10/20/70

Until Covid, learning activities tended to take place face to face...at off site events, perhaps with an overnight for bonding...but with little or no follow up. 

The travel restrictions endured through Covid forced learning on line and some really good stuff was created very quickly. Crisises tend to drive change more quickly than when life is comfortable. 

Now that Covid no longer influences, 80%/90% of 'learning' is now taking place back in the training room.

The essential question is whether the learning is virtual or in a classroom, do the attendees actually learn anything and if they do, do they then put their learning into practice?

10/20/70 and the role of the Team Leader

Forget the numbers for a moment.....we know people can learn:

From being taught in a formal training environment

From others - if the 'others' know how to impart learning

From being mentored and coached through real life challenges and opportunities

While a balance of these three approaches is ideal......learning from real life challenges and opportunities is likely to have the greatest meaning and impact. 

An example

A client had a nine person strong management committee. The leadership group that sat below their Executive Committee.

Their role?

Deliver relevant projects and act as an environment where future talent could develop and thrive.

Nice idea, except it wasn't working. 

It wasn't the fault of the nine people....they were committed and capable...but they weren't being led.

They did have a two day offsite when the Committee was formed......but nothing else.

The business couldn't afford for this committee not to work.....so they hired us to help them fix it. 

So what did we do?

Advertised for potential attendees from across the entire business.

No selection criteria other than an understanding that they would:

Have to do this on top of their day job

For no extra remuneration

That they would have to attend and pass an assessment centre

That they could be removed from the Group if their commitment waned

That they would receive one to one support from an external coach

The assessment Centre

They had to arrive prepared to present three ideas they believed could make the business more efficient and more profitable. This included their highlighting the idea they believed could make the biggest difference.

They undertook two leaderless group exercises...one a complex problem solving task and one a series of group discussions.

Finally, they had to complete a role play assessment to establish if they were able and wiling to listen

Nothing radical in that......what was different was that this Leadership Team was open to everyone and we had no idea how many would apply or how many we would take

After the assessment Centre

We took nine people to the Yorkshire Dales...

 We spent an evening and one full day establishing how we would work together. (One of our Coaches is embedded as the interim Leader of this Team) 

The second day was spent working through three of the business improvement ideas that had been presented at the assessment centre. The three sub teams had input from two of our Coaches.

In the afternoon, the three sub teams presented their plans to two members of the Executive Committee. 

After some debate, all plans were agreed and signed off. 

MORE TO  COME!