Leader Development

Do Action learning projects make a succinct difference?

In many a survey of CEOs across the world by different agencies, one expectation is abundantly clear .. There is some amount of dissatisfaction with the speed and the number of leaders who are developed in their firms.

Leader development is on the top of the agenda of many a firm, and the entire ecosystem of management schools, top consulting firms, coaching and mentoring firms, leadership assessment firms has been continuously innovating and improving the tools, methods, and the go-forward processes on a regular basis.

In a recent L&D leader round table, the discussion invariably turned to leader development and what is working and what needs to be improved further.  After the initial discussion around master classes, assessment centers…the subject of Action learning projects came up.

 To set the context, Action learning projects /Breakthru projects are an integral part of the leader development journey.  After the individual identified for the development receives the inputs on various leadership topics as aligned to the competency models of the organization, either an individual or a Group Action learning projects are initiated. These were originally intended to transfer the learnings from the classroom into the real world workplace and also ensure the sustenance of the learning.  The involvement of the business leaders as sponsors, department heads as guides, and additional business mentors communicated the seriousness of this important component in the leader development process.

Coming back to the roundtable, the L&D leaders expressed a sense of dissatisfaction with their effectiveness in the process.  Some of the usual causes are the motivation of the participants ( back in the rough and tumble /demands of the real world), the project scope and definitions ( either too large and beyond the participants, calling for extensive coordination  ) the sponsors and guides preoccupation ( naturally with the demands of the business pressures), inability of the participants and immediate supervisors to see the benefit of the projects and their relevance to the business etc ., the incessant coordination burden on the L&D groups ( sometimes demotivating the L&D professionals in the fold )

However, it was unanimously felt that more life needs to be injected into these action learning projects ( as it constitutes nearly 25 % of the entire effort in some cases, and they are a real test of the transfer of learning, and also, in some cases, real breakthrough innovations are experienced )

Some of the organisations that experienced  great success mentioned the specific efforts taken on their end, like:

- Choice of projects ( carefully thought with involvement of the business leaders and not done in a single day…good projects are identified and squirreled away, sometimes a good idea for a action learning project could come up in a regular project review and the Business HR partners make note of them to be actionalised when the next opportunity presents itself.

- Choice of the guide/sponsor: It is important to guard against overloading the same few good sponsors and guides.  The motivation and drive of the guide and sponsor play a big role in the delivery of the Breakthru learning project.

- Participant readiness and motivation:  Many times, some of the participants, after the extensive assessments , executive education,  coaching, and the master classes, tend to slacken their verve and resolve during the breakthrough project implementation.

- Management oversight and involvement: In Organisations with a strong learning culture, the business leaders and champions ensure that the cadence of reviews of these projects is given the same importance as any normal business work. 

I'm sure there are many more areas that can be focused on; this important constituent of leader development will start living up to its original promise, and more organisations can benefit from the outcome, both in terms of leader development and business benefits.

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