Working title: The Role of Line Managers in Learning and
Development
Who’s most important: participants or their line managers?
In the fourth and last article in their series, Joanna Knight and Rob Sheppard from Berkshire
Consultancy offer their views on the role of line managers of participants in the development
process.
With a 2006 ASTD study finding that 70% of training failure happens after the formal training
finishes and a recent CIPD study finding that only 12% of employees feel that line managers
take learning and development very seriously, it’s a little surprising that more is not being
done to gain line manager support in the development process. We know that line
managers are critically important in ‘setting the weather’ for development, with a CIPD
survey highlighting that 90% of respondents believed that line managers are important or
very important in supporting learning and development in their organisations. There is a key
role here for L&D professionals in ensuring that line managers are actively supporting the
development of their people; however, some research points to L&D practitioners only
spending 5% of their time engaged in follow-up activities (Peterson, 2004). Therefore, in this
article we will explore the critical role of the line manager, identify factors that may be
affecting their involvement and offer some tangible ideas for involving them throughout the
different stages of the learning cycle.
What does effective line management support look like?
As L&D professionals, we often consider the line managers’ role to be fairly simple in
supporting development; however, the reality is somewhat different...
The simple role of the line manager in supporting development...
Listening
Supporting
Challenging
Observing
Motivating
Setting
Providing business
Exploring
Helping to focus
objectives
context
mistakes
effort
Setting
Providing
Unblocking
Encouraging risk
Feedback &
problems
opportunities
obstacles
taking
reinforcing
Coaching
The list above is far from exhaustive. In addition, to be really effective, line managers will
need to move around the different aspects of the role seamlessly, which is a complex task.
So with half of UK organisations only training a minority of line managers to support learning
and development (CIPD), maybe we need to take a more in-depth look at why managers are
not delivering in this role.
Diagnosing the blockages through ADKAR
As we have seen, the role of the line manager in supporting development is complex; so too
are the reasons behind why this fails to happen effectively.
Awareness. Are line managers aware of the impact that they have on their direct reports’
development? Line managers can make it difficult for their reports to implement new skills
and deny them recognition when they do so. And we know that what gets measured gets
done, so eventually even well motivated individuals may stop trying to apply their new skills.
While occasionally we have seen participants motivated by the lack of ‘presence’ of their line
manager in the learning process, with individuals galvanised into proving themselves almost
to spite their manager, this is not the norm, let alone good practice. It is critical that
managers recognise the importance of their role in learning and development and we offer
some suggestions later in the article on how to tackle this.
Desire. The CIPD recently highlighted that competing business pressures were believed to
be the main reason for line managers not supporting learning and development. As long as
managers see development as a separate activity from running the business, then we will
witness variable support from managers, inconsistent application of learning and results that
fall short of true potential. Managers need to see development as a sub-set of doing
business, as a method of performance improvement. Only then will they have greater
motivation and interest in the process and the people. Engaging with line managers as a
primary stakeholder group early on in the learning cycle, getting them to really shape the
programme and its impact will do much to create buy-in. Having active senior level sponsors
that line managers respect championing the programme will also create engagement.
Working with a professional body recently, our L&D partner in the organisation was superb
at influencing both line managers and Board members. Although not involved in delivery,
she deserves huge credit for setting the programme up for success.
Knowledge. Do line managers know what good looks like in terms of supporting
development? We often find that managers are unclear on what development conversations
should comprise, which stems from a poor understanding of how people develop. One of
the most common misconceptions is where managers see L&D providers as sub-contractors
instead of partners. The result is that managers expect people to arrive after development as
the ‘finished article’ with no need for further work. They then become disenchanted with the
training as it fails to deliver to their expectations. Therefore, ensuring that line managers
know how critical their role is, what their role comprises and that they understand the
process of learning is vital and represents a fundamental capability in their toolkit.
Ability. How able are line managers to translate their knowledge into supportive behaviours
in the workplace and what support is available to them? Just as line managers need to
support the development of their people, we may need to support managers in applying their
knowledge in what we have already discussed is a complex task. The use of reflective
practice, coaching and mentoring can all help here.
Reinforcement. How are line managers held to account for their support of development?
One of our clients, a leading Financial Services firm, has a series of measures in the annual
staff survey that specifically target engagement and how managers support development. In
addition, the organisation takes these measures seriously. There are many ways to keep
the message alive and reinforce the need to support development; however, often this is not
seen as a priority. Later in the article we will offer some specific suggestions on maintaining
momentum.
Eight ideas for involving line managers in supporting development:
Having looked at where line managers may be getting stuck in supporting development, how
can we involve them at key stages throughout the learning cycle?
1. Shift from learning & development to performance improvement. If we are honest,
many managers’ eyes glaze over when we talk to them about learning and development.
