US Health Organisation

A leading US integrated academic health organisation partnered with Harthill to implement the Vertical Leadership Development Program to sustain its high-performance culture. The goal was clear: to move beyond simply teaching new information (horizontal development) and instead foster deep, internal change - a shift in how leaders think and act in the face of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). This focus on vertical development was designed to build the next generation of executives capable of expanding self, other, and system awareness and impact.

Now in its fourth year the program has been highly impactful, with participants reporting:

• Increased self-awareness and capacity for reflection
• Improved communication and interpersonal skills
• Greater confidence and effectiveness in leading teams
• Enhanced ability to address adaptive challenges
• A stronger commitment to ongoing growth and development

The success of this program lies in its experiential design, incorporating elements such as group coaching, peer learning, and real-world application. Harthill works closely with the organisation's L&D team to ensure the program aligns with their strategic goals and leadership competencies.

By investing in their leaders' vertical development, the organisation is building a sustainable pipeline of talent equipped to excel in today's complex healthcare environment.

Transformational Impact and Sustained Application

The program structure, which includes in-person and online workshops, individual coaching session following the Leadership Development Profile (LDP), and continuous peer work in Developmental Inquiry Groups, is profoundly impactful based on the client feedback:

New Perspective and Effectiveness

• Increased Effectiveness: A significant 68.42% of leaders reported feeling "A lot more effective" or "Vastly more effective" as a result of the program.
• A New Lens: The program was praised for providing a "new lens" through which to see and understand leadership challenges, enabling leaders to reorganize and refine their practice to align with organizational growth.
• The Power of Slowing Down: Several participants noted the importance of learning to "slow down" and think about the nature of a problem before rushing to solutions, a crucial capability in a fast-paced, high-stakes system.

Practical Tools for a Data-Driven Culture

In a culture that demands accountability, the program gave participants tangible tools and frameworks to apply daily:

• Transformational Capabilities: with an application rate of 84.21% the Harthill Transformational Capabilities provided clear ways to work on personal growth and become more thoughtful and analytical in action.
• Developmental Inquiry Group work: 89.47% of participants agreed that the power of a group of invested partners can help navigate complex challenges.
• LDP Report and Debrief: 94.74% of participants described Harthill's LDP as an "essential tool" that offered "clear and actionable direction" for leadership enhancement.

Sustaining the Journey

The program successfully fosters a powerful peer network, which is critical for sustaining development:

• Networking and Collaboration: Participants found immense value in networking with other leaders across all areas of the institution, which fosters a better understanding of different missions and encourages collaboration.
• High Motivation: The average score for motivation to act on takeaways was 4.53 out of 5.
• Active Application: The tools are actively being used, with 78.95% of participants reporting they had used a learned strategy at least 1-3 times in the last week.

The organisations ongoing investment in vertical leadership development is an investment in its future, ensuring its executives have the inner capacity and collaborative network to thrive in the demanding and complex environment that has made the organization an enviable success.

Global Marine and Scientific Organisation

In partnership with Harthill, the organisation introduced BenchStrength - a programme to develop a pipeline of successors to the Executive Leadership Team. The aims of the programme were to broaden perspective beyond technical expertise, the dissolution of cross-business silos and expansion in participants' meaning-making capacity, rather than simply delivering traditional management theory.

The programme's architecture included:

• Vertical Adult Development - using Harthill’s Leadership Development Framework (LDF) profiling and 1:1 debriefs to baseline each leader’s Action Logic and developmental edge.
• Transformational Capabilities - embedded six core capabilities; Complex Systems Leadership, Inquiry-Based Experimentation, Courageous Use of Power, Passionate Detachment, Engaging Difference and Positive Use of Language, directly aligned with corporate leadership competencies.
• Immersion Cycles and Inquiry - structured over 12–16 months with virtual half-day immersions every 6–8 weeks, supported by facilitated Action Inquiry Groups, peer buddy pairs, and continuous reflection.
• Personal Leadership Tools - participants created and iteratively refined a Leadership Manifesto (defining the leader they aspire to be) and a dynamic Development Focus Plan.

