What is action learning in leadership development?

Action learning uses real business challenges to develop leadership skills.

How does action learning improve leadership skills?

It builds problem-solving and decision-making abilities in real-time.

What are the benefits of leadership development programs?

They improve leadership capability, employee performance, and business outcomes.

Who should attend leadership development training?

Managers, executives, and high-potential employees.

How is action learning different from traditional training?

It focuses on real-world application instead of theoretical learning.

Action Learning Leadership Development Programs

“We turned to LSA to help us custom design and deliver an action learning leadership development program to help drive performance for our leaders and managers.

They have done an excellent job diagnosing the business situation, designing an approach that fits our culture, and delivering a first class leadership solution.”
Sally Buchannan | VP Human Resources | Sony

“You exceeded our expectations. The customized facilitative leadership sessions were fantastic. Thank you for making such a meaningful impact with our leaders.
Tara Condon | Vice President, Product & Portfolio Development | BioMarin Pharmaceutical

“Through the use of dynamic, actionable frameworks and exercises, the Leadership Academy helped me dedicate time to leadership development on a routine basis and prompted some extremely worthwhile personal reflection.

An excellent starting point for building up leadership capabilities in a consistent way.”
Halle Yungmeyer | Manager, Clinical Packaging Operations | BioMarin Pharmaceutical

Why Action Learning Leadership Development Programs Work
From decades in the field, we know that when the stakes are high, peer accountability is strong, and support systems are aligned, leaders learn faster, retain more, and perform better.

What the Leadership Development Research Says
Most organizations struggle to develop leaders who can drive strategy and results. A recent Fortune survey found that only 7% of CEOs believe their companies are developing effective leaders — and just 10% think their leadership development programs have a measurable business impact.

Fortunately, research continues to validate the power of action learning:

A Human Resource Development Quarterly study found that leaders in action learning environments improve their competencies 25% faster than those in traditional classroom programs.

Research from ATD and i4cp found that high-performing organizations are three times more likely to use experiential learning for both frontline and executive leaders.

The lesson is clear: when peer-based learning is practical, relevant, and supported by feedback and accountability, leadership capabilities accelerate — and so does business performance.

Addressing the Most Pressing Leadership Skill Gaps
Senior executives consistently identify the most significant gaps in leadership capability as:

Strategic thinking
Creating and communicating a compelling vision
Leading organizational change
Inspiring and motivating people
Making decisions using an enterprise perspective

These are the very competencies that Action Learning Leadership Development Programs strengthen — because they are practiced and applied in the context of real business challenges.

Simultaneous Learning and Impact
The most effective leadership development initiatives integrate learning with doing. Our programs are designed to strengthen leadership mindsets, tools, and behaviors while driving tangible business outcomes. Each program is tailored to the organization’s unique culture, strategy, and goals — ensuring that learning directly fuels strategy execution and organizational health.

Action Learning Leadership Development: Build Leaders Through Real-World Challenges

What It Takes to Build High Performing Leaders
Leadership can be an abstract concept, but expectations are clear: Leaders must think systemically, make enterprise-level decisions, and inspire others to deliver superior results.

Our customized Leadership Action Learning programs — typically six to twelve months — bring these expectations to life. Small cohorts of high-potential leaders work together to:

Think strategically and develop a compelling business case for change.
Understand and execute the business strategy in a way that makes sense to the people and the business.
Present and sell recommendations to senior executives or boards.
Amplify strategic impact and grow as leaders while delivering measurable results.

Throughout the process, participants receive targeted training, microlearning, mentoring, AI-enabled insights, and real-time coaching to build critical leadership capabilities in the flow of work.

Results You Can See and Measure
As winners of the Bersin Leadership Development Award, our programs consistently drive measurable outcomes, including improvements in:

Sales performance: revenue, margin, win rate, and cycle time.
Customer outcomes: acquisition, loyalty, and satisfaction.
Strategic execution: implementation effectiveness and agility.
Employee performance: engagement, development, and retention.
Project results: cost, quality, and timeliness.

Often integrated with leadership simulation assessments, our flagship experiences — such as Driving the Bottom Line with Experiential Leadership and Strategic Decision Making Simulation — help leaders practice, perform, and lead with confidence.

Partner With Us
Contact us to explore how an Action Learning Leadership Development Program can help your organization turn leadership into a sustainable strategic advantage.

Ask about Pay-for-Performance options — where we link program success directly to the leadership metrics that matter most to your business.

Related Information

As a high growth agency with cutting edge talent, we hired LSA Global to help clarify our strategy and work with our executive leadership team to help implement strategic changes in a way that made sense for our unique culture.

The work was so successful that we also hired them to coach our key leaders. LSA has been instrumental in helping us transition to a new leadership team and triple revenue. In this age of useless consultants, I highly recommend their practical and business-oriented approach to strategy, culture, and talent.

David Bentley
General Manager

Thank you to LSA Global for their partnership and support in helping us to design and roll-out highly needed and valuable leadership and management development programs that fit our unique situation.

I personally have partnered with LSA Global at four of my previous companies. It continues to be a delight.

We look forward to partnering with them for a long time to develop our managers and leaders.

Suzanne Kinner
VP Human Resources

LSA has a tremendous ability to distil complex, multilayered challenges into meaningful, impactful, and clear strategies and action plans.

