Leadership Development Institute: A look back and lessons learned

There are times in an organization’s lifetime when it seems appropriate to look back and reflect on the journey.  Usually those “reflections” are saved for special anniversaries of some sort – 10 years or 15 years, etc.  That is not necessarily the case here.  The Leadership Development Institute (LDI) is not 15 years old, nor is it a special event or a milestone of any particular note.  It is, however, a time when LDI is reorganizing and refocusing and it seems worth taking a moment to think about how we got here and what it was we have learned along the way. 

A Look Back

LDI was developed as a result of a desire to expand the scope of services offered to Center for Business & Industry (CBI) clients.  In 2002, CBI took advantage of some staff changes to refocus the Corporate Services Division and decided to build on its prior successes while expanding its capabilities.  At that time, CBI theorized that organizations would begin to face some different challenges due to the transitional organizational development phase, a phase that would require organizations to develop skills in their middle and senior leaders.  Whether downsizing, right-sizing or re-sizing baby boomers and new generational leaders, organizations would be facing different developmental and training needs. 

If the numbers are to be believed, the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2010 there will be more members of the Millennial Generation than Baby Boomers in the workforce.  In 2002, LDI began contemplating this prediction and recognized the shift in workforce demographics would mean that many organizations would have new employees, new managers and new leaders who may need options on how to get training and development for these people.

Couple that information with the understanding that unlike the “days of old,” many organizations either no longer had in-house training departments or found that bringing in outside trainers for smaller groups of employees was not economically feasible.  LDI sought an answer on how to fill that training need by developing The Learning Connection.  The “Connection” is a place where employers can send small numbers of employees to open-enrollment classes and take advantage of a consortium-like environment by sharing training expenses with other companies.

Combining a desire to help organizations meet both employee training and management and leadership development needs of their employees allowed for a rather unique design for the Leadership Development Institute. LDI has grown since that long ago day in 2002 when it was merely an idea on a flipchart.  What was once a very locally focused group with about $200K of revenue, is now a nationally recognized organization delivering over $750K of revenue to Northampton Community College.

So What is Next for Us? 

We agree with the experts who suggest that the organizational transition phase is not only occurring, but is speeding up, and that organizations will need to find creative and unique ways to meet the demands and needs of its new workforce.

Many experts say that hiring and retaining talent will be one of the obstacles to an organization’s success between now and 2020, and that the workforce hired will be different than its predecessors.

A recent article by Patricia Wheeler identified the top issues on Millennial minds as they weigh employment options:

1. To what degree can I trust you to develop my talents and skills? When it comes to development, do your actions match your words?
2. To what extent will this job challenge me?
3. How do you honor requests for “next steps” in my career progression?
4. What opportunities will this job really lead to?

These issues are all related to training and development, and it is important that all organizations, not just the large ones, be prepared to develop their employees.  At LDI we believe we are positioned to partner with organizations to help them identify needs and close the gaps.  We do this through our Learning Connection programming, through tailored or custom programming for organizations and through consulting with management. 

We believe we are well poised to meet the needs of our clients and are excited about the next phase of LDI’s growth.

1. We have new programs currently in the design or pilot phase. You will be hearing about those shortly. 
2. We are reformatting our standard programs to update them and have added new facilitators to support specific programs. 
3. We have a new training facility specifically designed to meet the needs of our business clients.
4. We have a new brochure (if you would like a copy of it, please contact us) and we have a few new staff members.  Laura Bauer provides us with client support and is often the initial contact for Learning Connection programming.  In addition, we have created the new position of Client Development Specialist for the specific purpose of working closely with you.  We will be taking immediate advantage of the experience of Sue Capobianco who has recently joined our team in this role.

Stay tuned for the changes that will be highlighted when we have our 10-year anniversary report.

Don Robertson and Donna Goss
Co-Directors, Leadership Development Institute
drobertson@northampton.edu and dbgoss@northampton.edu

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