North American Media Executive
Leadership Program
Detailed Outline

Banff, Canada
November 12 - 17, 2010

The program is designed to develop entrepreneurial, strategic leadership and management skills, to enable participants strengthen their companies and to better meet the challenges of the evolving global marketplace.

The focus of the experience will be on:

• strategic thinking and planning
• understanding the changing world of television and application of leadership practices
• branding and market positioning
• personal leadership style
• human resources, change & innovation leadership
• integrating television & media industry processes
• building asset value through sustainable strategy, alliances, mergers & acquisitions

The program will draw on extensive international industry expertise in its core faculty and the guest executives.

This is a five day course that offers a unique and proven blend of disciplined exposure to high-level industry specific information; senior level leadership and management training; and personal inventories to better assess individual strengths and weakness as well as insights into team-building and performance. Specific case studies will translate management and leadership development into applied, real situations in the industry. The course includes a rigorous pre-course preparation process, including reading and evaluation, as well as follow-up activities at the one-month, three-month and six-month stage.

The International Institute for Television Leadership has been created and formed partnerships in Canada and the United States to ensure successful adaptation for the needs of industry leaders in this region. International participants are welcome, but discussions will tend to have a North American focus, in a Global context.

Pre- Session Work

Roughly 4-6 weeks prior to the program the learning begins! We will distribute Pre-work kits to all confirmed participants. These kits will be augmented by electronic files sent by email. Your Personal Learning Advisors will work with participants by email or web-chat (MSN or Yahoo) to coach them in their pre-work preparation. This material will include:

• Executive Leadership Practices Inventory (ELPI) - designed to assess the participant's day-to-day leadership practices, it can be completed as a 360-degree assessment (boss, peers, self and team members feedback) or less than that depending on the participant's preference. A 360-degree process will be encouraged.
• Personal Learning Plan - based upon the feedback from the ELPI, participants will identify 4-5 areas of executive practice they wish to improve upon in the coming program and the following 6 months of application. Our Personal Learning Advisor will work with them both before and after the program to implement these improved practices.
• Leadership & Communication Style Inventories - self-assessment instruments on specific areas such as: executive thinking styles, leadership style preferences, and communication approaches during both regular and stressful situations. Participants will complete these in advance and bring to the program for further explanation and insight. They will also serve as a basis for helping the participant more successfully coach those reporting to them.
• Live Case Study Submission - All participants will be asked to submit a case situation that they and their organization is facing. The case should be of a strategic and organizational challenge. From amongst the submissions, 4-5 will be chosen for Syndicate Case Study Projects that will run every evening of the program and culminate in a set of presentations to senior industry executives on the final day of the program. Participants whose cases are chosen will be asked to bring supporting documentation briefs and reading materials for their Syndicate colleagues to study. All cases will be confidential within the classroom and adapted somewhat to avoid direct conflicts of interest. Participants from competitive organizations will not be placed in the same Syndicate groups.
• Pre-readings - Participants will be provided with a collection of reading meant to stimulate their thinking in advance of the program, and also provide a baseline for program discussions and sessions. These readings include:

  	o MBA In A Box - Kurtzman et al. Chapters on:
  		- Innovation - Sustainability - Strategy - Managing - Human Resources - Leadership - Finance and Accounting
  	o The Work of Leadership (Harvard Business Review Article) - Ron Heifetz
  	o When to Ally - When to Acquire (HBR) - Dyer et al
  	o Strategy as Stretch and Leverage - Hamel & Prahalad

Arrival Day

Participants will be encouraged to arrive by about noon on the arrival day to settle-in to the host facility, adjust to the local surroundings, and complete any last minute elements of their pre-work.

3:00 pm Welcome - Program start and welcoming comments by local hosts and partner, including orientation to the area, facility, logistical information on meals, etc.

Introduction - The lead facilitators will kick-off the program with participant and faculty introductions in a fun activity and 'mixer'.

