Manager Training

So…it’s time to design manager training.
Managing is a complex job. In any given day, a manager performs a wide variety of functions on many different levels. Each manager is also unique (especially in a small to mid sized business) - meaning that each one’s role and their past experiences will dictate very different approaches to the many different problems they face. In some ways, grouping ‘managers’ as one learner group is the same as grouping ‘mammals’ as a learner group. It’s far too wide of a distinction- within in that one group you can have an endless combination of needs to consider (making it next to impossible to design something that will completely address each managers’ needs).
Focusing on manager training is something that many companies do- often this results in training that focuses purely on the procedural aspects of being a manager at X company, because these are the only common tasks the managers have to do. So you get training on how to do performance reviews, use a one on one template or interpret company X’s procedures. Often companies pick a coaching model that works best for them (situational leadership, for example), and ask managers at the company to use this model. This forced approach can lead to managers trying to use models that don’t always work in their given situations, that don’t align well with managers’ personal styles or lead to rigid management that perpetuate common biases and beliefs- ultimately reducing the freedom of the manager to choose and pick an approach that works best for them in each unique situation.
There are quite a few management/leadership/coaching models out there- often these are the ‘flavor of the day’, and they usually focus on one aspect of management (usually under the guide of leadership- not management, as leadership is exciting and inspirational, and management-in contrast, seems boring and controlling). Sometimes this is servant leadership, other times how to hold people accountable, how to manage with numbers (balanced scorecard anyone?), or this the leader as coach to name a few. All of the models capture important elements of being a manager, but none seem to capture all the demands of the role.
For G manager training, I wanted something that addresses the realities of the role of managing. Henry Mintzberg’s Managing is an excellent book that does it’s best to create a model that examines the reality of managing. In it, he considers managing as occurring on 3 different fronts (within the department, across the organization, outside of the organization) and on 3 different planes (action, people and information).


When it comes to the role of managing, he describes it as a practice. This is not something you often hear- usually managing gets described as an art, or a science, or a craft. Mintzberg sees the role consisting of elements of each of those. The art element consists of vision and creative insights; the science element consists of analysis, systematic evidence and the craft element consists of experience and practical learning.



Each manager has a unique style and preference that they would gravitate towards. Those who have a science bent would be most interested in metrics, ROI and balanced scorecards. Those who have a craft bent would be most interested in a deep understanding of their areas- would want to be experts and know the in’s and out’s of their role. The art bent would mean an interest in vision, and inspiring employees to action. Each of these styles is valid, and each gets lots of press in business books and leadership models, but the reality is that a great manager needs elements of each style. Managers that lack in any of the areas risk coming off as disconnected, disorganized or dispirited.



Most people can reflect upon a poor manager (easier to remember than a great manager, right?) and recognize their deficiencies in one of the areas.
So…to start the G manager training, attendees in the management training do a self-assessment that evaluates their natural tendencies. This insight is the first step in recognizing the work that is needed to become a great manager.
From there, I introduce a variety of tools, techniques and models of management- and we spend time discussing the value of each and the instances during which they would be most effective. Rather than prescribing a single approach, we evaluate many different options. The hope being that each manager will then be armed with a toolbox that is adaptable and flexible enough to meet their unique needs in most of the situations they encounter.
Some regular follow up and a written commitment to work on improving are some of the tools that I use to ensure that we manage to create some meaningful change.

CEO Leadership Camp - Sailing in the Greek Islands pt. 1

I have both designed and delivered leadership development curriculum in the past, and sourced out vendors to provide leadership development programs. They are usually programs put together for a bunch of managers or directors, with a heavy focus on how to work well with your peers and be a better a manager, interspersed with some leadership quotes and inspiring speeches from historical figures. Sometimes this is all done in a classroom, other times a hotel conference room, and often has a small element of 'fun' team building- think outdoors rope course, or making ice cream as a group, or playing trust games. 1/2 the people don't won't to be there, and the other 1/2 are creepy because they do want to be there.
This was different.
Working at Gap Adventures is not like working anywhere else.
This program was not designed for executive directors or top managers, but instead for our CEOs - Chief Experience Officers (in other travel companies known as tour leaders). And this wasn't going to be held in a hotel conference room. True to form for Gap Adventures, this meant taking 12 of our best CEOs from around the world on a 7 day sailing trip through the Greek Islands. Did I mention that my job is awesome?

