How to Design Your Management Training and Development Program

Written by Carter
McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright; Authenticity
Consulting, LLC

(Note that there are separate topics about How
to Design Your Leadership Development Program and How
to Design Your Supervisor Development Program. Those two topics are very
similar to this topic about management development, but with a different focus.)

Sections of This Topic Include:

Comprehensive, practical book by Carter McNamara

Prepare for Your Learning and Development
— Be Sure You Know What Learning and Development Really
Are
— Consider Two Different Approaches to Learning
About Management
— Know How to Capture Learning from Your Activities

Prepare for Learning About Management
— Get Acquainted With Organizational Context
of Management
— Get Acquainted With What “Management”
Is

Activities for Informal Approach to Management Development

Guidelines for Formal Approach to Management Development
— Identify Your Overall Goals
for Program
— Determine Your Learning
Objectives and Activities to Achieve Them
— Develop Any Materials
You May Need
— Plan Implementation
of Your Program
— Evaluate During and
After Your Program
— Follow-Up After Completion
of Your Program

Free Basic Guide to
Leadership and Supervision

Prepare for Your Learning and Development

Be Sure You Know What Learning and Development Really Are

Most of us are so conditioned from many years in schooling that we think of
learning and development as coming from a program in which our participation
is graded by experts in a certain topic. As a result, many of us still miss
numerous opportunities for our own learning and development. Perhaps one of
the reasons is that we do not know what learning and development really is.
So before undertaking a management development program, we should be sure that
we know what we are talking about.

Learning could be interpreted as new:

1. Knowledge, which is information that is useful in accomplishing a certain
   activity that is important, for example, to solve a problem, achieve a goal
   or see a situation in entirely different light.
2. Skills, which is the expertise — consciously or unconsciously — to continually
   use the new information to accomplish that certain activity. (Educators often
   refer to new abilities as a component of learning, but some admit that the
   difference between abilities and skills is such a fine one that it is often
   difficult to explain.)
3. Perceptions, which are new ways of seeing a situation. (When people are
   continually stuck when trying to solve a problem or achieve a goal, it is
   often in the way that they see the situation.)

In the field of education, development could be interpreted as the activities
to raise the quality of performance, for example, of a person, team or organization.
However, like learning, development is best accomplished if it is recognized
as such. Thus, development usually requires ongoing focus and attention to the
quality of performance, as well as the quality of the activities to raise it.

Consider Two Different Approaches to Learning About Management

It is important to understand the different approaches you can take in increasing
your learning about management. Formal approaches are proactively designed in
a comprehensive and systematic way in order to accomplish certain desired outcomes.
Traditional classroom approaches to education have that specific form — they
are formal approaches to learning and development.

In contrast, informal approaches are those that occur during our typical day-to-day
activities in life and can include, for example, reading books, having discussions
with friends, on-the-job training and keeping a diary with thoughts about management.

Informal
Versus. Formal Training, Self-Directed Versus Other-Directed Training

Know How to Capture Learning from Your Activities

Whether in formal or informal approaches, the ongoing ability to recognize
and capture learning is extremely important. That ability is often referred
to as continuous learning and it is frequently mentioned in literature about
management development (in this context, the term management is inclusive of
leadership and supervisor development). Simply put, continuous learning is the
ability to learn to learn.

The key to cultivating continuous learning is the ability to continually reflect
on your experiences and the experiences of others in your life. Reflection is
continuously thinking about, for example, your experiences, their causes and
effects, your role in them, if they changed you and how. It is thinking about
how you might use those experiences and changes to enhance your life and the
lives of others.

If you can view your life as a “laboratory for learning program”,
then you can continue to learn from almost everything in your life. However,
learning is best captured if it is consciously recognized as such, for example,
discussed with someone else or written down somewhere. Otherwise, new learning
can easily be lost in the demands of life and work. So it is very important
to document your learning.

Prepare for Your Learning About Management

Get Acquainted With Organizational Context of
Management

Before learning more about management, you would benefit first from becoming
acquainted with the organizational context in which management typically occurs,
including understanding organizations as systems, their common dimensions, what
makes each unique, their different life cycles and different cultures.
Organizational Structures and Design

Get Acquainted With What “Management” Is

Then, the next place to start learning about management is to get some sense of
what management really is — in particular, get an impression of the areas of
knowledge and skills recommended for effective management in organizations. Review
the information in the Library’s topic:
What is Management?
How Do I Manage?

