|
System Components That Will Generate a
Positive ROI
We believe that the following program
and learning system design elements can have a meaningful impact on
your ability to create the infrastructure needed to generate a
positive ROI in your organization. Please consider these as a starting
point for your discussions of how to demonstrate that training can
generate measurable improvements in both individual and organizational
performance.
Management Development Starts At The
Top: We understand the important responsibility your executives have
in developing the management talent of the company. Executive
involvement and support are essential to creating a learning culture.
We have found time and again that the management and leadership
strengths and weaknesses of the executive team are reflected in the
practices employed by managers through out the organization.
Therefore, if executives fail to address their own development
opportunities and persist in using practices that undermine
performance, it is nearly impossible to make the necessary changes
with managers lower in the organization. They will tend to mirror the
practices used by those higher than they on the organizational ladder.
This has been confirmed numerous times from data obtained through
organization-wide management and leadership surveys that we have
conducted.
Further, when senior executives are
themselves accountable for organization-wide improvement in management
performance, they will spend the time and devote the resources to get
results. When this responsibility is delegated i.e. abdicated, it is
very difficult to gain the support needed to create organization-wide
commitment. Training departments can provide the tools and
infrastructure to support the executive team's goals and objectives,
but they cannot bring about enterprise-wide improvements in management
performance alone.
We believe, therefore, that it is
essential to offer an integrated multi-level management training
curriculum so that senior level managers participate in the
development process and are in position to guide and support the
development efforts of their direct reports. Further, organizational
survey data must be collected and presented to the executive team so
they understand the scope and nature of the development gaps of their
management team and are in position to take appropriate action to
close the gaps between their most effective and least effective
managers. We believe that it is essential for your senior executives
to play a leadership role in creating a learning culture in the
organization. They must set the climate for this change and must hold
managers at every level accountable for making improvements in their
management and leadership practices.
We believe that your training
department and your executive steering committee needs to collaborate
and define the leadership roles that your executive team will play in
this process. One idea, for example would be to seek a senior
executive to "sponsor" a particular course. The executive
would be responsible for making sure the program relates directly to
the company's business goals and that
participant Action Plans are implemented and progress measured.
A Diagnostic Approach Ensures That
Participants See The Need To Change, Are Committed To Training And Are
Prepared To Direct Their Own Development: A key philosophical
underpinning of effective management training is that all development
is really a matter of self-development. We have found that this
methodology encourages participants to see the need to change and to
take responsibility for their own development. Therefore, you may find
it worthwhile to utilize assessment instruments to provide people with
feedback on their work practices so that they can better understand
the impact their management, leadership, or team practices have on the
performance, motivation and development of others. These survey tools
are essential to the process of self-directed development.
Further, we believe that managers
should attend training only if they 1) believe that they have a
development need, 2) are committed to addressing the development need
and 3) think that both their effectiveness on the job and their work
unit performance will be enhanced if they develop the specific
competencies covered by the training program. As such, we recommend
that candidates for any given program be allowed to decide for
themselves whether to attend or not. This step will ensure that every
participant is committed to the training process. In this way, your
company will not waste its resources forcing every manager to attend a
given training program even when certain managers are not committed to
the process. We have found that too many training organizations take
the "one shoe fits all" approach or believe that they know
what every manager needs without first assessing their current
competence or determining their willingness to learn. Training
departments in general need to move away from a "sheep
dipping" approach where all managers are required to move through
a prescribed core curriculum to an approach that focuses on
identifying competency gaps of managers in order to determine what
courses should be taken. The first step must be diagnostic rather than
prescriptive. Managers should not be required to attend specific
programs. Rather, training courses should be offered as part of each
manager's "Individual Development Plan" and where every
manager works with his or her immediate supervisor to determine which
programs might be appropriate to attend.
An important step in the process,
therefore, is to identify the core competencies required to succeed in
your company and to assess each manager's development needs so that
the company's training resources are used to support the development
of your managers by enabling them to enroll in those courses where
they perceive they have a development need and when they are ready to
address it.
