MEASURING IMPACT...The Holy Grail

The Holy Grail for learning programs is measuring the impact of training programs, especially when it comes to talent management.  It is a quest that many of us embark on and few achieve.  We invest countless hours of time in designing, developing, and delivering programs, yet how do we measure the impact of our work?

Throughout my career I have become increasingly more convinced and reminded that true impact of programs is measured not only by the changes in that leader, but also how those changes impact their direct reports.  At Adobe, our leadership programs have been designed to tap into a reservoir of amazing knowledge in order to increase the impact of development across our leadership community by learning from each other.  While many programs feature senior leaders coming in to teach on a topic, few require as extensive a commitment, of not only time, but vulnerability as Adobe's Management Essentials Program (ME).

I've been privileged to be a part of an amazing team to build a program that has greatly impacted  our organization.   This program had it's genesis in some of the best practices of our other leadership and management programs here.  After analyzing what worked and exploring the areas of opporutnity we set out to take leaders teaching leaders to a new level. The quest, convincing our leaders to come spend the entire time in the program to share their best practices and mistakes openly and purposely to help others grow.  Through this effort, we not only taught others, but saw great increases in engagement and management capability for the company.

Here are the summary findings (thanks to technology & a great survey by Culture Amp measuring employee engagement):

1. Managers who participate in ME and ME leaders who teach have significantly greater engagement with the organization.
2. Perhaps more importantly, their direct reports not only have higher engagement, but score their managers who participate significantly higher than non-participant managers in key areas of managerial effectiveness. 
3. Lastly, managers who participate and then come back to teach as ME leaders have nearly 3X the impact.

I couldn't be more proud to be a part of the team that conceived of and continues to deliver this great program.  It wouldn't have been possible without Justin Mass, Abby Hawkins, and Jason Franklin, our brilliant instructional designers, our internal and external facilitation network, as well as Laci Brandley who makes this program run flawlessly around the world.  But most importantly, I'd like to thank our leaders (ME Leaders) who have been willing to invest 40+ hours in helping make other leaders great!  While this book shows the impact you have had from a measurement perspective, your impact goes beyond measure and I hope you are proud of this revolution!  Your lives have impacted many in untold ways, especially mine, and I'm grateful for each of you. 

I wanted to share with you our full story in a new book that will be released on Thursday this week (September 5th) called Integrated Talent Management Scorecards. Lynn Schmidt and Toni DeTuncq, editors, gathered stories from global leaders, such as Adobe, on workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management, learning and development, succession management and engagement and retention initiatives.  If you want to learn more, I'd highly recommend all of these stories of best practices from other leaders around the globe.  For a limited time you can get 15% off before EOD tomorrow.

 

TO LEARN MORE:  Go to www.astd.org/scorecards and enter the limited time offer code ITMS15 at checkout to receive 15% off - this offer is valid through September 4, 2013.

I profit nothing from this, but merely wanted to pass the opportunity on to you to find that Holy Grail for you and your company in assessing your impact!