The fact that we are willing to provide such an opportunity for our staff is a goods indication of how much we value each and every employee. We are a pretty flat organization, and everyone is afforded the opportunity to meet their potential. Exposing our top CEOs to this type of experience is what Gap Adventures is all about- different than everywhere else, but only because everywhere else hasn't caught on yet (and we won't tell them.....).
When I was approached and asked to work on the leadership development program, I was very excited- not everyday that an opportunity like this comes up. But I was also pushed beyond my comfort zone- everything I had done in the past was always a mix of management/leadership- and to be honest probably focused more on the management end than the leadership end. Luckily, I had lots of people to help me get to know the audience (including the super talented Chad K who helped discuss and design things with me so that they fit and made sense for our culture). The initial challenge was to figure out what leadership meant for a group of people that were tour leaders, but not managers- they had no one reporting to them, and when they lead tours they are serving our customers. After some research, thought and discussion, we came up with a personal leadership model that consists of 3 main components:

1. Be authentic
2. Act with integrity
3. Connect to a purpose

I also needed a curriculum that could be flexible- the plan called for sailing each day, with some time each afternoon for learning- but with wind, boats, emergencies- everything could change, so the design had to allow for much flexibility.
Working with Chad, we came up with the following elements and learning objectives for the class to go through. Of course the activity names had to be fun and engaging as we were dealing with people who spend their days touring some of the most beautiful places, doing exciting adventure activities all day.
Each of the activities led to a specific outcome and provided participants with a chance to develop their own personal leadership capabilities, as well as provide them with some tools and techniques that they could share with others to help them develop.
I'll go into more detail on each of the activities in future posts, but overall the trip was a success. The CEOs brought so many viewpoints from around the world, and were committed to asking tough questions and exploring their own values, strengths, likes and dislikes. They were the most engaged group of learners that I have yet to come across, and because of this, the week was a massive success.
Oh....and it was kind of fun too.

Sales Training for a Younger Audience Part 3- Training Methods, Evaluation and Follow up

All good training is highly participatory. The general rule for training design is that if presentation or demonstration is 1/3rd of the time spent in the training course, the remaining 2/3rds should be spent on application, review and/or testing. In other words, your training course should consist of no more than 1/3rd of the time when you have to listen to someone telling you or showing you what to do. You should spend 2/3rds of your time doing stuff.I think of all the training that is out there, and so much of it isn't training- it's a one way information dump- where someone stands in front of you and (worse case) reads a PowerPoint presentation to you. That's kind of like sleeping on your textbook as a method of studying for a big exam- it doesn't really work that well. As an instructional designer I used to always explain it to a facilitator as - "with good training design, you (the facilitator) should not be tired after a training course- your participants should be!" Of course, anyone who has facilitated before knows this isn't quite true- there's enough to do with ensuring all the activities run smoothly, the clock is managed, the participants' discussions stay on track and the learning objectives get met to exhaust a facilitator ever time.
So, to design really effective training, you want to make it participatory and you also want to vary the training methods. If you spend an entire day where your participants do the same activities over and over again (i.e. I will show you how to do this, you will roleplay doing this with a partner, then I will quiz you to make sure you do this correctly - for each topic, over and over again- you get the point) then the training gets boring. The key to varying training methods is to try to get a good mix of different activities- including things like role play, brainstorming, quizzes, scavenger hunts, creating questions, having discussions, etc...and varying group dynamics at the same time - work in pairs, work alone, in groups of 3, 4, as a large group. Using different media can be a good way to keep the training methods exciting as well- using presentations, videos, audio, whiteboards, flip charts, etc...
When we were creating the Rockstar experience- Star and Wade helped to come up with different training methods for each of the learning objectives. By the time we were finished, we ended up with a pretty good mix- varied methods, group dynamics and media used to create an upbeat enthusiastic training course. Below is an overview of what we picked.
One important consideration for your training program is how you will evaluate it. While I won't go into a complete post on training evaluation at this time, I will tell you about our level 1 evaluation- otherwise known as the 'smiley' sheets you get after training that measure training reaction or how the participants react to the training (think questions like -did you find this training useful?). Rather than rely upon my old templates for the training reaction survey, we went a slightly different direction- we changed the questions a bit, and completely switched the scale on which the participants answered the questions. A typical scale includes strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree- in other words -boring and not that distinctive. Instead-I updated them with some more relevant language- take a look at the example below.