Activities for Informal Approach to Management
Development

Here is but a sampling of the activities from which you could informally accomplish
your own management development. Here is a sample learning
journal that you might use to continually capture your learning.

Guidelines for Formal Approach to Management
Development

You are much more likely to develop skills in management from participating
in a formal program approach than an informal approach. The following sections
will guide you to develop your own complete, highly integrated and performance-oriented
program.

Identify Your Overall Goals for Your Program

This section helps you identify what you want to be able to do as a result
of implementing your program, for example, to qualify for a certain job, overcome
a performance problem or achieve a goal in your career development plan. You
are often better off to work towards at most two to four goals at a time, rather
than many. There are a variety of ways to identify your program goals, depending
on what you want to be able to accomplish from the program. The articles might
be helpful in preparing you to identify your goals.
Goals
— Selecting the Training and Development Goals

Various Ideas for Management Development Goals

1. Do you have career plans that would require certain new management skills?
   See How to Plan
   Your Career.
2. Did your previous performance review with your supervisor suggest certain
   improvements in management that you need to make? See Goal
   Setting With Employees.
3. Are there certain opportunities that you could take advantage of if you
   soon developed certain new management skills? See How
   to Look for a Job.
4. You might do some self-assessments to determine if there are any areas of
   management development that you might undertake. See Assessing
   Your Training Needs.
5. Ask others for feedback about your management skills. See Giving
   and Receiving Feedback.
6. Do you find yourself daydreaming about doing certain kinds of activities?
   See Setting
   Personal Goals.

Include a Goal About Managing Yourself

You cannot effectively manage others unless you first can effectively manage
yourself. Consider goals from the Library’s topic of
Personal Wellness

List your Program Goals in your Template
for Planning Your Professional Development Program. (This is a Microsoft
Word document.)

Determine Your Learning Objectives and Activities to Achieve Each

The purpose of this section is to help you to identify the various learning
objectives you should achieve in order to achieve your overall program goals,
along with the activities you should undertake to achieve each objective.

Identifying Your Learning Objectives

Carefully consider each of your program goals. What might be the various accomplishments,
or objectives, that must be reached in order to achieve each goal? Do not worry
about doing all of that perfectly — objectives can be modified as you work to
achieve each goal. Which of these objectives require learning new areas of knowledge
or skills? These objectives are likely to become learning objectives in your program
plan. To get a stronger sense for learning objectives, see

Designing Training Plans and Learning Objectives.

Identifying Your Learning Activities

Learning activities are the activities you will conduct in order to achieve the
learning objectives. The activities should accommodate your particular learning
styles, be accessible to you and be enjoyable as well. The long list of activities
in the above two columns might be useful, as well.

List the Learning Objectives to Achieve Each Desired Goal in your Template
for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

List the Activities to Achieve Each Learning Objective in your Template
for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Develop Any Materials You May Need

Carefully think about each of the activities to achieve the learning objectives.
Consider, for example, getting books, signing up for courses, reserving rooms
and getting trainers.

List the Materials You Might Need in your Template
for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Plan the Implementation of Your Program

During the implementation of your program, you want to make sure there are
no surprises. For example, how will you make sure you understand the new information
and materials. Will your learning be engaging and enjoyable? Will you have all
the support you need?
How
Do We Ensure Implementation of Our New Plan?

List the Key Considerations in Implementing Your Plan in your Template
for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Evaluate During and After Your Program

Evaluation includes assessing both the quality of the activities during the
program and also whether you achieved your goals soon after the program.
How
Do We Evaluate Implementation and Project Results?

List the Approach to Evaluating During and After Your Program in your Template
for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Follow-Up After Completion of Your Program

It is a major accomplishment to design and implement a management development
program. Celebrate what you have done! Reflect on what you learned about developing
the program — and about yourself.

List the Key Activities After Completing Program in your Template
for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Additional Resources in the Category of Leadership

Related Library Topics
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