Founding Director ·
Reflections — the tenth in the series
Welcome to the tenth reflection in this series. Across the previous nine we have kept circling one stubborn truth from different angles — that the value of any development programme is decided far less by what happens in the room than by everything that surrounds it. This edition puts one of those surrounding factors under the microscope, and it is the one learners raise most often themselves.
In almost every programme we deliver, someone eventually says they wish their line manager were on it too. It is rarely a throwaway remark. It points to the single relationship that, more than any other, determines whether new learning survives the journey back to the Monday-morning inbox — or quietly slides down the forgetting curve that Ebbinghaus described so well. Get that relationship right and you replace luck with design. Leave it to chance and even brilliant delivery quietly leaks away.
The relationship that decides whether learning sticks
When learners come back to work — whether from a virtual programme, a face-to-face event, self-directed study, or any blend of the three — they reasonably expect their line manager to be ready for them. Supportive. Clear on why they were on the programme in the first place. Aware of the objectives the learner set for themselves. Equipped to help them deliver on the actions they committed to, and to coach and mentor where required so that the learning curve holds its shape rather than collapsing back into forgetting.
This is not unique to corporate training. Over twenty-five years of work with universities, we have seen the same dynamic in the relationship between a researcher — a PhD or Engineering Doctorate student — and their academic or industrial supervisor. It is a relationship with an outsized effect on both the quality of the research produced and the quality of the experience of producing it. Whatever the sector, the person who receives the learner back from the programme carries enormous weight. The line manager, the supervisor, the sponsor: they sit at the centre of the support network, and how well or how poorly prepared they are is a genuine determinant of success.
Managing the manager — before, during and after
So one of the ways we address this, whenever we can, is to bring line managers into the picture properly rather than leaving them on the touchline. Sometimes that means running a parallel programme for them. Sometimes it means taking real strides to brief them on exactly what the programme involves, and pulling them into conversations with their learners before the programme even begins.
Those pre-programme conversations matter more than they first appear. In a triad conversation — learner, line manager and, where they are involved, HR or the learning and development team — objectives get set and agreed between all parties. It connects directly to our earlier reflection on goal setting: the learner arrives on day one with a well-defined, well-formed outcome that has already been shaped and owned by the people who will support them afterwards. On larger programmes we build in separate calls and briefings so that line managers understand the bigger picture and the context. That is the minimum.
The more sophisticated approach engages line managers right from the outset — before the learner starts — so that the manager helps shape the very objectives the learner will go on to develop and apply once the programme is over. The point is simple but easily missed: the line manager has to be managed proactively, specifically and actively, so that they never become what we call an accidental failure point. Left unmanaged, a well-meaning line manager can undo months of investment without ever realising they were part of the system that was supposed to make it work.
The dangerous assumption that everyone can coach
This leads to a second, related trap: the assumption that everyone can coach. Recently we were asked to build a leadership development programme for a large global manufacturer. The whole design rested on the belief that their frontline managers and supervisors could coach effectively. In reality, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Organisations routinely overestimate the coaching capability of their line managers, or simply assume it exists by virtue of the job title. Being a line manager does not make someone a competent coach. The ability of many managers to coach well can be legitimately called into question — and it is a precarious thing to build an entire organisational transformation on the assumption that they can. Giving line managers the basics of coaching therefore belongs firmly within that more sophisticated approach: it is part of how you sustain learning in the flow of work, rather than hoping it survives on its own.
Building the learning infrastructure
All of this feeds a wider conversation about the scaffolding around the learner — the frameworks that hold learning in place. We call it the learning infrastructure, and it is built by design. We know where the failure points tend to be. We know how to improve the odds of success, drawing in large part on Professor Brinkerhoff’s work on the High Performance Learning Journey. It is a premeditated, proactive approach: identify the obstacles, remove them, and engineer encouragement into the design from the start rather than bolting support on after the fact.
So, all things considered, the support network — and the line managers who sit at the centre of it — will be a key determinant in the success of any programme delivered. How well or ill prepared the manager is, and how well or ill prepared the wider system of supporters is, shapes the outcome as much as the content itself.
Brilliant delivery is not enough
Brilliant delivery on its own is not enough. It will carry some individuals some of the way. But if you genuinely want to replace luck with proper design — identifying the specific stakeholders in the learning ecosystem and preparing them deliberately — then that is the way forward. That is how you increase the odds of a return on investment, change behaviour, and drive performance across an organisation rather than in a fortunate few. The line manager is not a footnote to the programme. Handled well, they are its single greatest multiplier.
Photograph via Unsplash
