Scott Rose is General Manager of Impact UK.
Here at Impact, we believe leadership isn’t about a special type of person, but a special kind of action. Our leadership playbook is a call to action to reimagine leadership as something shared, lived, and deeply human.
Whether your people are remote, hybrid or office-based, here's how you can bring this kind of leadership to life across your entire organisation:
1. Leadership development through large group events
There’s a special kind of magic that happens when people come together in the same space, at the same point in time, all aligned in a shared experience. Think about when a football player scores a goal and everyone jumps up to shout. Or when your favourite band comes back on stage for an encore of their most classic hit. You share that moment together – thousands of phones lighting up as people sing the same words at the same time.
Most of us will have been part of a large workplace event at one point or another, whether it be as new recruits, at a sales conference, as part of the top 200, or even at a whole company gathering. These events usually involve being talked at for 90% of the time. There may be a handful of moments that could stand out and prompt new thinking but, if you’re anything like me, you’ll have already drifted off.
The major win with any big event I’ve been to is the network potential, connecting with different people and building new relationships. And, by combining this with experiential learning methods that activate individual mindset and behaviour change, it’s possible to have a large group event that liberates leadership across all levels.
When done well, a large group event is a catalyst – a space where hundreds of people can use their collective ability to notice the world around them, collaborate across boundaries, and sing that same hit song with collective leadership action.
Large, in-person group events have the potential to:
- Move leadership away from a theoretical idea towards a shared experience. This is what sticks in our memory and serves as a reminder long into the future of the collective leadership we need to take.
- Create the conditions for distributed leadership. Limiting leadership action to a handful of people doesn’t work, but when we bring people together at scale, we invite everyone to step into a space where they have the agency to act.
- Provide a rare opportunity to align hundreds of people around a shared vision. When that vision and purpose is felt collectively, it becomes a force for change.
- Foster inclusive environments where diverse voices are sought out, heard, and empowered. When designed with care, it’s possible to give space for cross-functional and multi-generational learning that not only informs the kind of leadership action that’s needed but helps people feel valued.
- Showcase expert facilitation. From the stage but also within smaller learning groups as people move through different experiences. The trick is to support at both the collective and individual level so that leadership learning is tangible and realistic.
2. Virtual experiential learning at scale
Is it really possible to shift a leadership culture when people are learning in a virtual setting alone? Well, this is a question that we at Impact have been grappling with for many years.
Before the pandemic forced us all online, Impact was already developing leadership capabilities virtually. In the 15 years since, we have been testing different ways to initiate positive mindset and behaviour change online.
What we’ve learned over time is just how important it is to be deliberate with our learning design. When we are together online, that time needs to be used for talking to each other, trying out new approaches, and learning from others. All the other stuff can be done in a self-led way. You can watch a video, read an article, look at a model, or listen to a podcast in your own time.
The virtual setting also gives us a unique opportunity to go BIG with our ambitions to reach lots of people. There’s almost no limit to how many individuals we can engage in learning and developing their leadership skills this way. We can do this not only through the self-led knowledge piece, but also through practical application and inspirational tasks.
Virtual experiential learning at scale has the potential to:
- Become a real-time living lab for trying out new approaches and getting feedback about leadership in action. And it isn’t metaphorical or theoretical – the learning and the work are the same thing.
- Act as a cultural accelerator. We know that culture isn’t built in the top-floor boardroom; it’s shaped in moments of interaction. Virtual experiential learning at scale allows us to model, test, and embed the values and behaviours we want to see across the entire organisation at the same time.
- Support sustainable learning. I’ve often gone back to favourite Ted talks, articles, and podcasts to remind myself of a concept or new idea. We can liberate the potential for leadership across an organisation by having these materials designed specifically for that need. We want learning to take on its own energy and become viral within the organisation.
Ready to scale leadership development together?
If you’re looking to bring your leadership culture to life at scale, we’d love to help. Whether it’s designing a bold event, crafting immersive experiences, or facilitating meaningful dialogue, we’re here to co-create something extraordinary.
Let’s liberate leadership – together.
Learn more about large group events