Interview by Mathilde Elzière. August 2006.



What is a Learning Expedition?

I coined the term in 1988, when I founded WDHB Consulting Group, to designate a kind of study trip for senior executives where the discussions between them are as important as the company visits and other experiential activities. For that population, traditional Training & Development is simply not an option, while our approach, based on emergence, is very effective.

Emergence?

The concept is to offer to the participants a very professionally designed context, and to help them make sense of it through skillful facilitation. It is a bottom-up approach within the group of participants. As if they were not kids anymore. More than 300 Learning Expeditions later, I can attest to the relevance of the formula for that population.

Do you cater only to senior executives?

No. After working with Executive Committees and Board members, we have extended our reach to include complete executive strata and high potentials, too. Many global companies have sent us several hundred participants each, from anywhere to anywhere. Needless to say, the impact on a company culture is tremendous. It is even noticeable from one group to the next, which leads us to custom design each and every Expedition.

By the way, we also offer "CEO Expeditions," just for the CEO or other key person and maybe one or two close associates. Also, initially for newly appointed executives and now for a larger executive population, we also offer Learning Expeditions which include up to 50% of seminar time facilitated by faculty from Stanford or Penn or Berkeley in the United States, from Insead or HEC in Europe, and soon from a major Chinese and a major Indian university. Needless to say, the topical content is carefully woven into the experiential and discovery part -this is not just a juxtaposition, but a complete redesign.

What type of themes do you cover in WDHB's Learning Expeditions?

We work for all industry sectors, from and to all countries, on all strategic or managerial themes, such as:

Customer centricity;

Fostering innovation (particularly by strengthening the relationship between R&D and marketing);

Strategic issues facing an executive team (e.g. How is our industry evolving in North America? Are we still in the right business? What is happening in China or India?);

Visioning, for instance after a merger or an acquisition;

Evolving management practices in a given country (frequently in the U.S. or various hot spots worldwide);

Many aspects of new technologies, from introduction to applications;

Developments in HR practices, in mature or in emerging countries;

Effecting a change in corporate culture ;

Sustainable Development;

Working better among different cultures;

Knowledge Management.

We also cover a wide range of specific themes (e.g. the future of banking distribution, cutting-edge IT, new trends in merchandising, new financial reporting practices, fixing-up together an ERP mess, and so on). In these cases, we often co-facilitate the Learning Expedition with an expert in the field. These themes can be approached in isolation or in combination with a broader issue such as those listed above, for example "Changing Management Practices," and, almost always, with some work on the executive group effectiveness.

By the way, when we work on a strategic theme for an intact executive group, we call it a Strategic Expedition®.

What are your success factors?

I see five of them:

We conceptualize our Learning Expeditions as opportunities for individual and collective breakthroughs, not just for observation/transposition of best practices. Our clients tend to think they are coming (at least the first time) just to visit companies and talk about them, and they are surprised by the thoroughness of our design and by our process of facilitation.

We are committed to offering our clients unparalleled service (we work almost only by word-of-mouth, and our rate of repeat business is very high).

We take great care to remain Craftsmen, in the noble sense of the word - which doesn't rule out intelligent use of new technologies and a systematic pursuit of innovation.

We know how to identify best practices and secure effective meetings with the right people (not just generic visits to a given company).

We give our employees the space they need to fully express their talent. We value their heart as well as their brain. For our own management, we use the principles of "emergence" that I have described in an article on this website ( Manager or "Emerger" ).