Customized Program Materials Help Link
Management Development To The Achievement Of Organizational Goals: The
more directly training objectives are linked to the achievement of
current organizational goals the greater the alignment will be between
the company's operating objectives and its' training initiatives. Most
training programs are focused on specific behavioral objectives that
may only indirectly relate to the organization's business goals.
Programs can successfully support the achievement of organizational
goals if their objectives are modified and custom case studies added
to the content. These custom cases and related exercises help
participants tie the development of important workplace behavioral
objectives to the achievement of key business unit objectives. This
level of customization does not have to be extensive or costly, but it
will further improve your ability to demonstrate a positive ROI from
training. The key outcome of this effort is that participants are
better able to generate Action Plans that not only help them develop a
core competency to enhance their personal effectiveness on the job
but also help them exercise that newly developed skill in order to
address specific business issues and improve organizational
performance.
We have found that providing
participants with custom course materials helps them better understand
how the content of the training program applies to them. Customized
program materials are a great aid to ensuring participant
understanding and acceptance. Most importantly, they build a bridge
from the classroom to application back on the job.
Training Contracts Between Participants
And Their Immediate Supervisors Hold Participants Accountable For
Making Improvements In Their Performance After Training: Quite simply
we recommend some form of "Learning Contract" be developed.
These agreements between participants and their immediate supervisors
lay out what each will do to ensure that there is a payoff from
training. They reach agreement on the roles they will play, the steps
that they will take and the results they expect to achieve. These
contracts serve as personal commitments and a road map of what the
participants and their immediate supervisors will do as a result of
the employees' time away from work.
We recognize that "Learning
Contracts" need to be crafted in a way so that they pose no
unnecessary administrative red tape for the two parties. We do believe
that they will help clarify expectations and further raise the
prospects that the Action Plans developed in your training programs
will be reviewed, approved, implemented and supported back on the job.
A Clearly Defined Role For Managers To
Play In Reviewing And Approving Action Plans, Following-up And
Supporting Plan Implementation and Measuring Progress Provides A Level
Of Organizational Support Required To Achieve Results: If everyone is
committed to demonstrating that training leads to measurable
performance improvement, then you must be prepared to put in the
infrastructure to ensure that learning is applied on the job and the
results achieved are measured. Two important aspects of this are 1)
managers need to be told that they have a critical role in the process
and that they are expected to support the improvement efforts of their
direct reports and 2) that they need to prepare summary reports of
results achieved so that the organization is able to measure the ROI
from its training endeavors.
We recognize that this process cannot
be seen as bureaucratic or frivolous. We also know from experience
that line management must be responsible for this effort. Time and
again when training departments are "delegated" this
function, they are really "left holding the bag." Management
development is a management responsibility. Making improvements in
day-to-day business performance is a management responsibility.
Training departments should be responsible for designing and
facilitating the reporting system. When results are submitted,
training is then responsible for analyzing them and presenting a
summary report of the organization's findings.
We believe it is important for training
departments to develop a reporting system that has the buy-in of
management, is easy to administer, builds commitment to the process
and enables the organization to capture the data needed to determine
its training ROI.
Readministering Diagnostic Instruments
Communicates That Management Expects Participants To Address Survey
Feedback And Make A Concerted Effort To Adopt Behaviors That Will
Increase Their Effectiveness On The Job: While the Action Planning
process will yield many hard financial benefits, we also expect many
non-financial benefits to accrue from Action Plans that deal with
participant survey data. An important step to take determining whether
your training efforts have merit will be to analyze survey results
over time. A review of this longitudinal data will help determine the
extent to which your management team as a whole improved its
management and leadership practices. A comparative analysis of survey
results over a period of one year will quantify improvements made and
point out remaining gaps that need to be addressed.
We believe that working with your
management team to readminister your diagnostic surveys over time will
help provide critical data on results achieved and actions that need
to be taken to refine or redirect your training and development
initiative.
|