Television & Media Leadership Capabilities - this session will debrief the Executive Leadership Practices Inventory and focus all participants on their objectives for capability development during the program and following months. Banff Executive Leadership's Model for Executive Leadership Practice (developed over the past 10 years and with the input, validation and continuous research/improvement from over 5,000 executives and hundreds of companies across North America, Asia and Europe) will be explained and discussed as an anchor to the program's practices improvement methodology. Participants will be given a final opportunity to adjust their Learning Plans as a result of a deeper understanding of this model and the research behind the Executive Leadership Practices Inventory.

Mixer/Learning Partner Selection - An important component of the program and ongoing implementation after the program is the establishment of a "peer coach". Participants will establish a coaching relationship with another program participant to help them keep focussed on their learning objectives for the program and afterward. They will meet twice a day to have short coaching session based upon the learning in the program. In our experience, most of these coaching partnership last for months or years after the program, and help significantly in deriving concrete applicable return-on- investment from the program.

Television Leadership @ internet.speed - An introductory presentation that looks at the challenges of executive leadership today in the fast-paced television environment. It looks at the key demands of leaders in the past, and how these might be adapted for tomorrow's evolving realities. It also "frames-up" the week's program and key elements so that they can be thinking of this in advance of the first full day.

The Changing World of TV and Related Media - Ken Goldstein, an excellent commentator in the North American Television industry will deliver this before-dinner presentation, to open the participants' perspectives, challenge their understanding of the trends and issues in the international marketplace, and appreciate the cross-connects of different components (broadcast, production, advertising, distributors, etc.) within the industry at large.

Day 1 - A Focus on Participant's Personal Leadership Style Components

Leadership - Management - Entrepreneurialism - A dynamic opening session designed to bring all participants into discussion with one another, set the tone for the program, and challenge people to go beyond "superficial" thinking and comments. This session also gets participants to look at their role and identify how much of their role deals with leadership, managerial or entrepreneurial work. What is the difference between these practices and what is expected when doing each area of practice well? This session also will bring out several of the concepts in the pre-reading materials.

Values & Ethics - Today more than ever, executive leaders should set the example for their organization & community. This session will generate deep consideration of these elements plus lively discussion on how ethics should/does play-our today in this industry.

Thinking Styles, Leadership Styles, Communication Styles - The inventories sent out in the pre-Work will be explained and discussed in more detail. An interactive and fun exploration of the various styles in executive actions will be examined in order to better respect and appreciate the strengths of different approaches. We will also look at how to build higher performing teams from this understanding, and how executives can coach their team members more effectively to enhance performance.

Developing Your Personal Leadership Brand - Participants will be challenged to assemble all the various feedback from their assessments, and think deeply about the kind of leader they want to be in the future. What are their strengths, what are some areas to improve upon? What kind of leader do they want to be, what kind of reputation do they want to have? They will also have the opportunity to carefully frame a statement of personal leadership philosophy and their Value Proposition as a leader.

Leading Change at a Personal Level - Executives must all deal with change - in themselves, their teams and their organizations. This session will serve as a reminder to how individuals go through the change process, and the role leaders can play in leading the process effectively. They will recognize the signs and symptoms of each stage of the process and what actions a leader should take at each stage to enhance potential for positive outcomes.

Following the Money - Channel Strategy: Sustainable Commercial Business vs. Public Service Broadcasting Model - Today's Television environment is challenging all channels to figure out a sustainable business strategy. Our guest executive will be asked to outline how they see the money flowing in the system - from consumers, advertisers, sponsors, government, and other funders. They will highlight the difference in business strategy between public and private broadcasters, and the new-entrant players in satellite distribution and convergent technologies.

Live Case Study Set-up - Participants will be assigned to Syndicate Groups and assigned their Live Case Study. They will be given an opportunity to start to understand the challenge and assignment, integrating some of the learning from the first day of the program.

Day 2 - A Focus on Strategic Leadership

Strategic Thinking - We will discuss a couple of the pre-readings and their viewpoints on Strategy Thinking as distinct from Strategic Planning.

