How to Deliver your Slides and Graduate on Time

Speed is one of the main reasons managers fail Manager Bootcamp. With more time, almost every single manager would be able to graduate the program. Our quality bar is elite and hitting the timeframe is intentionally not easy. At the same time, it’s completely doable. The best managers have graduated in less than 4 weeks.

The #1 way to ensure you graduate on time is to follow the model calendar we’ve provided. If you were accepted into the program, are good at welcoming negative feedback, and follow this calendar, you will graduate. Every manager who has failed did not follow this calendar. What does it mean to ‘follow the model calendar’? It simply means that before your week starts, you should build the model calendar on your calendar and then stick to it.

Step 1: Study the Model Calendar — pay attention to which frameworks and slides should be completed per week. The model calendar is broken into both weekly and daily granularity:

Step 2: Build your calendar to match the model calendar

Best Practices

1. Time Boxing

Everyone says they will time box but very few people actually do. Timeboxing is a double whammy victory: it helps reduce the time you spend on distractions and it helps you spend more time on the valuable activities. For distractions like email, you want to set aside small chunks where you only do email. For valuable activities, like reading a chapter from the textbook, you want to set aside large chunks during which you turn off all distractions (literally quit the Skype application and close all tabs in your browser besides the one you want to work on) and only do the valuable activity.

Anyone can create a time box plan but few managers have the discipline to actually stick to it. It’s nice in theory to have uninterrupted deep work periods but they come at a cost most are unwilling to pay. If you want to reap the benefits of time boxes, you have to be willing to ignore very tempting distractions — you have to be willing to make people wait and let things break as you spend time on what really matters.

Btw good time boxes are labeled and planned in advance. Example:

2. Iterative slide development

Many managers have also failed because they attack their slides the wrong way. These managers have tried to store all the info and construct an elegant solution in their head. They collect, collect, and collect, and then expect to be able to write a perfect slide on attempt 1. Instead, you should iterate every day on a slide until it passes the IQB. Spend 30 minutes on 1 slide for 3 days — each day adding more insights and refinement until it’s ready for peer review. You should certainly make progress on multiple slides per day.

3. Establish a peer review study group

Before a coach will provide a pass/fail distinction, managers must pass a peer review. The large group chat contains everyone currently in the program and is one place to go when you’re looking for a peer review. However, if you rely solely on such a large group, you may not get the turnaround time you need. Instead, it’s recommended to find 2 other people you enjoy working with and form a peer review study group. You can use this group to get quick peer reviews and for help and advice as you tackle slides.