Equipping leaders for complexity at a global scale
Since 2017, a global tech company headquartered in Mountain View, California, has empowered their senior leaders through Cultivating Leadership’s co-created programs. The Leading in Complexity program has successfully equipped over 4,000 directors and VPs worldwide, enabling them to thrive amid ambiguity, fostering a culture of continuous growth and adaptability.
Overview & Challenge
A global leader in the tech industry, this company’s success relies on forward-thinking leadership to stay ahead in an ever-changing world. In 2015, the need to equip their leaders for escalating uncertainty at breakneck speed led to a search for external expertise to co-develop a solution. The goal was to enhance the capacity of individuals and teams to:
- Provide clarity and direction amid volatility and uncertainty.
- See the bigger picture when making strategic decisions.
- Create conditions for innovation and continuous learning through deep listening and engaging multiple, diverse perspectives.
- Enable collaboration, productive disagreement, and team cohesion.
To meet these needs, a scalable, adaptable leadership development program was created to fit the company’s global and diverse organizational contexts.
Solution, Guidance & Implementation
Cultivating Leadership collaborated with the company’s Executive Development team to co-create the Leading in Complexity program. Designed to expand leaders’ capacities, the program focused on:
- Leading in complex, fast-changing environments.
- Adopting systems thinking (and understanding the value of this lens).
- Holding and engaging with diverse perspectives.
- Encouraging questioning, experimentation and learning.
Initially, the program included two three-day workshops supported by virtual leadership practice groups. This provided a safe environment to connect, learn and practice new skills. The program has continued to evolve to meet new needs, including team-based versions and programs for people partners and internal consultants.
In 2021, the program transitioned to a virtual format, making it scalable to even more participants. Follow-on programs, such as Leading at Scale and Navigating Complexity, were developed to support leaders at different stages of their journey.
Throughout this journey, Cultivating Leadership has been present as a helpful guide, overcoming challenges such as logistics and scaling while continuously refining the content to stay relevant.
The Impact
Since its inception, over 4,000 Directors and VPs have experienced the Leading in Complexity program co-developed by Cultivating Leadership. The program remains integral within the organization, delivered to hundreds of leaders each quarter. The program’s concepts and language are now embedded across the company. This integration was highlighted when Cultivating Leadership CEO Jennifer Garvey Berger was introduced at a event as “the person who introduced ‘listening to learn’ to our firm,” generating spontaneous applause and comments about how much this idea had changed them.
Much like planting seeds that grow into sturdy trees, the foundational mindsets, frameworks, and skills have flourished within the tech giant’s leadership culture. Cultivating Leadership’s continuous development of the content and structure ensures the course adapts to organizational and global changes, maintaining its relevance.
Senior Leader“Cultivating Leadership pushes the boundaries in many ways on what people have seen and heard previously. This is a great thing for an intellectually curious audience who think there’s not a lot more they can learn. As a result, leaders are engaged in the content and readily begin to consider its application to themselves. Over time, this leads to what our leaders refer to as ‘personal transformation’—no mean feat in a corporate context.
My colleagues and I have been truly thrilled by the partnership with Cultivating Leadership. We are bolder and braver together and have learned so much along the way. Cultivating Leadership walk their talk in a way that makes everyone around them better.”
Learning and Development, Global Tech Company
