Executives invest millions every year in training and development. They bring in experts, send leaders to seminars, and check the box on leadership programs. But when the dust settles, the same problems resurface. Performance stalls. Culture issues persist. The needle never truly moves.
According to Don Schmincke, this is not a failure of effort but a failure of design. Training on its own rarely changes the beliefs that drive behavior. Without tackling the invisible assumptions leaders carry into their roles, development becomes an expensive ritual with little strategic impact. In this Executive Impact session, Don will challenge conventional wisdom and show how to make training serve as a lever for real execution.
Drawing on decades of research with more than 30,000 CEOs, evolutionary science, and blunt autopsies of organizational failure, Don reveals why most programs collapse under pressure and how to link development directly to strategy, profit, and performance. This session is not about adding another checklist. It is about reshaping how executives think, lead, and align culture for results that last. Expect war stories. Expect discomfort. Expect clarity.
PRESENTED BY
Don Schmincke, Researcher, Author, and Global Explorer
4 key objectives
Uncover Why Training Fails
Understand why traditional approaches to leadership training often collapse, despite good intentions and investment.
Link Development to Strategy
Learn how to tie leadership growth directly to performance, profit, and long-term execution.
Challenge Comfortable Culture
See how confusing “polite” culture with effective culture prevents organizations from reaching their potential.
Redefine Leadership Development
Discover how to move beyond checklists and best practices to build lasting capability.
5 KEY TAKEAWAYS
A clear diagnostic for spotting when training is fogging execution instead of clarifying it.
Tools to connect leadership development directly to business outcomes.
A deeper understanding of how culture drives or derails execution.
A framework for aligning beliefs and behaviors with strategy.
A fresh perspective on how to make training investments actually stick.
