It took awhile, but the majority of the learning and development community seems to have signed on to the effectiveness of action learning when it is done “right.”
But what does it take for leadership action learning to work? Here are three critical factors.
- The Project: Select a project that will have a real impact on the business. Don’t waste your time and money on an initiative that does not either bring in revenue or reduce costs.
- The Target Audience: Don’t restrict participants to only those who “need” the learning; include management, the more senior the better. Not only will these leaders provide much needed support in terms of resources but, with their experience, they can also serve as mentors in analyzing the problem, making decisions, and overall project management.
- Performance Coaching: Beyond including senior leaders, connect participants to their managers in the action learning effort. Presumably managers have already given their verbal support to their team members’ participation in the project. But participants will need more…the time required and, probably, additional resources and performance feedback. Regular communication and feedback between participants and managers will promote “buy-in,” improved proficiency, and improved performance.
Action learning can be a very effective tool to strengthen the capabilities of your work force while, at the same time, deliver true business results.
The choice of who should participate is important but, unless you invest in expert facilitators, your project will not yield the impact you hope for. Why is this role so critical?
Expert facilitators are able to develop leaders while getting measurable business results by:
- Flexing with the specific needs of the group. They have the models and experience at their fingertips that aid understanding, encourage creative problem solving, and provide objective and constructive performance feedback on the spot.
- Capitalizing on lessons learned. They are skilled at taking the time with the team to look back upon various actions, determine what worked and what didn’t, and then devise better ways to approach upcoming challenges.
- Reviewing on a regular basis. They know the importance of gathering stakeholders together at predetermined meetings to keep everyone apprised of progress, drive accountability and performance pressure, and adjust the overall thrust of the program as necessary.
Learning new skills and changing behavior can be difficult if you do not put people in the right situation.
One of the reasons that action-learning is so effective with leaders is that it places executives in the right environment at the right time to learn, practice, and improve.
When designing your leadership action-learning program, ensure your simulations, projects, coaching, and scenarios are in the right zone.
- The Comfort Zone: Consider this zone to be neutral. Participants are comfortable and proficient with what they know and how they do it. Most of us operate in the comfort zone the majority of the time. Because it consists of the skills, capabilities, and abilities where leaders already excel, it is not very conducive to learning. To grow leaders, stay out of the stagnant comfort zone.
- The Panic Zone: I feel comfortable mountain biking down steep trails that my wife considers crazy. For me, it is a comfort zone. For my wife, it is a panic zone. Zones are personal and situational. The panic zone causes too much anxiety, stress, and discouragement. Like the comfort zone, leaders do not develop in the panic zone. If you push too far, too fast, you will lose them.
- The Learning Zone: Sandwiched between the panic zone and the comfort zone is the learning zone. This is the sweet spot for effective leadership programs. It contains the perfect amount of creative tension for growth. Skills and abilities that are “just doable” create motivation for mastery while encouraging participants to stretch and “go beyond.”
Because the zones are personal and situational, they constantly change. It takes a very skilled facilitator and a proven design to masterfully move leaders through the zones at the right time at the right pace to get true results.
For the last 60+ years, action learning has been a process where participants perform activities (typically in small groups) and then receive feedback based upon their performance.
This loop typically has four distinct phases: (1) Deciding what to do (2) Doing it (3) Reflecting upon the results and (4) Connecting those lessons back to the next decision. In terms of learning new skills – it works.
To change the on-the-job behavior and the performance of leaders however, we believe that you need more than action-learning. You need to get real work done and get real feedback from executives.
To make a measurable impact on the business, leadership action-learning programs should contain three elements:
- Real Work & Real Success Metrics: Ensure that your leaders are working on important strategic initiatives critical to the success of the company. This takes away any excuse that they “have better things to do.” It also helps to move the business forward – the job of any leader. One recent client designed a program to develop the next generation of leaders while identifying and implementing projects to drive $6m+ to the company’s bottom-line. The goal was important, doable, and motivating. The end result: $13m in twelve months. Not a bad return on investment.
- Just-in-Time Tools, Performance Coaching & Feedback: While the decide-do-reflect-connect loop works well in terms of practicing and learning a new skill, it works even better when it comes to turning those skills into increased performance. Ensure that you build in just-in-time tools, executive support, and frequent feedback to change behavior and get results. We can emphasize this point enough - performance coaching from outside experts and internal executives makes all the difference.
- Visibility & Performance Pressure: Creating the right environment for your action-learning teams to succeed means creating just enough positive performance pressure to help leaders get the job done. Push for visibility, transparency, and clarity. Ensure well-defined and aligned goals, roles, responsibilities, and processes in order to set the team up to succeed. One recent client used weekly online dashboards and monthly progress reports to the board to provide input and create accountability.
