For a number of years we at the Center for Creative Leadership have been conducting a program called “Tools for Developing Successful Executives.” It teaches human resources professionals to design programs of development within their own organizations. The curriculum for this program represents an ongoing exchange of ideas and information between CCL’s research and applications staff and the more than 1,000 human resources practitioners who have attended the course.
Often, after the program is over, participants ask for additional concrete information about implementation of the tools they have learned. This report is in response to those who have the information on paper or in their heads on how to design a development program but ask, “How do I actually do it?” It is not a fix-it guide for the remediation of employee performance problems, although much of our discussion addresses that issue. Our focus is on how to put in place programs of structured activities that will allow individuals to learn particular skills or acquire the frames of reference required for success as managers and executives, concentrating particularly on program design and the elements of individual development within a process.
Because our guide has been so much informed by participants in the Tools program, in a sense those individuals were our consultants in preparing this report. We thank them and acknowledge their substantial contribution; we hope that after using this report, you, too, will thank them for their wisdom.
