Rethinking development for ScaleUps

This year all eyes are on profitability and sustainable growth. At the same time, retention is top of mind for all ScaleUps and investors, and businesses need to ensure that the right people stay. Development is a key part of most retention strategies, so we brought together 26 senior ScaleUp people leaders to discuss how to keep development front of mind even when budgets are tight.

To begin with it’s helpful to think of two questions. The first is ‘what are the cost-effective options I can roll-out at scale?’ and the second is ‘how do I maximise any time/money invested in development?’

Cost-effective development for ScaleUps

Development is so much more than formal training courses, and in ScaleUps there are opportunities to learn every single day. There is a wealth of options that cost little to nothing, but take some time to set up properly. These include; mentoring, peer coaching, group coaching, stretch projects, lunch and learns, and networks to name a few. With the appropriate level of support and set-up these can have a huge impact on leaders without breaking the bank.

In addition to the above, formal coaching and training does of course have an important role to play. However, time and again these initiatives are rolled out in isolation – with no context and no plan for application of the learning.

Amplifying the impact of learning

Time is the most precious commodity in a ScaleUp. So if you want your people to take some time to develop themselves, it better be crystal clear that this drives value for the business, and serves their own self-interest too. The content can be linked up to the purpose, values, and strategy of your company, so that it feels relevant and timely for your leaders.?As is the case with so many things when growing at speed, this is one area where it’s worth taking the time to slow down to speed up. Before pressing go on that programme, make sure it’s all grounded in the context of your company.

As well as protecting time to enrich a programme with company context, it’s crucial that there’s a holistic plan to embed the learning. How will participants be held to account? What will you be measuring beyond ‘happy sheets’? Will leaders really have to explain what’s worked / what hasn’t in their next session? Will direct reports and managers provide feedback on the skills in action? What will drive social norms and maybe even create a sense of healthy competition amongst the cohort? How else do your people need to be supported to change behaviour (be that by nudges, self-directed learning, mentors etc)? There should be a plan in place for this before the programme goes live, and it should iterate as the programme evolves over time.

So what have other ScaleUp people leaders struggled with, and what’s worked well when it comes to development?

We broke our group into three breakouts and here are the key takeaways:

●?????What does good look like??- Founders often have a list of things they don’t want from their people, rather than what they do want. Before charging down the path of creating an L&D programme, have you partnered with the Exec team to define what good looks like? What’s the before/after shift you would hope to see, and what does success look like?

●?????Prioritise?- Nearly everything the People function would like to focus on is a good thing (from inclusion to manager training, to performance etc) but you can’t do it all at once. Prioritise based on the strategic direction of the business, and the audiences or topics that will have the most impact

●?????Don’t just think about the top – It’s tempting to focus only on the top team, or on those identified as ‘high performing’. But what about your solid performers that you absolutely do not want to lose? As we’ve shown above, there are cost-effective ways to develop everyone, and people need to feel invested in to stay

●?????Proactive career development – Especially for those earlier in their career, there is sometimes an assumption that learning comes top down and has to be very formalised. Of course the reality is far from this. One leader shared how they developed an internal career development module which was all about taking accountability for one’s own development, and the steps/skills you need to set your career development in motion

●?????Get to know your people – Life is busy, and many ScaleUps are working in largely remote or hybrid teams, so it’s all too easy not to make time for your people. This poses a huge risk, as we don’t know how people are, what engages them, and what they need. This is not a People function concern, this is for everyone. All your managers and leaders need to step-up and equip themselves with the skills to have these relationship-building conversations

●?????Demystify coaching – Building a coaching and/or feedback culture requires everyday habits to change. Train your people (especially your managers) on coaching and feedback fundamentals, so that these are understood and become part of the everyday. Think about the micro changes you can make that create a big impact over time (e.g. leaving 2 mins for feedback in every meeting)

●?????Create cohorts and community – Be intentional about how you form and support cohorts on an ongoing basis. Bringing together groups of managers to share, learn, (and sometimes vent to each other) builds connection and trust which are essential for high performance and innovation

●?????Exec leader exposure programme – Think about how you can leverage your exec team to become more visible and accessible for those earlier in their careers. This can be a powerful vehicle to understand how people’s careers have developed, and to reconnect with the bigger picture

Thanks for taking the time to read this summary of our latest virtual roundtable. The next event is taking place on 30th of March. We’ll be discussing how to retain top talent in ScaleUps and our guest speaker is Geraldine Butler-Wright, Chief People Officer at StreamElements. Contact Kusia Pell if you'd like to join us.