Can you tell if your management program is working?
We all want to measure short-term impact, but are we ignoring long-term benefits?
Those of our readers who enter industry awards will be aware that the deadline for the Learning Technologies Awards is fast approaching. Here at Mind Tools, the Custom team enter these on an annual basis, and so I’m very used to defending our projects in front of a panel of judges.
And here’s the inside scoop if you’re thinking of entering this year: I only ever really get asked one question:
‘What impact did this project have?’
It’s a good question. This year alone, US$400.94 billion is going to be spent on workplace training. 12% of that will be spent on management training.
So what the judges are asking is: ‘Has that investment been worthwhile?’
And the ideal answer would look like this:
‘We did X (the project), which cost Y (the cost of the project). As a result of X, Z (money) was earned or saved.’
In this answer, Z is bigger than Y, so X was worthwhile.
Or you might depict this as:
IF: Z > Y, X = 🏆
The reason those who judge awards are asking this question is that they are trying to detect the more common situation, where:
X (the project) = Some random thing we did.
Y (the cost of the project) = A secretly far larger sum than we want to admit.
Z (the outcome) = No idea, we didn’t measure it.
So there's a reasonable degree of skepticism toward projects where success is based on (1) people taking part and (2) people liking it.
But our new #BuildingBetterManagers report complicates this picture, because it turns out that management training actually does make a difference over the long-term.
Based on a survey of 2,001 managers across 12 industries, we found that 50% received no support in the form of learning resources, formal courses and training opportunities at the start of their management career.
This obviously sucks for them, but creates a nice natural experiment for our Insights team.
Because we have a clear split between managers who received support versus those who did not, we can compare outcomes across these two groups.
And here’s what the team found:
‘Managers who received access to learning resources, formal courses and training opportunities at the start of their management career were significantly better at coaching, goal setting, identifying opportunities for their people to develop, active listening, and establishing trust.’

How do we measure this? Learner responses on how confident they feel, or how good they are at performing tasks, are obviously prone to bias.
Well, we do this by asking how often managers demonstrated certain behaviors in the past six months. By doing so, we get a snapshot of manager capability at a moment in time. And we can ask these questions in various different ways to test that results are reliable and valid.
Then we can slice the data to ask: What evidence do we have that managers demonstrating these capabilities actually leads to better outcomes for businesses?
And we find that:
25% of managers who received support earlier in their careers now manage 11+ employees (versus 13% for those who did not receive support).
(Data from the Mind Tools Insights team)
This essentially acts as a proxy measure for seniority. Managers who receive some form of management training are more likely to manage more people, so have likely been promoted more often or given more responsibility.
This is correlation, rather than causation. There might be something else going on. But what I think these results expose is the difficulty in the: ‘What impact did this project have?’ question.
A lot of learning interventions are designed to develop foundational workplace skills. Coaching, goal setting and providing guidance are three of the 12 that we found are most important to ‘Building Better Managers’.
But it’s very difficult to demonstrate the short-term impact of developing something like ‘active listening’ skills on organizational performance. Instead, these skills have a variety of benefits across various different contexts: managing others, sales, influencing upwards, etc.
To be clear, I am not advocating against asking for evidence of impact. Regular readers of this newsletter and listeners to our podcast will know that we are fully aware that the L&D industry is awash with fads and bullsh*t.
However, we also need to recognize that building better managers is about more than short-term results: it’s about equipping new managers with the capabilities to succeed in their first few years, and to become leaders over the long-term.
Do you know how effective your managers are, or if they have the skills they need to perform in their roles? Most organizations don’t. Get in touch with us to find out how we can help you measure and develop your managers. Email custom@mindtools.com or reply to this newsletter from your inbox.
🎧 On the podcast
In part three of our #BuildingBetterManagers series, Nahdia and I were joined one last time by Dr Anna Barnett, author of our ‘Building Better Managers’ report. If you’ve been listening along recently, we’ve already covered the capabilities that make a ‘good’ manager, and how we can develop them. In this final episode of the series, we explore:
the long-term impact of early management training
differences (and similarities) in the characteristics of new and experienced managers
how we can in L&D can provide constant ongoing support to more experienced managers.
