Leadership Program

Leadership training like no other

Our leadership training is not a standard program, but a learning experience that truly makes a difference. At its core is experience-based learning, supported by hands-on and research-driven models from institutions such as Harvard and INSEAD. It is co-created with and will be run with our colleagues in experiential learning from Leadinn.

The program is built on an “Organising to Learn” approach, creating a meaningful bridge between the practice of an outdoor training (first module) and its real-world application in the workplace (second module).

The impact goes beyond the participants themselves: their teams also benefit directly. What’s more, learning from and with each other is key. You don’t just learn from the trainers, but also by observing and exchanging experiences with other leaders — from functional teams, temporary project teams, and start-ups in international companies, all with years of experience.

And of course, the program is fully customizable. We tailor it to the needs and learning objectives of your organisation, ensuring direct relevance and maximum value.

This program has been developped with the aid and feedback of former participants of our Insead Leaderschip courses, currently working as leaders within a.o. BMG Music Group (USA), Heineken (Netherlands), RTL Television Group (Germany), RITTA Constuction Company (Thailand), Butaz Gas Company (France), BDTronics (USA) and deKfW Bank (Germany).

For whom?

This leadership course is developed for middle managers and senior leaders who …

* are working in an international company or at least in an international context

* have at least several years of experience in leading and managing a team

* this can be all sort of teams (such as a.o. a regular functional team, temporary project team, research/innovation team), possibly characterized by team members who bring different cultural and/or educational backgrounds and/or geographical dispersion with them

* are willing to look at their leadership style in all its aspects from the perspective of interpersonal effectiveness

What makes this leadership programstand out?

1. Stronger leadership – Solid theoretical background and essential practical skills to lead people more effectively.
2. Immediate transfer to the workplace – Participants apply key insights directly to real team challenges.
3. Team-wide effect – Participants focus on the learning of their teams, amplifying the return.
4. International best practices – Learn what works in leading organizations worldwide.
5. Organizational alignment – Customization ensures the program supports your company’s goals.

Design of the trajectory

Intakes

In an individual online meeting (1,5 hours) 1 to 2 months before the start trainer and participant get to know each other. They explore the current leadership experience and learning style of the participant. Possibly in attendance of the leader of the participant or HR-coach of the company, they describe the learning focus and clarify mutual expectations.

Outdoor Deep Dive
Training@Outward Bound Belgium

This four day module gives participants the quintessential reference-experience of a high-performing team: what does it takes for us as learning group to develop us and perform to the best of our potential? It links experience of collaborative activities in the outdoors to theoretical backgrounds of leadership.

What?

• Participants explore what is needed to grow into a high-performing team.
• Over the course of four intensive days, we go beyond just team harmony and dive into group dynamics, dealing with tension, and providing high-quality interpersonal feedback in both leadership and followership roles.
• We prepare for the second module by reflecting on the question: What do I want or need to take forward for my personal development and my team’s growth?
• Strong connections are built within subgroups, enabling peer inspiration and mutual learning.

How?

• Experiential learning is central, taking place in a natural outdoor setting.
• Participants choose their own level of challenge (“challenge by choice”).
• One hour per day is scheduled for handling emails or urgent work matters.
• Arrival is scheduled for the evening of April 21st.

Theoretical input

• Teaming (Edmondson - Harvard)
  • Organising to learn (versus organising to execute)
  • Circle-out approach for team development (versus roll-out approach)
  • Consequences for leader- and followership in a team
• X-teaming (Ancona and Bresman – Insead)
  • Common and uncommon information
  • Group decision making capacity
  • Consequences for leader- and followership in a team
• Backstage Leadership (Galunic – Insead)
  • scanning and sense-making for deep-dives into challenges
  • handling contradictions
  • deploying team members with a 'bridge function'

Leadership skills to develop, linked to team dynamics of both the learning group as well as the pax' teams at workplace

• Framing
• Scanning and sense-making
• Debriefing
• Co-creating psychological safety
• Handling contradictions
• Learning from failures
• Bridging  cultural and professional gaps
• Giving and receiving feedback

Bridge

The bridge is conceived as transition from the outdoor training experience to the workplace applying experience. It consists of online coaching sessions and lectures. In order to prepare for the focus weeks, participants explore what their team needs to make the next (few) steps in their development and performing. This is the quintessence of the 'organising to learn'-approach.

What?

• Participants prepare for their focus weeks, together with their team.
• Personal and team development plans are aligned and connected.

