporate clients.

Learn more at the Metrics That Matter product page.