| The First Pillar of Reinforcement: Ongoing Learning |
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Skill learning involves physically growing new neuronal connections in the brain. What’s more, improving leadership skills means working against previously ingrained habits that have been reinforced for decades. We’ve sometimes called the reinforcement phase the “missing link” of leadership development, because most organizations don’t follow assessment and training with the kind of formal, structured reinforcement programs that will ingrain the new behaviors.
So what programs are needed? The end result would seem worth the effort, but what works? How much time and expense will be involved?
An effective program of follow-up reinforcement will have four basic elements:
- Ongoing learning
- Ongoing feedback
- Coaching
- Accountability
Here's a brief explanation of what we mean by ongoing learning:
Most training events last from one to five days. Afterwards, without repeated efforts to put into practice the behaviors shown in training, the training content will slowly recede from the memories of the participants. This degradation is a natural, inevitable consequence of a lack of reinforcement.
The key is to think of training not as an event, but as a long-term process. An effective training program serves as an excellent introduction; it provides the baseline, models and explanations of expected behavior. But the most effective lessons are learned on the job, so learning should extend months into the future with an ongoing series of structured events.
Structured learning events can make sure that on-the-job experiences trigger related learning, that these experiences are not just poorly understood events among many others in a day at work. For example, during the months after formal training, participants can be given a series of practical exercises that guide them to put into practice what was learned in the classroom. In addition, unstructured on-the-job learning is perhaps an even more powerful way of ingraining skills. Ideally, participants will discuss both kinds of experiences with others or analyze them in writing.
When convenient, “brown bag lunch” meetings are excellent venues to view videos, analyze on-the-job experiences and discuss challenges of skill application. When distance or time make physical meetings difficult, virtual meetings are possible. Online forum technologies are available to empower learning support groups to share experiences, information, advice, feedback and encouragement. These groups can be moderated by trainers, coaches or the learners themselves.
The Vital Learning Supervision Series workbooks contain numerous worksheets, guides and references specifically designed for ongoing learning and reinforcement. In addition, videos that model positive behavior are available online and on VHS. The Supervision Series is available for classroom, online or a blended approach. The online instruction is available to participants for up to one year for reinforcement purposes.
Developing leaders will also benefit from related books, tapes, videos and websites, many of which are recommended in the Supervision Series workbooks and online.
The cost of this kind of ongoing learning in time and money is minimal, because the programs are self-paced, involve virtual media and employ materials that were previously used in training. If these ongoing learning practices continue for many months after classroom training, leaders have a chance to actually develop new habits of behavior. To assure this outcome, however, a program of reinforcement should also include activities involving the other three pillars of reinforcement.
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| The Second Pillar of Reinforcement: Ongoing Feedback |
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The following story is true. I know, because it’s about me.
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Several years ago after my company, Performance Support Systems, had published 20/20 Insight, a customizable performance feedback system, we decided to use our technology on ourselves. We set up a comprehensive people skills survey, and each of us received ratings and comments from each other.
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I’ve always thought of myself as someone who appreciated feedback, asked for feedback, depended on feedback, and even paid people to give me feedback. But when my team rated me low in the area of listening, the feedback was hard to swallow. After all, I was an expert on listening! I had created models for listening; I had written extensively about it; I had taught thousands of managers how to listen more effectively. Apparently, however, I wasn’t practicing the skills I understood so well.
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When I finally accepted the reality that I was causing problems among my coworkers, I resolved to change my behavior. I didn’t need training. I knew what ideal listening behavior was. I simply needed to make a good-faith effort to do what I already knew how to do.
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That’s when the ongoing feedback started. You see, my business partners were also in the feedback business. They were adept at giving effective feedback, thank you very much, and they didn’t hesitate to do so when I failed to measure up. They let me know every time I happened to regress into my old patterns. I was dismayed at how difficult it was to change the way I listened.
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Developing new skills means gradually growing new neural pathways in the brain. This process takes time and persistent effort to overcome decades of ingrained habit, even if these patterns cause problems. With strong commitment, it could take a year of dedicated effort to become comfortable with a new behavior pattern. Along the way, it helps to know how you're doing.
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For me, it took over a year. But thanks to the ongoing feedback of the people I cared about, I continued to reset my pattern and persist in my efforts to be a better listener. Today, these effective patterns come naturally to me. I am now (most of the time) a very good listener. But I had to pay lots of dues to achieve this.
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I know now that an effective program of follow-up reinforcement has four basic elements:
- Ongoing learning
- Ongoing feedback
- Coaching
- Accountability
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Ongoing feedback is essential during the reinforcement phase because most people aren't good judges of their own behavior. For one thing, they just don’t see themselves the way others see them. For another, it’s hard for people to know how their actions affect others. For an objective viewpoint, they need feedback from the people who work around them. They need these people to hold a mirror up to the way they act.
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There are several effective techniques for getting ongoing feedback during an extended period of follow-up reinforcement.
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- One powerful method is the post-training feedback survey — a multi-source, behavior-based assessment powered by a flexible feedback platform such as 20/20 Insight GOLD. The post-training survey should be identical to the pre-training survey—focused on the specific content of the training. An interim post-training survey can be administered three to six months after training, and a final survey can be administered a year or more after training.
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- Informal verbal one-on-one feedback is also powerful, provided that feedback givers are willing and adept at giving it. The feedback-givers may be previous feedback respondents or members of a team or learning support group. Supplemental training may be needed to help participants perform their feedback roles effectively.
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- In addition, feedback can be solicited and given using various online media, such as e-mail or private web forums. In addition, using 20/20 Insight GOLD's unlimited usage licenses, learners can create highly personalized, ultra-brief customized 360-degree feedback requests, which can be launched as often as the learner desires them - at no extra cost.
