Will Your Development Program Survive the Next New Leader?
When every new leader brings a new development tool, managers stop investing in any of them. A continuity plan and a set of tools that work together can carry your program through the next change at the top.
A new development tool usually comes with a new leader, and only now and then with a long-serving leader who changes direction. I see this more often now that leaders change jobs faster than they used to. If you want your program to last, plan for the next new leader now. Write down what the program is, which tools it uses, and why you chose them, so the next person inherits a working program and has a reason to keep it. We'll work on that kind of plan in the free, live masterclass on November 17 and 18.
Your company is on its third framework in three years
Imagine you lead L&D at a company of 1,200 people. Two years ago, your head of HR launched a model for giving feedback, with a launch day and laminated cards. She left last year, and her successor brought the framework he used at his last company, along with a new assessment for everyone. Last month, a new CEO arrived with a third framework, and the rollout is set for January. When you mention the new framework to a manager who sat through the first two, he asks whether he should bother learning this one, too. At a nonprofit, the third framework might arrive with a new executive director or a new board chair.
Find out what managers still use
Make a quick list of every tool, assessment, and framework your organization has introduced in the last five years. Then ask four or five managers which ideas from that list they still use with their teams. Present the question as planning for next year, because managers may be careful about criticizing an executive's favorite tool. If most of the managers can't name one, show the result to your leadership team before the next rollout.
Choose tools that work together
Each job, from feedback and conflict to team development, has more than one good tool. Pick a set of tools that fit together and use terms that agree. If your feedback model tells managers to lead with the facts and your communication tool tells them to start by adapting to the listener, managers will reasonably ask which one HR means. Sort your current tools by the job each one does and aim for one per job. Phase out the ones that contradict each other as their contracts come up for renewal. For each tool you keep, ask whether a manager could use it on an ordinary Tuesday with a struggling direct report, and whether your HR team could run it alone after the first year.
Make the tools part of how your leaders work
Tools become part of the culture when managers see senior leaders using them. If your leadership team uses the feedback model in its own meetings, and executives use it when they coach their direct reports, managers see the model as part of the job. A new leader who joins that team inherits the tools as part of how the organization works, the same way they inherit the budget process.
Write a continuity plan that outlasts any one leader
A continuity plan can fit on a page or two. It should say what the program is, which tools it uses and why, who owns it, and what managers told you they still use. Ask your leadership team to sign off on it. A sign-off won't bind the next CEO, but it shows a new leader that the program belongs to the whole organization. Then ask to add a short briefing on the plan to each new executive's first month.
Have an answer ready when a new framework arrives
Sooner or later, a new leader will hand you a favorite framework. You don't have to say no. You might say, "That sounds useful. Before we add it, can we look at how it fits with what our managers already use?" Then walk through the continuity plan together. You can often fold the useful idea into the program you already have. Sometimes the new framework is better for one job, and the plan shows you which tool it should replace. If the new leader agrees to keep the program, ask them to say so at the next all-managers meeting, so managers hear that this one is staying.
Why HR should own the program
Your HR team is there when people join, when they're promoted, and when leaders change, so HR is the natural owner of the program and its continuity plan. Owning a program for years takes time from your team, and phasing out a tool that an executive likes can cost you some goodwill. The masterclass is about building that kind of program and making the case for it. Save your seat here.
Join us on November 17 and 18
Your In-House Advantage is a free, live masterclass for internal HR, L&D, and OD leaders at organizations of 250 to 5,000 or more employees. It's two 90-minute working sessions, on Tuesday, November 17, and Wednesday, November 18, at 1:00 pm ET (10:00 am PT). In the first, we look at the patterns organizations fall into with new managers and what those patterns cost. In the second, you work on a solution for your own organization and leave with a one-page business case for your CFO.
It's live only, with no replay, and seats are limited. Nothing is sold in session one. In the last few minutes of session two, I'll explain how Symphony 100 works with organizations that want help.
Save my seat for November 17 and 18
A new framework with a January rollout date is the moment to find out what managers kept from the last ones. Before that rollout, ask four or five managers which tools they still use, and put their answers in your continuity plan.
Frank November is the Founder & CEO of Symphony 100 and has been an Everything DiSC® Certified Practitioner since 2014. Symphony 100 Ltd. and Symphony 100 North America LLC are each independent, authorized partners of Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors®, which are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., or its affiliated companies.
