Cranfield Executive Development (CED) took on board their own good advice when they created and delivered an impactful development journey for their own people.
Introducing our new three part series in which David Deegan shares intentions, insights and learnings from CED's own development journey.
Part 1: Why we did it
“Physician, heal thyself” is sometimes directed at HR and L&D teams when it is felt they should be developing their own people, instead of just supporting everyone else in the business.
Cranfield Executive Development is renowned for the learning and development we provide to our clients, and as part of our own values, we are passionate about investing in the development of our own people. But when there are client commitments to meet, it can be a challenge for individuals to set that time aside…
Yet, how can we speak about the importance of creating time and space for learning, if we are not doing that ourselves?
CED Director Mark Threlfall decided he was not going to have “Physician, heal thyself” thrown at us, and that we would create a comprehensive development programme for all of our client-facing colleagues. His strategic aims were very clear:
“I want to equip CED with the capability to meet client requirements as we continue to grow in size. I want to strengthen the “red-thread, high-touch” model that we provide our clients. It is our unique selling point, so I want to develop our organisational capability to provide that USP consistently.”
The red thread
Our “red-thread, high-touch” approach involves an individual CED colleague walking alongside the client at every single stage of their journey with CED. It is the same senior, learning and development professional who stays connected to the client, from the initial business conversations, to winning the work, then designing and delivering customised programmes, through to evaluating the impact on their business and beyond.
This is an intensive model, but it brings all the advantages of building deep and wide client relationships, developing that contextual understanding of the client system, and removing the issues that can arise with a multiple-interface model.
But if we are to ensure that this senior individual can deliver excellence at every single stage of their client’s journey, can be that trusted advisor for the client along every point of the “red-thread”… well that is a lot of development!
Design discussions highlighted that we would need our people to commit to 9 modules, spread over 9 months, totalling a minimum of 17 days of face-to-face development. This was a huge commitment, not just for the individuals, but for the business.
Why this? Why now?
When potential clients say they need a learning and development solution, we always start with two key questions “Why this?” and “Why now?” If we were to justify taking the entire client-facing team out of the business for this length of time, we needed to be able to answer those questions ourselves.
Mark already knew the answers.
“Why this? We need protect our current business, and grow future business. We can only do this if we continually enhance our quality of service, our brand and reputation. We cannot afford to stand still. We can only achieve that if every individual continually shifts the needle on their personal practice, building both their capabilities and confidence. Furthermore, we need to engage and retain the talent we have, and build our succession capability.”
To underline that last point, Mark went even further, and offered non-client-facing colleagues the opportunity to join the programme. He said, “If they want to explore this as a career pathway, and discover their own potential, it will help us to identify and grow our own talent.”
“Why now? We have just started to emerge from Covid, and we took on several new hires during that time. Those new hires haven’t had the opportunity to learn “the red-thread” in the usual experiential way, and everyone has been working in relative isolation. We need to re-establish the team as a community of practitioners who share their knowledge and expertise. And the pandemic-driven, online learning environment is causing organisations to question the value of business school executive education. We need to ensure that every one of our colleagues can demonstrate the value brought by a CED learning solution.”
"We are the experts"
And who would create this mammoth learning solution? Again, Mark was very clear; “We are the experts in our own USP, so the programme needs to be designed and delivered by ourselves. We have over a 100 years of executive education experience among our Executive Development Directors, and that co-creation will further enhance the revival of our practitioner community.”
But investing so much in learning and development needs to have some guarantee of a return. In CED every client’s development journey starts with a discussion about the impact they want to see as a result.
To ground that discussion in reality, we used the Design For Impact © philosophy developed by one of our colleagues Dr Wendy Shepherd. During her DBA Wendy identified five aspects which, if woven into the design of a learning intervention, will drive impact at a personal, team and organisational level:
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Sense-making: Logic, problem setting and solving
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Communication: New conversations and changes to the ways we communicate.
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Alignment: Priorities and values.
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Engagement: Discretionary effort and commitment.
- Relationships: Networks and interpersonal behaviours.
To start with the end in mind, the critical results we needed, we wove these five Impact Drivers © into the learning objectives for our own programme. By the end of the learning journey, our colleagues would:
Sense-making:
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Effectively provide every aspect of the high-touch, customised model.
- Support further growth of CED.
Communication:
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Have more effective conversations with clients, participants and colleagues.
Alignment:
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Have experienced the same experiential learning we give participants.
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Effectively balance all the aspects of their multi-faceted roles.
Engagement:
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Have discovered personal connections to CED values and purpose.
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Take greater control of their own personal development and career.
Relationships:
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Build broader and deeper networks with clients and industry.
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Be part of a high-performing, interdependent team.
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Build mutually beneficial connections across Cranfield University.
For a learning intervention to have impact it also needs commitment from its participants. So before we embarked on the learning journey, I asked them to reflect on those two key questions: “Why this?” and “Why now?”
Here is a selection of their responses.
Stuart Brandom – Senior Networked Learning Executive
“Helping people to better themselves is what motivates me, and I want to understand the thinking behind course design, discovery, and pedagogy. The global pandemic has accelerated the implementation of our Digital Strategy. This knowledge will enable me to identify the value our Digital team could add to CED programmes.”
Gislene Robertson – Head of Sales
“As we enter the post-pandemic economy, we face complex opportunities and challenges that will require a growth mindset; a diversity of input, perspectives, and the constant need to look at the world through different lenses. I believe this programme has arrived at the right time!”
Joe Pullinger – Executive Client Director
“With several of my client journeys being in their infancy, this is a great time for me to build my knowledge, understanding and skills to give these clients the best experience and best practice of Cranfield.”
Louise Gardener – Client Programme Manager
“Being part of the programme will enable me to share my experience, my relationships with faculty and associates, my knowledge of their strengths. I know that I need to reflect more, take time to listen, and ask more questions. On a more personal level my children are now starting to build their own lives. It’s now time for me to start thinking about what is next for me and I absolutely want to be part of CED’s future growth and success.”
So what next?
Transformational programmes must include a shift in mind-set. In the article written by Mark Threlfall and myself on the 15 fundamentals for shifting mind-set, the very first action is “Work with the emotional and visceral, rather than the intellectual.” Working in this way can be risky – to create a visceral reaction for an individual you must rock their boat, and when it comes to group experiences, you risk sinking the fleet. Just how much will you dare to rock those boats?
To find out how near to the waterline we came, have a look at Part Two - What we did.
