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ACCELERATE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT WITH OPTIMAL DESIGN: SIX KEY PRINCIPLES

{ perspectives } LEARNING DESIGN

HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING CORPORATE LEARNING { 1 }

ACCELERATE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT WITH OPTIMAL DESIGN: SIX KEY PRINCIPLES

Today’s changing, ambiguous, and interconnected business environment puts immense pressure on leaders. They face risks at every turn. From global currency volatility and environmental concerns to surprising election results and new regulations, these challenges demand that leaders be highly agile and adaptable.

Learning is central to developing this agility. Yet we heard in our most recent State of Leadership Development survey that while leadership development programs are found at most companies, their quality, relevance, and outcomes fall short. Top organizations regard leadership develop-ment as a strategic priority and strive to accelerate the development of their leaders, but what are the best ways to help leaders learn and grow?

So much has been published in the area of learning theory and design, it’s hard to sort out which approaches work best, and how they should be applied to be most effective in today’s workplace. Yet from our research and experience, we know that the most effective leadership development emphasizes mind-set in addition to building knowledge and skills. Organizations must deliver learning that helps leaders transform their attitudes, their motivations, and their view of themselves and their roles. And this mind-set must grow and adapt based on the business context around them and the evolving new demands of their roles.

Optimizing learning design will accelerate the development process and help make what’s learned take hold, creating lasting changes in behavior and mind-set.

Much has been written about the challenge of leading in today’s complex, uncertain environment. Leaders today need to be highly agile and adaptable—and that demands an orientation toward continuous learning. Harvard Business Publishing has identified six design principles that create best-in-class learning experiences. These principles will help leaders learn skills and instill in them a learning mind-set they will carry forward in their roles.BY JEFF DESMET, LOUISE AXON, AND JOHN ALSBURY

A core capability underlying leaders’ agility is their ability to learn, but only 7 percent of the organizations we surveyed rate their leadership development programs as best in class.

{ 2 } ACCELERATE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT WITH OPTIMAL DESIGN

“Innovative thinking and creativity, much like swimming and biking, is a skill best learned through practice, reflection, and repeated application.”DAVID GARVIN

6 Design Principles for Leadership Development

We’ve studied preeminent faculty and researchers in adult learning and leadership development, and have drawn from both time-tested and emerging experts. Grounded in proven research and our extensive experience working with leading client organizations globally, these principles are the foundation for every offering and solution we deliver.

The principles offer a set of flexible characteristics for designing learning experiences that give leaders the best chance to construct their own understandings about their role as a leader. They also ensure that leaders will have

the opportunity to learn, reflect on, and apply their new knowledge and skills. Considering the right combination of these principles will lead designers to create richer, more meaningful, and more effective development for their leaders.

Read on to see how —in partnership with us —our clients are applying these principles in the leadership development solutions they are designing and delivering at their organizations.

To help organizations consistently achieve these outcomes, Harvard Business Publishing has identified six critical learning design principles we employ when designing for leadership development.


1. Learning in ContextIn a recent survey, we found only 19 percent of business line managers believe leadership development programs are relevant to the issues they face. Corporate leader-ship development is most effective when learned in the context of the organization’s strategy, culture, and values, and when it’s highly relevant to the learner’s real work.

Learning in context also means that skills are explored in relation to how the skill will be used, and in conjunction with other related leadership skills. This kind of understanding requires that development brings the goals, systems, and values of the organization into the development experience.

David Perkins calls this teaching “the whole game”—a metaphor he uses that highlights how skills, such as leadership skills, are interdependent. “You don’t learn to play baseball by a year of batting practice,” he observes.

DESIGN IN ACTION

CUSTOMIZATION BRINGS CONTEXT AT CAPITAL GROUPCapital Group is one of the world’s leading investment management firms, with 7,800 associates worldwide. The company needed a stronger leadership pipeline to drive innovation and growth, and set out to deliver a solution customized to fit its culture, particularly the relationship-building aspects that are so vital to the company.