In our article in April 2011, we discussed selling results rather than programmes. If we
are to stimulate interest from managers we will be lucky if we capture them with the
elegance of our programmes alone – why should they be interested in something that
they will not experience and that may not, in their eyes, directly increase revenue or
reduce cost? However, in our experience, the internal selling of programmes is still often
based on what they look like rather than what they will deliver. By shifting our
conversations to performance improvement and relating this to business measures, we
will generate much more interest and good attention from the business.
2. Get the business to own it. Working with our clients, we sometimes have to start by
going backwards. What has happened is that L&D or HR have not involved the business
sufficiently and already have a solution in mind. Our first step, therefore, is to build
connections and define the need with the business. Our April 2011 article discussed the
need for partnering, which is key here. Certain industries and sectors are better than
others at this. The Energy sector and particular the Nuclear Industry is superb in
partnering, where processes and structures that support development are part of the
culture. The ‘what’ in terms of business results and learning objectives are defined by
the business, the ‘how’ is delivered by a mix of central and local delivery. The transfer of
learning is formalised into on-the-job learning objectives with line managers actively
involved, resulting in a very tight system.
3. Get the business to deliver/co-deliver it. Sometimes, as L&D professionals, we can
be a little dismissive of the delivery skills in the business but make no mistake, where the
business may lack certain skills, it compensates hugely with others. Line managers from
the business will weed out all non-essential content, will not suffer from attendance
problems and they will not struggle in emphasizing the importance of key messages and
the implications for the business, particularly at their functional level. So when we are
looking at delivery strategies, using line managers to deliver or co-deliver to their teams
and to other staff should be right up there with other favoured options.
4. Launch events. For longer programmes, like leadership development and talent
programmes, launch events, where participants and their line managers are invited, can
set programmes up for success. A professional body recently held a launch event for a
leadership programme, which had the following outcomes:
•
•
•
•
CEO, COO and HRD demonstrated their commitment to the programme
Participants and their line managers were clear on how they learnt and agreed
what line manager support would look like through the life of the programme
Line managers were clear on programme objectives and how they contributed to
organisational strategy as well as appreciating the overall participant journey
Enhanced credibility of L&D through partnering with the business.
5. Seek feedback from line managers. Establishing firm connections with line managers
is vital if our programmes are to deliver. Often there is a reticence to really engage and
ask if our programmes are making a difference. Be bold, talk to line managers and get
their views. There may be a specific process for obtaining feedback on the application of
learning and its business impact from the business; however, informal conversations with
line managers will reveal important insights that will help you refine the end-to-end
learning process and better understand your participants’ needs and the business
context. Often they reveal more about the line manager than the participant - such as
the manager who fails to have a difficult conversation with a direct report, hoping that the
development programme will fix things. In turn, these conversations may reveal further
development requirements which need to be addressed if performance is to be
improved.
6. Get participants to present a summary of their learning as a handover to line
managers. Ask any process improvement expert where problems occur in processes
and the hand-offs between activities or functions will certainly be mentioned. At the end
of formal development, participants typically create a personal development plan or
objectives, which facilitators usually suggest should be discussed with line managers.
Whilst fine in theory, this presents a risk that the process stops when the formal
development finishes. Alternatively, concluding formal development activity with a
presentation of what participants have learned which is given to line managers and
senior sponsors ensures that their progress is recognised. It also acts as a formal
handover where senior sponsors can reinforce the importance of driving business results
and where line managers can take the baton and close any development gaps with their
direct reports.
7. Maintain the momentum. If we think of line managers as our primary customers, we
can then see lots of opportunities to engage with them to maintain momentum. The use
of technology can be useful here through text messaging to offer reminders for check-in
conversations after formal development. The creation of on-line manager communities,
using applications like Huddle, can help where successes can be shared and failures
explored. Newsletters, updates, tips and diary dates can also be uploaded to the site to
keep managers focused and up-to-date. These can provide guidelines, specific to the
development, to help managers to have effective and relevant follow-up conversations
with their reports.
8. Accountability. Finally, managers need to be held to account for supporting the
development of their people. If development is viewed as a key element of performance
improvement, the best managers will want to be actively involved in and accountable for
the ongoing development and improvement of their teams. If senior leaders are seen to
contribute to development programmes they will send out a strong message that
development is important and other managers will follow their lead. We have seen this
work very successfully in one large insurer where all Board members are actively
engaged in supporting key development processes and measure the contribution made
by others. Tying accountability to changes in performance is far more powerful and
meaningful to line managers than simply measuring whether managers have performed
certain activities that help their people’s development.
Putting it all together. So who is more important, the participant or their line manager? If
we looked at the amount of activity devoted to participants by organisations compared to
their line managers, then we could be forgiven for thinking it was the participant. The
answer is of course that both are critical. Participants need to deliver more value to the
business as a result of development, yet without line management involvement in the
process, results are far from guaranteed.
So, the next time you’re looking at development, consider how you can better involve line
managers to ensure that learning leads to tangible performance improvement.