Page 291 - The extraordinary leader

268 • The Extraordinary Leader

Segmenting the Development Process

For conceptual clarity, let’s divide the learning and development process into
the following three phases while readily admitting that the lines are fuzzy:

Phase 1 consists of all the activities that happen prior to someone physi-
cally attending a session. That includes articles and books to read,
questionnaires to be completed, or data to be collected.
Phase 2 describes the learning event itself. The event may be two hours
in length or three months long. It may involve participants congregat-
ing in the same room or participants communicating via video-
conferencing or some other form of distance learning.
Phase 3 begins after the learning event. It includes the subsequent activi-
ties that are designed to reinforce and strengthen the application of
the learning.

FUND ALLOCATION FOR EACH PHASE

We’re not aware of any reliable data that accurately breaks out what organi-
zations spend on each phase of the process. But after conferring with many
colleagues, we estimate that most organizations spend less than 10 percent of
their effort and dollars on Phase 1. Less than that, probably 5 percent, is spent
on Phase 3. 1
Clearly, leadership development efforts and dollars are focused primarily
on Phase 2. But according to research done by Brent Peterson while serving
as director of research for the Franklin Covey organization, the value that each
of those sectors contributes to the ultimate effectiveness of any learning effort
is dramatically different from how we currently fund them. That disparity
between potential impact and actual funding is evident in Figure 14-1.
Further reinforcing the importance of frequent or consistent follow-up is
the research conducted by Goldsmith and Holman. They studied various
2
levels of follow-up on the ultimate outcome of a management development
program conducted in six different organizations. Participants, who numbered
more than 12,000, were asked to identify six people who were familiar with
their work performance. These six people were asked to respond to a question
that asked for a comparison of this person’s performance today in contrast with
their performance several months prior.
Participants were divided into different categories, based on their own self-
report of the amount of follow-up they had undertaken since the development