{"id":162,"date":"2012-09-10T12:55:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T12:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/?p=162"},"modified":"2021-06-08T12:57:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T12:57:25","slug":"management-gone-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/09\/10\/management-gone-missing\/","title":{"rendered":"Management Gone Missing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"243\" height=\"307\" src=\"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/image-30.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/image-30.png 243w, https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/image-30-237x300.png 237w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I saw this comment on a learning and development forum recently \u2013 \u201cI recently ran a management course for new and existing managers at similar levels, it is a course which all managers new to the organisation are told about and attend with agreement from their line manager. I had a number of managers who were negative and felt they shouldn\u2019t have attended as they had a number of years\u2019 experience as managers already. The other delegates were newer and did want to be there. I found I really struggled to turnaround \/ manage the really negative individual and the other few who weren\u2019t happy to be there. Due to this I really feel I didn\u2019t deliver the best course I could have done as, whilst I have experienced the odd 1 or 2 negative delegates in the past on various courses, I\u2019ve never experienced such constant negativity which I didn\u2019t seem to be able to have any influence over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the post were a number of suggestions from respondents, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Having individual discussions with delegates prior to their arrival<\/li><li>Encourage delegates to explain their concerns<\/li><li>If people don\u2019t want to stay, don\u2019t make them<\/li><li>Tailor the course more to their particular needs<\/li><li>Ask them what they want to get out of the course<\/li><li>Meet with their managers post-course<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>What surprised me, though, were that all the responses focused on what to do in the classroom environment, or post-course. In order to implement a long term solution, there needs to be wider and more systematic activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What can be done to ensure that such instances are minimised in the first place? What appear to be missing are effective learning and development management interventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For learning in the workplace to be effective, there needs to be a tripartite approach comprising the delegate, the delegate\u2019s line management and the learning provider. And in terms of the learning provider, this means both the trainer and \u2013 importantly \u2013 their management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within the post there is no mention of 3 key activities or processes that I would expect to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. Why is each delegate attending the course? They have been nominated by their manager \u2013 what are the reasons for the manager requiring them to attend? Managers having pre and post-course meetings with their attending delegates is one of the areas often examined during an Investor in People (IiP) assessment \u2013 because it makes a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If this process doesn\u2019t happen, it should. If it does happen, it should be recorded \u2013 and most &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; importantly be available to the trainer. This not only helps in terms of dealing with the issues &nbsp;&nbsp; in the person\u2019s post \u2013 by being able to explain to or remind them of why they are there \u2013 but it helps in terms of planning a more meaningful event for the delegates \u2013 and will generally&nbsp;mean an increased return on investment (ROI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. How might the&nbsp;use&nbsp;of a Student Charter or Learning Agreement help this situation? If such a process is in place, it means that the internal customer (the delegate and their line management) knows what to expect from the internal provider (the learning and development function). It should also include what the internal provider requires from its delegates \u2013 in terms of participation, input and behaviours \u2013 together with the consequences for a delegate who chooses not to meet this level of expectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such an agreement should have been agreed across the business at senior management&nbsp;level \u2013 and so it is then easy for a trainer to use and implement without fear of having&nbsp;overstepped the mark. Transparency for all concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And as a consequence, those who want to be there and want to learn can do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3. Finally, the person\u2019s post on the forum indicates that this course has been delivered previously. What evaluation data has been generated? &nbsp;And I don\u2019t mean end of course or Level 1 data \u2013 I mean Level 3 or above, good quality data. &nbsp;How is it improving the performance of those who are attending? How have previous delegates been able to use what they have learned? How is the course improving organisational performance? &nbsp;What is the organisation\u2019s return on its investment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This information should be gathered from the delegates between 2 and 4 months after the completion of&nbsp;the programme. Both the quantitative and qualitative information can then&nbsp;be used by the&nbsp;trainer to illustrate what delegates can gain from attending \u2013 thus also demonstrating the&nbsp;overall value of the internal learning and development function to the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have to say, I really feel for the trainer. I\u2019ve been in that position and it\u2019s not a lot of fun. Here is a trainer wanting to deliver a quality product, but some of the delegates are apparently thwarting his or her efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I get the impression that perhaps in this situation they are not been sufficiently supported by their learning and development management. The activities I have outlined above would both assist the trainer and probably make their role more enjoyable \u2013 and, above all, benefit the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saw this comment on a learning and development forum recently \u2013 \u201cI recently ran a management course for new and existing managers at similar levels, it is a course which all managers new to the organisation are told about and attend with agreement from their line manager. I had a number of managers who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,8,17,20,23,24,29,31],"tags":[184,183,182,185,187,186,188],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}