“Capital Leadership Foundations” is a customized and globally scalable leadership development experience for its 700 frontline managers. Based on Harvard Business Publishing’s New Leader Program, Capital Group hand-picked lessons, modules, and tools, and aligned the content

to Capital’s business, culture, and leadership expecta-tions. Facilitators lead discussions that emphasize what the lessons mean in the context of Capital’s business, while on-the-job assignments reinforce application and learn-ing transfer. Senior leaders contribute in virtual sessions and serve as cohort sponsors, helping draw connections to the business for participants.

This approach increases relevance and business impact, with 81 percent of frontline participants and supervisors reporting a positive impact on business goals.

SAMPLE PRACTICES

Learning in Context

Align with, and make explicit links to, the organization’s strategy, priorities, and values.

Embed real work in learning experiences, and embed learning in real work experiences.

Bring real-world relevance by featuring your organization’s experts, stories, and cases.


2. Learning by Doing and ReflectingResearch has long shown that leadership is learned through experience. This has led to a strong focus on learning by doing, which we agree is critical. Yet research also shows that experience alone can be a painful and costly way to learn. And many of us don’t process the lessons of experience. For effective learning, “reflecting” is just as important. You can’t both “take in” something and process it at the same time—you need to take time for both in order to make meaning from experiences.

A recent study by faculty, including Francisco Gino and Gary Pisano of Harvard Business School, showed that the groups whose experience was deliberately coupled with reflection consistently outperformed the other groups. “When we stop, reflect, and think about learning, we feel a greater sense of self-efficacy. We’re more motivated, and we perform better afterward,” says Gino.

When we design learning solutions, we intentionally move learners through a cycle—learn-practice-reflect—over and over again. The goal is to instill a simple learning methodology that makes reflecting and capturing the lessons of experience a habit.

DESIGN IN ACTION REFLECTION HEIGHTENS LEARNING FOR MANAGERS AT AUTODESKAutodesk leads the market for state-of-the-art 3-D design, engineering, and entertainment software. Continued growth is vital to Autodesk, and much of the company’s expansion has come through acquisitions in the past decade.

To meet the challenges of developing a unified learning environment that could scale to meet demand, Autodesk’s HR learning team and Harvard Business Publishing devel-oped a successful blended learning approach. The goal was to augment existing face-to-face initiatives and offer opportunities for reflection as employees applied what they learned. The team was working with a group whose

goal for the year was improving managerial effectiveness. Both managers and their direct reports practiced skills in this area, such as delivering feedback and managing performance. As part of the learning, direct reports con-ducted debriefs with their managers, providing feedback on management styles and suggestions for improving communications. This is one of many reflection opportuni-ties. From discussing concepts further in live sessions to taking in a video or completing part of an online program, learners are given many chances to reflect on what they are taking in and then apply that to their everyday jobs.

SAMPLE PRACTICES Learning by Doing and Reflecting

Make experiential activities core to the learning experience.

Build significant space for reflection (individually and collectively).

Put the learner in a problem-solving mode by offering choices and decision points through experiences such as simulations.

Teach participants how to learn consistently from experience through multiple cycles of practice and reflection—enabling them to continue this practice back at work.


3. Learning over TimeLeadership development is not an event. It requires a continuous process that unfolds over time through a wide variety of experiences, relationships, observations, and reflections. These processes cannot be experienced via a series of formal learning events alone. They require a series of moments that “force a person to take stock, reevaluate, revise, resee, and rejudge.”

Distributing learning over time has another important advantage—it enables long-term retention. Harry Bahrick and Lynda Hall note that “the spacing effect is one of the best-documented phenomena in the history of learning and memory research. Adding subsequent spaced repeti-tions, we can extend learning and lessen forgetting that so often happens after a single learning event.”

In typical Harvard Business Publishing programs, learn-ers not only engage with the key concepts at multiple intervals over time, but also the method of instruction varies to increase engagement and retention. For example, learners might read an article about a concept and discuss its importance one week; hear from an expert about the

concept the next week; work with their peers on a case study the following week; and finally work to apply the concept in a subsequent week.

