IMD Annual Report 2019

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them” and, if the potential fit is confirmed, the school invests time and energy in socializing them to ensure that they understand the context in which they will operate. IMD helps them learn quickly the key ideas and methods that the institution has developed over decades. This is always a fine line: IMD wants to bring in very promising individuals who will contribute new ideas and enrich the IMD way , but the school also needs to ensure that they understand the IMD DNA well enough to make the whole more than the sum of the parts. • A small team of Adjunct Faculty – small, because IMDneeds to ensure that they dedicate themselves to optimizing the program, as opposed to the individual rating of their own session • Executives-in-Residence and Executive Fellows – senior executives who are spending some time at IMD and/or whom the institution knows well, and who are willing and able to discuss their experiences in an insightful and stimulating way • A small cast of carefully selected Guest Speakers , each bringing a unique expertise and contribution that they have learned to customize for, and integrate into, different programcontexts • LearningManagers – their fundamental role is to support executives, teams and organizations in their journey. Theyhelpparticipants to formalize their objectives – before and/or during the program. They stay in touch with participants between modules and post program, to help them stay focused on their objectives, and to help them address the challenges they may These efforts have enabled IMD to build an outstanding group of potential contributors:

face in their implementation efforts. They also help design and deliver blended programs, i.e., programs involving online activities in addition to the residential module • A great team of Coaches – that is, professionals who, at one point in their career, decided that rather than being at the front of the stage themselves, they wanted to devote their time and energy to helping managers to become more effective and more successful. Some IMD coaches focus on the leadership area; others bring a broader business experience; yet others focus on communication skills. Over the last few years, these members of IMD’s community have played an increasing role in IMD programs. In part, this increase reflects the growing difficulty of being a world-class expert at several domains. Adjunct faculty can help on this front by contributing an expertise that IMD doesn’t necessarily need on a full-time basis, but does need on specific occasions. Sometimes, executives also like to hear things from “people who have done it themselves”. Executives-in-Residence, Executive Fellows and guest speakers can bring this kind of credentials. In part, this increase also reflects IMD’s growing understanding of how to design interventions for sustainable impact and, particularly, the need for practicingnewideas and morecontinuous touchpoints . Learning managers and coaches are particularly helpful on these fronts. They are also very helpful in Pathfinder-type of interventions, which require a lot of support for the teams of executives in between faculty interventions. Finally, learningmanagers and coaches also tend to bemore involved because of the trend toward more modular interventions featuring less face-to-face time.