By Sandra Bekas
In recent years, the way leaders communicate and collaborate has shifted dramatically. Leadership communication is now faster and less formal. As hybrid and remote work have become more prevalent, leaders are expected to be accessible and responsive across multiple platforms. Messaging tools, video calls, and real-time collaboration have flattened hierarchies and increased visibility, requiring leaders to navigate complex interactions that go beyond formal presentations or planned meetings.
Against this backdrop, it became necessary to step back and take a hard look at how we were developing and supporting leadership communication. It had been a number of years since we had conducted a deep and strategic review of our leadership communication portfolio at The Humphrey Group. What started as the intention to approach our portfolio with light updates quickly revealed the need for a more comprehensive assessment to better support emerging communication challenges.
Early Insight: A New Design Philosophy
The first step was defining a clear guiding philosophy to ensure every program strengthened communication skills in meaningful ways. This design philosophy rested on three core pillars:
- Action-Based Practice: Every learning experience needed to be rooted in real-world application. Participants had to perform a skill, not just learn it.
- Relevance to Work: Program material had to connect directly to participants’ real contexts. Exercises, reflections, and discussions were explicitly tied to work participants were already doing, enabling immediate application.
- Communication Focus: Every program needed a clear communication lens. Programs that drifted into adjacent topics without strengthening communication capability were restructured or retired.
This philosophy became our compass for assessing our portfolio. It clarified where our programs naturally aligned and where they didn’t. It also set the foundation for a cross-functional group to determine what should be refreshed, rebuilt, retired, or created.
Identifying the Gaps
A cross-functional working group spanning facilitation, product, sales, and marketing surfaced three key internal needs:
- Modular “plug-and-play” learning: Enabling sales and relationship managers to assemble tailored solutions for different client needs.
- New programs: Filling gaps for emerging leaders and more experienced (executive-level) leaders.
- Clear tier differentiation: Ensuring programs supported defined leadership levels and addressed specific capability gaps.
It became clear our endeavor was not simply a refresh; it was a decisive evolution of our leadership communication portfolio.
To validate our findings, we benchmarked The Humphrey Group’s programs against the Gartner Communication Skills Framework. That analysis highlighted two immediate gaps:
- Limited offerings for executive-level leaders
- Underdeveloped programs for new and emerging leaders
External research from Deloitte and Harvard Business Review reinforced these findings, pointing to growing demands for delegation, authentic communication, rapid adaptation across channels, and influence in fast-moving environments.
A Rigorous Framework for Refresh, Rebuild, Retire & Create
To guide decision-making, we developed a framework that placed each program into one of four paths: Minor Refresh, Major Refresh, New Program, or Retire. Programs were evaluated against five criteria:
- Strategic Alignment: Does the program align with our identity as a leadership communication company and our communication-first philosophy?
- Market Relevance: Does the program address current leadership communication needs?
- Tier Fit: Does the program clearly serve a defined leadership tier?
- Content Quality & Modernization Needs: How much existing material can be retained versus restructured, updated, or resequenced?
- Sales & Client Demand: Does the program address client challenges, and support sales positioning?
Using this framework, we balanced long-standing program material with emerging market needs and strategic direction to make objective, defensible decisions.
Program Classification Overview
| Category | When It Applies | Key Considerations |
| Minor Refresh | Program is still relevant and strong but needs light updates | Small tweaks to activities or examples Refresh needed for visuals or language Clearer alignment with design pillars |
| Major Refresh | Program has solid foundation but is outdated or partially misaligned | Needs resequencing or new exercises Content quality or delivery inconsistent Lacks full action-based or relevance-to-work integration |
| New Program | No existing program meets a defined market need | Fills gap for emerging or executive leaders Introduces new communication capability Strategic opportunity to differentiate in the market |
| Retire | Program no longer meets client needs or strategic priorities | Outdated or low demand Redundant or overlapping content Diverts resources from stronger programs |
Navigating Change Management Across a Full Year of Transformation
Our rollout philosophy was shaped by a bias for action and client-oriented solutions. Rather than pursuing a slow, theoretical overhaul, we chose to build in the flow of work. We launched while we were still laying the tracks, so to speak. Sales, relationship managers, and facilitators were brought into the process as it unfolded, not after it was complete.
