Unlock Potential

Strategic Essentials is the local managing Partner of Leadership Management International (LMI) the world’s largest and most experienced producer of leadership and management development programs. Using its proven programs, the LMI Process, we provide the most comprehensive organizational development process available today.

Facilitating Lasting Change

For more than forty years, LMI has used the same basic process to facilitate positive change, demonstrating again and again the essential difference between ordinary “training” and authentic “development” and producing the significant and measureable results that our clients have come to expect (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1

Participants enter the process by carefully evaluating present performance, proceed to develop a specific plan of action and identify key success factors and methods of tracking results, go on to actually change daily routines and measure progress in step-wise fashion, and then complete the cycle by documenting results achieved and determining opportunities for continuous improvement.

This process is built into every LMI program with two important implications: on the one hand, it means that each program is necessarily customized to address what matters most to our clients – not only before a program begins but for each and every session; and, on the other hand, it means that every program has been written and designed with both practical and scientific considerations in mind. Six essential features of every LMI program guarantee that these and other important considerations are consistently acted upon:

1. Convenience

All lesson material is written and recorded for portability and ease of use. Recorded lessons can be listened to as you commute, as you dress or prepare for work in the morning, as you relax at home, or at a time you reserve at the office. You can listen at any time when your hands are busy but your mind is not. Consequently, the full benefits of the program may be enjoyed with the investment of a minimum amount of study time.

2. Spaced Repetition

The second effective learning technique employed in the program is spaced repetition – the learning technique that gives you a head start in establishing effective habits. To drastically improve the retention rate of the information and excel the application of the lesson material, you should do the following: Listen to each lesson a minimum of six times, preferably once a day for six days. Read the lesson text at least once as you listen, taking time to underline ideas that have special meaning. Write in the Notes column additional ideas that you believe are important in your work situation.

3. Multisensory Perception

Each of the five senses performs a specialized function in providing knowledge and understanding of the world. Although all five senses are important, the majority of our knowledge comes through sight and hearing. LMI programs make use of the visual sense through a printed text and involve hearing through the recorded material. A third sense – that of touch -is also brought into play through the use of writing as you respond to the various action steps suggested at the end of each lesson and as you note in the Lesson Manual the ideas that occur to you as you read or listen. When you involve several of the senses in the learning process, you increase the amount of knowledge you retain and have available for use.

4. Association

LMI programs use of association, or contextual learning, comes from evaluating the program’s information as it relates to a person’s work situation and their goals. This association makes the material more meaningful as well as relative, it also is more motivating when what you are implementing directly impacts your everyday challenges and produces positive results.

5. Application

A bit of ancient wisdom says, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” This means that if you want to improve your life in any way, you must do something different, change your behavior. It also suggests that you can take control and, by changing your behavior, direct yourself toward the goals and objectives that are important to you.

During the program, the participant will be asked to perform several action-oriented exercises that will call them to stretch, reach and grow. Some of these may be uncomfortable at first, but after they become familiar with these exercises and turn them into habits, they will discover that they are accomplishing more in less time.

6. Triangle of Communication

Finally, one of the unique features of the LMI process is the implementation of the “Triangle of Communication”. This involves key individuals in the development process over the entire series of conferences. Our clients tell us that the major difference between participants who achieve great results in our programs versus those who get simply good results, occurs when the manager/mentor meets with the participant on a weekly basis to help them apply the program ideas and principles back into the workplace. Increasing the frequency of the feedback to participants/ employees directly increases the quality and quantity of performance. By inviting managers to play a role in the triangle, we not only assure that the results from our process are immediate but also ongoing.