Five reasons to create an in-house Management Development Programme

"What enables a Manager to be successful?”

I recently asked this question and while I gained many different individual answers, there were some common themes overall, including;

• Opportunity to develop and gain new experiences over a period of time
• Support from line manager, peers and company to develop
• Continuous feedback and coaching

There are plenty of Management Development Programmes out there that offer a one-hit wonder approach; book on, turn up and off you go with your shiny tool-kit of new models and peaked motivation, but does this really fulfil the criteria above?  If you’re looking for something longer-lasting and more impactful, you could consider creating an in-house programme that can tick ALL the boxes!

What are the benefits to creating an in-house programme for your managers? 

Here are my 5, although there are many more;

1.  Create a programme completely customised to your business and your employees' needs 
Creating your own in-house programme can ensure you completely customise your managers' development to meet your business needs, demonstrating transferable results.  Even if you have a five-year strategic plan in place, priorities can change quickly, an in-house programme can move just as quickly to support these changes and drive business results.

2.  Create better value for money
The average Management Development Programme can cost anywhere from £1,000 - £5,000 per person for a 3-day programme!  Some may well be worth this! But if you are looking to develop your full management team, how will you demonstrate return-on-expectations (ROE) once they are back in the work place?
 
An in-house programme can;

• Have many different types of learning activities, not just meeting room-based workshops
• Run shorter and more frequent sessions - allowing for better business coverage, higher retention and greater transfer of learning back into the workplace
• Spread across several months, adjusting to the business calendar
• Build on in-house competencies and values
• Reduce attrition through increased morale and loyalty
• Build reputation

 
3.  Create dual development – developing more than just your managers
Creating an in-house programme allows other employees to become involved at different touch points in the programme, creating dual development such as;

• Creating a coaching and mentoring culture; developing more senior employees to utilise their knowledge and/or skills to support delegates   
• Getting a research team together; developing project management skills, communication and commercial awareness
• Asking senior leaders to champion hot topic; keeping them engaged and up to date with learning at an appropriate level
• Creating a team of in-house Trainers; developing facilitation, training and presentation skills.  If you already have a training team they can become programme stakeholders too

 
4.  Create cross departmental relationships
So often I hear managers talk about poor communication across departments.  An in-house programme allows for natural conversation between departments during and outside of the programme, this engages them on several levels resulting in better commercial awareness;

• Finding out more about the different business areas
• Sharing best practices and challenges
• Building relationships and communication

 
5.  Create a better learning culture
​A large proportion of learning shouldn’t actually come from a facilitator!  It should come from the audience.  A good facilitator, regardless of in-house or external, should be able to read the audience and pull from them the best learning points.  This builds relationships over the sessions, increases opportunities outside the programme for people to interact with each other more openly, share best practices, work on projects and build ownership for their own learning and development in the present and future. 
 
One final note… 
Creating a Management Development Programme, is not about ‘teaching’ your managers to become better leaders! It is about giving them the right tools, peer interaction and thinking space to make better choices about how they interact with their internal and external customers in the present and in the future.  Only then can they learn to become good, if not great leaders!

Get more information at www.curiouslighthouse.co.uk