The time we invested as a leadership team to get aligned was well spent in gaining laser focus and identifying ways to prioritize what was meaningful individually and as a team. The facilitation and leadership style was direct, firm, and compassionate.

LSA provided the high level thinking and support for our team to co-create in a rapidly scaling business.

Bindu Garapaty, PsyD
VP, Talent and Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity

LSA consistently delivers for me and my team. Recently they demonstrated the criticality for executives to look beyond current ethics topics and focus on applying fundamental values in everything they do to demonstrate true leadership. They successfully delivered in two hours what most leadership development facilitators would spend an entire day trying to communicate.

Nick Voyvodich, SPHR
HR Manager

We reviewed the top Leadership Development offerings and selected LSA’s 12-month Leadership Program based upon the value and systemic approach.

The feedback on the program, approach, and results was phenomenal. While other programs may be better known, the other options were more theoretical and did not compare in terms of LSA’s practicality, quality, and results.

We could not be happier.

Stacey Porter
Senior Manager Learning and Development

You have become our premier change leadership strategic partner. Your expertise in the human side of change is unparalleled and enabled our company to successfully implement our ERP Solution under challenging and ever-changing circumstances.

Thank you for your practical and outcome-oriented approach.

Ted Ramlet
CIO & SVP

We have had a very beneficial partnership with LSA. Their recent Leadership Development Program helped us to identify, develop, and retain top leaders. It was instrumental in helping take our company and our key people to the next level. I would recommend them to anyone looking to truly develop and retain top talent.

Steve Janowsky
Vice President of Operations

LSA exceeded all my expectations.

We interviewed 7 potential training and consulting partners and selected LSA due to their expertise, flexibility, and breadth and depth of leadership solutions.

We were able to design a highly customized, focused, and relevant management training program that fit our unique needs.

Our leaders and managers galvanized as a team and are better prepared for the rigors of a leading their teams in a very competitive and fast-changing market.

Mitch Mandich
CEO

We greatly value our relationship with LSA Global.

They focused on understanding our unique culture and helping us to move our strategic priorities forward.

LSA continues to deliver top quality executive coaching, consulting, and leadership development solutions that are highly customized for our unique situation.

I highly recommend LSA Global to anyone looking to greatly improve their leadership, management, and project capabilities.

Bonnie S. Olson
Vice President of Human Resources

Having taken on a new executive leadership role, one of my first calls was to LSA Global to help my leadership team to design, implement, and cascade clear strategic plans. First, LSA helped our leadership team identify the strategy, culture, and talent areas that mattered most to create organizational alignment.

Then they helped facilitate the design of a strategic growth plan that is clear, compelling, believable, and implementable. We now have 100% commitment from an aligned leadership team and key stakeholders going forward.

I would recommend LSA to anyone who wants to create high levels of strategic alignment, growth, and performance.

Erik Arvesen
Vice President, General Manager

Your team was amazing. Facilitative Leadership was one of the best leadership and change workshops my team has ever attended. Thank you!

Diane White
Executive Director, Head of Product Development

LSA helped us design and deliver blended leadership solutions for our key leaders to help drive our growth plans in a way that aligned with our unique culture and values.

LSA understood our business, had deep expertise in the content areas, customized the leadership development programs to fit our specific needs, and delivered great results in alignment with our strategic priorities, culture, and performance management systems.

I highly recommend them to anyone looking to take their leaders and the performance of their teams to the next level.

Beth A. Taylor
Vice President of Human Resources

We turned to LSA to help us custom design and deliver a action leadership and management development curriculum to help drive performance across the company.

They have done an excellent job diagnosing the business situation, designing an approach that fits our unique culture, and delivering first class solutions. Thank you!

Sally Buchannan
VP Human Resources

I continue to be impressed by the level of leadership development training and management expertise and quality of advice and facilitation that LSA has to offer.

What a smart and client-centric group of great people who really know how to help assess and develop high performing leaders.

Tracy Esposito
Director

It was a challenge to find a consultant with an approach to performance improvement that fit our unique performance culture and style. We were pleasantly surprised to discover LSA’s depth of expertise in the fields of motivation, developmental coaching, performance management, and measurement.

LSA seamlessly integrated those components without our folks feeling like the intervention was forced. They understood what we were trying to accomplish, helped us clarify our objectives, and created a solid, refreshing approach that quickly got us moving and engaged at all levels across the organization.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier that we found a true strategy and implementation partner in LSA.

Doug Hansen
President and Director

FAQs

Action learning uses small teams to address real business challenges to simultaneously develop leadership skills and move real work forward.

It pulls leaders out of their silos and forces them to engage with highly relevant business challenges while improving key skills such as enterprise-wide decision making, strategic thinking, and change leadership.

By integrating learning into the flow of work, action learning leadership programs improve real-time organizational problem-solving while cultivating executive resilience, strategic agility, and self-awareness.

The aproven approach is ideal for supervisors, managers, and executives who need to solve complex, real-world problems while enhancing their leadership and management skills. It is especially effective for high-potential individuals seeking growth opportunities through practical experience, stretch assignments, and peer feedback.

It focuses simultaneously on learning in the flow of work through real-world application and measurable business results instead of theoretical learning.