TJ - The Publication for Learning and Development

Driving Learning that 'sticks'

By Paul Strebel and Tracey Keys (September 2005 Issue)
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It is time for a change in executive education. Learning from the thousands of executives who attend its programmes every year, as well as recent research into how our brains learn, the International Institute or Management Development (IMD) has identified the critical drivers of great learning experiences. Combining these drivers through learning scripts, IMD helps executives get to grips with their real world challenges and build corporate value by mastering both the rational and emotional dimensions of learning.
Understanding how to generate a high-impact off-site learning experience gives you the ability to cut through the wide array of learning choices to target your time (and spend) most efficiently, and choose learning experiences based on best practices as well as ways of learning that best suit your needs. Equally importantly, it provides insights that can be used in-house to develop the learning of your teams and the learning processes of your organisation.
The next generation of managers and organisations will need to think in new ways. They will have to integrate diverse perspectives, lead with courage, execute decisions more intelligently and, at the same time, manage their own emotions and those of their people. Executive education can help, if it sticks, but too often it doesn’t. What’s the solution?
The answer lies on the frontline, in actively identifying and applying best practices in the way executive education is conceived and delivered. Continuous learning is critical to stay ahead in a fast-changing world. Executive education can no longer be thought of as simply earning an MBA; rather, it refers to executives’ different experiences that take place through their careers and the different types of challenges they face.
Executive education needs to have a real impact, and generate changes in attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. High-impact learning is not just about learning facts; it must be driven as much by practical challenges as ‘pure’ academic theory. Content must include both ‘hard’ rational challenges and ‘softer’ emotional ones; in the latter category, for example, building the relationships and networks that are so critical for success in today’s inter-connected world.
The key to learning that drives real change back in the workplace is to combine challenging content, emotional engagement and opportunities to try new approaches out in real situations. Our research consistently shows four common factors underpinning great learning experiences:
  • Emotional highs: engaging executives at an emotional as well as an intellectual level. Going beyond the ‘comfort zone’ opens up new perspectives, while positive emotions provide a foundation for retaining and applying learning in future.
  • Energising roles: actively managing relation-ships and roles among participants with the educator promoting the interactions required for learning. Placing the learner at the heart of the experience creates energy and sharing fosters deeper learning.
  • Real world context: reflecting ‘real’ business challenges that executives face daily. Relevance drives engagement, as well as retention and application of learning.
  • Three-Dimensional learning: integrating intellectual awareness, emotional awareness and action-based application. All three are required to embed learning, using many different approaches and stimuli to help accelerate the process.
However, fundamental changes to beliefs and behaviours require active testing and experience. Learning may only become truly embedded after the learning experience has been applied repeatedly – which is why it is crucial to link off-site experiences to the organisation’s executive development agenda. Great learning scripts resemble theatrical scripts – each programme and session within it comprises a series of parts (or acts), each with associated content, activities and roles.
Orchestration and customisation of these scripts is complex. The design requires deep insight into the context, challenges and objectives of the executives attending. The overall aim is to bridge the gap between learning and the workplace.
The most effective learning experiences are based on best practices: scripted to address the key drivers of high-impact learning. They take a holistic view of the individual’s development needs, extending beyond the purely intellectual to include the emotional dimension and opportunities for hands-on application. They are customised to reflect the context and strategic learning needs of the executive and his or her organisation; that is, they recognise that different programmes fulfil different needs. Finally, they are not a ‘one-time fix’, but need to be viewed as a step in the process of continuous learning.
The future of executive education is about effectively integrating learning into the workplace – shaping the leaders and organisations that companies need not just to survive, but to prosper.
This column is based on the forthcoming book Mastering Executive Education: How to Combine Content with Context and Emotion, The IMD Guide. For further information visit www.imd.ch and http://www.masteringexecutiveeducation.com
Paul Strebel is the Sandoz Family Foundation Professor of Strategic Change Management at IMD and can be contacted at paul.strebel@imd.ch Tracey Keys is a Research Associate at IMD and can be contacted at tracey.keys@imd.ch

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