Page 298 - The extraordinary leader

The Importance of Follow-Through • 275

external influences. But only a small percentage of people are successful in
creating those mechanisms and sticking with them.
Send e-mail reminders. Technology has provided a cost-effective and
nonintrusive tool you can use to remind participants of the commitments
they made in any learning and development process: e-mail. E-mail repre-
sents an enormous breakthrough for our profession. Indeed, it may be our
miracle drug.
Review metrics. Because of the lack of follow-up activities, learning and
development professionals have to glean feedback about the learning process
from anecdotes and general impressions. New technology and software pro-
vides detailed information about the effectiveness of development on a group
and enables you to track the influence of that development on individuals.
Use 360-degree feedback surveys. Give participants, their peers, and their
bosses a 360-degree feedback survey, and you can combine the obtained infor-
mation into a report that participants can use to aid in their development.
After reviewing the report, participants can select a few behaviors that they
wish to improve. You can now conduct minisurveys that are easy and cost-
effective and focus specifically on the selected behaviors.

The Effect of the Internet

Given the pace and complexity of current work patterns, the Internet appears
to be an effective tool to aid in the implementation and follow-up process.
Whereas the benefits of having a mentor call every week or two to discuss an
employee’s progress is obvious, e-mail is a more economical vehicle to reach
participants. An e-mail can serve as a friendly reminder, ask for a brief assess-
ment of progress, and encourage participants to plan next steps to meet com-
mitments made during the learning process. By combining e-mail contact
with telephone contact, refresher sessions, and the opportunity to complete
further assessments, such as 360-degree feedback surveys, you enhance poten-
tial success of Phase 3. You can aggregate and analyze the data compiled
through those processes in many ways. You can find out which participants
are following through with their commitments; you can analyze the type of
goals or commitments participants are selecting (and ignoring); and you can
evaluate those goals and provide more challenging ones at a later date. Com-
paring the effectiveness of one training or development intervention with
another is also now possible.