Chapter 4

Customizing the Leadership Training Workshop

What’s in This Chapter

•  Ideas for adapting materials without breaking the flow

•  Important concepts to keep in mind when customizing your workshop

In this chapter, you will learn how to adjust any of the three workshops to work for your specific situation. The design of a workshop always has a pattern. Someone has determined the sequencing of the material for a specific reason. It’s the invisible glue in the workshop. If you’ve ever had a customer tell you “No, we need to take that page out” and felt frustrated because you knew that page was critical to a future page, you know what I mean. This chapter has guidelines for adapting the materials in a way that supports the learning objectives without breaking the flow.

How to Adapt the Material

Here are suggestions for common modifications:

Blended learning: Some of the exercises can be done virtually, and some cannot. Teach each workshop at least once live, so you know the flow and how to adapt. This will give you insights into which pieces could remain live and which could be online. (See Chapter 7 for more on leveraging technology in your workshop.)

Online learning: Consider delivering the workshop completely online, which offers the advantages of convenience and flexibility with “anywhere, anytime” accessibility. For example,

•  Teach the two-hour version as two one-hour modules with assessments as a prerequisite and homework in between that is shared on a discussion board.

•  Convert the two-hour slide presentation to four 30-minute or even multiple 15-minute videos or online learning content with assessments as a prerequisite and homework in between that is shared on a discussion board.

•  Avoid the two-day simulation, which would be difficult to deliver online without a great deal of modification. When groups are large enough, often one or two people will monopolize the negotiations, and the other 10 or so remain unengaged.

Completely live learning: The descriptions in Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are for live learning.

Shorter times: Create a one-hour version of the two-hour workshop. Roughly speaking, you’ll need to remove several pages of content while paying attention to the exercises and their lengths (in the two-hour agenda in Chapter 3):

•  For a mostly interactive one-hour, consider just using these slides: 2-3, 5-7, 9-13, 15, 20-22, 24, 26, 28-33.

•  Less is more (not a philosophy I practice well!).

Other combinations: Let the needs of your organization drive your choices for customization. Feel free to use the content and materials in this volume in ways that make the most sense for your organization and your participants. Some examples of other possible combinations include the following:

•  Teach the two-hour version as two one-hour modules with assessments as a prerequisite and homework in between that is shared on a discussion board.

•  Teach the one-day version as two four-hour sessions a week apart.

•  Present the following dream combination:

   Two-hour workshop as two one-hour webinars to preview a highly exclusive three-day leadership retreat

   TriMetrix EQ and a 360-degree competency assessment as prerequisite work

   Three-day workshop: one-day workshop (overview, set the stage) and a two-day simulation

   Ongoing coaching and homework: succession plans, ongoing content for learning (virtual).

•  Add your own touch with articles and short video clips. Don’t be afraid to make the workshops your own.

Caveats

The specific workshop designs in this book may pose a few challenges:

•  Both the two-hour and one-day agendas are packed with content, and if you don’t stay on the timeline, you will not be able to facilitate all the material. Taking material out and facilitating a smaller amount well is always better than talking faster or skipping interactive elements. Be very mindful of the priority of the competencies to your audience. Pick the materials that stay or go by determining the most crucial performance issues for the learners (see Chapter 5: Identifying Needs).

•  The two-day workshop done well will show each learner some competency gaps that aren’t going to be fun to face. The debriefs are deep. The feedback may be uncomfortable. Consider including another facilitator who will focus on watching people interact and notice if people start to check out emotionally. Be prepared to intervene one-on-one to help them process. Growth does not come from finding out that you are perfect. Growth comes from pain. For this reason, consider doing workshop evaluations 30 days after completion, when people have more insight into the situation. It is not unusual for a few people to blame the course for their personal hurt.

The Bare Minimum

•  Less is more. In many situations, it will be impossible to transfer learning on this many competencies in one workshop.

•  Prioritize. Prioritize the competencies within each of the three groupings—self-awareness, collaboration with others, business acumen—but honor a bit of each group as much as possible.

•  Lecture as a last resort. Resist the urge to talk faster when you are running out of time. Leadership cannot be gained through listening; it must be practiced.

•  Reflect. Continue to ask yourself this question: “What will each learner be able to do after the experience that they cannot do now?” Make sure your learning and performance objectives synchronize with the answer and every element of the workshop.

•  Learning happens in the debrief. Spend sufficient time planning your debriefing questions and be a constant observer as the exercises are under way.

•  Leverage the feedback. Adjust and improve your delivery and the learning.

•  Leadership is a serious meddling in someone’s life. Be fully prepared and fully open to the needs of your learners.

What to Do Next

Learning facilitators who drive performance are tremendous assets to their organizations. To be successful driving leadership performance, remind yourself to

•  Find a business sponsor for the learning experiences. If you cannot find a person outside the learning and development organization who feels there is a gap that can be met with a leadership program, do not do it.

•  Find the best leaders in your organization and share your learning objectives and strategy with them. Ask them for feedback on what you missed, what is unimportant, and what they wish they had known earlier in their careers.

•  Identify a handful of people who would be in your audience. Share your learning objectives and strategy with them. Ask them for feedback on what you missed, what is unimportant, and what they wish they had known earlier in their careers. If you can’t get anyone to meet with you, don’t do the workshop.

•  Understand the overall strategy of your organization and map your curriculum to support specific goals in the strategy.

•  Ask supervisors what they think are the top three things that their team members do that prevent performance.

•  Send thank you notes to all the above and invite them to the pilot workshop.