Does your leadership program come with AAs?

Does your leadership program come with AAs? Okay, so the AA in the photo is just a gimmick.

I don’t mean batteries; instead, I use “AAs” as shorthand for “application activities,” and I believe these can charge up your leadership development program and help close the knowing-doing gap (the disconnect between leaders knowing what to do and doing it).

So, what are AAs? These are on-the-job practice opportunities designed with a specific focus and intent aligned to the leadership behaviours or skills you seek to develop. Typically, these activities are conversation-based (after all, conversations are one of the primary units of work for leaders).

They enable leaders to experiment with new approaches explored during training workshops and apply what they learn while generating positive ripples throughout the organisation from conversations that might not have occurred otherwise.

Through trial and error, I’ve found that three ingredients are particularly valuable when designing application activities for inclusion within leadership development programs.

These are:

STRUCTURE

You need to design AAs as a discrete activity with a beginning, middle, and end rather than simply saying, “Now go practice giving feedback.” If what you are asking is too vague, you create an immediate barrier to doing it. 

In contrast, in one program, leaders were given a ‘Fast Five Feedback Log’ to complete after workshopping ways to provide more feedback in the moment using the Continue & Consider approach. This involved finding five opportunities to provide Continue & Consider feedback before we met again in three weeks (note that the activity was time-bound). Leaders also had a simple logbook to capture their reflections for each piece of feedback given:

 1) Who was the feedback to?

 2) What was the situation prompting the feedback?

 3) What did you reinforce to continue?

4) What did you suggest considering for next time?

5) What was the other person’s reaction?

Three weeks later, over 80% of leaders had completed the AA, which provided rich reflections for them to unpack in their peer coaching sessions. A bonus was that most leaders logged more than five pieces of feedback. The AA appeared to have a priming effect, helping leaders more readily spot opportunities to share Continue & Consider suggestions within the flow of work.

 RELEVANCE

Application activities can’t be too removed from leaders’ day-to-day work, and they need a clear ‘why’; otherwise, they’ll be seen as filler in what already feels for many like an overstuffed workday. 

One organisation focused on articulating the ‘why’ behind ramping up cross-functional collaboration to deliver greater customer value. After significant business growth and turnover within their leadership population, many program participants were left unsure of ‘who’s who in the zoo.’  After exploring ways to build greater trust and connection with internal stakeholders, leaders were given an application activity geared towards building relationships to break down silos.

This involved identifying the relationships outside their team that would benefit most from stronger connections and trust to achieve better outcomes. Leaders were tasked with deciding on three actions to take to develop a stronger connection and trust with this person and taking these actions before the next workshop.

When we debriefed this activity, many leaders shared that completing the AA gave them the push they needed to invest more in their organisational networks.

ACCOUNTABILITY

If leaders are asked to put their learning to work, they need to know in advance when and what the checkpoint is (this also models the value of rhythms and touchpoints for promoting accountability that leaders can employ with their teams).

Regardless of how you do it, there needs to be a mechanism for gaining visibility of who did and did not complete the AA because this supports double-loop learning.

When leaders share how they’ve completed the AA (or not), they learn more about different leadership approaches and, at the same time, strategies for overcoming barriers to application. For example, how did that other leader make time? How did they summon the confidence? How did they overcome any motivation blocks?

Even if a leader hasn’t completed the AA, gaining this insight strengthens their ability to apply their learning in the future.

The formal development component of a leadership program is often the part that is emphasised, and for some programs, it’s the only component.

But often, leaders don’t need to know more; they need to do more.

So, if you’re designing or redesigning a leadership development program, consider including AAs to provide greater structure, relevance, and accountability for behaviour change to bridge the knowing-doing gap.

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