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Advantage E-Newsletter
Fall 2004
Make Executive Field Visits Matter
Here's a tool for turning executive field visits into the valuable opportunities they really represent
Executive field visits are expensive learning events with high ROI potential. Too bad so little is done to capitalize on these opportunities. Whether a field visit investment is wasted or achieves a positive impact shouldn't be left to chance.
This issue of our e-newsletter shares how one of our clients applied a unique training tool--impact maps--to make sure executive field visits create a positive ROI. We hope you'll find these ideas and tools to be of value to you and your team.
- Glenn Jackson and John Hoskins
At Sprint affiliate Alamosa PCS, an innovative idea called "impact mapping" has raised the ROI bar for every executive field visit. A successful learning tool that had already created lots of buzz around the company, impact maps took on a life of their own in the hands of Alamosa Chief Integration Officer Margaret Couch. Impressed by the power of impact mapping in a traditional training initiative, Couch took things a step further and applied the concept to a corporate mainstay: the executive field visit.
An Impact Map ensures that every executive field visit generates ROI.
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Alamosa PCS Chief Integration Officer
Margaret Couch discusses the power of impact mapping:
Q: You've recognized impact maps as “pivotal” tools. Why?
Couch: Because we believe they have the dynamic ability to drive a return investment from any of our learning events. That helps us move toward our three corporate goals for the year: becoming the Service Provider of Choice, the Investment of Choice, and the Employer of Choice. For us, it's all about ROI for human capital. We want to find any and all methods whereby we can enhance our return. And if an executive visit isn't a learning event, then what is? It definitely needs to generate a return.
Q: How did the impact map excitement get started?
Couch: They were a key aspect of a performance development initiative created by The Real Learning Company and Advantage, the first phase of which focuses on hiring and managing people. We hadn't used impact maps before, but it was an easy sell to managers. I just asked them, “Why would you give your people a day or more off to go to this training without getting anything back? Why don't you use this impact map and spend time with that person to discuss what they need to learn and how they'll use it to reach goals when they return?” Managers were lighting up and saying, “Wow, when can we get these maps?” As the initiative got underway, word spread that people were getting a lot out of the training because of the impact maps. Our engineering organization that had not had any exposure to the initiative came to me asked for their own maps. Then we decided to use impact mapping for new hire orientation. The concept has really snowballed. Our CEO is 100% supportive since he recognizes the value of this tool. He asked me for an impact map that would increase the value of his field visits.
Q: How does the map work during the field visit?
Couch: The idea is the same whether it's an internal training event or a learning activity outside of the day-to-day work role, such as a field visit: if you spend money on the event, it would be irresponsible not to provide objectives and required outcomes in advance. The impact map does that by literally providing the script for the field visit. For our CEO, I adapted the map to provide the field managers with insight about the objectives he had for the visit. The executive uses one copy and we send the same map out to the people the executive is going to visit. More than just saying, “the boss is coming by; let's mop the floor,” this allows managers to review the impact map with the team and say, “the executive is coming, here are the visit objectives and desired outcomes, here's how those outcomes are linked to our company's annual goals, here's how this all ties back to what we will accomplish this year.” After the visit, they will understand what they can do better. People love the maps and the sense of purpose and direction they convey. Everyone is so much more satisfied with the field visit experience when they understand what they can take away from it.
Q: How does the executive benefit?
Couch: This was actually a great opportunity for me to sit down with our CEO and ask, “What would you like your outcome to be from your trip to the field? Why are you bothering with this field visit?” A top-tier executive will welcome the chance to generate ROI. He or she doesn't think of a field visit as just a glad hand experience to check off their list; they want something good to come from it.
Q: How do you know that impact maps will generate ROI?
Couch: The whole key to the maps is the follow-up. Accountability is built into every impact map. After the executive visit, it allows the manager to say, “tell me in quantifiable terms what you are doing differently.” After one of our CEO's field visits, a manager called me and reported that the visit was great. His team knew how to focus their questions about what the CEO had in mind. The CEO was focused on the same outcomes. I said, “more importantly, what was the experience after the CEO left? Does the team understand how they need to apply their individual skills to create the behaviors, outcomes, and business results that will help our company reach our goals?” That's when the light really came on for the manager. Impact maps give everyone a clear line of sight connecting their actions to the business results our company needs to achieve. So by using an impact map, every time a manager meets with their team or an executive goes into the field, he or she is drilling down these objectives, enhancing that line of sight. We believe that impact maps will help our people make better decisions for the rest of the year, and that's excellent ROI. Integrating all of those great decisions is what will enable us to reach our goals as an organization.
 For more information, contact us.
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