One of my theories about launching talent and people development programs inside of companies is that the more that the thing is not the thing, the more likely you are to succeed.
Say that you want to roll out manager training to help managers be more effective managers.
Surely, the actual training of managers is a part of that solution. But the more you can make the thing (manager training) not the thing, the more you’ll be likely to succeed. First, training is rarely the answer (by itself) and second, if your thing is in fact manager training, the reality of it is that you’re only going to get so much time to actually deliver the training for your employees. If you just focus on the thing (manager training) you’re missing so many opportunities because you’ve effectively siloed yourself into a corner. Instead, you need other mechanisms that help reinforce the overall outcome that you are working towards. Yes, manager training will be a part of that, but it will be so much more.
Strategic leadership and talent development professionals understand that the baseline for this is around measuring the effectiveness of the intervention, but what this really is about is making sure that the thing you are doing (manager training) is not a one off, but part of a bigger connected system that drives your organization forward. Whether it’s manager training, an employee engagement program, or a new solution, your work is always part of a bigger goal, and the more that you can get out of just thinking bout the content design, learning measurement model, and more into the minds of your stakeholders and their needs as well as how your work supports the overall business strategy, the more like you’re going to be in driving towards a business outcome that A) moves the business forward and B) aligns with the true needs of your stakeholders.
I give manager training as an example because there has been a call for manager training by and large by a lot of people, and in many cases, for good reason. West Monroe reports that 59% of managers report they have never received formal training in their job, and Gartner reports that HR leaders believe 53% of managers have too many responsibilities, while 20% of managers, if given the choice, would not want to be a manager. Finally, given the shifts in how work is done and where work gets done (remote, hybrid, in-office) there is a need to help managers develop the tools they need to manage teams, develop people and drive results in a modern way of working.
So just to be clear, I am pro manager training! But the problem is, that manager training alone is rarely enough. Again, we need to find a way to make the thing, not the thing. So how do we do that?
A great example comes from Adobe. Brandon Clarke, Head of Talent Development at Adobe and his team understand very much that the thing is not the thing, and wanted to focus on training managers, but not doing it in a silo. Here’s what he had to say:
“We’re being very thoughtful about how to create journeys where we place employees in the center, rather than executing siloed programs from our different functional areas. Working this way helps our Employee Experience team create a more frictionless experience.”
To make this come to life, Brandon and his team partnered with the talent management team which is responsible for the employee quarterly check in process. Adobe has been running this quarterly check in process for almost a decade, where employees focus on growth & development reflections and conversations with their managers. Since the talent management team has a high participation rate amongst employees during this process, Brandon and his team partnered with them to also pair up 1 manager theme that they wanted to focus on each quarter that aligned to the quarterly check in.
Here is a sample of their agenda:
- Q1: Goals That Raise the Bar: Managers learn how to help their teams create stretchy and outcome-focused goals.
- Q2: Giving Genuine Feedback: Managers acquire the skills to provide genuine feedback, offer actionable guidance, and manage all levels of employee performance.
- Q3: Creating Conditions for Success: Managers get practical guidance to understand Adobe Employee Survey feedback and act by committing to one focus area in Check-in.
- Q4: Rewarding & Recognizing Performance: Managers learn how to reward employees based on their contributions and give actionable feedback for improvement.
In addition to aligning it to the check-in, Brandon and his team did a number of other things
- They still provided training, but it was 75 minutes and it was personalized by level
- During each training session, a leader in the organization kicked off the training by talking about the importance of the specific behavior and why it mattered
- They then measured effectiveness by evaluating how many managers and employees were having check-in conversations (was there an increase?) and also by evaluating the quality of what was written in the conversations
What I appreciate about this approach is that again, the thing is not the thing. It’s very easy to get wrapped up in the design of the curriculum, the leadership behaviors, the facilitators, as well as the hand outs that people are going to use after the training. But again, they focused their efforts at Adobe on so much more.
Aligning with talent management, getting buy-in from senior leaders, hooking the evaluating into the existing performance management process, and yes, they still did the training, but it wasn’t the main focal point. It also goes to show you that sometimes the most impactful thing you can do has nothing to do with the thing itself.
During my conversation with David Landman on The Edge of Work, David talked mentioned at Goldman Sachs, some of the best and most impactful training he did with his managers at GS was in putting together a “1-pager” that a quick explanation and checklist of what a manager needed to do & know for a specific thing. It wasn’t the prettiest or most polished, but it helped the manager do their job and apply it.
While we’re talking about manager training, this concept can easily be applied to other talent and people related programs that you launch inside of your organization. At the end of the day, we all work in a system that is bigger than ourselves and the goals we have. Figuring out how to make the thing not the thing ensures you can be successful in achieving a goal that doesn’t just matter to you, but to others too, further increasing your chances of being successful.