Aas the new year rolls ahead, and graduate programs get under way, here are 5 simple best practices to consider in designing the content and delivery of graduate workshops and sessions.
Use these when you need to deliver sessions yourself or when you are reviewing sessions being run by your team or by external providers to make sure you are always striving for best practice.
And remember: getting good at communicating and training Generation Y will help to get good at commnicating and training anyone, from any generation.
1. Authenticity is king
Being ‘real’ is the first step to establishing credibility, rapport and an environment conducive to learning and growth. The greatest communicators on the planet are so because they’re authentic. Open up, be yourself and show your true colours. Yes you are representing your company, but you are also representing yourself. Grads want to know who you are, so relax and show them who you are using personal stories, experiences and your own authentic style.
2. Keep it moving
Attention spans are shrinking because finger-tip access to multiple information and stimulus points is normal. For exmple, over 100,000,000 videos are watched on Youtube every day and the average length is just 2 ½ minutes! That’s a lot of short videos being watched. Where possible, design your session in small blocks of time that are an average of 10-12 mins. This will help you keep their attention and keep it moving.
3. Learn from Facebook
People of all generations spend an enormous amount of time on Facebook. 45% of users are dominated by Generation X and Baby Boomers and 100,000,000people log in every single day. Why? Because the people behind Facebook realise that to engage people of all ages they must provide multiple delivery methods, and they do it really well ... photo’s, games, videos, live chat, profiles, links, articles, events, groups, the list goes on. Engaging grads in a workshop is similar ... music, videos, games, discussions, stories, activities, the possibilities go on. Create an environment that engages your grads by using multiple delivery methods.
4. WIIFM?#@!
Be deliberate about communicating the WIIFM factor (What’s In It For Me) early in your session and throughout. With this generation’s reputation for disregarding authority, your grads may not assume that just because you are training them on a subject that it is actually important. Crazy, I know, as if you have time to be doing anything that isn’t important (!). Directly link whatever you are delivering to what they think is important to them. Sell it up. Make it clear and make it obvious. Not only will they listen more but it will increase their chances of putting it in to action.
5. Don’t disengage the other 75%
There is a 25% chance you will disengage 75% of your audience if you design your content and delivery through your own personality style only. It’s widely recognised in many personality tools that there are 4 broad personality groups and this impacts how people process information. So, when you have designed your session, go back through it and ensure your content and delivery will speak to all 4 broad personality styles. For example, some grads will want clear results, outcomes and actions from your session above anything else. Others will need interaction, fun and a chance to talk in order to participate. Some grads will want process, stability and predictability in order to learn. While other grads will want statistics, expertise and logic in your session in order to trust. Ensure you build your content and delivery to engage everyone.
January 26, 2010
January 16, 2010
Best Practice Graduate Development Strategies – Equipping Your Leaders
If there was one thing that made a difference to my personal experience as a graduate in a large multi-national company, it was the quality of leaders I was exposed to and built strong relationships with. The same can be said for the graduates we work with at Development Beyond Learning (www.dblearning.biz).
Given that 10% of learning happens in the classroom, 20% through coaching and mentoring and 70% on the job, this is no surprise. It is fair to say your leaders heavily influence up to 90% of your graduate’s development. That’s huge!
Often graduate program ‘briefing sessions’ for managers and leades are heavily relied on to equip managers to play the crucial role they play in graduate development programs. But they’re not enough.
Partnering with numerous graduate development programs across an array of industries and employers, we have helped many employers embrace this very challenge.
Here are 5 cost-effective ways you can help your leaders realise the crucial role they play, and equip them to play it well.
1) Refresh your leaders on leading and managing Generation Y
Approaching the height of the global downturn in late 2008, 61% of CEOs reported having enormous difficulty in attracting and retaining Generation Y graduates (“Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation” PwC). As economic conditions improve in Australia, your leader’s ability to lead and manage Generation Y will again play a huge role in attracting, developing and retaining your best graduates. Consider delivering cost-effective presentations, half day workshops or online training modules to rotation managers and business unit leaders, as refresher courses on what it takes to get the most from Gen Y graduates in the post-GFC world.
2) Train grads and leaders on building relationships with each other
97% of Gen Y respondents value a leadership style that involves empowerment, consultation and partnership and would leave if they did not get it. In fact, 42% of Generation Y respondents reported that poor leadership and management was the main reason for leaving their previous role. (Mark McCrindle; The ABC of XYZ – Understanding Global Generations). Lay the foundations for strong relationships between graduates and their coaches, mentors and leaders by bringing them together. Deliver workshops where both groups attend, use a behavioural profiling tool such as DiSC, MBTI or PerformanSe to help them better understand how to communicate and work together and place equal responsibility on both the graduate and the leader to make it happen. Focus on setting clear expectations, communication channels and review mechanisms. This is a powerful, relevant and short session for induction or within the first 90 days of your graduate program.
