leadership development programmes don’t work; here’s why!

Professor Jean-François Manzoni HR Tech, Paris, October 2016

(Too many) Leadership Development Programmes don’t work:

Here is why

HR Tech ConferenceOctober 25, 2016

Dr. Jean-François Manzoni

Professor of Leadership & Organisational DevelopmentIMD (Lausanne)[email protected] +41 79 596 7904

mailto:[email protected]


The trigger for this reflection

We live in a VUCA world where executives’ ability to keep learning isincreasingly the best predictor of their future success!

25 years of intense involvement in

o Executive delopment programmes/interventions

o Consulting/coaching/facilitation assignments, often over years

⇒Observation:

Executives end leadership development programmes full of energyand good intentions…

=> sustainable improvement in behaviour /new capabilities?

More generally, executives

learn new ideas that they can explain with some conviction, but very often they know a lot more than they do!

find it difficult to learn new capabilities!


The lab I created over the last five years

A very different kind of interventiono Targeted at senior executives

o Focused on Leadership only – but all facets of leaderships

o A substantial intervention – 20 days in residence ++

o Modular – 3 modules over 8 months

o With intense contacts between modules

o With coaches present throughout the intervention

4 cohorts have graduated => 120 graduates

A 5th cohort completed just Module 2

Annual 3 day gathering (Module X)


The goal: Help SEs to develop new leadership capabilities

Unconscious Conscious

“Incompetence”

Competence

Awareness!! Practice!!


What challenges do senior leaders face in this process?


Proposition:

Executives face 3 major challenges

in their efforts to develop new capabilities


1. Insufficient awareness of the need for change

First step in any change process is «why this, why now?»

Executives increasingly (think they) know quite a bit!

I know I should do it… so I’m doing it! (Right?)

o Human beings tend to be unaware of their own biases (Bias Blind Spot)

o Executives are effective some proportion of the time (especially…)

o Add to this

Confirmatory Biases …

Reduction of Cognitive Dissonance …

Increasingly limited (honest) feedback…


1. Insufficient awareness of the need for change

First step in any change process is «why this, why now?»

Executives increasingly (think they) know quite a bit!

I know I should do it… so I’m doing it! (Right?)

o Human beings tend to be unaware of their own biases (Bias Blind Spot)

o Executives are effective some proportion of the time (especially…)

o Add to this

Confirmatory Biases …

Reduction of Cognitive Dissonance …

Increasingly limited (honest) feedback…

=> It is extremely easy (and tempting) for executives to

• over-estimate their leadership effectiveness

• under-estimate the need for them to continue to develop their capabilities

=> EDIs often collude with SEs on this front


a. Insufficient effort to acquire knowledge

o If it’s not in your head, it’s not usable!

o Neurons that fire together, wire together!

o Fluency illusion

vs. Active Retrieval

FI often reinforced by programme design & delivery (& objectives)

o The role of group work…

2. Insufficient (investment in) knowing and in learning to do


a. Insufficient effort to acquire knowledge

b. Under-estimation of implementation challenge

o At 10,000 feet, problems always look pretty small!

And instructors often stay at 10,000 feet…

o Management knowledge often looks deceptively simple

And the way instructors present it reinforces this illusion

o E.g., Fair process

Identify the actionability gap => fear of failure => refrain from implementation

Not identify the actionability gap => failure!

2. Insufficient (investment in) knowing and in learning to do


3. Insufficient persistence…

Feeling Consciously Incompetent is painful…

Temptation to make the pain go away o Rationalising the gap away

o Return to Unconscious Incompetence

Unconscious Conscious

“Incompetence”

Competence


Learning a new skill from scratch is hard enough

Learning to modify habitual behaviour is even harder!

1. Intercept the habitual response / Catch the cue

2. Find a more appropriate response

3. Produce that other response

… in real time and under performance pressure!

a) Producing non-habitual behaviour is hard!


Hurdles getting in the way of this three-step process

Automatic pilot / lack of mindfulness


In Science, November 12, 2010 (Vol. 330)




Habits are powerful shapers of behaviour…


How the Brain Makes and Breaks Habitsby Ann M. Graybiel (MIT) and Kyle S. Smith, 1 June, 2014

The encoding involves multiple parts of the brain

The behaviours are encoded in packages/“chunks” of neural activity

http://www.scientificamerican.com/author/ann-m-graybiel

http://www.scientificamerican.com/author/kyle-s-smith





Ego depletion (running out of self control/willpower)






Retrieving knowledge under stress is not easy

Creating «new, innovative» answers under stress is evenharder

And then, each of us faces some individual, specificchallengeso Genetic make-up

o Personal history

o Competing commitments

• The anxious executive• The very direct entrepreneur


Competing commitments






Retrieving knowledge under stress is not easy

Creating «new, innovative» answers under stress is evenharder

And then, each of us faces some individual, specificchallengeso Genetic make-up

o Personal history

o Competing commitments


3b) Insufficient support by the eco-system

a. Our “quality” is imperfect for the reasons discussed above

b. Others have labeled us + suffer from confirmatory biases=> It takes time for them to notice our efforts and reward

them

c. We don’t get enough Acceptance / Support from key stakeholders

Acceptance: People around you may not welcome the change!

Support: Are they willing and able to give you the support you need?


3 challenges to on-going personal and professional development

I’m doing it already

I know I’m not doing it, but now I read/heard once how to do it, I’m going to do it easily!

It’s not working as well as I hoped/it should…maybe I am the way the I am…

They’re not helping!… maybe we all are the way we are…

1. Insufficient awareness

2. Insufficient investment in knowing

3. Insufficient persistence

a) because of implementation difficulties

b) because of insufficient support from eco-system


Less (honest) feedback at the top

More (superficial) knowledge Less time to ‘study’

Habits more deeply ingrained Less spare bandwidth/self-control Less tolerance for

Conscious Incompetence

Personal brand more firmlyestablished

More dislike for vulnerability / harder to ask for help

Bad news: It gets worse as leaders get closer to the top

1. Insufficient awareness

2. Insufficient investment in knowing

3. Insufficient persistence

a) because of implementation difficulties

b) because of insufficient support from eco-system


If we took these challenges seriously, how would we modify executive development interventions?


Lifelong Development of Leaders: Hurdles & Hacks

HR Tech ConferenceThink Tank III (Room 202-203)October 26, 2016, 11:15-12:25

Dr. Jean-François Manzoni

Professor of Leadership & Organisational DevelopmentIMD (Lausanne)[email protected] +41 79 596 7904

mailto:[email protected]


JFM on the Knowing-Doing gap –how leaders can develop their capabilities

1. “Breaking Bad Leadership Habits”, in Knowledge @INSEAD, February 14, 2014)http://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-management/breaking-bad-leadership-habits-3173

2. “Overcoming Challenges of Personal Change”, Knowledge @INSEAD, February 28, 2014http://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-management/overcoming-challenges-of-personal-change-3197?nopaging=1#EVyXIYcPK4JbyO61.99

http://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-management/breaking-bad-leadership-habits-3173

http://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-management/overcoming-challenges-of-personal-change-3197?nopaging=1#EVyXIYcPK4JbyO61.99


Good luck and

best wishes to you!

leadership development programmes don’t work; here’s why!

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