Hi Cindy,
I'm always amazed that organizations that carefully train someone who will handle a new production process, or operate a new machine, feel that someone who will begin operating the human machine can learn about it in a couple of hours. As a matter of fact, the "Human machine" is by far the most complex, and also the most critical for the success of the organization.

Can you imagine asking a group of new operators to indicate the things they should know about operating the new equipment, and then have them find the answers themselves!?

An effective management training process cover the four key functions of cultural leadership: Integrating team vision, Reaching concensus, ensuring effective collaboration, managing performance, and providing/extracting team knowledge for innovation and improvement.

Those are the proven functions of highly-effective managers, and they must be standardized through models, tools, and processes for each.You might think that "leadership" and managing a team are very different from all other operational skills, but they are actually quite the same.

The main objective should be to ensure that teams operate with effectiveness, clarity, and congruency.

Very simply, ask yourself; Would I let someone operate a nuew piece of equipment, or a new production process with this level and type of training?
If the answer is "no", then it goes double for the team management process.

Cyndi -

Great thread - your question certainly generated a lot of good discussion and ideas.

I have done a significant amount of work with leaders at large organizations - particularly the transitioning leader (moving from individual contributor to manager or from line level manager to director/VP) and consistently I have found that the fundamental that is missed in training is the critical outcomes: what needs to be produced in the role.

Try this: ask your managers, "what atre the most important thing(s) that you produce in your role?" The answer is typically a business statistic like "so much in sales" or "so much product", etc. The fundamental shift for a leader is to understand thatwhat they produce of value for the organization is a person, a team, or a system (depending on the role and level) capable of acheiving the stated business objectives.

Unfortunately, we measure and hold leaders to the busiess measures only - so we generally reinforce the misunderstanding in new leaders. The inevitable follows: leaders who don't lead, churn, broken teams and so on.

The best place to start, I believe is by clearly defining the outcomes for leaders in your organization - communicate them clearly to the new leaders and develop ways to suport their accomplishment.

Hope this helps

Mason
mason@ppg-us.com
Platinum Performance Group