I’m sure you noticed that this blog post title is in the form of a question.  That’s because we hope you can help us answer it.  This year, Vistage is teaming up once again with Human Capital Institute (HCI) to look at both the ROI of Executive Development and the approaches different companies rely upon to maximize the value of their investments.   Last year, the first study shined a light on companies that were leveraging non-traditional approaches to augment their formal training initiatives, including everything from peer advisory groups and cross-functional work teams to customized development programs and mentoring.  I invite you to review last year’s results.

After studying the findings, I wrote a post called: Why Rely on Trickle-Down Leadernomics? (Yes, another question)  I defined the term as Traditional episodic training designed to stimulate positive behavioral changes, aimed to build better leaders who inspire commitment rather than mere compliance, in an effort to create a healthier culture, a more productive workplace, and happier employees whom you hope will one day perform like a well-oiled machine and drive double-digit growth and profitability for years to come.   For those companies who rely on this approach exclusively, it appears to work no better than the economic theory.   Most executives can’t see how this development trickles down to the bottom line on any level – financial results, employee engagement, corporate culture, etc.  For those companies who actually supported this traditional approach by employing non-traditional methods, they achieved stronger results.  Yet what we know is that every company has different expectations, so it begs the question: What does “better results” really mean? (yet another question).

This year’s survey will study the ROI of Executive Development against some key metrics, including execution of strategic and organizational change initiatives, depth of collaboration, alignment on company goals and values,, employee retention, and even succession planning.  If you’re a C-Suite Executive who has a formal executive development program at your organization, we invite you to complete the 2012 HCI/Vistage Survey.  It should only take about 15 minutes to complete, and we’ll share the results as soon as they become available.   Your participation will be greatly appreciated!  For more information about the topic and this year’s survey, I invite you to read Hard Facts About Investing in the Soft Stuff.  Any questions?