MICROEXPERIENCES
What they are
Microexperiences are short, structured learning activities designed to accelerate professional development through real-world practice.
● Bite-sized – can be completed in under 45 minutes
● Experiential – a real leadership action taken on the job to advance strategic initiative or develop critical skills
What they aren’t
Microexperiences are short, structured learning activities designed to accelerate professional development through real-world practice.
● Bite-sized – can be completed in under 45 minutes
● Experiential – a real leadership action taken on the job to advance strategic initiative or develop critical skills
How they work
A Process, Not an Event
Instead of the “fire hose effect” where participants must absorb a lot of content in a short time, microexperience programs use the “drip method” -small, spaced, high-repetition learning using the Weekly Execution Cycle shown here.
Each week, participants receive a new microexperience and complete this simple cycle with it (image):
Adapt
Ensure the microexperience fits your unique job, developmental goals, and leadership style (1-2 min).
Reflect
Answer questions to generate deeper insights and integrate them into everyday leadership (5-10 min).
Apply
Activate experiential development by completing the microexperience on the job (<45 min).
Collaborate
Accelerate development with 5-6 peers by exchanging insights in a small-group conversation led by a slightly more senior leader (55 min).
Since these actions are micro-sized and integrated into the real work leaders are already doing, they aren’t a huge burden to participants’ busy schedules.
MICROEXPERIENCES
Why Do They Work?
Weekly Execution Cycle
Leverages science from: adult development, transformational learning, behavior change, and habit formation.
Horizontal and vertical development
Drives both in leaders using all 5 transformational growth drivers
Horizontal development
Builds competence, gets leaders up to speed, but rarely creates high performers.
Vertical development
Develops high-performing, high-potential leaders by expanding cognitive complexity, learning agility, identity, and awareness; strongly linked to leadership effectiveness but underused in workplace programs.
WHAT THEY ENABLE
What Leaders Can Achieve?
Stronger leadership habits
Better team alignment and decisions
Faster execution
Measurable behavior change
Organizational clarity and consistency
MICROEXPERIENCES
Strategic benefits
Expand Your Leadership Portfolio
Develop 3X more leaders without more budget.
Microexperiences scale leadership capability efficiently and strengthen the bench.
Offer Experiential Development at Scale
Microexperiences are a pure form of experiential development – the “70” of 70/20/10 – that are operationalized in bite-sized chunks to fit leaders’ busy schedules. Instead of requiring leaders to stop working in order to learn, they use real work and high-impact leadership actions completed on the job to build skills and accelerate business priorities.
Bypass the Forgetting Curve
Make on-the-job application the norm with 95% completion.
A system that turns behaviors into habits.
Measure Behavior Change and Business Impact
Deliver 360° impact metrics for the C-suite.
Clear, credible evidence of behavior change and early business outcomes.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
Real-World Lessons in Leadership
An Example of a Microexperience
Imagine your company's leaders completing this activity this week
Identify
Identify the next meeting on your calendar that has at least five people in it. During that meeting, try to imagine what each person is thinking and feeling but not actually saying. Take notes for each person.
Upskilling
Dozens of microexperiences can be designed for nearly any skill or job, from entry level to executives. Here’s an example for more senior leaders, particularly for an organization that wants to be more disruptive in their industry and needs its executives to be more innovative and entrepreneurial.
Expectations
Step inside the mind of your organization’s Gen Z customers and identify what you believe their top 3 value drivers are – what they want most from organizations like yours and would pay top dollar for. Then quickly assess how well you’re meeting their expectations in comparison to any other competitor of your choosing.
Scalability
When a set of well – designed microexperiences is delivered at scale to hundreds or thousands of employees, they have the power to transform culture and accelerate organizational transformation initiatives.