A first look at our 2026 Leadership Development Playbook

In 2026, we’ll be releasing the Exceptional Leadership Programmes Playbook. There are too few resources out there that cover this topic and a lot of money and time wasted on leadership development which doesn’t move the needle. We hope this’ll be a game-changer for L&D teams wanting to design leadership development that actually shifts behaviour and directly impacts organisational performance. 

At the heart of the Playbook is our Six Dimensions, which are the foundations we use to design programmes that create sustained behaviour change (and what our clients call “transformational”). 

Here’s a sneaky peak at the Six Dimensions:

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01. Alignment

‍Programmes are built around real business priorities, not generic competencies

Alignment is about getting clear on the “why” behind the programme. And no, “we need better leaders” isn’t enough. This dimension helps you connect your programme to real business priorities, define the leadership behaviours that matter most, understand the environment your leaders are working in and get your senior stakeholders aligned. Because when you do this well, it’s a lot easier to protect budgets and ensure your programme has the support it needs to succeed.

This dimension in the Playbook will help you to ensure that:

• You’re solving the right problem
• You have clear behavioural outcomes that’ll drive business performance
• You have a clear brief for either your internal team or external partner
• Your stakeholders support the programme

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02. Experience

‍Learning is engaging, inclusive and designed for how people actually learn

The Experience Dimension focuses on creating learning that feels engaging, inclusive and genuinely useful for the leaders taking part. It’s about how to identify the right learning needs, make smart design decisions and plan a programme that’s both impactful and practical to deliver. We also cover our recommended ‘best practices’ to ensure the foundations of the design are set up for success.

This dimension in the Playbook will help you to ensure that:

• You’ve completed an effective LNA
• You’ve considered how things like your budget, capacity and timelines influence your design decisions
• Session and content design supports behaviour change (and not just an “enjoyable session”)
• Any design decisions are made around how people actually learn, with insights from our resident Organisational Neuroscientist

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03. Engagement

‍Sponsors, stakeholders and executive leaders are visible advocates

Engagement is quite simply about getting people excited and engaged. You can’t force engagement, but you can design conditions and systems that make it easy, both for your learners and your stakeholders, including your executive team, so they actively champion it (and better still, role model the right behaviours).

This dimension in the Playbook will help you to ensure that:

• Your stakeholders advocate for your programme
• You create aesthetically beautiful assets that excite and engage
• Surprise and delight moments are seamlessly woven into your programme design
• You amplify the programme’s impact by getting your comms to work harder for you

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04. Cohesion

‍A shared language and leadership philosophy connects every level of leader

Cohesion is all about consistency: that everyone’s clear on what great leadership looks like, alignment on leadership language and frameworks, as well as ensuring consistency of experience as your programme scales.  

This dimension in the Playbook will help you to ensure that:

• You’ve built consistency and shared language into your programme design, even if there’s multiple “levels” of leadership you’re developing
• You integrate your programme into wider talent processes you have
• You maintain the quality of the learning experience as your programme scales (particularly relevant if you have multiple cohorts and facilitators)

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05. Impact:

‍Outcomes are clear and data is used to describe the impact of the programme

Put bluntly, most programmes seriously fall short here. In L&D we are consistently put under pressure to prove value and we must get better at demonstrating the value of leadership programmes. 

This dimension in the Playbook will help you to ensure that:

• You’re clear on how to measure satisfaction, learning and behaviour change
• You have some practical tools to track impact throughout the programme
• You tell a compelling story of value to your exec team

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06. Legacy:

‍Learning sticks because it’s woven into daily leadership practice and ways of working

The real work begins after the programme ends and building in systems and rituals to support sustainable behaviour change is what will create a legacy, long after the programme finishes. We can be too quick to rush off to the next project and miss a huge opportunity to amplify the programme’s impact. 

This dimension in the Playbook will help you to ensure that:

• You’ve built in systems and rituals to reinforce learning
• Managers and stakeholders are involved in building an ecosystem to support learning during and after the programme
• You’ve built a long-term plan to ensure what leaders have learnt isn’t lost and becomes part of their every day

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Our Playbook launches in February 2026 and to celebrate we’re giving early access to the first two dimensions (Alignment and Experience) for free. Watch this space on how to get your mitts on a copy and pre-order the hard copy. You’ll want it on your desk. 

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