We definitely set the bar high, as we were asking our participants to be Rockstars so we thought it only fair if we were too. Hence why strongly agree equals this was the best training ever on one question!
The training was delivered in December, happy to report that my co-facilitators Star and Wade did an amazing job and delivered the last 2 sessions expertly and completely without my help. We made some changes en route as we tweaked with activities and times- normal stuff that is part of the continual improvement process. The survey results have been positive and there's been some great feedback that has helped us improve our future course design as well.
As part of the follow up resources, I created a short video that recaps the theory overview we covered in this first course.

Now - just 4 more modules to go until we have a complete sales training program!!
Next post- recruiting methods with global scope!

Sales Training for a Younger Audience Part 2 - Learning Objectives

Learning objectives. For years, it has been repeated to me that one of the principles of adult learning is that we need to tell people what they are going to learn. And so, after analyzing your learners, listing the tasks that they need to learn, prioritizing that list, you move on to creating learning objectives. A good learning objective always starts with an action verb, and is always measurable- which is important because you generally want to test to ensure that the objective is achieved at the end of the training. Ideally you just include one thing per objective. So..here's an example of what we came up with-after doing our analysis and identifying some of our constraints (which included the fact that we could only have 3 hours to train people, and we were working on a week and 1/2 timeline).
At the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Identify the role of a counselor sales person.
• Adopt a traveller's viewpoint
• Prepare for a call
• Maintain enthusiasm from call to call

So- this is pretty standard stuff and not that exciting. And while I know that learning objectives are important as they allow participants to 'know' what they will learn and then gauge whether they learned it- it also seemed to me that it was wicked boring. And given the culture and audience that I was dealing with- I was more than a little worried it might lead to me losing the group before we even began.
We also had the issue of what you call the training- I didn't think "consultative sales training' was going to fly around here. Wade and Star agreed- so we brainstormed some different options and got some input from John and Amanda.
As such- we went for a funner name and a redesign of learning objectives- tried to put a cooler spin on it and ended up with this:

Next post- training methods, evaluation, etc...

Case Study: Sales Training for a Younger Audience Part 1

Over the past week, I have been putting together a sales training session for employees at my new job. My audience is younger than I am used to, and the culture is far different than anywhere I have worked before (all in a good way!). Luckily, I have two people working with me (Star and Wade), who have been here for a while and are making sure that we consider the culture and audience when designing the training. Having two experienced people working with me is a massive plus!!
The project began with the VP of sales (John) asking for some sales training for his sales reps (a mixture of inbound and outbound sales folks, within different segments). In our discussion, he explained that while they were good at the product and process knowledge part, they had never really received any formal training on how to sell from a soft skill perspective. After some discussion with him around the current level of expertise with his staff and some time job shadowing with some of the reps, I felt I had a basic understanding of the needs. I discussed a variety of different sales models with John before agreeing upon a sales person as counselor based approach. The counselor approach is simple enough- it involves maintaining a problem solving mindset while collaborating with the customer to find the best solution for their needs.
Getting his buy-in on the model we would use for the training was key- if there's ever a fundamental disagreement on the theory behind your sales model, you wouldn't want to waste any time designing training. I showed him the stages of the model and explained how the focus on determining needs is much greater in this model versus a traditional model and that's there an added focus on support after the sale. I tested his acceptance of the theory by posing an extreme question: "I'm saying that if during the discovery phase, the sales rep discovers that the customer would best meet their needs by using one of our competitors, than I would expect the sales rep to direct them there, rather than pushing for a sale with us that would not meet their needs. Are you in agreement with that?" He was (I love working with people who get it- to build long term relationships you need to act with integrity- something they term "Do the Right Thing" here as one of their core values- this then leads to long term value) so were off to the races. Of course, he wanted the training to start the next week...so it was straight into creating task listings, learning objectives and picking our methods - something I'll write about in the next part.