SAMPLE PRACTICES Learning over Time

Provide repeated opportunities to explore concepts via a wide variety of experiences over spaced intervals of time.

Frame the learning experience as a development journey that requires a sustained process to achieve a deeper level of learning, personal change, and growth.

Include application planning and goal setting, together with periodic follow-ups after a formal learning event, to reinforce concepts and prompt learning transfer.

DESIGN IN ACTION

LEARNING OVER TIME DRIVES IMPACT AT EMIRATES NBD When two large banks merged to form Emirates NBD, it defined a vision: to be globally recognized as the most valued financial services provider based in the Middle East. To accomplish this, Emirates NBD partnered with Harvard Business Publishing to design a blended, virtual leadership development program focused on building leadership capacity. The bank’s four-month, cohort-based blended program followed a four-week process of learn-practice-apply-reflect for each of the three modules, including action learning projects.

These projects applied tools and techniques introduced in the program to work on solving a real corporate issue. Projects included new strategies for penetrating markets and segments, growing regional market share, and formu-lating new value propositions. Participants and supervisors reported improvement across all 11 behaviors measured, and within a year, 39 percent of the first Managerial Leadership Program cohort was promoted or given more complex roles. The bottom-line impact of the action-learning projects equaled over $1,000,000 in cost savings in staff hours and potential outsourcing.


4. Learning with OthersLearning is a social activity, and it requires space and time with others to exchange ideas and make meaning from individual and collective experiences. “Who contributes to the learning?” is one of the most important questions we can ask as designers of learning solutions. Learners construct knowledge through interactions with those who know more than they do or those who have differ-ent experience and perspectives—whether a peer, coach, boss, expert, or facilitator.

In today’s workplace, context changes fast—so fast that it’s difficult for organizations to codify lessons, practices, and techniques that are most relevant at the moment. We need others to help us learn and perform. Learning solu-tions that facilitate the timely and informal exchanges of content and context can greatly accelerate the adoption and creation of the right practices at the right time.

Small-group learning can also significantly influence our learning. In small groups, interactions help managers draw

meaningful lessons from their experiences, challenging them to broaden or refine their views, and providing opportunities to collaborate on real problems and work-place application.

DESIGN IN ACTION SOCIAL LEARNING BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS AT BIOGENIn the past decade, Biogen has experienced unprecedented business and organizational growth. Biogen has worked to address the challenges that accompany such growth through a new central learning organization, a focus on manager development, and an emphasis on helping employees build their networks through collaborative peer-led learning experiences.

This emphasis is apparent in the peer learning aspects of its people manager curriculum. For example, in a unique nine-week program for those in critical middle management roles, participants experience both self-paced elearning and group learning. Each manager is paired with five other managers from around the globe.

These peer learning groups are designed to include individuals from distinct business functions, and to provide an opportunity to apply their learning to real-world management challenges in a confidential and constructive forum. They also provide a means to learn from different perspectives and experiences. These peer-led groups help managers establish strong and valuable networks across the organization—something they can tap into now and in the future. Peer-led learning truly has an impact on learners: 94 percent of participants say they are more confident when doing their jobs and many participants continue to keep in touch with their peer groups long after the program ends.

SAMPLE PRACTICES Learning with Others

Leverage peer-to-peer learning experiences.

Enable the involvement of the learner’s manager to provide support and reinforce the learning.

Embed social learning within online learning experiences that leverage the wisdom of the crowd.


5. Learning by TeachingWhose job is it to develop leaders anyway? Many execu-tives believe that ownership for leadership development resides solely with HR. Our experience shows that leaders should also take on responsibility for leadership develop-ment and building a learning culture.

According to Noel Tichy, “winning companies—those that consistently outperform competitors and reward stakeholders—have moved beyond learning organizations to become teaching organizations. These organizations are more agile, come up with better strategies, and implement them more effectively.”

