LearnaBytes

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

Ola is in the process of implementing a mini-management development programme for a group of first-line managers at OpenNoviz. The managers are new and inexperienced and Ola wants to start them off with some basic stuff to help them manage and lead their teams effectively. She has identified three areas of development to start with which are,

• setting employee expectations,
• giving effective feedback, and
• Having coaching conversations.

She is thinking of adding a fourth module to the programme which is, 1:1 conversations. Ola believes that the first three modules will set a good foundation for having good 1:1 conversations so doing a module on how to have good 1:1 conversations should help.

The next stage for her is to design the first module which is on setting expectations. To do that she plans to,

• write the course’s learning objectives,
• write the key learning points,
• decide on the appropriate learning activities to deliver the key learning points, and
• finally put everything together to develop the session.

But first, she wants to celebrate her wins so far with Marlon, an external collegaue who runs his own learning and development company. Marlon is both a friend and mentor to Ola.

She calls Marlon and below is an excerpt of their conversation.

Marlon: Hi Ola, nice to hear from you. What have you been up to?

Ola: Been busy, I’m working on a mini-management development programme at the moment. What about you?

Marlon: Just delivering a lot of training. I’ve just signed some major training contracts so it means my team and I will be on the road a lot.

Ola: That’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Marlon: Of course. Anything that brings in more money is good.

(they both laugh)

Marlon: Tell me about your mini-management programme. I’m interested.

Ola: You know that OpenNoviz went from being two founders to having over 150 staff in a short time. They just recently set up small teams with managers and now have a number of frontline managers who have never managed before. I’m putting together a mini-management programme to give them some basic skills that will help them in their day-to-day management.

Marlon: That sounds good. I hope you are not starting them off with the what is management, what is leadership, what is the difference between leadership and management type of courses?

Ola: Of course, no. Not that. I’m starting with three sessions which are on, how to set clear expectations, how to give effective feedback and how to have coaching conversations. I’m also thinking of adding a fourth one which is, how to have good 1:1 meetings.

Marlon: Hmmm, I like that. Practical stuff that they can use to manage their teams on a day-to-day basis. I also think four courses is a good number to start them with. You can roll them out quickly and nobody feels overwhelmened

Ola: Yes, that’s my plan. I have already got buy-in from the senior leadership team. Yesterday I had a zoom meeting with the CEO and the managers. The CEO launched the programme and talked about it’s importance and why they need to do it.

Marlon: That’s also very good well done. Have you thought about how you are going to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme?

Ola: No, Marlon. I haven’t got that far.

Marlon: I think you should. You will need to demonstrate the impact of the programme and show that to your CEO who has been generous enough to get involved and sell the programme?

Ola: I could give them a questionnaire at the end each session and six weeks later send them another questionaire to find out how they are using the skills.

Marlon: Will that honestly tell you whether they are using the skills or not?

Ola: No. So, what can I do?

Marlon: Is there any skill that you will be teaching them where they will need to do something tangible that you can see?

Ola: Oh, yes. They will be expected to set expectations for their team members which should be documented. And if I do the session on 1:1s which I they should be documenting aspect of their 1:1s too.

Marlon: Obvioulsy, the best way to evaluate would be for you to obersve them setting expectations or doing 1:1s. I would not suggest you do that. But if you can view some of their documentation that show the expectations they’ve set and some their 1:1 conversations which can show feedback, review of expectations and even coaching conversations then that can be a good and simple source of evaluation. That’s a start.

Ola: I can certainly do that. I will discuss it with their managers to put that in place.

Marlon: Is there any other data that may help you with evaluation?

Ola: I can speak with the HR Manager whether there’s any available employee relations data I can use to check for changes before and after the programme.

Marlon: That’s another good idea. I think those are two ideas to start with. When evaluating a training programme focus on areas where you can definitely get data and not abstract ideas which sound good but are not actionable.

Ola: Thanks Marlon, I will remember that.

From her conversation, Ola has now thought of two ways to evaluate the programme which are:

• documented evidence of setting expectations and having 1:1 meetings, and
• comparing relevant (and available) employee relations data before and after the programme.

Ola can now move on to start designing the programme.