Developing Broad-Based Leaders

Business Issue

A large pharmaceutical company recognized that their leaders would need to work differently to succeed in an environment characterized by many market and industry changes. In the past, their leaders understood the industry well because they had served in many different roles within the company. Swift industry changes meant suppliers could now be competitors, while competitors could be collaborators. Leaders who once excelled in their respective areas were no longer prepared to manage these new complex relationships. The company needed broad-based leaders who could manage across functional silos in their own organization while managing relationships with government regulators, competitors, suppliers and internal stakeholders. As a result, the company sought an education partner who could develop and implement a plan for preparing its leaders to manage in this new and complex environment.

Approach

In response to this need, Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE) partnered with the company to design and deliver a development program for its executives. The opening task was to identify the knowledge and skills needed for leaders to succeed in this environment. To accomplish this, Duke CE collaborated with the company to interview top management, compile and analyze the results from the interviews, and define the central themes and needed capabilities for the development program. These themes and capabilities became the cornerstone for the design of a learning experience focused on developing broad-based leaders who are highly skilled in the areas of collaboration and productive dialogue.

Learning Experience

This program was designed to be delivered to the top 750 division and functional leaders in three years. Five times over the course of the year, groups of 50 participants attended a 3-day learning experience with the above-mentioned focus. Given the nature of the change desired in these leaders, the design team believed it would be important to employ learning methodologies that would engage participants at both the intellectual and emotional levels. The final design accomplished this via faculty-led sessions, the Metaphoric Experience™ learning method, role-plays, case studies and professionally enacted vignettes. The program is considered a foundational piece of the strategic leadership development agenda for this company.

Execution

As part of the program, participants learned about the role of the executive and the nature of strategy. They explored strategy as a dynamic set of assumptions and a way to shape the industry, with collaboration as one means to understand and harness the complexity of the environment for the good of the company.

Later, the participant group was divided in half to take part in one of two Metaphoric Experience learning method events related to the challenges of collaboration. These exercises were designed to offer the participants an engaging opportunity to learn in a context very different from that of their own profession, but with analogous challenges. In that part of the program, participants practiced collaboration across disciplines through a criminal investigation. By stepping into the role of investigators, they learned that it is impossible for an individual to have detailed knowledge of all the areas of expertise needed to properly investigate and solve a crime. In another Metaphoric Experience learning method event, participants engaged as members of pit crew teams to change the tires on a racecar. Through this approach, participants learned first-hand that silos between members of the pit crew inhibit performance, just as they inhibit success within their own business.

Dramatic vignettes and case studies presented additional opportunities for participants to understand the challenges related to collaboration and to practice the productive dialogue skills that they learned earlier in the program. Additionally, the role of these executives was revisited through the lenses of architect, translator and implementer of strategy. All of the above combined to create an experience that helped develop broad-based leaders who can function well while working collaboratively across traditional functional boundaries.

Outcome

The company has made significant progress toward their goal of developing broad-based leaders. They are actively building a pool of executives who can manage the complex relationships within their industry and significantly contribute to the success of their company in the new competitive marketplace.

 

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