Shifting to Online Leadership Programs

When the COVID-19 crisis first occurred the immediate reaction of many organisations was to protect their staff, self and office self-isolate and to batten down the hatches including calling off all non-essential training. This usually included leadership training- except for a few daring organisations went against the tide and moved their leadership online and kept it going.

While many companies postponed or shutdown leadership development during  the COVID-19 crisis, several organisation decided to press ahead and invest time and resources into developing their leaders and that these programs were seen as valuable in helping the organisation navigate through difficult times. The collaboration and cooperation between the senior managers, the professionals in training and development and Integral to adjust and revise the program so that it provides relevant, useful ideas and skills for participants is a key. There is research that shows that those companies that invest in training and development during downturns and crisis, come through better in terms of profit and employee satisfaction. We often refer to this research, these three cases gave us real life experience seeing how this occurs with the people who attend these programs. 

NOPSEMA
(National Offshore Petroleum Safety Environmental Management Authority)

NOPSEMA has started two programs with face-to-face training, the Emerging Leadership Program for senior staff and professional and the Management in Action program for senior leaders. The first few workshops have been conducted when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and Australia and it was initially decided to suspend the program and let the organisation respond to the technical and personal challenges of changing their workplaces to homeplaces! 

After discussing the ideas of continuing the leadership training but changing it to online and to deal with the real challenges facing the managers and staff – reducing stress, anxiety and worry, dealing with change, having difficult conversation, virtual teamwork, etc. with the NOPSEMA training and development manager, it was decided to try it out and see if the participants responded well. 

Within two weeks Integral had adjusted the content of each 4-hour sessions into two Zoom 2-hour sessions. Participant received pre-reading, exercises, videos and questionnaires to complete before each session. Initially there were technology problems as participants had to download Zoom software and people had to adjust to the Zoom controls. However, breakout rooms, sharing slide presentations and even small group exercises kept the participants involved and the program able to deliver effective leadership training relevant to the situation these emerging leaders were facing. Participants also made a presentation on Zoom to a group of senior managers and their colleagues. Many of the projects were about adapting the organisations safety investigations and reporting to online technology and resulted in NOPSEMA moving more quickly to adopt changes then they would have. A review of the programs showed that while their was some initial technology glitches and adjustments the programs were highly successful.

Department of Local Government, Sport and Recreational Industries

This program was supposed to start in March, 2020 and a few weeks before the program was to be launched the pandemic hit and it was decided to postpone the program entirely. It was anticipated that the program might resume in 5 or 6 months. The program was for 10 CEOs and senior leaders of sports associations. These organisations were especially hard hit in funding and staff loss because sporting events were all called off. 

Furthermore the WA Police Force was using the building that the DLSCI staff were located in. The idea of conducting some online sessions involved with helping the CEOs deal with the stress, anxiety and challenges they were facing and providing them with some steps in completing a recovery plan including scenarios was discussed as topics to start the program and which would be immediate benefit to these CEOs.  These sessions were two hours a week and included pre-work and involved a lot of breakout groups where the senior leaders could share their challenges and experience.  In addition, each senior sports association senior leader had an Integral coach who met with them on Zoom and coached them for 1 hour. Relevant content plus having an individual coach was seen to be very valuable for the participants.

When Western Australia was able to loosen the restrictions on physical distancing and the size of groups to meet, the in person workshops were organised for full half days and participants were able to meet each other in person and continue the program as designed.  Integral reorganised the topics to fit the current needs of the participants and also included the 360 Leadership feedback profile that was postpended because conducting it during the COVID-19 lockdown was the right time. The program is now back on track and following the design that was originally set out but had handled the COVID-19 detour very successfully since the Department and the Integral staff and consultants worked through issues as they arose and rapidly put in place changes that were in the best interest of their participants and organisation.

Girls Academy 

The Girls Academy provides support and learning and development programs young indigenous women throughout Australia in cooperation with schools. The Academy has over 32 programs with schools in most every state. The organisation has over 150 staff and around 25 managers at different levels: General Managers, Regional Managers, Program Managers and Development Officers. Management and staff have very challenging roles in supporting young indigenous women to complete their education which also involves helping build self-esteem and helping students deal with difficult family and personal lives.

Integral was asked to develop a leadership program so that would build future leaders for the organisation. The program was launched at a conference in 2019 and was planned to be a series of online workshops on important leadership skills. When the COVID-19 crisis hit, schools and Girls Academy staff were under considerable stress and uncertainty regarding programs, jobs and the future and the management team has to try to bring clarity into a chaotic situation. The Girls Academy and senior leadership team redesigned the first on line Zoom workshops to respond to the high level of stress that was being experienced and each week the topics were reviews so that skills such as mindfulness, authentic communication, and having difficult conversations were taught to staff online and were immediately relevant to the situations that staff were experiencing that week in their workplace.

In addition, many of the leadership team received a short 360 leadership and management profile and had an Integral coach work with them over 4 months to help them put into practices the skills covered and to deal with immediate situations that were challenging them. The online seminars and breakout groups allowed staff across the country share their situations with their colleagues and feel they were not alone. 

A review of the program was recently conducted and while it was agreed that there were a few areas that could be improved, overwhelmingly the online leadership program and coaching was seen to have considerable benefit to the Girls Academy leaders and frontline staff – and therefore to their students.