Harvard Business Publishing

Author; Marshall Goldsmith's today's tip covers all to succeed in the leadership training. Those points described are very important for mentors as well.

We depend “Action Learning for Leadership Development" on leader who plays mentoring roll. An individual's success as a leader is as good as a mentor is.

I loved today’s tip for developing leaders. We need more leaders so that they can help their followers not to just follow but take charge and become leaders of tomorrow. Leaders must have succession plan. Their successful moving and keeping the base strong, depends on their leadership development.

I completely agree on the power of action-learning. I have seen it work exceedingly well in consulting on organizational effectiveness. More recently I have used it in business school education. With undergraduates we use it in a personal development course, where teams take on a community service project. They learn more about themselves as individuals and team leaders as they produce real results under time-sensitive conditions for the benefit of local non-profits. They also learn how to apply concepts that come up in class and readings (cf. Mastering Self-Leadership by Neck & Manz).

Management majors then take a follow-on course where this type of "service-learning" is done by turning the whole class into a single enterprise performing a single, larger-scale project. Some of these classes have raised money for nonprofits (over $20,000 for American Heart Association), produced a rally for the benefit of Darfur refugees, and set up a cleanup of the river that bisects the campus on Earth Day.

Similarly, students in an on-site Executive MBA leadership class take on a high-impact project for the host company. They have learned a lot about themselves as well as created major shifts in how software is done throughout the company and set in motion new environmental initiatives.

I highly recommend action-learning.

It will be worthwhile reading 'Leaders at All Levels' by Ram Charan.

Stanley, Kent, & V-Thank you for these your interesting posts about Action Learning. This is a great leadership development process that has multiple benefits!

The problems we have today stem from lack of leadership skills with the top people who manage organisations. How can we develop future leaders when this the case?

Your article clearly identifies the process, but very few firms will adopt it and make leaders of tomorrow out of it.

Japhet-First, I don't believe that all of the problems today stem from the top people, though I will agree this can be an issue. Those organizations that have not chosen to invest in leadership development find themselves in an uphill battle--and often times will go extinct of their own volition.

I agree people learn better by doing, and the "actions speak louder than words" concept can also reinforce the learning process for those observing the team in action. However I'm am concerned about what I might label as the "telephone effect" of leadership skills training as it works its way down through an organization. The skills may be passed on but in such a way as to slowly corrupt the message/skill each time it is passed on without realizing it. Some leaders are far better in leading than they are in teaching or transferring skills. How do you maintain the integrity of the teaching/learning throughout the entire organization?

Russ-Thank you for your comments and question. A couple of answers may help: 1) leaders have to be excellence role models; 2) hiring is key; and 3) you might contact Chris Cappy directly for even better answers than I can give. His email is ccappy@pilotconsulting.com.

Marshall,

Thanks for adding one more wish in my wish list!

I am just an executive in my organization. So, I don’t have any power to set a stage for Action Learning. Though, after reading the above article I aspire to be a part of such Action Learning Group, if any exists in my organization. I am sure it’d be an enriching experience – if at all I get a chance.

Q1 is there any way by which one can become influential/indispensable enough to be a part of such group?

The obvious answer to me is – Exhibit skills, if they’d be important you’d be picked up.

Do you think it is the right approach to it?

Rahul-This is a great question. I'd suggest reading a post I wrote late last year: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/goldsmith/2007/11/how_to_influence_decision_make.html. It might give you some ideas about influencing higher-ups.

Marshall,

Thanks a ton for the url. The article did make a lot of sense to me.

I could certainly draw some parallels between selling a product and influencing the high-ups. I really look forward to apply these suggestions, if at all I get a chance to work upon a certain future project.

Also, I have been planning to do my MBA. Seeing the global scene, do you think it’s advisable to apply this year (I have already taken my GMAT)? Sir, if you’d not mind helping me with this – Can I send you my profile details and all that!

Thanks a ton!

Rahul-Thank you for your reply. I don't know how much help I can be, but I would definitely suggest continuing your education. I wish you much success for your future!

Thanks for your wishes sir!! Thanks for all the help :)

I agree that action learning is the best learning method. At my university, action learning has become the essential teaching tool for at least half of my classes. I learn the most out of these classes.

I think that it is also important to note that action learning is especially important for young employees. Research has shown that young employees who are challenged in the beginning of their career have much more potential to rise in their career path quickly. I hope that more companies embrace this idea with their young employees to encourange their development.

Hannah-Thank you. I agree!

Marshall,

Just listening to the HBR Ideacast I heard you and about your blog - that I checked out right away.

Action Learning pretty much resonates with what I am doing daily and with an attitude towards continuous learning (based on lean thinking to create value for all stakeholders in a levelled way).

Often action learning creaps forward in small steps and is not seeable so easily by your peers, bosses and friends. Learning in action and through action is actually where one really learns (that is not the time at school, university, MBA or your management course). Checking out through small "experiments" in the real living organizational system is what makes the difference.

Thanks for providing us with that great insights and questions/ answers and ideas for taking action:-)

Cheers,

Ralf

Ralf-Thank you for checking out my blog and the HBR Ideacast!

I strongly agree that action learning is the best type!
It gives people a real life experience to refer to when they are in similar situations later on. These experiences are much easier to remember, compared to a lecture heard in a large crowded classroom. You can remember what you did right or wrong the first time and avoid those mistakes the next time.
Also, I have learned in my classes that employees are more likely to be dedicated to their work if they are able to be part of the process. Even though they are participating in planned situations, they are part of the outcome. This has a much better impact than listening to a story about a person who made a mistake or made the wrong decision. When it effects you personally, you are more likely to get more out of it and learn for next time.
Thank you so much for your insight!

Dear Marshall Goldsmith,

I have actually been using this framework to identify run-time exceptions ie. deviations in execution in service industries on my PhD thesis. These kinds of exceptions result from an inability (during execution) to handle unusual - (the official term for this is non-standard)- transactions.

Adaptive and dynamic feedback loops ought to prevent the hiding of such events and their forced conversion into standard transactions. I have been encouraging companies to set up strategic dashboards to work on such events to improve their execution

My thesis is that many of these exception transactions can be but are not being handled by existing processes.

Additionally these events can be used as effective training vehicles for customer service representatives - Action Learning.

It requires top management engagement, involvement and support but beyond immediate interest there is a progogation of the status quo and companies do not practice this as often as they should.

It is my view that the currrent economic crisis has entirely to do with lack of strategy execution.

Top management formulates but does not understand execution because it cannot get into the details - in fact Management gurus such as Peter Drucker suggest that it is far from the manager's job to do so.

Executives have little say in formulating strategy - and their inputs based on execution - are frequently ignored as politically naive

In your opinion how can this GLARING LACUNA be PLUGGED

The world (Rome) is burning while Managers (Nero) play(s) the lyre