Balancing executive development: the Boral approach

In particular, the focus is around supporting a culture of performance, championing the Boral values (leadership, respect, focus, peformance and persistence), promoting a culture of safety and personal wellbeing, ensuring the company has the right people to meet its strategic intent, and supporting Boral’s commitment to sustainability.

Boral Learning Services, as part of the HR team, developed an Executive Development Program (EDP) in partnership with industry and academic experts and through consultation with Boral’s various business units.

Sally Anne Friedlander, general manager of Boral Learning Services, played a key role in overhauling the previous executive training program and developing the EDP. “My dream was to create an executive program that would role model all our management training. I knew we needed a program that would challenge people and groom them for where they need to be,” she states.

“It’s not just about reward, because you’ve already got them to a senior level. It has to have some stickiness – we’re not running a training program for training’s sake. And when you go on the program, you have to take what you learn and apply it back in the business.”

About the EDP

The Boral EDP is designed for senior, general and state managers and others who directly influence the strategic direction of the business. The program encompasses a range of topics including strategic management and planning, strategic marketing, financial management, strategic organisational development, leadership and change, life balance and wellbeing, employment equity, business innovation and team building.

The EDP has been operating since 1994. A total of 24 programs have been run, and 432 people have undergone the program. In short, the overall aim of the program is to equip senior managers with the strategic capabilities to run their part of the business successfully, Friedlander says.

The program comprises three key elements to its methodology: education, integration and application.

Education involves attendance at three live-in modules, each at least two months apart. The three modules are focused around the following topics: ‘Understanding self and others’, which focuses on the interpersonal skills needed to accomplish outstanding results; ‘Senior executive knowledge base’, which exposes participants to the latest strategic thinking across all areas of general management; while ‘Current executive issues’ provides participants with an opportunity to understand current global and local issues likely to influence business success.

Integration involves a real life case study about an existing Boral business and is used to link program theory to real world business challenges.

In application, action learning projects are used to link each of the program modules together, which are completed in teams. One of the measurable outcomes of these projects is that they must generate a combined minimum of $200,000 per program in savings or revenue – or $50,000 per project given that there are four projects completed per program. Outside of the cost involved in participants attending the program, any savings or revenue generated through the projects can be considered a clear addition to Boral’s bottom line.

“The way our training department is set up is that we’re coming in at cost neutral. So we have to try and recover our funds in everything we do, and that’s a fair call,” Friedlander explains. “Basically it means that the businesses pay for the training that they want. That can be a challenge, but if you can show them that they are going to get a return of their investment versus how much the training is costing, then you start to get some real traction and it moves from just being a training course to being a real learning and development intervention.”

Successes of the EDP

The EDP has been positioned as a prestigious program within the business that targets candidates earmarked as high potential performers.

This reputation has been built through the use of a number of strategies, including a rigorous selection process, proactive efforts to obtain organisational buy-in, and through the proven track record of the program to deliver tangible improvements to the business.

Candidates for the program are selected through a multifaceted process including ‘calls for nominations’, completion of an ‘employee estimate of potential’ and personal invitation. This process takes into account the feedback of one-up managers, an assessment of the potential of the candidate and their most senior likely position in the organisation, and the personal commitment of the candidate to the program and its outcomes.

Acceptance into the program is a significantly positive reflection of both the candidate’s contributions to date and the confidence of others in their ability to deliver in the future.

Senior buy-in and participation

One of the challenges for any learning provider is to obtain ongoing support from the businesses it serves. The EDP has wide buy-in and ongoing support across the Boral network, especially at the all-important senior level. There have been a number of factors that have contributed to this.

The action learning projects, which are central to the program, are all based around existing business issues. The projects are sourced through consultation with executive general managers across the organisation and are taken from their strategic business plans. Because each project is intended to deliver improvements of $50,000 it has been relatively easy to obtain the support of this management group where other programs might only generate minimal or passing interest, Friedlander says.

More projects are turned away than are able to be accepted for inclusion in the EDP. The selected projects are the ones that will make the greatest contribution to the organisation. The executive general managers who submit the project ideas act as project sponsors. In effect they become the ‘client’ and the EDP project teams become the ‘consultants’.

“Having the management committee put forward major business projects to link into the program has huge organisational impact. In the original stages, I had trouble getting one project from management committee. Now we turn them away, which has been amazing. We’re getting more projects than we can even handle,” Friedlander says.

Updates about current action learning projects are now a fixed agenda item whenever Boral’s executive committee meets. All 12 members of the committee also participate in the program as dinner guests, speakers or project sponsors.

