The Challenge
Meridian Health Group operates 8 hospital locations and was facing a leadership pipeline crisis. Traditional leadership development workshops cost over $3 million annually but were not producing enough qualified internal candidates for management roles. The CHRO recognized that leadership is best learned through experience and peer interaction, not classroom instruction, but lacked a structured way to scale this approach across 8 locations.
The Solution
- Created tiered peer forums: emerging leaders (individual contributors), new managers (0-2 years), and senior leaders (directors+)
- Deployed Forum@Work across all 8 hospital locations simultaneously
- Paired each forum with specific leadership competencies aligned to Meridian's leadership framework
- Used AI meeting summaries to help participants track their growth over time
- Integrated forum participation into the talent review process as a development indicator
“We replaced expensive 2-day workshops with weekly peer forums. The results have been transformative and sustainable.”
-- CHRO, Meridian Health Group
Implementation Timeline
Month 1: Trained 24 moderators across 8 locations via virtual certification
Month 2: Launched 24 forums (3 per location, one per tier)
Month 3-6: Forums established; first cohort of emerging leaders began showing readiness for promotion
Month 6-12: 45 forum participants promoted to management roles; external training budget reduced by 70%
The Outcome
In the first year, 45 forum participants were promoted to management roles, compared to just 12 internal promotions the previous year. The annual leadership development budget was reduced from $3 million to $900K by replacing most external workshops with peer forums. Engagement scores across participating locations rose by an average of 87%. Most importantly, the promoted leaders showed higher performance ratings and lower turnover than leaders developed through the previous workshop model.