Transforming Leadership to Support Significant Change: 

A Two-Day Workshop for a Federal Agency

Abstract

To successfully manage the impact of significant change in the industry a federal agency supports, its leaders needed to become transformational leaders. This two-day onsite or virtual program teaches the Transformational Leadership model through facilitator-led presentations, simulation decision-making, role plays, and individual exercises. To date, this program has touched more than 175 leaders in the past seven years, providing them with a better understanding of their own leadership style and a framework for development.

Challenge

This federal agency supports an industry that was undergoing significant upheaval. Industry changes in technology, the workforce, stakeholders, and operational processes forced the organization to rethink how it operates and what it regulates. To effectively make the transition to this new world and attract new talent, leaders had to lead in new ways. To have a consistent impact on the culture, a single model for leadership was required: Transformational Leadership.

Solution

The Transforming Leadership to Support Significant Change program was creatively designed to immerse leaders in the concept of Transformational Leadership over the course of two days. The concept is taught through a rich mix of presentations and discussions, a real-world business simulation, role plays, personal feedback, and exercises. These activities are large group- and small team-based, allowing participants to hear and learn from others’ perspectives and leadership styles.

The program employs a variety of learning methods, including:

• Interactive large-group presentations to teach the framework and tenets of Transformational Leadership, with follow-on small-group exercises to check for understanding.
• A dynamic business situation in which teams make decisions for a fictional federal agency facing many of the same challenges, including the resolution of a national crisis.
• Small-group activities, which include role plays, that facilitate the practice of a new model of leadership and provide feedback on leadership style with direct reports, with peers, and in crisis management.
• A small-group discussion to provide and receive feedback from peers on observed leadership style.
• Facilitator-led discussions and presentations.
• Executive sponsor involvement.

Learning Objectives

As a result of the program, participants develop and improve skills to:

• Practice and gain mastery of transformational leadership on the job.
• Expand their perspective of the role of leadership in their organization.
• Identify their personal leadership style and how it connects to Transformational Leadership.

Design Highlights

Participants’ practice of Transformational Leadership is essential to grounding the concepts. To that end, the program affords six opportunities for role plays, each conducted with a professional actor. Following this, an expert facilitator debriefs the conversations that occurred. In addition, peers provide feedback. The incorporation of role plays and peer feedback offers a transformative experience for participants and fosters powerful group-based learning opportunities. Through immersive scenarios and hands-on engagement, participants not only gain a deeper understanding of the business dynamics but also develop crucial interpersonal skills.

Having skilled actors embody their characters, all of whom are leaders at the fictional agency, leads to more challenging and authentic role plays as well as richer feedback for the participants.

Simulation Overview

Success in the simulation is based on how well teams:

• Deliver on the mission on a day-to-day basis.
• Develop the organization for the future.
• Maintain positive relationships with all stakeholders.
• Manage within authorized budget limits.
• Integrate a Transformational Mindset into their decisions.

History and Results

This program has been delivered to more than 175 leaders, who have deepened their understanding of leadership style and climate as well as their ability to lead as transformational leaders.
Here is what some participants have said about this program:

• "The simulations with real actors was very effective (And enjoyable) for me."
• "Fantastic training. [Transformational Leadership] elements need to be included in basic indoctrination."
• "The scenarios were thought provoking; real life situations were fruitful."
• "Awesome job by the whole team. Thank you for challenging me."
• "It was one of the most valuable classes I have been to."