In this article we chat with Corey Criswell, Adeption’s Chief Leadership Officer for the Americas, on changes she’s seeing in the leadership development market today, trends that will shape the future, and lessons from organizations leading the way.
From life sciences to leadership development
Corey brings a deep curiosity to leadership development, shaped by her early career. Having started out as a biologist with NASA, she spent time researching life sciences for two space shuttle missions.
Reflecting on her career path, she jokes, “I went from studying rats in space to studying leaders in organizations. And that’s really the common thread through my career—studying an animal in its environment.”
Going on to spend nearly 2O years at the Center for Creative Leadership, before standing up Executive Development at Target, Corey became curious about Adeption after grappling with a challenge that many practitioners are facing today.
The growing need for scalable leadership development
“We were facing two leadership development problems at the time. We didn’t have the expertise, technology or capacity to solve the challenges we faced in house. And we couldn’t find a leadership development vendor who could solve for the scale or the speed and price point we were looking for”.
So after a couple of her contacts recommended she speak to Adeption’s CEO, Carl Sanders-Edwards, Corey got in touch.
“I said to Carl, ‘I know a little bit about what you do, but can you help me understand more about Adeption? And he said, yes, let me give you an example: For one of our recent clients, we stood up 84 cohorts in 2O months. Participants are showing pre- and post-36O degree improvement. We’re leveraging one coach per 1OO participants, and we’re doing it at a price point that fits the client’s budget.’
It was exactly what she’d been looking for and it marked a turning point in her career.
Corey believes the need for high-quality scalable solutions is growing fast as leaders at all levels face more complexity.
“The thing is, corporate leadership development teams are often small and mighty. It’s common to see one person and a project manager rolling out a development program in an organization. And we can partner with that team to design, develop and facilitate programs at scale — and leverage AI to study the impact.”
More complexity means everyone needs to lead
Corey shares that complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty are at the heart of most leadership challenges today. “Our recent research found 62% of leadership challenges stem from these factors”.
“It used to be that complex decisions were made by the C-Suite. But now individual contributors are regularly facing complicated decisions and situations. And if people aren’t equipped to navigate this, they push decisions back up the chain of command and slow organizations down”.
She shares that as markets face growing change and disruption, building organizational agility by investing in people will become even more critical.
“The key is taking an organization-wide approach to development. This starts at the top, meaning the CEO and executive team are invested in their own and others’ development. And then ensuring development reaches down throughout the entire organization.
“Right now we’re partnering with a large organization in Asia Pacific that’s taking every single team member through a full leadership development program. That’s what’s needed, and I believe we’ll see more of this in the near future”.
Moving away from ‘sage on a stage’ to development on-the-job
With her deep experience in leadership development, Corey reflects that the traditional model of development — an ‘expert’ teaching in a classroom-style setting — often results in a gap between what leaders learn and what they apply.
Instead, she explains the organizations doing development best are leaning into the 7O/2O/1O model: where 7O percent of development happens on-the-job, 2O percent through interactions with others, and just 1O percent from learning in formal settings.
“Adeption is supporting this by enabling leaders to learn in the flow of work, by focusing on the real challenges they’re facing day-to-day.”
She explains how Adeption’s Be Conscious, Be Curious, Be Better (B3) methodology shifts away from the expert-led approach to development, instead putting leaders at the center and giving them control.
“B3 guides leaders to use their challenges as development opportunities, pulling inspiration from peers, models and tools to find solutions, and learning through iterative cycles of taking action and reflecting.
“People walk away with the understanding that ‘My development is in my own hands’,” says Corey.
“At the end of an engagement, we produce an Adeption insights reports for our clients that uses AI to analyze the actions leaders take as a result of their development. In every example, it shows leaders are more intentional about their own development. They’re putting their insights into action. And B3 gives them a tool for life”.
The organizations leading the way are learning organizations
One of the most important shifts Corey is seeing today is how top organizations are embracing an ecosystem approach to development.
“It used to be that a handful of top leaders would go through a program each year. Now we’re seeing organizations building ecosystems where not only is everyone getting development, but it’s embedded as a continuous, natural part of work, and is seen as critical to the organization’s agility.”
“For instance, our digital platform enables leaders to share their insights on common challenges with others in the same organization. We’re partnering with one organization where 1,OOO of their leaders are sharing their wisdom on the toughest challenges they face and learning from each other in the process. Imagine the impact.”
Corey shares that an important step towards building a development ecosystem is to design in peer and manager support systems.
“The classic example is a leader has an insight in a workshop that they’re excited about — but they’re not supported to put that into practice afterwards because their environment hasn’t changed. It gets back to my interest in studying people in their environments. People need the permission, space, and support to experiment with doing things differently.
She shares that development initiatives are most powerful when people at all levels go through a similar, relevant leadership journey. This enables leaders to share their experiences and insights with their teams and become coaches to future cohorts — normalizing development and building a true ecosystem.
“And that ecosystem provides collective strength, resilience, and balance because as a whole we’re greater than we are as individuals”, says Corey.
Curious to learn more about Adeption’s approach to leadership development? Reach out to Corey directly by emailing coreyc@adeption.io