A programme of leadership development for new recruits in an international company that is adapted to individual learning styles need not be excessively expensive. Will Blott, training manager at the Australian branch of Google, spoke on this topic at the recent Australian Talent Conference in Sydney.
Google currently has around 30 thousand employees in 70 branches across the world. An international team of experts in training and development, which included Will Blott, addressed the question of how to create a common leadership development programme that will respond flexibly to the needs of individual branches. They started with three basic assumptions:
1. Everyone is different – they have different experience, styles and speed of learning, and different interests.
2. Many things need to be adapted to local conditions, but there are certain principles that can be applied universally.
3. We don’t need to buy in what we can create ourselves.
The result was the programme Foundations of Leadership & Teamwork, which is intended for employees commencing their careers at Google, and gives them an understanding of the company’s guiding principle „focus on the user“. A key part of the programme is the development of emotional intelligence, which is divided into four areas:
1. Self awareness (Who am I? What are my strong points? What interests me? What is my style of work?)
2. Self management (How can you make best use of your knowledge to have a greater influence on things happening around you, rather than just responding to your surroundings or emotions?)
3. Social awareness (Who are the people around me? What are their needs and desires?)
4. Management of relationships (How can I make use of what I know about myself and others to improve our relationships?)
Participants in the programme complete five modules over five weeks. Each module involves the performance of three to five tasks, some of which are undertaken in pairs or larger groups. Some of the training materials are freely available online, whilst Google pays for others. However, costs do not exceed 100 dollars per participant. In addition to this, the programme also includes stand alone training tools such as videos, articles, books, films, virtual classrooms etc. The programme is already in its fourth year and has been introduced in 29 branches in 13 countries. 90% of participants successfully complete the programme.
For more information on the programme content and operation click here.
Will Blott summarises some of the practical ideas that Google has tried out:
- Using employees that had a positive learning experience with the programme as trainers for other employees.
- Making use of internal social networks to identify employees with interesting skills that they can teach to others.
- Arranging discussion forums at which employees discuss with colleagues things they have learnt from a book.
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