Learning from others, your way
VITO joins CMMP
Early
this year, the Flemish Institute for Technological
Research (VITO) joined Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School’s Consortium
Middle Management Programme (CMMP). “Just perfect,” is HR Manager
Anne-Mie Van de Wiele’s verdict.
VITO overhauled its organisational structure well over a year ago, which brought several new faces into the ranks of middle management. To support the newcomers and give old hands some refresher training, VITO was keen to immerse the whole group, some 20 to 25 people, in a management programme that would cover all aspects of middle management.
Why did VITO opt for the consortium format?
Anne-Mie Van de Wiele: “We initially considered organising training within the company, but finally made a conscious decision to go for the consortium format. With an in-company training course, you work in your own environment, with your own people. For this programme, we thought that interaction with fellow participants in similar jobs at other companies could be at least as relevant as the formal classroom sessions in terms of developing management skills. An open enrolment programme wasn’t an option either. We wanted our entire middle management to complete the training within two years, so they would have to do it in groups of five to seven people each time. The open enrolment programmes place a lot of emphasis on the diversity of the participant group, which meant that we could only enrol a few VITO managers at a time. Another important advantage of the consortium is the ceiling on the number of participating companies, which allows both the School and the students to focus more on company-specific issues.”
The consortium for middle management was already established. Did you feel comfortable joining it?
Anne-Mie Van de Wiele: “The composition of the consortium was just perfect for VITO. We’re a research organisation. If the participants had been mainly production companies, the gap between us – in terms of management needs, for instance – would have been just a bit too large. But we slotted in surprisingly well among the companies that belonged to the consortium at that time. Like us, some of them have public-sector connections; others are also involved in research or have links with the energy industry. We have enough common ground, while complementing one another well in other areas.”
The first group of managers has now nearly completed the CMMP. What are your impressions?
Anne-Mie Van de Wiele: “We haven’t yet carried out an extensive evaluation, but the consortium programme has confirmed my reasons for choosing it. It’s good for a group to get away from the workplace for a while and immerse themselves in management matters. Colleagues also get to know one another in different ways; that, too, creates a positive dynamism. The interaction with other companies is another important advantage. The group is varied, yet small enough for the participants to forge relationships.”
What do you do to ensure the programme benefits the workplace?
Anne-Mie Van de Wiele: “We know that our managers return with new expertise. It’s important that we give them an opportunity to make best use of it, and that we ensure certain rules or arrangements don’t keep them from putting what they’ve learned into practice. To avoid that, we will shortly be conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the programme. I also see benefit in the final project on which participants from the same company work as a team. Our people deliberately picked a subject that is very topical for VITO at the moment: ‘VITO goes international’. But that was too broad to tackle within the context of one single project. The team chose instead to focus on a number of specific aspects and hope that the next group will pick up where they left off, so that by the end of the second programme cycle VITO will have a dossier covering the entire subject. You can really feel the managers’ drive to have VITO’s investment in them pay off.”
What are the critical factors for a successful consortium project?
Anne-Mie Van de Wiele: “The board felt that our middle managers should do the training, but it’s important for the participants themselves to acknowledge and accept the need for it. Of course, there’s still the question whether the outcome of the programme coincides with our training requirements. The programme serves as a guideline, but the final answer will emerge only once it’s all over. It’ll depend to a large extent on the teaching staff, the participants and the interaction between the two. Another important point is the degree of applicability. To what extent are the participants able to apply what they’ve learned to their own work environment? This process can differ from one person to the next, depending on their own development or the project environment in which they work. The approach adopted should ideally leave a margin for each participant to extract from it what is most important for him or her. We’ll see that in the improvement in leadership. Will our middle managers be able to translate the company’s goals to their unit, research team or individual tasks? And how successful will they be in positioning themselves and their unit within VITO and in the market? We’re looking forward to seeing what happens.”
Vlerick consortium programme
A consortium training programme brings together groups of participants from a limited number of companies pursuing the same management development objectives. The different companies in the partnership help determine course content and approach. Thanks to various tailored elements, managers from each company can focus on their own organisation’s needs.
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