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

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

We selected LSA Global over 5 other companies to help our key executives improve their overall communication and executive presentation capabilities. LSA exceeded our expectations.

I highly recommend LSA to any executive team looking to better organize and more effectively deliver key executive-level messages — especially when the stakes are high.

Todd Power
Office of the CEO

The strategy and alignment work with our leadership team was absolutely transformational. The decisions we made combined with the transparency, communication, and accountability were exactly what we needed. Thank you!

Dr. Raphael B. Merriman M.D
Medical Director, Liver Transplantation

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

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

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

After a difficult search to find a partner that could address a very specific leadership development need, we chose LSA Global. They were responsive to our needs and created a highly customized solution that we continue to see results from. It is nice to know we have access to their expertise with a simple phone call.

Valerie Blackburn
Director of Business Operations

At the onset of our engagement with LSA, I was skeptical that an outside firm would be able to understand and dissect our organization’s highly complex and technical business challenges.

However, through the leadership team interview and strategy retreat processes that LSA utilized, they provided a fresh, innovative, and practical perspective that created tremendous strategic value and focus for our executive leadership team.

As a result, I would highly recommend LSA Global to any leader struggling with building the strategic alignment and high performance teams necessary to generate sales growth, in a way that fits their unique corporate culture.

Robert Laudati
Managing Director

What a refreshing change from the half-baked psycho-babble you normally get from training and consulting organizations. LSA gives you the practical and results-oriented assistance you need to define and reach your goals.

Their leadership, management, and sales expertise has been invaluable. They think strategically and provide a results driven plan – not just a temporary fix.

They are great to work with, and even more importantly, they “get it!”

David Fiano
Director of Merchandising

LSA helped us with leadership development by designing a solution to match our unique needs and culture.

It was a huge success. I would highly recommend LSA to help take leaders and managers to the next level.

Karen King, SPHR
Manager, Human Resources

For our go to training outsourcing partner, LSA provides exactly what we want and need – which is not an easy task.

As always, they design and deliver outstanding leadership development results and high quality management training programs that totally align with our unique business and talent strategies!

Elizabeth Siebert
Director, Organizational Excellence & Development

LSA’s action-learning leadership approach has been very beneficial to me, our leadership team, and the entire organization.

The balance of development and results has been excellent.

We have made huge progress, and I was also able to identify 2-3 high potentials while having the extra benefit of people stepping up to carry key strategic projects forward.

The experience was better than anticipated. I could not be more pleased.

Heather Feltman
President & 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

I continue to be impressed by the depth and breadth of LSA’s expertise in leadership development, and management development.

What a smart and client-centric group of great people who really know how to help leaders attract, engage, develop and retain top talent in a practical and results-driven manner.

Thank you LSA!

Tracy Esposito
Director, HR Business Partner

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

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.