A quarterly roadmap outlined when existing programs would be updated, when new programs would launch, and how versions would be tracked. Sales monitored versioning in Salesforce, while Product maintained a regular presence in sales meetings to ensure delivery readiness as opportunities emerged.
Internal preparation calls for each program sold helped confirm versions, clarify client context, align on customization, and set realistic build timelines.
Building While Moving: An Iterative Design Cycle
Given the scale and interdependence of updates, a linear development process wouldn’t work. Instead, every program went through a three-phase design and testing cycle (Alpha-Beta-Gold).
- Alpha: Early internal builds reviewed with facilitators to pressure-test structure and sequencing and activities.
- Beta: Live client delivery with real-time feedback from facilitators, participants, and observers.
- Gold: Finalized versions integrating field insights and stakeholder input.
This approach allowed us to move quickly without sacrificing quality and anchor our decisions in real client experience.
Supporting Facilitators Through Change
Facilitators were essential partners throughout the transformation. To support consistency and confidence, we introduced:
- Live update webinars explaining design decisions and structural changes.
- One-on-one walk-throughs for facilitators delivering updated or new program.
- Open Q&A sessions and an open-door support model.
- Masterclasses to share best practices and classroom expertise.
This approach ensured facilitators were confident and capable of delivering content clearly and consistently.
Managing Ripple Effects Intentionally
Each update to our portfolio created ripple effects across sales, delivery, and product teams, requiring multiple handoffs and careful coordination.
The timeline below reflects how we intentionally phased engagement across teams to balance speed, readiness, and delivery confidence.
Change Management Timeline
| Phase | Time Frame | Sales | CXCs | Facilitators | Product/Marketing |
| Discovery & Audit | Q1 | Awareness only | Awareness only | Not yet engaged | Full audit of programs; market research |
| Prioritization & Roadmap | Q1-Early Q2 | High-level outlook | Identification of operational dependencies | Not yet engaged | Built quarter-by-quarter roadmap; alignment with Marketing |
| Quarterly Rollout Plan | Early Q2 | Introduction to program timelines; Salesforce tracking | Version control guidance | Not yet engaged | Version maps, milestones, and build plans |
| Alpha-Beta-Gold Builds | Q2-Q4 | Updates on messaging and versions; role-play support | Participation in prep calls | Facilitator input & training | Iterative build refinement based on pipeline |
| New Programs Sold as Built | Q4 and Later | Continued updates | Continued updates | Deep-dive 1:1 sessions to ensure delivery confidence | Refinement of Gold builds |
Measuring Impact & Where We Landed
Rebuilding a leadership communication portfolio in the flow of work is high-stakes. The market responded quickly. Within weeks of launching a new program, we secured several significant sales, including expansion with a larger enterprise client shortly after pilot delivery.
Ongoing impact is measured through:
- Sales adoption data
- Participant feedback
- Facilitator debriefs
- Internal observation
- Client follow-up conversations
Operational Reality During Rollout
During rollout, facilitators, relationship managers, and client partners often juggled legacy and newly updated programs at the same time. To keep momentum, and our sanity, we introduced a few grounding practices.
- Clear version labeling so facilitators and client managers could quickly distinguish between legacy and updated material
- A clear default decision rule where we used the newest version unless a repeat client explicitly requested legacy content
- Consistent and clear communication captured in Salesforce
- Early correspondence between delivery and client teams on scheduling and rollout implications
- Regular communication in sales meetings to reinforce what was changing and why
- One-on-one walk-throughs with facilitators to ensure they entered every session confident and aligned on what they were delivering.
Where We Landed
The result was a portfolio that is modern, modular, and anchored in communication excellence. Just as importantly, the process created shared ownership across teams and a more agile system for evolving leadership communication training at The Humphrey Group.
The takeaway is that large-scale portfolio change does not require perfection before launch. It does require clarity of philosophy, rigor in decision-making, and disciplined change management in the flow of work.
Image credit: PeopleImages
