Nabatenes is a mid-sized company operating in the midstream sector of the oil andgas industry. Its storage and transportation facilities encompass atmospheric tanks andloading and unloading centers. Its other facilities process, gather, treat, and separate oil.Though headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the company operates throughout the US and inCanada and Mexico. The company believes that executive and leadership learning anddevelopment are essential to enhancing its competitiveness in the all the three markets.Consequently, following is a plan for a learning and development program for the company’sfifty senior executives and leaders drawn from the sales, marketing, finance, and engineeringdepartments across the three countries.The proposed leadership learning and development program will employ the strategyof identifying and addressing dysfunctional thinking biases; that is, unhelpful thinking stylesand habits. As conscious beings, we constantly interpret what is happening around us, tryingto make sense of the world around us. In the process, our brains sometimes take short cuts,leading us to arrive at inaccurate conclusions (Lacerenza, Reyes, Marlow, Joseph, & Salas,2017). Consequently, the proposed strategy will encourage company executives and leadersto think in more constructive patterns to help them deal with management and leadershipchallenges more effectively. Based on the successes of other leadership developmentprograms that have used this strategy, it is envisioned that the strategy will not only result inmore effective managers and leaders but also enhance learning outcomes and foster a cultureof learning.For the program to have impact, it will be necessary to identify managers’ andleaders’ capabilities and developmental needs so that the training can be tailored toaddressing the identified gaps. To this end, two assessment tools will be used: a form

DESIGNING A LEADERSHIP LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM 3
completed by program participants before the training and a general feedback form
completed after the training (Kirchner & Akdere, 2014). In the first form, each participant
will be encouraged to write down two to six major leadership development goals they feel are
personally important to them. In the second form, which will be administered at the end of
each training session, participants will be asked to rate different aspects of the program on a
scale of 1 (unsatisfactory) to 5 (excellent). Open-ended comments will also be allowed.
Having identified the training needs, content for the program will be developed,
incorporating the following two leadership development methods: artificial experience
building (including whole group experience, small team experience, and individual
experience) and mentorship. These methods were chosen and will be applied to participants
from all participating company departments because they have been shown to be the most
effective and the most preferred by participants of leadership development programs (Takala,
Winegar, & Kuusela, 2009). Indeed, the most appreciate method of learning is through
tailored, individual-focused experience-building activities. To take the multicultural nature of
program participants, the team of trainers will also be multicultural, with members drawn
from the three countries in which the company operates.
This program, it is believed, will deliver several benefits both to the participating
managers and leaders and to the company. Benefits to the company will include better
employee retention, especially at senior levels, hence preservation and continuity of
organizational knowledge; ensuring that only the best talent is promoted; improved
succession management; and enhanced administrative abilities.

DESIGNING A LEADERSHIP LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM 4

References

Kirchner, M., & Akdere, M. (2014). Leadership Development Programs: An Integrated
Review of Literature. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 137-146.
Lacerenza, C., Reyes, D., Marlow, S., Joseph, D., & Salas, E. (2017). Leadership Training
Design, Delivery, and Implementation: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 102(12), 1686-1718.
Takala, M., Winegar, D., & Kuusela, J. (2009). Leadership developmental needs: A system
for identifying them. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 49(1), 127-147.