Ashridge Tailored Executive Education - News and events

Ashridge has been awarded a close second place position at the European Foundation of Management Development (EFMD) Excellence in Practice Awards 2009.

The submission paper highlights our long standing relationship with Alfa Laval and the recent Strategy Engagement Programme.

The majority of this intervention involved virtual work to deliver on business-critical strategic issues. It demonstrates clearly that the virtual approach can deliver significant business benefits, not to mention the financial and carbon footprint savings from the virtual programme design.

The Ashridge paper was shortlisted from 24 entries indicating the quality of Ashridge work and submission. On 7 June 2009, Ashridge’s Mike Malmgren and Ghislaine Caulat were joined by Alfa Laval client Peter Bailliere to deliver an impressive presentation to the audience of the EFMD Conference. Ashridge were highly commended by the EFMD.

Read more

Doing more with less was the underlying theme during the one day event Leadership for recovery: Maintaining Impact, Maximising Value. Through facilitated sessions Ashridge explored some of the main challenges participants (international HR and Learning and Development Managers from both private and public sectors) are facing within their organisations. Change and risk, employee engagement and talent were revealed to be the most pressing areas. Ashridge’s Ghislaine Caulat and Mike Malmgren also led a session around virtual working, based on their extensive research and internationally acclaimed client work in this field, and Vicki Culpin closed the day with a lively session on learning transfer - making the most of your training budget by making learning stick.

Guests were invited to continue the development of these themes in a two hour follow-up virtual workshop, where the participants could examine their own organisation’s appetite for risk and the implications this presents.

On 17 June Ashridge ran one of its special events Leading in Turbulent Times.

Drawing on recent Ashridge research (In the Thick of It) into how leaders and their organisations are responding to the economic crisis, this event explored challenges being faced by managers and leaders in business today. The event was a mix of faculty input, case study work and facilitated discussions by Ashridge tutors and consultants.

The event provided perspectives on these challenging times in a number of different contexts ranging from, at a macro scale, the global economy, through to the impact on industry, business leadership responses and employee motivation/reactions. On a micro level, the event concluded with thoughts on how we can better understand the psychological and physical impact of stress, anxiety and change on ourselves to help cope with the challenges we and our organisation face every day.

Full agenda

29-30 May 2009 - The Art of Possibility with Benjamin Zander and Jonas Ridderstråle

Overview of the day
Baldwin and Ford’s 1988 ‘Model of the Transfer Process’ was used as the red thread running throughout this day. The model refers to the three core elements which have an impact on participants’ application of learning.

Stefan Wills (senior faculty specialising in leadership and behaviour) picked up on two of these elements, ‘Participant characteristics’ and ‘Programme design’, by exploring the vital role of Will and Desire in achieving genuine learning and change. Stefan drew on his wide experience to share his techniques for accessing deep layers of personal growth and discuss how it is possible to push learning through the surface skills and behaviours into the core values and beliefs of an individual.

Vicki Culpin, Research Director, also addressed these elements by sharing research findings and the relationships between ‘Muscle Memory’ (a relatively new concept incorporated into the designs of many Ashridge programmes including the Future Leaders Experience), meaningfulness and the Forgetting Curve. Vicki demonstrated how they can be worked together to aid stronger learning retention and transfer.

Ellen Pruyne, Ashridge Research Fellow, used improvisation techniques in practical exercises to help participants experience and then understand the most effective design of 'sticky' learning experiences. Ellen is currently leading an Ashridge research project called Designing Learning for the Individual to both identify the important learning principles emerging from the latest research and develop a more sophisticated approach to the assessment of individual learning in executive education. The learning assessment project is being conducted in collaboration with Professor Kurt Fischer and colleagues at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Tony Sheehan, Learning Services Director, built on the discussions by picking up some of the practical ways in which learning can be revisited once a participant has left the learning environment and is back in their workplace, showing how - when linked with the principles of the Forgetting Curve - virtual learning becomes a genuine vehicle for development and learning retention. Tony expanded on the evolution of virtual learning and how it can be more appropriately aligned to individual needs, learner goals and programme outcomes.

To conclude the day, Narendra Laljani, Director, Ashridge Qualifications Programmes, referenced his interviews with CEOs regarding “high impact learning moments” and the important role that the work environment plays in allowing a person to both reflect on and make-sense of learning. The characteristics of a learning environment were debated. Participants were challenged to consider the key message that learning equips people to question the status quo and therefore often has subversive outcomes: ”So, what are you going to do with that learning back at the workplace?”

The Ashridge Tailored Executive Education Event on Talent Management was held on Tuesday 19 February 2008. Prior to the event participants were asked to consider the following questions:

• How do you maximise the potential of talented employees?
• What do other organisations' Talent Management systems look like and achieve?
• How can development programmes help manage, nurture and develop talent?

Marcus Powell lead the morning with a mixture of input around his Talent Management research and open/small group discussions around, amoungst other topics, the identified current TM issues and challenges; issues of defining talent; and the implications of TM processes for extraordinary talent and high potentials.

Participants also had the opportunity to explore the offerings of Ashridge Executive Education including Tailored, Open, Consulting and Qualifications allowing them to gather supplementary information and a greater understanding of the services available.

The Executive Summary of the Talent Management research is now available for you to view.

Please contact matthieu.foskett@ashridge.org.uk for further details