Our department is working on implementing training on Strategic Leadership (communication, strategy, processes for creating and implementing strategic plans). We may develop the program in-house, use external consultants, or both. I'm looking for a benchmark - what other organizations are doing in this area. I'd appreciate hearing what your company is doing.

Hi NJ -- to know whether I can point you to applicable contacts/resources, I really need more info about what your department has defined. For example - what did you analyze that led you to this solution? What are your goals for implementing it? Etc... Thanks in advance for providing more context.

StopSpoonFeedingNow - we analyzed the data from succession planning interviews as well as from needs assessment interviews. We're working from general anecdotal data so we can't define it more specifically. Our overall goal in this project is to create more options to develop our middle- and senior-level leaders in the areas I mentioned (strategic leadership, strategic planning, and communicating/implementing strategic plans).

Hey NJT-

For strategy LD, we have transitioned to utilizing custom simulations. We've been doing this for about 5 years now.

We experimented with canned sims, but it just wasn't effective. Trying to extrapolate strategic execution from a generic sim was a challenging and a sort of step backwards.

Thus, we're now utilizing custom sims that simulate our company, our strategy, industry, and cultural challenges. Anytime we do LD, a day of the program is devoted to the Sim exercise. I can't say enough good things about the effectiveness that comes from it on many levels.

A couple words of cautions:
1. Don't get a multi-day sim. It gets to the point of beating a dead horse. All you're trying to do is connect internal leadership competencies to the business through strategic execution. If they get to big, they loose their focus.
2. Try to find a company that only does custom stuff. We utilized a company that mostly does canned to build a custom and it turned out to be a slightly altered canned. Not really very good for our needs.
3. If you use a sim, make sure to involve Sr. Managers in the development process (VP+). The reason is that it really helps with buy-in.

There are 3 companies that we have utilized:
- BTS: http://www.bts.com - They are good, but tend to be on the larger sim side. But they are good if you need multi day large scale programs.
- Ensire: http://www.enspire.com - They are also good, but are mainly online based and tend to lean more towards the canned solution. They do custom stuff, but I believe its fairly new to them.
- Simulation Development Group: http://www.simdevgroup.com - They are equally as good, but focus more towards very rapid, very focused custom business simulations (and thus lower cost). This is good for the 1-2 day programs.

This is probably too much info, but we found utilizing these tools made the LD very relevant for our leaders. Hope this helps.