How?

• Participant conduct an analysis of how their team currently functions. 
• Each participant receives two individual online coaching sessions, each lasting 1.5 hours.
  During these sessions, both the personal leadership focus and the team focus are sharpened by exploring the question: What do I want to develop further as a leader? What do we want to develop further as a team? 
  The sessions also help to link personal development goals with the needs and development of the team.
• An online inspiration session of 3 hoursis also included and takes place in small subgroups of 4 to 5 participants.
  This session focuses on developing peer coaching skills
• Two online lectures of 1.5 hours each provide theoretical depth and new inspiration for the focus weeks.
  These lectures focus on two key topics:
  • Decision-making from a situational perspective, exploring situational approaches to decision-making. It is structured around three dimensions:
    1. Relational – Practising active listening, thinking along with others, and making decisions together.
    2. Decision-maker – Considering who makes the decision: the leader, the full team, a subgroup, an individual team member, or someone external to the team.
    3. Methodological – Exploring various decision-making methods such as hierarchical decisions, majority voting, decision by consent, sorting, dotting (following the energy), or the Japanese ‘nemawashi’ method (exploring the roots of an issue beforehand).
  • Collective thinking within teams, looking at how teams can think, navigate complex and challenging situations and make decisions together more effectively. The approach is based on the book of trainer Bert Vandenbussche in collaboration with Martin Ringer and Rob Gordon: "Igniting the Collective Spark"

Focus weeks @The workplace

Leadership development only becomes real when applied in the context of the team. That’s why the training includes focus weeks in the workplace, based on the “organising to learn” principle: participants and their teams learn while performing their actual day-to-day tasks. The aim is to implement both the personal and team learning goals developed during the Bridge phase. 

What?

• Learning while doing real work: experiential learning integrated into everyday operations.
• Participants continue their normal work as planned in their real agendas.
• Learning happens on both personal and team levels.

How?

• Organising to learn requires that work is structured slightly differently to enable learning moments. This means:

  • Each focus week is consciously framed in advance (based on prior inquiry and team dynamics).

  • Leaders organise debriefs at key moments, both individually and as team.
    
    

• Applying insights from the training module and bridge

• One additional online learning coaching session with the trainer

• Online debriefing session after the focus weeks in subgroups of participants (3 hours):
  • Sharing the focus week experience
  • Turning experience into meaningful learning
  • Connecting it to the theoretical frameworks from the trainin

Closing off the leadership program - Online

In the online closing (1,5 hours) off participants and trainer share and deepen their experiences of the focusweeks in the light of leadership and team development.

Accommodation

The outdoor module will take place at the Outward Bound centre, Chateau Varoy in Belgium (1 hour from Brussels airport). It is located in a vast domain of 25 ha, in the middle of nature. It has been fully renovated in 2020. It has two kitchens, two dining rooms, two meeting rooms and on the upper floors 10 twin bedrooms and 2 multi-person bedrooms.

Dates

• Intakes (online): March - April 2026
• Outdoor Module: 22nd-25th April 2026
• Bridge (online): May – half of June 2026
• Focus Weeks : 2nd half of June 2026
• Closing (online): 3rd July 2026

Budget

Enrollment: 4300€
Lodging and catering: 650€
Total : 4950€
Included: facilitation, technical & study material, insurance, food & drinks, dinners by caterer, single rooms
Not included: VAT and travel from and to Chateau Varoy

Facilitators

Bert Vandenbussche

Trainer, coach and consultant with 20 years of experience in profit and non-profit, based on diverse methodologies (mainly experiential learning in outdoors, inspirational coaching, dialogical organisational development and systemic constellations)

Creative developer of team programs, leadership courses and change managements projects

Broad experience in diverse leadership positions (teamlead, project lead, head of departement and currently programm director at LUCA School of Arts Belgium)

Co-editor and author of the book 'The Collective Spark. Igniting thinking in groups, teams and the wider world'

Internationally active — working across Europe and beyond.

Artūras Deltuva

Executive partner at LeadInn (www.leadinn.org) 

Consultant and coach with over 30 years of experience in the professional training and coaching industry. Specialised in supporting entrepreneurs, CEOs, leaders, and key people — in short: people who lead people.

Broad experience in both the corporate and non-profit sectors.

Strong academic foundation, holding a Ph.D. in Educational Group Psychology.

Internationally active — working across Europe and beyond.