Principles of Training

I took a degree in Kinesiology (from Dalhousie University). Often, I am asked by people how I ended up in HR and learning. If you don’t know (and trust me, lots of people do not) Kinesiology is the study of human movement. Many of the courses were focused on how you could set up training programs to improve physical performance. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the principles of training your body apply to training and development and how we learn new knowledge, skills and behaviors.
Below are five principles of physical training and how they relate to best practices around learning and workplace performance improvement.

Principle of specificity:

Specificity is an important principle in training, where the exercise must be specific to the type of strength required, and is therefore related to the particular demands of the event. In other words- if you want to run a marathon, train for it by running marathons. Don’t go swim everyday in order to become a better runner.
In terms of workplace learning, this principle means that you really want to focus on exactly what the skills are that need to be learnt. You don’t want to waste time talking about background or theory too much, you want to move directly to the skills that are to be learnt. If you are training people on delivering a sales pitch, some background theory is okay to set the scene, but you should be focusing on actually delivering the sales pitch in the class. This is where performing a proper needs analysis is key; you have to really determine exactly what skills are lacking before you design and deliver training- otherwise you are bound to miss the mark.

Principle of adaption:

The principle of adaption is the way the body 'programs' muscles to remember particular activities, movements or skills. By repeating that skill or activity, the body adapts to the stress and the skill becomes easier to perform. The first time you decide to run 5 km, you’ll be very sore. Do it every day for 3 weeks and your body adapts and it becomes easier and easier.
For workplace training, this is a simple one- practice makes perfect. If you want to get better at performing a skill- like using Microsoft Excel, or pitching a product, or managing your time- then you need to practice the skill so that it becomes easier to do. The more you practice, the more your mind will refine the skills and change the behavior necessary to support the task. This is why I always support the 70-20-10 model for development- 70% of your learning will come from actually doing the skill you are trying to develop.
Principle of overload:
The principle of overload states that a greater than normal stress or load on the body is required for training adaptation to take place. In other words, if you want to get stronger, you have to increase the load on your body in order for body to adapt and grow. If you always run the same route at the same speed, or lift the same weight in the same fashion over and over again, you will eventually plateau and not see any improvements in your conditioning.
In terms of workplace learning, this principle means that you have to continue to push yourself to expand your skills, knowledge and develop new behaviors. Practicing skills or behaviors you already have will allow you to hone those skills, but adding complexity, depth or new context will provide much more benefit. In designing training, you want to make sure that skills build upon one another, so that after someone had mastered a skill, the training becomes more complex in order to allow more growth and improvement. If we go back to our sales pitch, after mastering the basic pitch, we might want to focus on how to deliver the pitch to people with different backgrounds, or how to alter the pitch when faced with a specific objection.
Principle of recovery:
The principle of recovery states that rest is required in order for the body to recover from the training and to allow adaptation to take place. If you train or compete continuously, without rest, you will eventually burn out or injure yourself. Allowing your body time to rest allows it to recover and become stronger.
From a workplace learning perspective, there are two similarities. One- is that you have to be rested in order to learn. Scheduling training at a time when work is too busy, or attending training when you aren't well rested- leads to poor retention. Just like you wouldn’t run a marathon on a ½ night’s sleep, you wouldn’t want to attend a day long learning seminar when you were that tired. The body needs rest to perform, and the brain needs rest to learn (read more about the value of sleep here!)
The second point is that training needs to be designed with adequate periods of recovery scheduled. If you’ve ever been to a 3 day conference that is jam packed with learning events and returned to the office only remembering one or two things, then you know what I mean. The proper spacing of training allows people to retain much more- if you create learning in smaller chunks, with more repetition and with more space in between- people will learn much more. The recovery time that’s built in allows people to reflect upon what they’ve learned, try to apply it and really integrate it into their lives before moving on. There’s some great new software called SpacedEd that is designed with this in mind- smaller chunks, more repetition, with breaks in between. To take a look, enroll for this test course in Management 101 that I’ve set up (it’s free!).
Principle of Reversibility:
The principle of reversibility states that if an athlete ceases training, the benefits of the training will decline and return back to the pre-training state. In simpler language, this principle is often called: “Use it or lose it!” If you stop training, you will return to the pre-training state.
From a learning standpoint this principle means that you should design training understanding that much of what people learned will be forgotten. This means that your training should include job aids, performance support tools and reference materials that participants can access after the training has finished. That way, when they’ve forgotten what to do, they’ll know where to go to find out what to do. In such a way I am often not a fan of showing people the intricate details of how to use Microsoft Excel for example, but more important is that they know how to use the help function in order to find out how to do things when they need to do them. It also means that you shouldn’t waste time training people on skills that they aren't going to be using- because if you do, they will often not practice them afterward and they will quickly forget everything they’ve learned.

