How We Design Learning Differently at Leadetic

This isn't a sales page. It's a transparency play. If you're considering working with us, or if you're simply curious about what makes leadership development work, here's a behind-the-scenes look at the principles that shape every programme we design. Not because we think our approach is the only valid one, but because we believe you should know what you're buying before you buy it.

The 70-20-10 Framework (and Why It Matters)

Most of what leaders learn doesn't happen in a classroom. Research from the Center for Creative Leadership suggests that roughly 70% of leadership development comes from on-the-job experiences, 20% from relationships (feedback, coaching, observation), and 10% from formal training (Lombardo & Eichinger, The Career Architect Development Planner, 1996).

That ratio shapes everything we design. If formal training accounts for only 10% of development, then the purpose of the training isn't to teach everything. It's to catalyse the 70% and the 20%. Every Leadetic programme is built to give leaders frameworks they can apply in their actual work (the 70%), relationships that provide ongoing feedback and accountability (the 20%), and just enough structured learning to make the application deliberate rather than accidental (the 10%).

In practice, this means our workshops spend more time on practice than on presentation. Participants work on real situations from their own context, not hypothetical case studies. They leave not with a binder of models but with a specific plan for what they'll do differently this week.

Adult Learning Principles

Adults don't learn the way children do. They need to know why something matters before they'll invest attention. They bring experience that should be used as a resource, not ignored. And they learn best when the content connects immediately to a problem they're trying to solve.

These principles, drawn from Malcolm Knowles's work on andragogy and updated by decades of subsequent research, inform our design in specific ways:

We start with the challenge, not the content. Every programme opens by naming the real-world challenge participants are facing. "You're managing people for the first time and nobody taught you how." "You need to influence decisions in rooms where you have no formal authority." The content serves the challenge, not the other way around.

We use their experience as the curriculum. Participants bring current situations to work on during the programme. The delegation challenge they're navigating right now. The feedback conversation they've been avoiding. The team dynamic that isn't working. The concepts we teach become tools for solving problems they already have.

We build in application between sessions. Our programmes are spaced over weeks, not crammed into days. Between each session, participants apply what they've learned and return with observations about what worked and what didn't. This rhythm of learn-practise-reflect is the backbone of sustainable behaviour change.

Transfer Factors

The biggest challenge in leadership development isn't teaching. It's transfer: getting people to apply in the workplace what they learned in the programme. Research on learning transfer identifies several factors that determine whether training actually changes behaviour.

Manager support. When a participant's manager asks about the programme, discusses application, and reinforces new behaviours, transfer rates increase significantly. We build manager involvement into our programmes: brief pre-programme conversations, mid-programme check-ins, and post-programme follow-up.

Peer accountability. Learning cohorts continue meeting after formal sessions end. These peer groups create social accountability: when you've committed to trying something in front of five colleagues, you're more likely to actually do it.

Environmental alignment. If the organisation's systems contradict what the training teaches (e.g., the programme teaches delegation but the culture rewards micromanagement), transfer will fail regardless of the quality of the training. We discuss these alignment issues openly with clients before designing any programme.

What We Don't Do

Transparency includes being honest about our limits.

We don't promise transformation. We promise practice, feedback, and sustained support for behaviour change. Whether that adds up to transformation depends on factors beyond any programme's control, including the participant's commitment and the organisation's environment.

We don't teach theory for theory's sake. Every model, framework, and concept we introduce earns its place by connecting to a specific leadership challenge. If it doesn't help someone do something differently on Monday morning, it doesn't belong in the programme.

We don't disappear after delivery. Our engagement includes follow-up. Coaching check-ins. Pulse surveys that measure whether participants are applying what they learned. We want to know whether the programme worked, and we're willing to find out.

The Design Philosophy in One Sentence

Every Leadetic programme is designed to answer one question: what will participants do differently, and how will we know?

If we can't answer that clearly for a specific programme, we redesign it until we can. Development that doesn't change behaviour isn't development. It's education, and leaders don't need more of that. They need practice, accountability, and the kind of support that turns insight into habit.