Leaders understand the organizational context and pri-orities—while simultaneously understanding the specific strengths and performance needs of their teams and direct reports. They also know how ideas and practices apply—or don’t apply. Leaders can serve as the most important cata-lyst for an emerging leader’s development. And this leader-led development goes beyond coaching direct reports. Leaders can guide and mentor individuals throughout the organization and serve as a role models.

In addition, the act of teaching or coaching requires lead-ers to demonstrate expertise. And the process of devel-oping others reinforces their previous learning, while providing ongoing opportunities to develop new insights. Organizations can also scale their development faster by enlisting their leaders in this way.

DESIGN IN ACTION LEARNING FOR BUSY RETAIL MANAGERS AT WALMART CANADAWalmart Canada runs a 10-week-long development program to help store managers be more effective in their roles. The program covers emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, decision-making, feedback, difficult interactions, and developing employees. It provides an opportunity for both new-to-role and experienced managers to come together to explore ideas, level-set practices, and share experience and outcomes. The program blends foundational sessions delivered live virtually, targeted inter-session assignments comprising Harvard ManageMentor® content, worksheets, customized case studies, and reflection questions. Before transitioning between topics, store managers attend facilitated small-group virtual debrief sessions where learners share both successes and barriers they encounter through practice.

Notably, the program includes a leader-as-teacher component. Store managers are expected to leverage program materials and worksheets to develop their direct reports and expand the capabilities of their teams through their weekly operations meetings. Throughout the program, store managers apply their learning by opening a dialogue with their peers and by providing on-the-spot coaching, feedback, or best practices. This reinforces learning and helps participants build a trusted network of support. Market partners, accountable for store manager development and performance, are provided with coaches’ communication—a view to the weekly learning topics and discussion questions to encourage exploration and promote reinforcement of ideas and application. This aids the continued adoption and provides the coach with continued performance management insights.

SAMPLE PRACTICES Learning by Teaching

Provide opportunities to learn by teaching others.

Involve senior leaders in the program to speak to importance and business relevance.

Promote teaching and role-modeling opportunities via cascading learning throughout an organization.


6. Learning through Engagement No one can force someone else to learn and develop as a leader—the leader must opt in. To develop and improve, leaders must be fully engaged. We must foster their intrin-sic motivation—stimulating a need to know, change, and improve within them.

Mind and brain research shows us that learning critically involves both cognitive and emotional aspects. Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a cognitive neuroscientist at USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute, explains, “One thing that biology has been showing us now for many years is that emotions, learning, and memory are intimately tied together.” So, we need to engage hearts as well as minds in our learning design.

Motivation, creating a need to improve within the leader, is paramount for successful leadership development, and a constant challenge given the number of competing demands and distractions in the daily life of a busy leader. Motivation can be defined as what pushes or pulls indi-viduals to start, sustain, and complete activities. There are many theories about motivation dating back to the early 1900s that can help inform the design of effective learn-ing solutions. For example, Self-Determination Theory highlights how experiences of autonomy, competency,

and relatedness can significantly enhance intrinsic moti-vation. Games and gamification are growing in popularity because these learning design approaches can be very effective at tapping intrinsic motivation by enhancing feelings of autonomy, belonging, and competence while simultaneously enhancing extrinsic motivation toward some reward.

DESIGN IN ACTION THOUGHTFUL DESIGN DRIVES ENGAGEMENT AT VIVi, a luxury senior-living community established in 1987 as Classic Residence by Hyatt, is dedicated to helping older adults live more active and fulfilling lives. Central to this is an engaged and talented workforce. Vi’s yearlong Management Development Program (MDP) for frontline employees and emerging managers draws upon a variety of learning opportunities, including classes, online learning plans, webinars, projects, reading assignments, mentor-ing, and job rotations. Action learning assignments and “teach backs” reinforce learning.

Varied delivery methods offer options and choices for employees to keep learning engaging. For example, live

learning sessions focused on specific competencies give learners the chance to share and hear stories and real-world examples that bring the concepts to life and make them memorable.

Employees see the direct connection between their learn-ing and progression in the organization. In fact, 20-35 percent of Vi’s MDP participants move into a higher-level position within one year of completion. Vi’s attrition rate is substantially lower than its competitors, and its employee satisfaction rates are much higher than average.