3) Coaches and Mentors - allocation by design
From 4,271 Generation Y graduates across 44 countries, 98% of respondents rated access to strong mentors as very important (“Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation” PwC). Think carefully about the structure of your support network for graduates. To have buddies, line managers, coaches, mentors, graduate liaisons and graduate managers is great so long as there is a clear structure, roles and responsibilities for all involved. Think deliberately about how you allocate coaches and mentors to ensure the appropriate match that will both support and challenge each graduate to grow.
4) Structured coffee coaching
In designing your graduate development program, build in 20-30 min coffee coaching meetings between graduates and their line managers immediately following development interventions such as workshops. The focus should be to review the 3 things the graduate will apply back in the business. Do the same in the week or so leading up to the next development intervention to prepare. It won’t happen every time for every graduate, but even if there was a 20% increase in the frequency of these catch-ups, you will increase the return on your program back in the business. Communicate it up front to grads and their managers and re-iterate it throughout the program as an important strategy.
5) Expose, Expose, Expose
Use every development intervention in your graduate development program as an opportunity to expose your grads to your leaders, and your leaders to your grads. Consider how you might build time in to each workshop or event to achieve this and get creative – don’t just rely on a formal CEO address during induction! How can you design face-time between leaders and grads during workshops? How can you use case studies of your leaders within your program content? How can you design practical activities, such as business case projects, that require grads to meet and interact with leaders? Expose, expose, expose!
Given that 10% of learning happens in the classroom, 20% through coaching and mentoring and 70% on the job, this is no surprise. It is fair to say your leaders heavily influence up to 90% of your graduate’s development. That’s huge!
Often graduate program ‘briefing sessions’ for managers and leades are heavily relied on to equip managers to play the crucial role they play in graduate development programs. But they’re not enough.
Partnering with numerous graduate development programs across an array of industries and employers, we have helped many employers embrace this very challenge.
Here are 5 cost-effective ways you can help your leaders realise the crucial role they play, and equip them to play it well.
1) Refresh your leaders on leading and managing Generation Y
Approaching the height of the global downturn in late 2008, 61% of CEOs reported having enormous difficulty in attracting and retaining Generation Y graduates (“Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation” PwC). As economic conditions improve in Australia, your leader’s ability to lead and manage Generation Y will again play a huge role in attracting, developing and retaining your best graduates. Consider delivering cost-effective presentations, half day workshops or online training modules to rotation managers and business unit leaders, as refresher courses on what it takes to get the most from Gen Y graduates in the post-GFC world.
2) Train grads and leaders on building relationships with each other
97% of Gen Y respondents value a leadership style that involves empowerment, consultation and partnership and would leave if they did not get it. In fact, 42% of Generation Y respondents reported that poor leadership and management was the main reason for leaving their previous role. (Mark McCrindle; The ABC of XYZ – Understanding Global Generations). Lay the foundations for strong relationships between graduates and their coaches, mentors and leaders by bringing them together. Deliver workshops where both groups attend, use a behavioural profiling tool such as DiSC, MBTI or PerformanSe to help them better understand how to communicate and work together and place equal responsibility on both the graduate and the leader to make it happen. Focus on setting clear expectations, communication channels and review mechanisms. This is a powerful, relevant and short session for induction or within the first 90 days of your graduate program.
3) Coaches and Mentors - allocation by design
From 4,271 Generation Y graduates across 44 countries, 98% of respondents rated access to strong mentors as very important (“Millennials at work: Perspectives from a new generation” PwC). Think carefully about the structure of your support network for graduates. To have buddies, line managers, coaches, mentors, graduate liaisons and graduate managers is great so long as there is a clear structure, roles and responsibilities for all involved. Think deliberately about how you allocate coaches and mentors to ensure the appropriate match that will both support and challenge each graduate to grow.
4) Structured coffee coaching
In designing your graduate development program, build in 20-30 min coffee coaching meetings between graduates and their line managers immediately following development interventions such as workshops. The focus should be to review the 3 things the graduate will apply back in the business. Do the same in the week or so leading up to the next development intervention to prepare. It won’t happen every time for every graduate, but even if there was a 20% increase in the frequency of these catch-ups, you will increase the return on your program back in the business. Communicate it up front to grads and their managers and re-iterate it throughout the program as an important strategy.
5) Expose, Expose, Expose
Use every development intervention in your graduate development program as an opportunity to expose your grads to your leaders, and your leaders to your grads. Consider how you might build time in to each workshop or event to achieve this and get creative – don’t just rely on a formal CEO address during induction! How can you design face-time between leaders and grads during workshops? How can you use case studies of your leaders within your program content? How can you design practical activities, such as business case projects, that require grads to meet and interact with leaders? Expose, expose, expose!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