Transformational Impact & Business Outcomes

The BenchStrength programme delivered profound shifts across individual capability, executive talent readiness, and cross-organisational alignment:

• Shift from Technical Expert to Systems Leader: Leaders developed the crucial capability to "slow down" and evaluate systemic dynamics before rushing to technical fixes, enabling them to lead through ambiguity and rapid market change.
• Breakthrough Silo Dissolution: The international cohort (spanning the UK, Europe, US, and Asia) formed a cohesive cross-functional network, eliminating historical operational silos and enhancing enterprise collaboration.
• Measurable Expansion in Action Logics: Re-profiling near the conclusion of the extended program demonstrated tangible growth in leaders' meaning-making capacity, proving that vertical capability can be deliberately cultivated.
• Executive Talent Pipeline: The program successfully transformed succession planning from a passive exercise into an active, high-readiness talent engine for the Executive Leadership Team.

By combining rigorous vertical development frameworks with continuous peer inquiry, the organisation has established a repeatable, highly resilient leadership model. Leaders emerge not only with greater self-awareness and commercial agility, but with the collaborative network required to guide a 260-year-old organisation successfully into its next era of global growth.

Danone

Danone has gone from a small yoghurt maker to a global foods brand in just a decade or two. Their industry is one that is recognised as having a huge impact environmentally and socially, and some players are taking this responsibility more seriously than others. Danone has taken a leading role among its peers in directly addressing the environmental and social issues on its own and throughout its supply chain.

We have worked with them for over seven years and counting. We have developed their senior leaders across country, region and functional lines in preparation for more senior global and executive roles. Our work has developed their bench strength at senior level which has helped to ensure that they have a strong pool of senior leaders to draw on.

The key to our work with this client has been our close attunement to their needs as they have evolved, as well as close attention to the evolving context in which they operate an understanding of this in the work that we’ve done with their leaders. We have also collaborated very closely with the L&D team, working together in scoping, commissioning, designing and delivering the programmes for their leaders.

BP

BP is a leading player in an industry that is in chaos. The combination of demands on their industry from pricing to environmental factors through to scale and complexity of global operations and a fully vertically integrated organisation are significant.

Our work has been with the senior leaders helping to prepare them for Global roles and to make sure that BP has a strong cohort of leaders who were able to operate at the executive level. So we created new frames for complexity by training leaders in understanding and responding to that complexity. We also used enquiry and the practice of encouragement to help them grapple with their individual challenges in relating to this.

In these ways, we have improved the quality and strength of leadership at this level and strengthened the cohort of leaders available for senior roles. We have also taken this knowledge and education to the executive level so that they have a clearer understanding of what the senior leaders are all doing and how to sponsor and support that effectively. One key to our success with BP as a client, has been our close collaboration with the L&D leaders, who have needed to influence mindfully and considerately in order to embrace and embed the concepts and approach of adult development and the LDF on the map of Talent Development in BP.

Department for International Trade

DIT has gone from an organisation of zero to around 3,500 staff in the three years since it was created in 2016. During that time and since then, it has operated in an ever shifting complex context politically, socially, commercially and environmentally. This has placed and continues to impose enormous pressures on its leadership and on their ability not only to create the organisation but also to deliver it - all at the same time.

Our work in DIT focuses mainly on the cohort of leaders just below the executive team. The aim has been to support their leadership as well as create a strong network of leaders at that level that are strong partners to the executive team and able to lead the rest of the organisation forward. In addition we are supporting the L&D team to create organisational interventions using inquiry, and in establishing inquiry as an organisational practice. In this last respect, this makes it one of the organisations at the cutting-edge of organisational development work and this is being achieved during intense pressures on the organisation. The key to our success with DIT has been a persistent commitment to making the programme work well, despite the logistical pressures under which the organisation is operating. At the same time, we collaborate very closely and creatively with the L&D team to create an effective partnership for the organisation.