Why leadership development programs do not really work and how DYNAMIC ACTION LEARNING can help.

Learning & Development experts have never been so active in thinking about how leadership development can become more applicable and highly effective, so that learning creates an impact in and for the business.

You find many leadership development programs, in which leaders are guided through a clear structure, are trained in various leadership tools & techniques, have a safe space to exchange and reflect and mostly come back home inspired, and yet continue to fail to translate this into their own business context.

It was within this context that the action learning approach was born. In this approach a group (set) of people work on a real and relevant organizational problem, while reflecting on the way they are doing this. We have heard from many organizations, that they are still not happy with the classical action learning approach, structured, too boring, and the setting is totally different from their leaders daily business reality.

There are still many paradoxes in most of the leadership development programs:

• Leaders are facing lots of “VUCA” day by day, but why are leadership development programs structured very clear, with lots of certainty and clarity?
• Leaders have to take decisions all day long, but why don’t they need to take decisions during a leadership development program?
• Leaders need to inspire motivate and develop further their team around them, but why do they not need to motivate and inspire themselves during a leadership development program, as there is a trainer or coach, who tries to motivate and engage them?

When we had been thinking about developing further the traditional Action Learning approach we had been looking for finding answers to these questions / challenges / requirements:

• Learning initiatives need to mirror the complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity, the participants face in their daily business.
• Just as in professional reality, participants need to take over ownership for the program, process, outcomes and learning already during the learning initiative.

Dynamic Action Learning (DAL) is an advanced development approach that does not provide a constructed environment for managers to learn in.

What is special is, that it mirrors the participant’s actual professional context and dynamic organizational reality as key design element for immediately applicable and sustainable learning growth. This also means that while there are generic building principles, each concrete prototype is made to measure for the specific context of the learners.

Participants work on and through (their own relevant) complex challenges and reflect on the process. By this unique double decker, the participants/teams “own” their unique process as well as output and outcomes created. Being responsible for process, output and outcomes in a context that at the same time provides a safe space to reflect upon everything that happens challenges participants in their core and closes the gap between learning and application.

In doing so, Dynamic Action Learning adds the following elements to the traditional action learning approach:

• Organizational Reality and Complexity: Actionable insights are generated In DAL since the learning context aims to mirror the participants own organizational reality and complexity (often VUCA).
• Organizational Roles & Responsibilities: DAL integrates critical roles & responsibilities into its design & delivery (formal, informal, self-organized, project-based). This ensures sustainable development in current / future organizational roles.
• Output and Outcome Responsibilities: As part of  DAL participants take full ownership over their learning & reflection while simultaneously applying organizational leadership principles and enacting personal values ensuring the journey`s outcome.

Not only learning and development managers in corporations have more and more difficulties to get enough participants for their corporate leadership development programs. Leaders are busier than ever and do not see the added value of lots of current leadership development programs. No matter to whom you talk, leaders or corporate learning and development managers, one message is almost always the same: “we got some interesting input etc. but the gap between learning and application is still too big”.

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