Scenario Planning - As an example of a strategic thinking approach, we will ask the participants to address Four Potential Scenarios for the future of television and their impact on: broadcasters, producers, and other elements of the industry. Also it will challenge them to think about what they are doing in their own organizations to address these potential scenarios.

Strategic Planning - Moving from strategic thinking to implementation takes an organized approach. It ALL about implementation! A mediocre plan well implemented will outdo the most brilliant plan poorly implemented. We will present the Strategic Leadership Systems Model as a comprehensive approach to linking:

• Governance with Executive Leadership
• Strategic Thinking with Strategic Planning
• Strategy with Accountability for Results
• Vision with Performance Management Systems

Discussion - Making it real; we take the models and theory and talk about how to put it into practice. Faculty will give their own experience in these practices and answer questions/concerns about application.

Market Positioning and Branding - Crucial to the transition between strategy and action, particular in this industry is the aspect of positioning and branding. We will dig deep into the issue of how we determine what has Value for our customers/clients. How we leverage our unique knowledge recipes (program design, formats, production capability, etc.). Ultimately, in the transition between strategy and implementation we must clearly and consistently differentiate what we have to offer combined to everyone else. How do we do this, and ensure we can build a sustainable presence in the industry?

We will look at industry case examples, and provide step-wise approaches to developing Positioning and Branding concepts that have integrity and impact!

Balanced Scorecard - Building Accountability - Accountability is a 'headline' concept these days for senior leaders. We expect results, but we have to delegate and empower. In return, how do we ensure accountability? The balanced scorecard and a straight-forward Performance Management mechanism can accomplish this. The difficult components however are: developing measurements, and the personal approach to establishing accountability agreements with our employees.

Measurement-building exercises will be supplemented by case examples, and role-plays.

Live Case Study - Syndicate groups will apply the day's learning to their real-life cases and following the Strategic Leadership Systems Model. Hard work and a real effort are required this evening to get a handle on this project. As a result no guest speaker is planned.

Day 3 - Application Practice

When working with senior executives and trying to develop enhanced leadership capability, participants must have an opportunity to put things into practice, get feedback, try again, and repeat the cycle. This program has two such environments for this experimentation/and application practice: The Live Case Study Project, and today's EcoSim Simulation exercise.

EcoSim is a computer-mediated Strategic Thinking, Planning and Implementation simulation. It also forces the application of thinking styles, communication styles, and personal leadership style learning. Its basis is 2 companies and a government with 3 roles in each organization (9 separate roles). It requires participants to evoke systems thinking and network thinking as well as tempting analytical and selfish thinking. It mirrors back unenunciated assumptions, biases, and values. It is intense and high impact, and it will be remembered forever - with learning that may continue for months or years afterward!

Participants will be assigned a role (based on their Learning Plan objectives) to use for the simulation, and asked to bring their learning objectives into that role. Then they must deal with group dynamics, strategy, outcomes measurement, results focus and decision-making to achieve success - however they define it.

At the end of the simulation, a significant debrief discussion is held to draw out the learning - both from successes and mistakes, to highlight the difference between models/theory and their actual application, and much more. We end on a high energy note, and then give them the rest of the afternoon off to integrate all their learning so far in the program.

Live Case Study - This application exercise continues. This is the "make it or break it" evening and all Syndicate groups have to be fully engaged in their project and solution-building. Faculty circulate from group to group to help facilitate, coach and support success.

Day 4 - A Focus on Human Resources and Innovation Leadership

The "edge" for any organization is the combination between their human resources and their ability to invent and create new value. This means senior leaders must mobilize change and stimulate innovation.

Organizational Change & Innovation - We work with participants to visualize the executive leadership challenge in leading organizations through change & innovation processes. Using a novel technique called Visual Explorer; participants use photographic imagery to explain their insights on the topic. We then look at approaches to effect significant transformational and organization-wide change that will produce lasting results.