Participant buy-in is generated through the rigorous selection process, but also as a result of the exposure they receive through involvement in the action learning projects. For many of them, this is an opportunity to show others what they are capable of and what, when given the opportunity, they are able to achieve, according to Friedlander.

EDP’s tangible business benefits

So far, all action learning projects have met the required minimum hurdle of $50,000. That amounts to a total of $600,000 as a result of the 12 projects undertaken since action learning was introduced to the EDP.

In fact, Friedlander says many projects have far surpassed this goal in terms of tangible outcomes, not to mention the less tangible and flow on benefits, including accelerated growth at an individual and team level, orientation towards major company objectives, and getting participants together from different geographical areas and businesses learning together, talking and working together, and implementing change together

The practical application of the EDP

There are two major processes incorporated into the EDP ensuring participants apply what they learn to real life situations. These are the action learning projects and the inclusion of a Boral-specific case study.

All action learning projects present a business problem or opportunity requiring strategic thinking in order to develop solutions. Projects come from a range of areas: business restructures; large capital proposals and cost/benefit analysis; specific change initiatives; policy development; process improvements; research and development, or market and product growth opportunities.

One example of a project completed in 2001 involved a team of Boral managers from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne taking on the issues of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action within Boral. The team came up with a number of recommendations that were subsequently presented to the executive management team, including:

• A comprehensive communication program including facilitated workshops.

• Inclusion of EEO/AA in Boral’s induction programs.

• Revision of recruitment tools and recruitment agency education.

• A range of measures to monitor progress.

As a result of their recommendations being implemented, Boral has realised savings in potential litigation, increased productivity, reduced recruitment costs, and increased diversity, Friedlander says.

Woven throughout the program is a case study based around an existing Boral business. The case study is introduced at a number of points during the program and participants are required to apply the topic they are working on to the various challenges faced by the business in the case study.

The case study activities culminate in a presentation back to the divisional head of the business used. This presentation consists of both a summary of the participant’s findings from the case study and their recommendations about what the business might concentrate on over the coming three to five years.

“People are now working on projects in parts of the business that they had no idea existed. And to be honest, if you worked in one of our divisions such as quarries, it’s really hard to understand the world outside of quarries,” she explains. “But it’s great for these guys – they all of a sudden realise that there’s this whole other world of the business that they can go and move into and they get really excited about that,” Friedlander says.

Boral EDP alumni

Past graduates are encouraged to attend future EDP modules. This supports their own ongoing personal and professional development, and opens up additional opportunities to share experiences with current participants, Friedlander has found.

Past graduates are also invited to come back as guest speakers or mentors and provide support and guidance in terms of helping current participants with their action learning projects. “I have people queuing to speak on the program. Senior managers approach me and ask if I can fit a particular topic in something they’d like to talk about. So that’s been a great change,” she says.

In addition, Friedlander is looking to set up further development opportunities for those who have already gone through the program. “There’s been a whole bunch of people who have been to the program, and what we’ve found is that their thirst for knowledge is growing. So what we want to do is say, well, where to from here?,” Friedlander asks. “What specialist or masterclass do you want? We’re looking at doing an alumni masterclass that will go on to the end of this program. We’re also looking to develop a mentoring program that will wrap around it, so anyone who’s been on the program can serve as mentors to future people who go on the program. There’s a lot expected already of people who go on the program, but as a leadership skill they can now mentor others and help them through it. That’s what we’re hoping to encourage.”

Wellbeing of EDP participants

In keeping with Boral’s organisational value of respect, the program has been created to take into consideration the wellbeing of the participants, Friedlander says. This happens in a number of ways:

• Training venues are selected around the level of comfort they offer both in terms of facilities and services.

• Each participant receives a fitness assessment from a certified fitness professional.

• Sports and relaxation breaks are built into the timetable.

• Monday morning of the program is a 10am start allowing participants to fly in on the day.

• Only healthy classroom snacks are made available.

• Break times are regular allowing participants to keep abreast of work matters, and timed to be ‘family friendly’.

• Partners are invited to attend the program’s graduation ceremony and dinner.

“We consider everything from the food they eat, to sending letters to partners thanking them for understanding and that we appreciate that they’ve been home with the kids,” Friedlander says. “With the wellbeing aspect, we try to really reinforce the message that, if you’re a senior level player with companies like us, the key thing you need to do is look after yourself. The better condition, physically and mentally that you’re in, the better you’ll perform. And they really get that and there’s a mutual respect there – that’s been really powerful as well.”