The seven last words of a dying organization
“We’ve always done it that way before.â€
Leadership development the way we’ve always done it
For as long as I can remember, leadership development has been a process that started in the classroom. It could be an MBA classroom or an executive education program on leadership. It might be a company training program for supervisors. No matter who it was for or what kind of leadership was being developed, it started in the classroom.
Some new thoughts on leadership development
Here are two articles I’ve read recently that talk about truly basic changes in the way we think and do leadership development.
From Stephen J. Gill: Beyond Training: Three Models
“Organizational learning is so much more than training. Three models of learning convey the breadth of options that, depending on what an employee needs to learn, are more effective, cheaper, and easier to implement than formal training programs.”
From Ron Ashkenas and Robert Hausmann: Leadership Development Should Focus on Experiments
“A number of companies are starting to address this issue by reversing the traditional leadership development ‘equation,’ which essentially posits that if you give leaders the right skills and experiences, they will change their behaviors and produce better results. Reversing this means that companies start at the end — with results. In other words, leadership development begins with a real business challenge that leaders need to solve, instead of with a hypothetical case study or simulation. In order to succeed, they have to act, reach outside of their comfort zone, and adapt their approach.”
Leadership development from the outside in
What strikes me about these and other articles is that they’re talking about an entirely different sequence for leadership development. It’s leadership development from the outside in, from action to thinking, instead of the other way around. Herminia Ibarra makes the case succinctly in her latest book, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader.
“Research on how adults learn shows that the logical sequence— think, then act— is actually reversed in personal change processes such as those involved in becoming a better leader. Paradoxically, we only increase our self-knowledge in the process of making changes. 6 We try something new and then observe the results— how it feels to us, how others around us react— and only later reflect on and perhaps internalize what our experience taught us.”