Fostering Innovation & Knowledge Management - The television industry runs on an assumption that we are adept at innovating and sharing knowledge throughout our organization. The reality is, this past year has seen some major failures at major television organizations around the world. We look more deeply into the differences between creativity, ingenuity, innovation; the important elements of leading practices in organizational knowledge sharing.
Finally we look at the executives themselves - are they creative, innovative individuals themselves? What can they do to improve their Innovation Quotient? As Peter Drucker has said, "There is only one competency for managers today: ability to innovate." This session uses exercises, reading, case examples, and more to explore the topic.

Assessing Innovation Practice - Can an organization measure its Innovation Capability? Many groups have tried to create such measurement systems over the years: the Conference Board, International Consulting Firms, and more. We use a 10 Dimensional analysis tool, widely regarded as the best approach to assessing innovation practices and processes in organizations. Participants will use a piece of this tool over about 2 hrs in the context of their Live Case Study to gain some practice in this capability.

TV Industry & Integrated Media Trends/Issues - An Executive-in-Residence will address this topic, essentially outlining their view of the innovations coming down the road in the industry, and the challenges they pose for executives to address.

Network Leadership II - Creating Alliances vs. Mergers & Acquisitions - Building off the first session in Network Thinking (in the Strategic Leadership session), and the advance readings we look at how an organization can best determine whether it should grow through formation of alliances, or the acquisition of another organization. There are many shake-outs still to occur in this industry, and this will be a hot issue for executives to address over the next 5 years! This one session alone could save participants' careers and significant money from poorly conceived decisions in the future.

Day 5 - Case Study Application & Learning Implementation Plans

Live Case Study Presentations - Each Syndicate group will have 20 minutes to present their case solution to a panel of senior industry executives (serving as EIR's over the past few days). The panel will role play the Board, or Executive Team, or Venture Capitalists (as appropriate to the case). After the presentation, the panel will have 20 minutes to ask questions and make comments - in role - to the Syndicate group.

We will go through all Syndicate presentations and feedback sessions, then do both a team-based and a large group debrief of the Case Study experience. There will be many elements of learning to bring out including: application of the models/concepts taught in the program, group/team dynamics, industry issues, presentation skills, etc.

Program Review - Faculty will walk-through the Program's key models/concepts and learning experiences of the week. This will re-enforce the concepts and 'link' the learning to application in participants' own environment. (As faculty will have gotten to know participants, they will be able to make such links at this point.) this is also a set-up for the next session, serving as a reminder of all the elements covered in the program.

Implementation Planning - Participant will be given time and support (peer coaches, faculty, etc.) to develop a set of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Assigned, Realistic and Timelined) Action items to take back to their regular work/home environment. We also establish the basis for implementation & impact measurement, and the awarding of their Gold Certificate of Completion for 6 months after the course.

Reception & Certificate Presentations - A final ceremony will be done at reception or dinner time to summarize each person's key learning and recognition of attendance at the course. A combination Class Photo and White Certificate will be presented. Participants who complete the implementation of their Learning Plan in the following 6-9 months will be able to replace the white certificate with the Gold Certificate of completion!
Please Note: The above represents the Program Agenda at this time. However it remains fluid in advance of the finalized Agenda to be sent out in Pre-course materials.

Timing

The North American Television Executive Leadership Program is planned for North America in November 12 - 17, 2010.

Participant Costs

Tuition

The cost of attending the course as a participant is C$ 6,000* (approx. US$ 5,975)

If you register & make full payment before September 1, 2010 the fee will be C$ 5,000* (approx. US$ 4,980)

If you register & make full payment between September 1, 2010 and September 30, 2010 the fee will be C$ 5,500* (approx. US$ 5,475)

*Note: The tuition fee includes all pre-course/on-course materials, plus Personal Learning Advisor support. Travel, meals & accommodation, applicable taxes are all extra.

Meals & Accommodations

Meals, snacks breaks and accommodation based upon single occupancy are:
C$ 345/day (approx. US$ 345/day)

For the 6 days, November 12 - 17, 2010 = C$ 2,070 (approx. US$ 2,060)

Optional 'Explore Banff' Day

We are currently organizing a one day Excursion for program participants, details TBA.