> Years of trying to inculcate the skill of bringing about
> organisational change in senior managers, which it what it is, has
> lead me to a very simple view about where you start with them. It is
> training them, with the use of role plays and tutors, in how to ask
> open and probing questions, and training them out of the use of
> leading questions! (snip)
Scott noted that an alternate approach might be for the executives wanting
change in their organizations to serve as the trainers in the change
management sessions their employees are asked to attend.
I think Scott is on to something important here. I've seen several large,
seemingly sophisticated, corporations spend many hundreds of thousands of
dollars on large scale change and learning programs. Every manager was
run through these and top professionals hired to customize and deliver the
content. And their net impact - at least in the ones I've been asked to
examine - was minimal.
There is a lot to be said for approaches to training and develop that rely
on the organization's leadership as the teachers or facilitators (though
groups such as ASTD in the US and many corporate university faculty may
want to quibble about this). This also can be a great way to deliver OL.
The professional trainers issue then becomes how to best prepare and
assist the leaders in this role.
This is an idea that's not so new. Harry Levinson's 1968 business
classic, The Exceptional Executive, devotes a chapter to the executive as
a teacher.
Have any readers of this list seen other examples of organizations that
rely on their top leaders as their top trainers? PepsiCo and GE come to
mind. Are there any others?
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>