Cultivator Profile: Leveraging Social Learning for Global Community-Building
Meet Deborah and Eva
Though Deborah Madelaine, Eva Saturkova Novakova, and the other members of the Social Learning team at Mars have never met in person, they’re experts at building connections. Their team was formed about 18 months ago with the goal of bringing more intention to community-building efforts at Mars. Deborah, the team’s Global Senior Learner Experience Manager, is a former community manager and longtime “Chief Heart Officer” who believes that community-building benefits both the people and the business, creating the belonging that can often feel missing in the world of remote work. She is joined by Curation Coach, Eva, who over her 24-year tenure at Mars has supported the development of 100s of people managers through her work across three different functions and eight roles.
This dream team, rounded out by Anna, Andrea, and Karima, has worked hard in its’ short tenure to position social learning and community-building as central to the culture at Mars; creating a growing roster of practical toolkits and resources for community leaders. As Eva put it, “We are all passionate about community, coming from slightly different angles and I think that’s what makes us a good team.” Recently, I got to sit down with Eva and Deborah to talk about how they’re leveraging social learning and community-building to create a massive impact within a global corporation at Mars.
The Challenge:
Mars is a large, global corporation with over 130,000 employees, operating within the current shifting context of work and business. As Deborah put it, “The talent market is under stress. Retaining and hiring talent is becoming extremely complicated.” Additionally, both folks spoke to the increased pressure on employees who are line managers (about 8,000 people at Mars!) or Community Leads, as they face additional challenges surrounding remote work, conversations, and action around DE&I, and employee wellbeing.
Both Deborah and Eva cite the potential of Community as a valuable tool for attracting and retaining talent at Mars, providing strong networks of connections and friends despite remote work. And so, their challenge was two-fold:
Get internal buy-in from colleagues and stakeholders to support Community as a Social Learning endeavor at Mars.
Be more intentional in how they support communities, from empowering new Community Leads to making existing communities easier for potential members to find and access, and supporting community managers who might feel isolated.
The Idea:
This story is less about a particular project and more about a long-term strategic focus. The Social Learning team knew, “[Senior Stakeholders] really recognize that there is so much brain power within the people at Mars, and leveraging this is a secret weapon.” The Social Learning team hypothesized that leveraging community could help support and retain employees at Mars while positively impacting the business.
They set out to educate their colleagues on social learning and internal community while building the practical toolkits, resources, and support for community leaders that could help community thrive.
The Outcome:
In the 18 months since the team has been founded, the Social Learning team has created and piloted multiple toolkits on the value of Social Learning. Eva, an alum of Cultivate’s Community Accelerator program, developed a toolkit for Community Builders that leveraged existing Mars frameworks and language to provide a high-quality guide to getting started as a workplace community leader. The toolkit is primed to help community leaders at every stage of their development journey, covering topics like engagement, belonging, and intentional culture creation. With user feedback, they were able to make the 2.0 version of the toolkit even more user-friendly!
And they’re not done: While a step-by-step guide is incredibly valuable, the team knows that community leaders will also need a place to share and practice. They launched the Social Learning Club during the summer and already have 60 members. Additionally, they’re in the process of launching a community directory to help their colleagues find and join the communities they are seeking at Mars.
An important function of these tools is that they drive agency. Rather than making their team the “keeper of the keys” when it comes to community, the Social Learning team is creating the tools and environment where community leaders can be free to experiment. While it’s too early in their experiment to share the business impact of Community at Mars, the team has been intentional about educating leaders on the ties between Community and business outcomes. In August they hosted a “Virtual Expedition”, inviting Community Managers from the Airbnb Host Community to present the tangible business impact the Host Community has on Airbnb’s business. They’ve found that members earn 2.5 times more than nonmembers by having a collaborative space where they can share ideas and have their questions answered. Partnering with a well-known brand to show the importance of community made the event a success, getting them the leadership buy-in they needed to support the next phase of community at Mars. Says Deborah, "One of our key stakeholders became our biggest sponsor for community."*
What worked?
Start by listening: In starting the toolkit initiative, Eva began by interviewing community leaders at Mars so that she could understand the challenges they faced and their unique pain points. She said these talks were “instrumental” in making the toolkits as useful as possible.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Both Deborah and Eva credit their team of “creative powerhouses with complementary skills” for making these initiatives happen. By intentionally grounding their team culture on respectful debate and genuine care, they have created an environment where everyone can share ideas and thrive.
“Launch to learn”: At big companies, there can be a norm around perfecting a project before you share it. The Social Learning team takes a “launch to learn” approach instead, sharing early and often so they can remain agile enough to create a user-driven final product.
Educate your colleagues: When Deborah started in the Social Learning department, she knew she needed to educate her colleagues on what Social Learning is and why it is beneficial to teams and companies to create the conditions for support of their work. She started with simple infographics and the team still does frequent “roadshows” to show (rather than tell!) their colleagues what they’re working on.
Make a business case: The Social Learning team is aware that showing business value is crucial to gaining leadership buy-in, so they show it in various ways. In proposing the impact of a new community, they pointed to the ways the communities empower members to answer their own questions. This new community would reduce the strain on their internal HR hub by lowering ticket numbers, leading to cost savings. It’s important to think not just of how you could make the business money, but how you might save it.
Eva’s Advice for Fellow Cultivators:
Talk to people: Be in conversation with those who will be impacted by the change you’re trying to make so that you can understand what they need and where they may be stuck.
Don’t underestimate the possibility of change where you are: According to Eva, change starts with those closest to you. Educate your peers and teammates on your idea to get valuable feedback and support. Where possible, use demos and show rather than tell the impact you’re looking to make. This will help you build excitement.
Deborah’s Advice for Fellow Cultivators:
Be patient: Deborah reminds Cultivators to “pause, reflect and celebrate the progress is key,” because being a change agent can be exhausting. When you’re trying to impact your organization for the long haul, it’s important to remember to reflect on what they’ve achieved so far and recognize where they’ve moved the needle.
Talk to the skeptics: These people can give you valuable insight on how to change your messaging.
Love this story and want more? Hear Deborah talk about building a culture of community, only at CultivatorCon!
*Want to give it a shot? Deborah offered their support: “If any Cultivator can use similar support, those of us at Mars would like to help!” And just like that, a Cultivator Bat Signal!