Management Development Programs primarily focus on skills development training. However Most of the Management Development programs fail to bring out desired results as the concerned stakeholders have not been involved in the change process and thorough diagnosis is usually missing.

Every program needs a thorough understanding about the current situation in the organization which is called as the organizational climate. Detailed analysis of the current culture can happen through sensing, systemic understanding of the organizations functioning, interviews, surveys, group discussions, detailed analysis and observation of the business and various departments. This preparatory work helps in determining if the gaps can be plugged by corporate training program alone or other interventions have to be looked upon.

Usually training as standalone solution is never effective however many a times training programs and interventions are used as scape goats with a thought that training is the final ultimate solution and that becomes the biggest reason why training interventions fail miserably.

What also typically happens with internal and external consultants is that they decide the pill before doing the diagnostic as they feel that the tools they know and have learnt are the best approaches for the given problem. This usually leads to disaster.

What may be required is a thorough fact finding and brainstorming post the diagnosis about more long term sustainable changes using the right leverage points along with training interventions.

Once it gets established that training is the solution via detailed diagnostics, the next required step is to look at a strong supportive environment also called as transfer climate which will help the participants practice the learning’s.

This has to be provided by the HR, top management and the bosses without which the training program can become ineffective. In fact most successful training interventions carried out so far have a strong buy in and involvement of the HR and the business.

Another aspect required is action planning with regular follow up and refreshers courses apart from individual and group coaching.

Follow up on the action planning by the HR and the Business Heads/Managers is important to ensure that there is seriousness in applying the learning once the training program is complete. It also helps participants in keeping and remembering to keep the learning ready with them so that they may action it as and when required.

Learning also looses its essence if not repeated as participants forget in some time what they learnt and the role of refreshers becomes important here. This is the reason why one-off managerial skills development programs never bring desired results. It is only a measured systemic development which helps in bringing the desired change over a period of time and when an organization focuses on quick fixes and overnight change, the results are usually poor and fruitless.

At The Yellow Spot, we strongly feel that it is not only the participants but their seniors, customers, peers and support functions who should also be considered as a part of interventions as they are the ones who also facilitate change by providing a transfer climate.

Hence the focus of any management development program or managerial skills training should not be limited to only participants and respective stakeholders should also be included.

To get the most out of your Management Development Programs, come visit us at The Yellow Spot