Transitioning learners from “I tried it” to “I’ll apply it” requires you to design follow-up activities and provide tools to both the new supervisor and the manager who takes over the new supervisor’s development. In order for learning to transfer, the new supervisor must be committed to the change. Even more important, the manager must be prepared and willing to provide support. You support the new supervisors while they are in the workshop, and you also have a responsibility to follow up after the session.
Traditionally organizations invest over 90 percent of their resources in planning and delivering the formal training. Virtually nothing is invested in application support. Maximizing the transfer of learning to the workplace requires immediate follow up as well as ongoing support.
Follow-up to New Supervisor Training, or any training for that matter, starts long before participants attend the workshop. One reason is to ensure that each participant’s manager gets involved. It is not really up to an organization’s learning and development staff to develop employees; it is up to their direct managers. Wendy Axelrod, author of Make Talent Your Business, suggests that if managers have an attitude of “making every day a development day” participants will return from learning events to an environment in which follow-up will be expected.
What can you do before, during, and after the workshop to help new supervisors continue to grow and learn? Here’s a sample of what you will find in New Supervisor Training.
Before the Workshop Begins
To make the greatest difference, meet with the participants’ managers to ask questions and share ideas for how their manager can support the new supervisors once they return from the workshop.
- Meet with the participants’ managers to discuss what the manager expects from the workshop. For example you could ask, “What must new supervisors do more, better, or differently if your department/function is to be effective?”
- Partner with clients to determine how they can help their new supervisors upon returning from the workshop. Ask what skills and knowledge they want new supervisors to learn..
- Several activities in the workshop help new supervisors create a plan for their future. Inform participants’ managers about these plans. Recommend that they discuss the plans with the new supervisors upon returning. Several include: How Do You Model Excellence; Develop Your Personal Leadership Guiding Beliefs; and What Do Great Supervisors Do Every Day?
- Before the formal learning begins, ask participants to bring to the session supervisory challenges they have that they hope will be resolved by what they learn.
During the Workshop
Set a good example during the workshop. Participants watch what you do, so if you stress the importance of active listening or give clear instructions as a supervisor, you need to model the skills as well. Try some of these ideas during the workshop to begin to build for the follow-up after the workshop.
- Share other supervisory successes.
- Read messages of support from key people who work in the organization.
- During the workshop find out when participants will have an opportunity to implement what they are learning. Tell them that they should watch for follow-up about this time. For example, just prior to performance reviews you could email tips for conducting better reviews to them.
At the Close of the Workshop
Many things come together at the end of your workshop. Be sure to allow enough time to discuss next steps. The “What Do Great Supervisors Do Every Day” is not just a pleasant closing activity. It should truly be billed as the participant’s vision of what they hope to do as “great supervisors.” What else can you do? Consider some of these:
- Ask participants to voluntarily opt into a continuing learning group. Create a wiki or a LinkedIn page to continue the learning. Participants can ask questions, share tips, give advice, or celebrate successes. You can seed the site with questions, links to videos, or short articles.
- Ask participants to commit to trying one new skill within the week
- Ask participants to brainstorm a list of barriers they anticipate that may prevent them from implementing some of the skills. Form small groups to list ideas to overcome them.
- Several activities in the workshop help new supervisors create plans for their future. After they complete these plans recommend that they discuss them with their managers.
- Organize peer practice groups to support each other as they perfect their competencies.
After the Workshop
Enlightened organizations recognize that making time for ongoing support results in more learning transfer to the job. The responsibility can be shared between the facilitators and the new supervisors’ managers. This list includes suggestions that you can do.
- Follow up your session by emailing a resource to participants. It could be an article or a link to a YouTube presentation that you think will be pertinent and helpful to participants.
- About a week after the session, tweet participants with a simple question that they can respond to. For example you could ask what new skill they have tried and to give themselves a score of how successful they were.
- Drop a copy of The One Minute Manager off to each new supervisor. Ask them to read it over the next 10 days. Then begin to text questions to the group. If you’ve set up a twitter account for your group, you can use that as well.
- Several months after the workshop, invite the participants to return for a review and celebration session. Participants share their successes and review situations they needed additional knowledge or skills to complete.
- Facilitate a book club that meets over lunch once or twice each month.
- Suggest that new supervisors find a mentor.
- Create short videos or podcast about some of the topics presented in the workshop. Send the link to participants.
- Suggest that the manager find ways for the new supervisor to practice supervisory skills.
- Share ideas with each manager to ensure that they continue to develop their new supervisors. You may wish to share the materials with some pages highlighted.
As you can see, ensuring that the skills transfer to the workplace requires you to start before the workshop with planning and a contact with the participants’ managers. You need to pay attention during the session for reinforcement opportunities—especially at the close of the workshop. And finally you need to follow up directly with the new supervisors and ensure that their managers have taken on the continuing development role.
