#5 | 1:1 Participant Focus
It ensures not a single participant is left behind
Hello,
How Programs Fly is our humble 3-weekly contribution where we aim to share our knowledge and ideas to help your developmental programs fly further, higher, and for longer.
Here's a slightly provocative thought to get this edition under way: Participants of a program without a 1:1 participant focus can be compared to inmates of a jail who are only identified by numbers and not their names.
Their morale is often similarly low, since nothing kills a program's impact and engagement faster than treating participants as a homogenous cluster.
But is there another way? We're about to find out.
Every time I travel back to France, it's usually after a year or two, so I naturally aim to spend time with all my friends and family. There are always two ways I could do this: I could throw a party and meet everyone in one shot, or I could have daily dinners with smaller groups.
By and large, throwing a party would be termed 'efficient' (maximum people met in the least amount of time). On the other hand, daily dinners would be termed 'effective' because the aim was really to spend time with everyone, which happens better in smaller groups.
Now, when it comes to leadership and culture development, there are similarly two ways to view the success of an L&OD team. Efficiency-focused metrics talk about how many programs can be run, with how many participants overall. Effectiveness-focused metrics talk about the number of participants who experience a deep shift.
Can one increase without harming the other? Can efficiency and effectiveness be killed with the same stone?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: read on!
Let's start with some back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Situation A: In our experience, L&OD teams with a hands-on approach are able to run 2 programs of 30 participants each annually. With a standard 80% engagement rate, and with 70% participants thereof experiencing a deep shift...
That would be 2 x 30 x 80% x 70% = 34 people who experience a deep shift.
Now, what if there's a less labour-intensive method of engagement, where a part of the participant's work is self-paced within groups? What if there’s a built-in course correction method to catch metaphoric wild doves before they're too far? What would the annual capacity look like?
Situation B: They could run slightly larger 50-person cohorts with a couple more programs in a year. There would be higher engagement of 90% and a higher proportion thereof of participants who experience a deep shift, say, 90%.
Now, the annual capacity of people who experience a deep shift is:
4 x 50 x 90% x 90% = 162 people
...or almost 5x higher than Situation A.
Those two extreme scenarios are potentially handled by the same L&OD team! Situation B has a method that’s customizable, but repeatable. And it also has a very high success rate.
The rest of the edition covers the three facets to having 1:1 participant focus.
Our co-founder Tal Ben-Shahar, right from when he won Israel's Junior Squash Championship, has had a growing plume of feathers in his cap. A perfectionism mindset drove him to excel. But it also drove him dangerously close to clinical depression. But then, as an academic who researched, taught, and wrote best-selling books on Positive Psychology, he also saved himself:
"The first step was to accept the reality that I could not have it all. While it seems obvious that you cannot work fourteen hours a day and remain fit and healthy and be a devoted father and husband, in my perfectionist fantasy world, nothing was impossible."
...That's the first facet of 1:1 focus: The program must meet the participant where they are by letting them shape their own growth agenda based on what's most meaningful to them. This single program design element makes it possible in theory for 100% of participants to be deeply engaged, and also practically likely that not a single participant is left behind at the get-go.
But well begun is only half done... An HR Head talks about this very aspect of partnering with Potentialife.
“First of all, the program was self-paced and brought with it the challenge of course completion. Secondly, I witnessed how module engagement data was leveraged to map on who needs 1:1 support. After several runs of 1:1 support, the cohort moved from initially having 20 frontrunners and 20 lukewarm participants, to 38 active participants committed to the program, and 2 who consciously decided to be on the sidelines.”
What Vivek shares highlights the second facet of 1:1 focus: Programs ought to be self-paced, but with a safety net.
The self-paced element enables sponsors to clearly observe the real pull that a program has, to segment participants based on degrees of engagement, and support those who aren't on track. Without the self-paced element (and with tight attendance mandates instead), it's difficult to know which participants are simply there to "tick boxes" and which have genuine interest.
An engagement tracking tool (like Potentialife's platform) provides insights to provide cluster-based support. Perhaps an entire group is behind because of a distracted anchor. Perhaps, it's a certain demographic. Or a business unit.
But even with cluster-based support, there will be participants who need more personalized support...
...Which brings us to the third facet of 1:1 focus: Plan capacity for 1:1 support with someone who has presence and credibility.
First of all, capacity planning needs to account for multiple approaches that some participants might need. It would be wrong to assume one conversation would do the trick.
Now, the thing with presence is that disengaged participants need support without any trace of judgment. They need neutral support in a way that does not insidiously invoke guilt in them. And they need support with zero pressure to conform, where it would be perfectly acceptable if they choose to not engage.
To truly embody this kind of support, we're sharing a one-page guide on having Coachlike Conversations. It's co-created by Potentialife India's Head Coach, Amrita Singh, and it enables program managers and sponsors to double-hat as providers of 1:1 support to participants.
The big opportunity here is that, often, it’s these very people who experience the biggest impact! They would have otherwise been left behind, but they choose to (re)engage on their own volition, for their own reasons, and claim a big victory.
In a program, participants may be fortunate to have regular 1:1 support. It's a practice so helpful that it's worth replicating in our personal lives, too. On offer is staying power to work on our goals and habits, support and ideas for when the going gets tough, and an ally to celebrate victories along the way!
Here are three things borrowed from 1:1 participant support that make an Accountability Partner arrangement work well:
Honest but non-judgmental. Select someone non-judgmental, and request them to be 100% honest, especially when you need a tough pill
Regular connects: Create recurring meetings on your calendar at a frequency that works, and don't miss a single one
Track growth. Create a tracking mechanism that frequently refers to the growth agenda set at the start, and a tab on the progress made thus far
We close out this section by prompting you to get an Accountability Partner for your journey towards building habits most meaningful to you.
Let's sum up this edition with three ideas:
Having 1:1 focus on each participant makes an L&OD team both more efficient (# people impacted) and more effective (overall impact created)
Enabling participants to shape their own agenda is the first crucial step to not leaving a single a participant behind
A self-paced program with a safety net at a cluster and individual level enables one to (re)engage participants and compound program impact
In Edition 6, we aim to share a nuanced take on the question, 'Can Leadership Development and happiness be simultaneously pursued?' Look out for it in three weeks. In the meantime, you could find our previous editions here.
We love playing the role of thought partners, so if you need more information or have something to ask, we're happy to set up an informal interaction with you, no strings attached.
Until the next edition!
