Developing as a Leader Suite, Part I.

Developing as a Leader Suite, Part I, Online Training, 2006, Harvard Business School Publishing E-learning, $65-$95.

Support: facilitator guide, assessments.

Has your mentor suggested you start reading Harvard Business Review? Has your training department explored offering Harvard Business School Publishing resources for executive training? Exposure to HBSP learning materials can contribute to the personal journey toward effective leadership.

Learning about leadership through Internet offerings is an optimal choice for busy executives, and HBSP's eCourse suite, Developing as a Leader, will supplement the on-the-job experience of managers, both current and aspiring. The suite consists of eight courses (once, I presume, offered individually). I reviewed one of the courses, Stepping up to Management, in early 2006 and found it provided excellent tactical advice for beginning managers.

The leadership suite gives managers and leaders of all types of organizations the chance to learn from situation-based scenarios and provides support materials that encourage individual growth, reflection, and action on a more strategic level. HBSP has consistently lived up to its famous brand with expert content, delivered in an organized and compelling manner. Their commitment to innovation and timely dissemination of new learning is well worth the investment of less than $100 per user.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The courses provide the right amount of content and the right instructional design methodology. They use diversified teaching methods tailored to the self-directed adult learner. Although some of the content is idiosyncratic, based on expert academic research which often has the propensity to promote small insights as breakthroughs, Developing as a Leader deserves a four star rating.

In order to include a description and evaluation of each course, I am discussing the suite in two separate reviews. In this review I cover my general overall likes and dislikes and evaluate four modules: Leading with Emotional Intelligence, Influencing and Motivating Others, Managing Change, and Decision Making.

What I like

From a long list of worthwhile features, I have culled eight major ones:

* A unique interactive feature allows the learner to prioritize which subject areas (courses) are important and orders the modules upon completion of an assessment. This "intelligent" feature orders the material according to personal preference.

* The instructional design philosophy is grounded in experiential learning (case based) and relies on adult learner theory, which correctly presupposes that adults will seek more material of interest and therefore includes HBR articles and worksheets. Personal action plans are also encouraged.

* The case scenarios make use of contemporary challenges such as an ethnically diverse workforce and modern communications devices like email and voicemail to develop the stories.

* The course displays a flowchart of the players in each story and even allows the learner to listen to an audio clip of each character.

* The scenarios require the learner to pause and reflect and make a decision by selecting one of three paths. Feedback is provided at the end of each story path.

* The content is delivered in multiple ways (interactive tools, readings, and audio-enhanced stories) that appeal to various learning styles.

* The interactive tools present a sort of artificial intelligence that enables the learners to evaluate their proficiency.

* The content is plentiful and is based on the writings of contemporary leadership experts. Links are provided to relevant books listed on the HBSP website.

What I did not like

Even in an excellent curriculum, I found areas for improvement:

* Let's get beyond recording a learners progress by viewing pages. Although HBSP uses the Docent learning management system engine, the suite does not take full advantage of it. HBPS should consider features such as the ability to publish a personal review of a course or communicate with other learners through a discussion thread. It would help to see how other executives scored on average on some of the assessment exercises.

* The navigational structure needs clarity. The web interface design simply has too many levels. Understanding how to navigate has its own learning curve. For example, there is no simple way of determining which of the eight modules you are in. Designers found it necessary to include a site map, which speaks for itself.

* OK, although I realize HBSP has thrown the proverbial kitchen sink of instructional design techniques at these courses, they should consider providing a printable checklist for each lesson to accommodate those of us who are pedestrian learners.

* Oh, and thanks for the abundance of Harvard Business Review articles in printable PDF's, but please provide them in a smaller file size. The files are so large that they are difficult to download even at broadband speeds.

Leading Teams with Emotional Intelligence

This module examines emotional intelligence as it relates to team leadership. Heavily influenced by Daniel Goleman's book Primal Leadership, it demonstrates the importance of practicing self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

Learning is centered on the module scenario that takes place in a communications firm. The director of account services receives notice that her star performer is leaving for another job within the company. Team members are vying for the open position, and the director must make decisions about handling individual and team emotions.

The learner has the opportunity to review the players and their positions. The learner is then required to make decisions concerning both individuals and the team. There is no right or wrong answer, just different paths depending on the decision. The feedback encourages personal reflection and use of the Tools tab. Most of the tools are interactive exercises.

For example, the tool called "Analyzing Your Group's Emotional Intelligence" allows the learner to pick ten statements from a matrix that will evaluate the group's emotional intelligence based on the three parameters of individual, group, and cross boundary emotional intelligence. When I used this tool it reinforced my own current perception, as I scored low on individual emotional intelligence and high on understanding the dynamics of group emotional intelligence.

