We've probably all experienced it. Gone on an inspirational course about business development or marketing or management and come back to base to find (a) no interest from colleagues (b) no understanding that you have truly changed and (c) a cloying cynicism that discourages change and improvement.
I attended the Leading Professional Services Firms course in Harvard Business School some years ago and experienced just this. It is a remarkable course that teaches all aspects of running a firm and managing professionals through a series of case studies.
It pays to have done the case study because the Harvard professors teach by probing individuals to find out what they have understood, moving around an audience of 80 odd people so there is literally no place to hide. Then using a chalk and talk approach they capture the key lessons form the study.
It is an immense learning experience and you leave Boston for your home country feeling positively evangelical, brimming with ideas for improving your practice all ready to proselytize and spread the faith - only to be met with the cold shower reaction described above.
There is a danger that pretty soon all the learning will evaporate and the old ways will resume. How can this be prevented?
I suggest first recognising the problem and having a game plan for yourself and for persuading others to make a few simple changes towards better practice first. Form a network with others who have had the same experience and been on the course and share ideas. And maybe just bring the course to your partners in some way. In one firm I worked in we engaged one of the professors from Harvard to come to England and help us with strategic changes to our practice.
And above all don't give up. The lessons will be valid and sometimes just need to be remembered and reinforced.
I attended the Leading Professional Services Firms course in Harvard Business School some years ago and experienced just this. It is a remarkable course that teaches all aspects of running a firm and managing professionals through a series of case studies.
It pays to have done the case study because the Harvard professors teach by probing individuals to find out what they have understood, moving around an audience of 80 odd people so there is literally no place to hide. Then using a chalk and talk approach they capture the key lessons form the study.
It is an immense learning experience and you leave Boston for your home country feeling positively evangelical, brimming with ideas for improving your practice all ready to proselytize and spread the faith - only to be met with the cold shower reaction described above.
There is a danger that pretty soon all the learning will evaporate and the old ways will resume. How can this be prevented?
I suggest first recognising the problem and having a game plan for yourself and for persuading others to make a few simple changes towards better practice first. Form a network with others who have had the same experience and been on the course and share ideas. And maybe just bring the course to your partners in some way. In one firm I worked in we engaged one of the professors from Harvard to come to England and help us with strategic changes to our practice.
And above all don't give up. The lessons will be valid and sometimes just need to be remembered and reinforced.
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