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| The Third Pillar of Reinforcement: Coaching |
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In leadership development, we’re talking about replacing a counterproductive habit that has been ingrained for decades with a brand new approach introduced in training. During a typical training course, motivated participants can absorb quite a lot of valuable content. However, the transference of this new knowledge into routine behavior takes time. This result is something that must be achieved on the job, after training.
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A great deal of learning from experience is needed to make a new leadership skill habitual. An impressive amount of reinforcement is needed to achieve the level of comfort that makes a behavior familiar, comfortable and automatic. Along the way a learner can expect to experience awkwardness, failure and embarrassment, which can be discouraging. It makes a big difference to have someone to talk to, someone who can listen, understand, advise and encourage.
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Coaching is the third vital component of an extended period reinforcement:
- Ongoing learning
- Ongoing feedback
- Coaching
- Accountability
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An organization that wishes to make coaches available to its learners has several options.
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Executive coaches. Some consultants specialize in performance coaching. Experts in the people skills dimension of leadership and teamwork, these individuals can be a high-quality one-on-one resource for the learner during the difficult period in which improved skills are ingrained. Their services are often expensive, but they’re usually worth it. Many organizations hire coaches for executives; to do so for the attendees of all training programs is typically cost-prohibitive. But there are other options.
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Mentors. Other individuals, both inside and outside the organization, may be available to lend support to someone who sincerely wants to improve. This is an ideal role for a mentor, whether the relationship is one that evolved naturally or whether it’s part of a structured mentorship program.
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Expert performers. A particularly effective kind of mentor is the sympathetic individual who is known to perform well in the skill area that the learner is trying to improve. The summary reports of 360-degree feedback can easily identify these individuals, because they will have scored high where the learner may have scored low.
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Learning support groups. These groups can be informal or structured and can include team members, peers, 360-degree feedback respondents, or HR staff members. These individuals may be able to support the learner by giving feedback, listening, understanding, advising and encouraging. This kind of coaching can take place during “brown-bag lunches,” one-on-one meetings, e-mail, phone calls or private web forums.
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Bosses. Not everyone in charge has good coaching skills. However, in our opinion coaching is a vital subset of leadership, and we believe organizations should expect leaders to learn how to coach effectively. Investing in this area of skill development for managers will go a long way to empowering follow-up reinforcement after training.
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| The Fourth Pillar of Reinforcement: Accountability |
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Leadership development programs can have significant costs in terms of time and money. They’re procured not as entertainment, but as vehicles for vital learning. So it’s reasonable for executives to expect that the participants of these programs actually improve the skills that are the focus of these programs. Executives are responsible for planning and supporting the best programs they can, including a structured program of follow-up. Participants have a responsibility, too, which is to make a good-faith effort to improve their behavior patterns.
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In other words, both the organization and the learner are accountable—the organization for invests in and supporting high-quality training and follow-up reinforcement programs, and the participants for improving their behavior patterns. When participants know they’ll have to show evidence of improved performance, their motivation to work on performance issues increases significantly.
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Here are some effective methods for establishing accountability:
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Accountability to the organization. The best method I know about is a behavior-based pre-course assessment, followed by an identical post-course assessment nine to twelve months later. To be effective, the pre-course/post-course assessment should have two features:
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- The assessment should employ 360-degree performance feedback, which measures not what people know, but what they do on the job. Because the process consolidates scaled ratings and comments from a variety of people who work closely with the participant, the benchmark is as objective an assessment of leader skills as possible, which are otherwise hard to measure.
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- The items of the assessment should use behavior-based descriptions of the key skills that are the focus of the training. A technology such as 20/20 Insight GOLD makes onsite survey customization a simple procedure. Feedback givers can then be asked to rate and comment about the participants’ performance of these behaviors. The consolidated feedback can be presented to the participants, summary statistics may be given to supervisors, and group summary statistics may be given to the HR department.
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Administered before training begins, the assessment highlights areas of relative strength and weakness. This helps participants to understand the true focus of the training, what the desired behaviors are, and what they need to work on most. Knowing that the same assessment will be administered in the future, learners show up for training with a special motivation to learn.
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Accountability to the boss. Before training begins, the individual and his or her boss can meet to discuss the strengths and weaknesses that were identified in the feedback. The boss doesn’t need to review all the details of the feedback; a simple one-page summary is enough for the two of them to agree on what the individual needs to focus on most during training. They can also discuss development goals and follow-up reinforcement strategies. When both the boss and the direct report know what’s expected, a realistic individual development plan becomes a powerful element of accountability.
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Accountability to the team. Motivation and accountability increase when an individual informs coworkers what aspects of performance he or she will be working on during training and follow-up. Essentially, the individual makes a public acknowledgement of the need to improve, outlines his or her development goal, expresses a commitment to work hard at it, and asks for the support of coworkers. This can be communicated in any number of ways, including individual person-to-person meetings, team meetings, email or a private web forum. Making stakeholders aware of one’s commitment to improved performance means that the individual’s credibility is at stake. He or she must now deliver. The same kind of sharing and accountability can be established with mentors, coaches and other people who support the learner’s goals.
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Because accountability exists in context, it sharpens learner interest in and commitment to all four aspects of reinforcement:
- Ongoing learning
- Ongoing feedback
- Coaching
- Accountability
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Also, since leadership skills are inherently difficult to measure, multi-rater feedback plays a central roll in each level of accountability. In my opinion, the best approach is to employ all levels of accountability. Each type includes its own kind of support and sparks a special kind of motivation; and learners will need plenty of that to persist through the awkwardness, embarrassment and discouragement that are likely to occur during the months of effort it will take to ingrain improved leadership skills.
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| Read more about reinforcement and it's importance
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