You can find episode one, ‘What makes a good manager?’, and episode two, ‘How do we build better managers?’, wherever you get your podcasts.
Listen to episode three below. 👇
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify or the podcast page of our website. Want to share your thoughts? Get in touch @RossDickieMT, @RossGarnerMT or #MindToolsPodcast
📖 Deep dive
I’m currently planning two podcast episodes, exploring the real-world application of the 70:20:10 model.
In the first, practitioners from Phoenix Group, Ascential and Somerset Bridge Group will share how they shape their workplace learning offering based on this approach, as well as the challenges they face.
In the second, Charles Jennings from the 70:20:10 Institute will be discussing the challenges practitioners face, then offering his advice and response.
As prep for these recordings, I’ve been reading some of Charles’ blogs, including this one on the origins of 70:20:10.
What struck me, reading it, is that Bob Eichinger - who developed the model with others - refers to 70:20:10 as a ‘meme’: an “idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person”.
I think what Eichinger is doing here is acknowledging one of the difficulties in discussing 70:20:10. Is it a model to be applied? Or a description of what is already happening?
It might be both.
Per the blog post, the original concept/model/framework/metaphor/ratio/meme is based on interviews of 191 executives that took place in the late 80s. Participants were asked where they learned things, and the responses totalled 616 learning events.
These were then coded into five categories. Two of those: adverse situations (or things going wrong) and experience outside of work were removed.
That then left three categories: 70% from challenging assignments, 20% from learning from others, and 10% on formal coursework. Thus 70:20:10.
The original research is therefore a description of what is happening, and the ratios have been replicated (approximately) in various settings over the years since then.
The common criticism of this model is that the numbers are imprecise. When defenders argue that the numbers don’t matter, critics shoot back that they shouldn’t then be used.
It’s a tedious and well-trodden argument that we’ll be avoiding on the podcasts.
For my part, I think the key insight from 70:20:10 is that most of what we learn from work is not based on formal coursework. L&D professionals, therefore, should think beyond coursework when coming up with ideas to support their colleagues.
This idea is true and useful whether the numbers match exactly or not.
And, as a final takeaway, I liked this defense from the 702010 Insititute:
‘Everyone understands that Pareto’s 80:20 ratios is a principle that remains unchanged if the percentages do not exactly match 80:20. The same is true of 70:20:10.’
Jennings, C. (2023). ‘70-20-10: Origin, Research, Purpose.’ Charles Jennings | Workplace Performance.
👹 Missing links
🐿️ Who is to blame for hurling 400 squirrels into a shredder?
In 1999, ground staff at Schiphol airport weren’t sure what to do with 440 squirrels that had been flown in from Beijing. An issue with the paperwork meant that they couldn’t be shipped on to their destination, nor could they be returned from whence they came. So they took the obvious third option and hurled them into an industrial shredder. While this may sound nuts, it’s exactly the kind of situation many of us face where accountability is unclear and no one can be blamed. An important lesson for organization design.
What do Clockwork Orange, Escape from New York, and Blade Runner all have in common? Well, they all took place in the past. I know many of our readers are total dorks, and you know from our recent Star Trek podcast special that we are too. This funky infographic plots when our favourite science fiction movies took place.
🍻 This has nothing to do with L&D (or science fiction) but is too incredible not to share
In 1963, a man’s adventure-prone chickens discovered an underground city that once housed 20,000 Christians. The site near Derinkuyu, in Turkey's Cappadocia region, extended 18 stories underground and was complete with grain storage rooms, stables and schools. Light came from oil lamps, water from an underground river, and grapes dropped in from above so that the residents could create wine.
👋 And finally…
While we’re on the subject of partying 18 stories deep, let’s kick start the week with this classic from Jamiroquai.
👍 Thanks!
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