The Best Way to Develop Leadership Capabilities for Purpose-Driven Organizations

Case Study: Designing A Leadership Development Program

Canyon Ranch, the world’s recognized leaders in healthy living and luxury spa vacations, is guided by a purpose: “Canyon Ranch aims to inspire people to make a commitment to healthy living, turning hopes and intentions into the highest enjoyment of life.”

A few years ago, they requested our help in designing an innovative leadership development program to match their purpose and culture. To address the unique needs of this organization, we wrapped leadership development into structured work experiences so that they could readily apply their knowledge and skills to their own unique circumstances. 

We began by immersing ourselves into their culture to identify what made Canyon Ranch unique and what leaders would need to know to carry their mission forward. We divided the skills and knowledge into three categories:

1. Canyon Ranch-specific skills and knowledge
2. General Leadership skills and knowledge
3. Business Acumen skills and knowledge

We designed the program so that they could learn to use these skills to embed the company purpose into their culture. The program provided them with individualized, self-paced learning within the context of their actual jobs rather than following the more standard classroom training approach. Thus, they learned by experiencing the culture while reflecting on how to best apply the leadership knowledge and skills within it. 

While many leadership skills do cut across organizational cultures and context, leaders of purpose-driven organizations such as Canyon Ranch have some unique challenges: they must use their skills to embed the company purpose into the culture and operations of the company. And traditional leadership programs do not address this need.

We believe that the best way to help leaders develop the capabilities they need to embed purpose into their organizations is to provide the guidance within the context of their own work and cultures.