Online courses are a flexible and economical way to deploy learning across geographically dispersed organizations. But are they an impactful way to deliver leadership training? Will they enable an organization to develop the skills and behaviors needed to achieve its strategic objectives?
Research and experience at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) shows the answer is “Yes.” With the right approach, any leadership training program can succeed—whether conducted face-to-face, online, or as a blend of both. The key is to help leaders transfer learning from a formal setting into the workplace.
When my CCL colleagues asked senior executives about the developmental experiences critical to their success, 70 percent cited on-the-job challenges, 20 percent cited mentors or role models, and 10 percent cited formal coursework and training (Lombardo & Echinger, 1996; Wilson, Van Velsor, Chandrasekar, & Criswell, 2014). Designing online training informed by this 70/20/10 research can create an impactful experience that increases the likelihood new skills will be learned and applied until they become engrained habits. Here are three specific tips you can use:
1. Prepare: The experience begins the moment a student registers for a formal leadership course. Take the opportunity to engage and excite learners by sharing how the courses will benefit them. Encouraging messages from senior leaders can build anticipation and help them focus their leadership lens through which they see the world. Use assessments, preparatory reading, and research to further set the stage.
Most importantly, make certain leaders arrive with clear goals around a challenge they want to address. Do they want to establish better partnerships with stakeholders? Do they have a leadership skill to improve? A key leadership challenge allows them to connect the course content with the real work they do every day.
2. Engage. Make your course interactive with activities that bring concepts to life. Learning is a social process, so include opportunities for collaboration with other learners to accelerate learning transfer. Incorporate group activities that promote peer interaction. Perhaps participants team up to discuss issues or to apply new learnings to a business challenge. Providing opportunities for guided practice is critical to participants applying what they’ve learned.
3. Apply. Your class is just one piece of the puzzle, so offer ongoing support once the coursework is completed. Leaders transfer learning more readily when they have a developmental relationship with someone who understands their organization and is committed to their success —perhaps a boss, coach, or peer. The partner’s role is to be a sounding board for application, help learners reflect on course insights, and hold them accountable as they apply what they’ve learned. Providing discussion guides to shape these conversations makes it easier to get started.
Success stories: Turning Theory into Action
The success stories below show how two organizations with very different leadership development needs are using online learning successfully. What they have in common is a strategic approach to learning that links course content to workplace challenges and supports students before, during and after training.
PITNEY BOWES: Leading in a Global Environment
Pitney Bowes Inc. is global provider of e-commerce solutions, shipping and mailing products, location intelligence, customer engagement, and customer information management solutions. Pitney Bowes was challenged to offer a consistent, holistic, and impactful leadership development program to an organization operating across the globe—and to help its leaders navigate the new normal that needs strategic leaders who can flourish in a matrixed environment.
Pitney Bowes and CCL recently addressed this challenge by partnering to design a completely virtual leadership development journey for middle managers. Designed to develop collaborative, strategic global leaders, the program takes place over the course of 20 weeks and utilizes modern technology to create a new type of learning community. CCL’s research-based Boundary Spanning Leadership model and Strategic Leadership model were used to shape the program. Participants were given opportunities to apply their learnings to their everyday work, share learning with others, and revise strategies as their skills developed—all virtually.
“This was a new approach for Pitney Bowes and was well received by participants,” says Angela Spears, learning consultant at Pitney Bowes. “They were pleasantly surprised at the structure and effectiveness of the virtual program, and most enjoyed collaborating and learning from colleagues across the global organization.”
ESSILOR: Building Strategic Competencies
Essilor, a leading provider of eyeglass lenses, uses online courses to build leadership competencies vital to the company. To date, the courses have been offered to more than 1,000 first-line supervisors.
A topic is introduced each month as a self-directed online training module that cascades from the top down. Managers of first-line supervisors complete each month’s course and are prepped via a live Webinar on how to model and reinforce the behaviors taught. Coaching guides help them conduct mini-sessions with their team and bring the topic to life by sharing personal experiences and lessons learned.
After first-line supervisors complete their course, they receive practical tools that provide guidance in applying what they’ve learned to the issues they navigate each day.
“Everyone involved is getting something out of it, including the managers who serve as coaches and mentors,” says Matt Jones, vice president of Talent Management for Essilor of America.
Essilor has experienced impressive engagement for a voluntary Web-based program, with completion rates of 80 percent.
Closing Thoughts
As you tackle your own online leadership development initiatives, remember that learning is a process. Your formal online program is just one part of the solution. The work context matters, including challenging assignments, coaching, and peer support.
Build organizational strategies and challenges into your online curriculum and reinforce them back on the job. Surround each learner with partners who can support and encourage development. When you do, you will help online learning “stick” in the real world.
Mary Abraham is director of Digital Learning for the Center for Creative Leadership, where she helps organizations design, implement, and support high-impact technology-enabled learning programs.
