Case study

Upskilling All People Managers at the Virginia DMV

The Challenge
The Solution
The Impact
What's Next

We see many, many examples of how Sparkwise is leading people to actually show up and do something differently.

— Gerald F. Lackey, DMV Commissioner

The Challenge

The Virginia DMV was embarking on a massive multi-year transformation to elevate customer service and drive operational efficiency.

The Commissioner knew that middle managers were the linchpin to enabling the change and saw the need to equip them with the leadership skills needed to inspire and guide teams through the transformation.

The Solution

The DMV partnered with Sparkwise to launch "Driving Leadership Forward" — an interactive training program where participants would actively practice management skills, share perspectives, and coach one another in small groups.

Topics

The program focused on essential management skills:

Giving impactful feedback
Motivating your team
Promoting psychological safety
Instilling work ownership
Tailoring mgmt. style
Holding meaningful 1-1s

Setup

DMV set up Sparkwise to scale agency-wide from the get-go:

Fully automated calendar invites and email communications through Sparkwise
Offered multiple time-slot options to maximize participation
Effortlessly rescheduled make-up sessions in case of conflicts

The Impact

The new agency-wide manager development won full buy-in from all top 30 senior executives, received raving reviews from participants, and drove noticeable mindset and behavior change within managers.

Key Metrics

4.5

usefulness

4.5

engaging

85%

Completion rate

>70%

cost savings

The Winning Formula

Rich Interactions that Deepen Learning

Participants loved the active group learning centered around critical thinking, application, and reflection.

I really like the interactive parts. Makes one think and collaborate. Helps cement the ideas and concepts.

Relationship Building With Peers

The intimate virtual setting allowed managers to get to know peers in a meaningful way and build a sense of belonging.

I enjoyed meeting and collaborating with other managers across the state.

Admin on Autopilot

By automating learning delivery and tracking, Sparkwise helped DMV expand their program across the entire agency with a small training team.

To not have to take on all of the logistics—to simply let the process of learning take place and get a report back for tracking—that’s magical.

What’s Next

Building on the success of this manager training, Client is developing follow-on leadership development initiatives on Sparkwise:

Storytelling and slide-making skills
Instituting 10 DMV-specific leadership behaviors

About Sparkwise

Sparkwise delivers live group learning on demand, at limitless scale, for 80%+ lower cost — by automating structured collaboration for critical thinking, practice, and action.