You are Anne-Claire Duval, head of learning at Banque Aurore, a regional bank headquartered in Strasbourg. The board wants to turn 2,400 counter staff into advisers within twelve months, and the pilot that was meant to prove it could be done has just failed. You have three weeks to present a new design, and first you have to decide what went wrong.
The situation
It is 12 March 2026. Banque Aurore has 280 branches across eastern France, 6,800 employees and EUR 720 million in net banking income. Its cost-to-income ratio stands at 64% and the board wants it below 58%. Branch transactions fall year after year as customers move to mobile, and the bank has staked its future on counter staff becoming advisers on savings, insurance and credit: the "Advisory Pivot".
The twenty-branch pilot looked like a success: 82% completed it and enjoyment of the sessions was rated 3.9 out of 5. On-the-job observation told another story: only 11% changed how they talked to customers. Staff rated usefulness to their job at 2.4 out of 5 and trainer credibility at 2.6, and only 9% of branch managers held any follow-up conversation with their teams. The previous year's programme, which you inherited rather than designed, cost EUR 3.1 million.
The new rollout is capped at EUR 1.9 million: EUR 792 per person, against the EUR 1,290 the previous programme spent. The targets are perceived usefulness of 70 out of 100 and 60% of staff changing behaviour. The first wave of 600 starts in sixty days whatever you decide, and at month six the board will review evidence of behaviour change. The sponsor now expecting a different result is the same person who approved the previous programme's budget.