Case Studies

The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer and ranks among the ten largest retailers in the United States. The Home Depot's business strategy is to offer a broad assortment of high-quality merchandise at low "Day-In, Day-Out" warehouse prices and provide exceptional customer service through highly-trained and knowledgeable associates.

The Home Depot culture, which is a significant strength of the Company, emphasizes a decentralized approach to management, and it encourages entrepreneurial innovation and high levels of commitment, teamwork, and enthusiasm by its associates. In the midst of an unprecedented expansion, doubling the number of stores to over 1,000 by the year 2000, the need for highly effective assistant store managers, who are able to provide leadership and coaching to store associates, is essential. The Home Depot turned to Outward Bound Professional to provide vital skills to these managers in the management of their most critical resource—their associates.

In the format of a dynamic, action-oriented design, the high-level objective of these on-going one-day custom programs is to help managers become more effective leaders, by creating awareness and insight into three key areas. The key areas were:

Teamwork
Trust
Communication Skills

Based upon the end of program evaluations, Outward Bound Professional exceeded The Home Depot's expectations in every category including meeting their objectives, providing a premier program, and having outstanding facilitators. Specific outcomes included:

More Effective Teamwork - The assistant store managers are now developing more effective teamwork in their stores. They have a better understanding of what the characteristics of highly effective teams are and how to develop these traits with their reports.
Increased Trust - The role of trust both in effective teamwork, as well as in empowering and developing employees is thoroughly understood. These managers report being able to better motivate their associates and imbue them with Home Depot culture.

Having practiced and discussed feedback skills, the managers are better able to both appropriately confront negative behaviors and provide effective positive reinforcement. This creates a more open workplace, where people are more aware of how they communicate and how it impacts others-both positively and negatively.

If you are interested in learning how our programs can Increase your team’s potential, call us toll-free 1-888-84-NCOBS, or complete our “Request For Information” online form.