Culture Change Programmes: Leadership Training Is Only Part Of The Solution

You can take a horse to water but you cant make it drink should be written in large

letters on the walls of all company training departments as a warning against complacency. For whilst some training, the how to stuff, can be learned by rote other skills are not so easy to pass on.

We still shudder at the effect that one gentleman of our acquaintance had on the staff within his department. Sent by his bank on a people skills course, his literal and analytic nature had absorbed the need to take more interest in his team without being given the tools to do so. On his return to the office the trail of devastation left by him walking up to all the members of staff in turn and asking them extremely personal questions in front of their colleagues kept the HR department in counselling work for some time.

With ever tightening budgets, many larger organisations are understandably looking to save money on training. Courses are shortening or even being conducted via distance learning sessions. This means that whilst the basics are covered, the intuitive skills are often left behind. Even where they are covered, when it comes to courses such as leadership skills and coaching skills, the training is nothing without the correct support infrastructure within the organisation.

Research by global management consultancy Accenture revealed that 80% of the extent to which an employee is engaged is down to the approach of their line manager. This one statistic alone is a powerful argument for ensuring that line managers are properly trained in effective leadership skills. However, simply training and then leaving line managers in isolation to carry out their training is more likely to have a divisive effect on overall culture than not training at all.

The drive for organisational change comes from the top. But the desire for organisational and cultural change is not simply a matter of defining vision and values and issuing them via a memo. Just as an organisations culture is the sum of all its interactions since inception, so is the successful change a sum of the definition, interaction and measurement of behaviours. So whilst basic leadership development courses may go some way towards initiating change, unless the course is followed up with a programme to embed the new culture, performance management and constant feedback and input from staff the individual will put their own interpretation on the course rather than that of the company.

Initiating a successful culture change programme involves the entire organisation at every level from boardroom to post room and from supplier to client. Interdependencies, processes and personalities all form a part of the solution just as they may have formed part of the initial problem. So whilst training courses may be one step in the organisational change programme they are not the definitive solution and it is this that company trainers do well to remember.

by: Jo Geraghty

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