Investing in yourself: maximising the ROI

Since 2018, we’ve helped early-stage start-up teams strategically focus on their development and leadership. Using a unique and non-invasive approach, we’ve combined off-site sessions, assessments and group coaching through 6-month scale programmes. We’ve worked with companies backed by the world’s leading investors: Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, Seedcamp and many more.

We had a mission to create an intervention so impactful that it changed the trajectory of a founder’s journey and performance. This ambitious mission spurred us to revisit the founders who graduated our programme after two months to track the changes in their behaviour. Much to our disappointment, the effect on their company, team and behaviour was minimal even though when they left, participants gave the programme an average 92 NPS. Although we knew the ‘seminar effect’, is an industry-wide problem, we felt a strong duty of care towards our founders to develop a post-programme intervention to translate these reflections and learnings into practical actions.

Our research has caused a U-turn in our product and approach. We’re now publishing our findings to help you also change your approach to your professional development.

If you’re a leader, decision-maker or have management aspirations, you’ve probably devoted some time to accelerate your professional growth. On average, professionals spend 5 hours per week on some form of development. Methods range from formal learning experiences to casual or self-taught investments such as listening to a podcast, reading, joining a webinar, etc. The seminar effect describes how participants often leave these experiences feeling well-informed, motivated and fired-up but, no matter how talented, will forget 70% of what they learned within days; struggling to transfer even their most powerful off-site experiences into changed behaviour on the front line. While there is evidence of some attitude change after particular interventions, there is — unfortunately — a limited change in day-to-day behaviour.

We want to help leaders like you close your knowledge-behaviour gap. Our suggestions are consistent with the following model of behavioural change: behaviour originates from attitudes, which develop into intentions, and finally shape actions. We’ve compiled a list of questions and suggestions that can be used before or during a learning experience (whether it be a coaching session, podcast or leadership course) to help you translate your learnings into action.

LET’S GET PRACTICAL

Throughout the learning experience, consider the following:

• How can you turn this theory/framework/anecdote into a practical action to take back into your role?
• How can you break down those larger — possibly scarier and more abstract — objectives into smaller steps that are tangible and achievable?

CHANGE YOUR MINDSET

Our habit of treating soft skills like they’re not “real” skills, or trying to devalue them, does us no favours. When we’re called upon to do them ourselves, we quickly find out that they’re not trivial. We need to value these skills as serious professional skills, training and hiring people to have them — the exact same way we do with every other critical skill.

• Change your mind-set. This investment needs work and practice.

PREPARATION

When we’re busy or stressed we forget to apply our new skills and default to our old ways. If your weeks are characterised by information overload and back-to-back meetings, you’re more likely to draw on your automatic thought processes to make decisions. “System 1 thinking”, as coined by Daniel Kahnemann, describes this as our brain’s fast and automatic approach; a state where we’re less likely to make thoughtful choices. Whether chronic or acute, with stress we lose sight of what’s important, leading us to de-prioritise actions or give in to biases.

Our brains are busier than ever and while we can’t change the conditions of our workplace, being sleep deprived or over-stressed leads to satisficing. Here, we make cognitive shortcuts to speed up decision making so that we don’t pursue the best option but the one that is good enough.

• Set time aside (maybe over the weekend or a Monday morning) to thoughtfully prepare for high-priority interactions to give you time to adjust how you might communicate or behave in those situations.

TIME

German psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus, outlines in the ‘forgetting curve model’ that if new information is not applied, we forget 75% of it in just 6 days.

• With this in mind, identify at least one situation within the next week where your learning can be applied immediately.
• Spaced repetition of a new skill is vital. Can you schedule another time to build muscle memory?

OPPORTUNITY

Sometimes, training is pre-emptive in preparation for an upcoming change in structure or role. And it can be difficult to translate skills to your company or role if the training has been tailored around a specific role, situation or management level. So your current role might not give you the opportunity to practice your new-found skills.

• Consider some of the transferable skills you can apply.
• Think creatively, where else can you practise these professional skills?

BE PREPARED FOR THE LONG GAME

DropBox Founder and CEO Drew Houston suggests that a “healthy paranoia for trying to find out what you don’t know that you don’t know,” should form the bedrock of your approach to personal development. By giving yourself this space, this objectivity, you’ll start developing the behaviours and skills to tackle the challenges your company will face in the future. It’s a process that takes time. As Houston says “you’re not going to become a great manager overnight.”

• “Ask yourself: 6 months… 12 months… 5 years from now, what will I wish I had been doing today or learning today?”
• You may be facing a vertical learning curve if you’ve had a sudden change in role or team responsibility. It’s not always easy to try something new. It takes courage, and the longer you leave it, the harder it becomes. Don’t procrastinate — schedule in time for practice, feedback and then repetition.

STRUCTURAL CHANGE

Going back into the work environment after an off-site experience is difficult. There is no-one reinforcing your new learnings; it’s business as usual and people aren’t talking or caring about the same things. Finding even one person to keep track of your journey and hold you accountable can counter this. Changing the structure and critical systems is crucial, but it takes time.

• Backing from even one senior leader, a coach or a mentor can help sustain motivation and bring clarity to your thinking.
• Bring them alongside your journey to help keep yourself accountable.

FEEDBACK

It’s difficult to see the impact of small changes as the outcome is usually a lagging indicator of the behaviours that precede them.

• Build-in systems or opportunities into your week to receive immediate feedback to refine your understanding and approach.

We believe small changes in habits will make a big impact, but as with the busiest of people, we understand it’s difficult to manage by yourself. At Multiplii, we’ve built a nudge tool that helps you make small changes in your leadership, communication and behaviour in the workplace. We use behavioural science to understand how you process information and the heuristics in leadership judgment and decision-making to build an approach that is suited to you, your company and your life.