The Caprese Salad of distinctive management development

Management development has taken a strange turn over the last 10 or so years. With the advent of LinkedIn Learning, Udemy and a whole host of more bespoke learning platforms – we have entered the era of Netflix learning. The problem is that it has (d)evolved into something akin to: “Team member, when you’re bored, hop onto the platform and scroll until you find something you think is worth watching.”

Yes, many platforms have the functionality for L&D teams to set up learning journeys. This is often done with the good intention of adding value and saving line management time. L&D then police adherence with equal or less authority. Very little training gets done. A lot of nagging ensues.  

There is no surprise that I believe that there is a distinct issue with this approach – one that can be fixed with a Caprese Salad.

One of the best wine tastings I have ever been to centred around a caprese salad. Originating from the Isle of Capri in Italy, this super-simple crowd-pleaser starts with a half-inch slice of tomato (salt-and-peppered). You lay a healthy slice of top-quality mozzarella cheese on top of that. And then finish it off with a fresh basil leaf and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar glaze. Simple, stacked Mediterranean heaven. It works because it is a stack of very distinct flavours and textures. Acidity, cream, tartness, herbaceousness, salty, umami – it has it all. The tasting unpacked each of the flavours with a particular wine – giving you a deeper understanding of the core component. Then we put them all together and saw how the combination changed the context of various wine pairings. Unforgettable – obviously.

This knowledge flowed over into my cooking. Whenever I cook a tomato-based dish, I walk through the caprese salad and think through the different elements and how I am incorporating them into the meal prep and presentation to round out all the flavours and have a wine to compliment. The Caprese Salad is the core flavour map.

So, what does this have to do with management development? I believe we are missing our Caprese Salad. We have thousands of ingredients, flavours, sauces, and spices in our management development pantry. And we push our managers into this over-stocked L&D pantry - without defining our Caprese Salad first.

Structure is what Management Development is missing. Collaborative, inspiring and engaging structure.

There is a fundamental set of skills and management essence that underlies all people management roles – across functions and industries.

Facets like managing ourselves, problem solving, structured communication, managing team effectiveness, influencing, and developing the team, etc. While I have my own model of cross-functional Executive Management skills, what is most important is the internal alignment amongst your senior line management on YOUR ways of working. Defining your caprese salad. The core stack of flavours that will underlie all the dishes your managers cook up. Your common manager language.

This has a threefold effect:

• These concepts, tools and frameworks are an internal language that is seen, shared and expected. This fosters fundamental line led buy in.

• Because managers see these tools and concepts being used on the job – and presented in your employee handbook – there is a desire to learn and master them to be an effective manager in your business. This creates pull factor.

• L&D now has a clear short list of useful AND interesting tools and concepts that they can work with management to prioritise and layer into an impactful and highly-applicable management development programme.

In a nutshell: Make sure everybody likes Caprese Salad. Get everyone eating Caprese Salad. And make sure the basil is on top and not the bottom of your Caprese Salad! 

So where do we start?

1. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Start by engaging your senior management team on what universal concepts and tools are already out there in your company.

2. Collaborate on an executive heatmap to identify potential gaps – we want to ensure your universal management development menu is comprehensive.

3. See what is out there. Draw off internal and external experience and approaches. Then identify and align on the new frameworks to fill the gaps.

4. Work with leadership to set the right priorities and develop a universal management learning journey.

5. Once your learning journey is syndicated and signed off, you can identify the right training on each of the various learning journey blocks and launch an interesting and effective management development programme.

We at The Management Distillery have been designing salads for over 20 years.