our story

With a startup mindset and a public service mission, the Center for Learning Innovation helps solve complicated challenges and changes within the Federal Reserve. We bring together the best in fields ranging from change management and user experience, to communications and learning. We truly embrace a team approach to our work.

We can be a serious group, because we know how critical our work is to America’s central banking system. But we like to have fun, too. Because it sure feels good to solve problems in a way that only we can.

In the Center we do varied, important work.

Preparing Bank Examiners
Assisting Law Enforcement
Learning Applications
Educating Local Banks

Helping people work smarter is fun for us. And we take our fun very seriously.

The Center Way

This is how we do what we do.

Our partners expect best-in-class service and these are the six pillars that form the foundation of how we work. We don't just turn out a great product, but a great experience.

our team

Who We Are

Born out of a need to train bank examiners at the St. Louis Fed, we started with two instructional designers and a vision. Over the past 20 years, we have grown and evolved. We now partner with business lines and individuals across the entire Fed System.

Consultants
Project Management

Learning Consultants

Our Instructional Designers (IDs) are the system experts in designing learning that works. It’s more than just throwing together a PowerPoint and some multiple choice questions. IDs work to understand client needs and then design training that helps people do their jobs better. Sometimes the right answer is a simple job aid. Sometimes it’s an online course, a short video, a classroom session, or an infographic. No matter the training format, advanced degrees and years of experience with the science of instruction ensure our IDs create learning that solves problems and improves performance.

Business Consultants

Our consultants help develop strategies in the areas of leadership, change management and user experience to help you achieve your business goals. They help you translate strategy into action with their insight and ability to get things done within the organization.

Virtual Experience Consultants

Our Producers are the System experts in virtual experiences. They’ve successfully handled thousands of these events and have developed refined processes and best practices to ensure everything runs smoothly. Our producers guide clients through the entire process, working to polish messages and suggest ways to involve the audience.

Project Managers

Our highly skilled Project Managers (PMs) handle the details necessary to keep a project running on time and on budget. PMs identify any risks to the project and work to mitigate them before they hit the client’s wallet. By keeping an eye of all of the moving parts, PMs allow individual team members to focus on delivering a quality product. Additionally, PMs keep clients up-to-date through regular status reports on progress and cost. Expert project management is a vital part of the Center’s success.

the work

The right solution is the one that best meets the business need.

In the Center, we're committed to the idea of the "minimum effective dose" in our work. That means we do what needs to be done to address business needs in the most efficient, effective way possible. At the same time, we ensure our solutions are engaging, interesting, and sometimes even fun.

Sharing our work with industry leaders
Click here to review our white paper on how to engage learners into the Instructional Design Process
Learners and the Instructional Design Process

Our position as "insiders" in the Federal Reserve System offers a unique breadth and depth of work. Learn more about a few of our solutions below.

Your Thrift Plan
Hackathon
Rapid Response
Emergency Communications System (ECS)

Business Need

As part of its financial literacy campaign, the Federal Reserve wanted to educate employees on the features of their retirement plan and help them to maximize their benefits.

Considerations

Because any training would be optional, we needed a hook. And because the course was to be made available to all Federal Reserve employees at all 12 Reserve Banks at any time, we knew that our best delivery method would be online. The client wanted learners to be able to interact with the content and have a safe place to manipulate variables and see concrete outcomes. Also, the client didn’t just want learners to know about the Thrift Plan but to evaluate their current status and take action if they weren’t getting the most from their benefit. The hitch was that the course could not be interpreted as being directive or as offering financial advice.

Output

The Your Retirement Plan course was created around the hook of brief video clips of the fake benefits-focused news magazine program (Eye on Benefits) that opened and closed each topic. The course wound up running one hour, which is a bit long for an optional course. We decided to break the course up into four 10- to 15-minute “episodes” that were released weekly and each focused on a specific topic. The content was focused on interactivity—calculators, variable data, and scenarios were blended with the more straightforward information. Each episode ended with a call to action and provided links to both the Federal Reserve benefits website and the financial planning company contracted to work with the Fed.