SAMPLE PRACTICES Learning through Engagement

Promote emotional connections to content via storytelling.

Enhance intrinsic motivation by giving people choices in their learning.

Personalize learning experiences by tailoring to needs, pace, interests, time, location, and learning preferences.


Strike the Right Balance to Advance Desired Business OutcomesConsidering all of the principles within a design helps ensure the best outcomes, but some may be more important than others, depending on your objectives. We’ve found that the desired business outcomes can call for special emphasis on particular principles in the design.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE

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Trying to shift a culture, such as a hierarchical organization working to drive decision making down through the organization

Stress learning from others and encourage broad commentary and participation through technology and small-group discussions.

Pipeline is suffering because leaders are too overscheduled with limited time for development

Deliver learning over time, in shorter sessions, to spread out the learning and build more gradually.

Kicking off a major transformation and need to be sure the entire organization is clear on the direction and engaged in the process

Create a cascade through all levels of the organization by making learning by teaching a key element of the design.

Have made significant investments in leadership development with limited lasting impact

Emphasize learning by doing and reflecting along with learning in context to tie learning more closely to the business and accomplish real work.


While it may make sense to emphasize a specific principle in your design, the biggest value is gained when the prin-ciples are applied collectively. As the client vignettes shown here illustrate, most solutions incorporate several design techniques to achieve high engagement and, ultimately, strong results for the business.

As you ready your leaders for this intense, ever-changing business climate, consider each of these principles to make leadership development the best it can be at your organization.

“Solutions to adaptive challenges reside not in the executive suite but in the collective intelligence of employees at all levels, who need to use one another as resources, often across boundaries, and learn their way to those solutions.”RONALD HEIFETZ

Want to dig deeper into these principles? Explore these related papers.

ENGAGE YOUR DISENGAGED LEARNERS THROUGH EFFECTIVE DESIGN

SHORT BURSTS, NOT SHORTCUTS: THE VALUE OF LEARNING OVER TIME

HOW TO TURN YOUR BUSY LEADERS INTO THE TEACHERS THEY NEED TO BE


JEFF DeSMET is senior manager, online learning, for Harvard Business Publishing

Corporate Learning. He serves as the group’s lead strategist for adult learning theory

and pedagogy for Harvard Business Publishing’s portfolio of leadership development

solutions, tracking the latest research and innovations emerging in the field. He has a

special interest in individual, self-directed learning.

[email protected]

LOUISE AXON is director of content strategy and development for Harvard

Business Publishing Corporate Learning. She leads the design, development, and

curation of Harvard Business Publishing’s leadership solutions. Louise has 25 years

of experience in executing strategic change and delivering business results through

learning, with particular expertise in developing leaders at all levels.

[email protected]

JOHN ALSBURY is a senior learning solutions manager for Harvard Business

Publishing Corporate Learning. He works closely with clients to customize learning

products to fit individual requirements. John has created a wide variety of successful

development curriculums and stand-alone instructional pieces in a wide assortment

of media and learning environments. He has worked with leading client organizations

on three continents and in multiple languages.

[email protected]

ABOUT THE AUTHORS


ABOUT CORPORATE LEARNING

Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning partners

with clients to create world-class leadership development

solutions for managers at all levels. Our team leverages

the management insight, thought leadership, and

expertise of Harvard Business School faculty and

authors from Harvard Business Review to create tailored

leadership development solutions. With more than 25

years of practical experience, our innovative, technology-

enabled solutions drive meaningful and lasting business

results. Corporate Learning is a market group within

Harvard Business Publishing.

ABOUT HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING

Harvard Business Publishing was founded in 1994 as

a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard

University. Its mission is to improve the practice of

management and its impact in a changing world. The

company achieves its mission through its relationships

with customers in three market groups: Higher Education,

Corporate Learning, and Harvard Business Review Group.

Through these platforms, Harvard Business Publishing is

able to influence real-world change by maximizing the

reach and impact of its essential offering—ideas.

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