A bright spot on the leadership development horizon

Field notes from the final installment of my time delivering a custom executive education program for Genentech.

What if we invest in developing our people and they leave? What if we don’t and they stay??

This old joke has started to take on a level of reality that I am surprised by, with companies largely abandoning the systematic development experiences that often accompanied their career planning process.

I mean when even GE sells off their famed Crotonville facility, you know big changes in the learning space are afoot — not all of them positive. But there are still some bright spots, as I’m fond of saying, in corporate education efforts. One such bright spot is the executive education program I lead for Genentech, which culminated last week. This is part of their gLEAD (Leadership for Executive Advancement and Development) which aims to accelerate the advancement of talent across the company in novel ways.

Last week was the last of four modules, and it’s been interesting to see the uptake in senior leader participation. Cohort One had a smattering of senior leaders. Cohort Two had a few more. And Cohort Three showed nearly 35 very senior people coming to New York to hear the project presentation. It’s a good sign…