Eighty-Eight Assignments for Development in Place

Helping Managers Get the Most From Their Experiences

Learning won’t occur by itself when managers are given developmental assignments. It’s quite likely that many managers will rely on past habits and try to apply old skills to new situations. This is in fact what often happened, as a group, for the executives we studied who derailed. They relied on comfortable habits, and their learning formed no pattern they could use later. As a result, their management behavior changed little.

For managers to learn something of long-term value to them, they need to specify what sort of transition they are making—from what to what? The essence of this issue is that the manager will have to give up, or at least modify, some comfortable habits in order to grow. ...