A story of two journeys: developing leaders across one evolving pathway

A global vehicle leasing and mobility provider operating across 25+ markets was ready to elevate their leadership capability. 

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I partnered with the central Learning team to design two parallel programs:

• A high-engagement program on new manager essentials
• An intensive 2-day experience for developing leaders

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Discovery

My client had spent the last several months on their own Discovery process, digging into the gaps across leadership and the opportunities to standardize, support, and scale their managers’ impact. By the time they brought me in, they had already identified their behavioral pillars and core competencies for leaders. 

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While they had pockets of existing training in their more mature markets, they wanted to equip every market to train their managers, especially those without the capacity or expertise to build something from scratch. They needed a high-quality, solution built for their context that could be easily delivered anywhere they operated.

Design

As a large, multinational organization, I saw right away the main challenge of this engagement: designing a central curriculum that could flex to the unique needs of 25+ countries across four continents.

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I began by designing each program around the shared core: the five pillars of management competencies and behaviors already defined by the client. While these would look different in practice, they remained the anchor for the programs no matter where they would be delivered.

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My instructional design approach was highly experiential and social, including formats like:

• Real-world scenarios co-created with the client
• A blend of activity types for both in-person and virtual engagement
• Targeted social learning circles for the advanced leadership pathway

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Because I was the lead designer of both programs, I was able to make them feel cohesive, like one continuous growth journey. However, I made sure to adapt my strategy to the two unique audiences:

• The new manager program focused on showing what great leadership looks like in practice, brought to life through a management documentary theme
• The developing leader program explored more complex, ambiguous topics and challenges beyond the foundations

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Once the core experience was ready, I thoughtfully structured the market discovery and localisation process to enable me to consistently get the right information from each market lead to tailor the delivery experience to their needs. In practice, this often meant skipping some sections or activities to focus on the most urgent gaps in that market and make space for deeper discussion. 

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The flexibility of offering two distinct programs within one growth journey added further adaptability for each market; they could invest in just one program, or plan both for a continuous development pathway.

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The most effective localization strategy was to source and cross-train experienced facilitators who lived in the delivery markets, spoke the local language, and understood the cultural context. Partnering with local independent leadership trainers created trust with local market leads, making the whole experience feel tailored and familiar.

The true impact: The central Learning team can now confidently offer a central program that was built to flex and scale across their many distinct markets. 

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And more valuable than the story any metric can paint, my client expressed their high satisfaction with my partnership, saying that it felt like I was a full employee because of my spot-on understanding of their context and challenges.

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What’s next

I continue to support this client with the global rollout of both programs, serving as their core partner to ensure everything from local trainer onboarding to translations to market adaptation is on track.