Results

The Your Retirement Plan course was the most visited course in the Federal Reserve System for months. The client was able to analyze data and determine that learners were, in fact, taking action to maximize their benefit after completing some or all of the course.

Business Need

Computers. They’re everywhere. And so are the people who develop applications for them. But those people don’t always work together, and building relationships and sharing knowledge across departments can be difficult. Without the cross-pollination of new ideas, techniques, and technologies development, work can become stale, repetitive, and inefficient. No one wants that.

Considerations

We knew we’d need to come up with an approach that would get all these developers in one room and give them something valuable to do. The solution had to be focused on interaction and result in something that can actually be applied on the job. Lectures and panel discussions weren’t going to cut it.

Output

We designed and facilitated a two day event bringing together disparate application development groups to mingle and work together to tackle a business problem. Each team created a solution to their specific problem and submitted them to a panel of judges who evaluated the solution based on technical difficulty, usefulness, viability, and creativity.

Results

Participants in the Hackathon report improved communication and collaboration across groups and divisions. This has led to an increase in both formal and informal information sharing and a greater awareness of the work going on outside of their silo.

Business Need

As part of their finanical literacy campaign, the Federal Reserve's Office of Employee Benefits wanted to educate employees on the features of the Thrift Plan (aka 401k) and help them to maximize their benefit.

Business Need

As part of their finanical literacy campaign, the Federal Reserve's Office of Employee Benefits wanted to educate employees on the features of the Thrift Plan (aka 401k) and help them to maximize their benefit.

Business Need

As part of their finanical literacy campaign, the Federal Reserve's Office of Employee Benefits wanted to educate employees on the features of the Thrift Plan (aka 401k) and help them to maximize their benefit.

Business Need

It may not always seem like it, but the banking industry moves fast. Especially after the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis, the Federal Reserve needed to come up with a way to efficiently and effectively share policy information to examiners in the field.

Considerations

The policy information impacted banks across the country and had to be released quickly. In addition, to garner a better chance of participation, the solution had to be low-tech and easy to use. So, what to do?

Output

What to do is not to overthink it. What would eventually become the Rapid Response program started as a conference call. Over time, these calls evolved into a program of regular webinars. Each webinar addresses pre-approved, timely topics presented by subject matter experts and includes a question and answer session. We can even offer Continuing Professional Education credit for attendance.

Results

The Rapid Response program created an opportunity for the Federal Reserve to act as a partner and assist with training for state examination staff. Since 2008, there have been 150,000 registrations across 744 total sessions.

Business Need

In times of emergency, communication between the Fed and member banks is paramount. The Federal Reserve needed a way to provide a two-way communication channel in an emergency, using current and reliable contact information.

Considerations

To be effective, emergency communication must be fast, accurate, and allow for two-way communication. The solution needed to provide necessary information to institutions during an emergency but also had to act as “triage” and allow for the institution to reply to a question or series of questions through the phone call, text, or email.

Output

The Emergency Communications System (ECS) is a web-based registration system created to allow banks to register for emergency notifications. The tool then loads confirmed registrants contact data to a third-party automatic notification system tool to send emergency notifications and receive responses from registrants.

Results

All 12 Federal Reserve Bank Districts, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and 31 state commissioner offices can use the ECS solution. Since 2008, 47 emergency notifications relating to hurricanes, tornados, floods, and cyber events have been sent.

Business Need

As part of their finanical literacy campaign, the Federal Reserve's Office of Employee Benefits wanted to educate employees on the features of the Thrift Plan (aka 401k) and help them to maximize their benefit.

Join the Team!

Does the Center sound like the place for you?

Head over to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis jobs site and check out our current openings.

To simplify your search, use key words: center for learning innovation and the role you’re interested in (instructional design, project manager, producer or consultant).

Do you have questions or something to share that’s a little less formal? Please send your comments and general inquires to the Center for Learning Innovation mailbox and we’ll get back to you.