The Situation
Gilbert's Pharmacy is a trusted healthcare provider that has served communities for over 85 years with care, precision, and integrity. With multiple pharmacy locations and a growing team, Gilbert's relies on people managers to coach frontline staff through the daily pressures of a fast-paced pharmacy environment.
When team members struggle during peak hours, managers often default to telling people what to do. It's faster. But solutions given don't stick. People comply, but they don't commit.
Gilbert's needed their managers to become true coaches.
The Challenge
The Learning & Development team needed an engaging training solution to equip pharmacy managers with practical coaching skills they could use immediately, even during a hectic Monday afternoon rush.
The training needed to:
- Teach the GROW coaching model as a simple, memorable framework managers could use in 5-minute conversations.
- Provide realistic, decision-based practice where managers experience the consequences of directive vs. coaching approaches.
- Connect coaching to Gilbert's core values so improvement plans reinforce organizational culture.
- Be mobile-accessible and self-paced, allowing managers across distributed locations to complete training on their own schedule.
The Process
To bring this interactive, story-driven experience to life, I followed a structured instructional design approach:
- Story-Driven Design I created a narrative experience guided by Coach Sam who speaks directly to learners throughout. Coach Sam introduces concepts, sets up scenarios, provides feedback, and delivers the closing challenge. This consistent voice creates continuity and emotional connection.
- Interactive Video Introduction to walk learners through the objectives and connecting the training to Gilbert's values. This sets expectations and builds buy-in before any content delivery.
- Scenario-Based Learning to let managers choose dialogue options and see immediate consequences. Wrong choices loop back with coaching feedback; strong choices advance the conversation.
- An AI-powered conversation with Taylor provides unscripted, real-time practice where the AI responds naturally to the learner's coaching attempts.
The Results
A 15-minute, mobile-friendly course that transforms how Gilbert's pharmacy managers approach performance conversations.
*Completed as part of Tim Slade's March 2026 Design Challenge
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