Performance Management and Reviews

One of the key components of a talent management system is a performance management system. So what- is performance management? In simplest terms, it’s a way to manage the performance of your employees, ideally to maximize their performance. Originally defined in the 50s’ it describes a way to manage the results employees produce. In theory and at its simplest, a typical performance management system consists of 3 main parts:
1. Identifying (or clarifying) performance measures
a. Figuring out how performance for any particular role should be measured and then creating a climate of shared understanding between manager and employee about what is to be achieved
2. Providing feedback and coaching for performance
a. Developing people to increase the chance that measures will be achieved
3. Evaluating performance
a. Providing formal ratings to the employee, as well as allowing the employee and manager to agree upon the employee's areas of strength and areas of opportunity.
Now, in the real business world (as opposed to the theoretical) what typically happens is that step 1 gets done poorly, step 2 rarely gets done and then step 3 becomes a farcical popularity contest as managers rate people on their last couple weeks of work. Why is that? Well, because (like good design of anything-) you have to put a lot of work into the preparation stage (step 1) in order to make things work well at the later stages and people just plain don’t like to do that. As I mention before- the default for human behavior is the lazy procrastinator. Also, step 2 requires continual monitoring and communication- something that the busy managers of the world typically don’t enjoy. You can never really cross ‘give feedback to staff’ off your list, as it is a continual process and for that reason it typically isn’t done enough or well when it is done. That leaves us with step 3, which ends up being the crap shoot that it is.
So…what can you do to make it better? Let’s look at the three steps.
1. Focus on shorter term goals- look to identify performance measures that are meaningful right now- that your employees are working on currently- rather than picking goals that are vaguely aligned to some year long strategy that probably won’t happen anyhow. They don’t have to be grandiose performance measures- keep it simple and focus on hard deliverables with a timeline and a measure of quality (if you’re dealing with a top performer- make it a little harder each time- more on that later).
2. Set a regular time with your employees to give them feedback- whether it’s a recurring one on one or quick meetings after key deliverables are met. Use the time wisely- provide objective feedback on what is done well, what could be improved upon and any ideas for process improvement at the same time. Make sure you write all this down somewhere you can easily access it.
3. If you do those 2 steps well, the actual final rating is pretty easy. You’ll be prepared with notes from all your one on ones. They’ll be no surprises for your staff because you’ve been giving them feedback on a regular basis. Use the time to step back from the day to day to look at the bigger picture. Look for trends of performance improving or declining, areas that are working well and spots to improve. This is the useful part of the year end review.
I blogged about this over on the Rypple website a few months ago. They have a great tool called Coach that makes step 1 and 2 very easy to do and is worth checking out.