Developing an action plan based on what has been learned is another important learning strategy employed by the designers of this series. The main menu, in addition to providing a case scenario, and tools link, has a Resources feature with links to Harvard Business Review articles such as:

* "Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance" by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee

* "Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups" by Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steven B. Wolff

* "Tension in Teams" by Jim Kling.

Influencing and Motivating Others

In this course you play the role of an insurance company executive who must motivate employees to help develop a new product to propel the business out of a spiraling decline. This involves motivating direct reports, peers and even superiors.

As Hank Stanley wrote in TMR when he reviewed this specific course: "[It] focuses on demanding and getting better results, motivating employees, leading peers, establishing goals, persuading through negotiation and compromise, establishing credibility, framing goals on common ground, and connecting emotionally. It contains many of the ingredients for not only influencing and motivating others but also gaining power and influence to effect change and produce a positive outcome for the company as a whole."

HBSP follows the successful pattern of relying on noted experts and articles published in the Harvard Business Review to anchor the content and add color to the context of the learning scenario: "Demand Better Results--And Get Them" by Robert Schaffer, "One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees" by Frederick Herzberg, and "The Necessary Art of Persuasion" by Jay A. Conger. The interactive tools allow you to evaluate your own ability to persuade and to motivate and enhance employee performance. It is a bonus to be able to test yourself and to review remedial feedback.

Managing Change

Considering that 70% of all change initiatives fail, leaders will benefit greatly from taking the course. It is based on the writings of John P. Kotter, Jeanie Daniel Duck, Michael Beer, Nitin Nohria, and Eric Abrahamson. The basic concepts are delivered in a scenario in which youlead a talented R & D group at BestMed, a pharmaceutical company. Your goal: to align your group with BestMed's change initiatives and manage the impact of change on team members.

Learning moments focus on your understanding that change involves phases and a focused communications plan. A key metaphor is assembling a delicate mobilemade up of content, processes, and employee emotions and behaviors--with each "hang part" dependent on the other.

The case is supplemented with four HBR articles:

* "Change Without Pain" by Eric Abrahamson

* "Cracking the Code of Change" by Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria

* "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail" by John P. Kotter

* "Managing Change: The Art of Balancing" by Jeanie Daniel Duck

The three interactive tools allow you to measure your ability to create a climate of change, manage change, and implement multiple change strategies. Your personal rating will depend on how well you have assimilated the concepts of the primary authors. As busy adults, we need our learning to be personal and relevant to our daily lives. Passion for learning increases if made more relevant. HBSP accomplishes this through the interactive assessments that increase learner passion and reinforce learner knowledge.

Decision Making

Another course I found personally relevant focuses on bias in decision making, the role of intuition, utilizing processes and a decision matrix, and the importance of making fast decisions. It is primarily based on the writings of John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, Howard Raiffa, and Alden M. Hayashi.

In the case scenario, you are the Director of Customer Service at a telephone company that is aggressively selling into new markets. Business is booming. Your staff is stressed out and overworked, and your group is not performing according to your manager's expectations.

There are three acts to this story. In the first, you learn how not to make bad decisions based on avoiding "thinking traps" and the "sunk cost" trap. In act two, you learn how to make rational decisions by using documented matrixes to simplify the process of making complex decisions. In the third and final act, you learn about how to make fast decisions by adding the use of intuition and content to your decision-making process.

Supporting HBR articles include:

* "The Hidden Traps in Decision Making" by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa

* "Even Swaps: A Rational Method for Making Trade-offs" by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa

* "When to Trust Your Gut" by Alden M. Hayashi

One of the interactive tools in this course helps you assess your vulnerability to common decision-making traps. Another Tool walks you step-by-step through an example of how to make a complex decision. Each step in the example provides comments for understanding the process.

The Tool also lets you print out blank worksheet forms at key steps for use in your own decision making. I found these exercises to be helpful and relevant. For example, I am personally in the middle of determining where to move my twelve-person business and found building a decision matrix to be helpful.

Recommendation

The Harvard Business School brand name is often associated with the high and the mighty in the business world. But the institution has a long history of helping individuals at earlier stages of their careers. These online courses further the tradition and don't neglect aspects of leadership, such as emotional intelligence, that are frowned on by traditionalists.

Review by Jon Aleckson

Product Ratings

Developing as a Leader Suite, Part I

Interface            * 1/2
Holds user interest  *** 1/2
Production quality   ***
Interactivity        ****
Value of Content     ****
Instructional Value  *** 1/2
Value for the money  ***
Overall rating       ****