As sightings go, this takes some believing.
Like swimming with the Monster at Loch Ness, chatting with a Yeti at Everest Base Camp or communing with Aliens at Roswell, you don’t see this kind of thing every day.
A manager has created some results from a training program.
Stunned
“I expected a nice lunch, and some of the usual stuff you get in training – questionnaires, powerpoint slides, anecdotes from the course leader – that kind of thing,” said the manager. “Instead, it was obvious from the beginning that the whole point of the exercise was to do some things back at work, and I have. I’m stunned.”
“Managers create results,” said a spokesperson for the training company, “so any program to develop managers will have to involve them creating some results – simple really.”
ROI
The manager attended a programme for middle and first-line managers in high growth businesses. The course ran a day a month for five months. In between the months, the manager applied the concepts from the course to the issues they faced in the workplace, and created the results they needed.
Here are the results the manager reported after just the first day of the five-month course:
– The manager took 2 new recruits on an extended visit to a supplier in another country.
– The manager made an action plan for every day, with concrete targets for each new joiner to achieve. The new recruits met these, quickly bringing them up to speed and growing their confidence.
– After the trip, the manager asked both new joiners to compile a report on their trip for a debrief, including the 3 main areas they had gained experience, and the 3 main areas they could still improve. This further helped the new recruits to grow their knowledge, skill and motivation.
– Later that month, the manager ran a review with all direct reports to find out their views on their current positions, and their aspirations for the future. The manager then made concrete action plans with each of them for how they would develop their skills over the next 3 months.
To see the results from Days 2, 3 and 4, click here.
The Results Are Out There…
It reads like a tabloid shocker, doesn’t it? Like people claiming they were abducted by aliens, the idea that a manager went to a leadership and management development program and actually did some leading and managing as a result is almost unbelievable.
The manager above is real, and attended one of our management programs in 2012. The results described here and on this page are all real.
Of course, we will not reveal the manager’s identity on this blog (we aren’t an actual tabloid newspaper!), but if you are serious about developing yourself and your business, we could arrange for you to talk to this manager – or indeed any of the others who have been through our programs in the last years.
As the X Files (nearly) said, The Results Are Out There….
