Innovation

Sterling Institute was founded in 1967 by professor J. Sterling Livingston of the Harvard Business School, author of the classic Harvard Business Review articles Pygmalion in Management and The Myth of the Well Educated Manager. Dr. Livingston's concern with linking leadership and management development programs to measurable improvements on the job has been Sterling Institute's main focus from the outset. Over the years, this has led to a series of pioneering methods aimed at giving training more impact, linking it more directly to organizational objectives and the participants' jobs and providing the framework for managers to provide sustained support for employee performance improvement and career development. We were among the first to design and develop video-based case studies and computer simulations to enhance the learning process and the first to implement multi-level training to ensure that participants and their supervisors are fully prepared to work with each other back on the job to implement, review and measure the results of performance improvement plans.

Participant-Centered Development

Dr. Livingston understood that people are more inclined to commit to the learning process if it is choice-initiated and self-directed. It is quite magical how people take personal responsibility for their career development when they see the need to change and decide for themselves that they want to change. For this reason, we have created numerous assessment instruments that enable participants to discover their own strengths and improvement opportunities and to see themselves as others see them. This process of self-discovery and self-direction is a fundamental prerequisite to learning. We often work with clients to design training programs around our survey instruments so that clients are in position to not only measure key practices, but to follow-up with training that enables participants to increase their effectiveness in the areas where they have identified gaps between their performance and the performance of the most effective leaders in their organization. These assessments also provide a means of periodically measuring progress and confirming improved performance over time.

Relevance & Application

Finally, we have long recognized that the more accurately training materials reflect the actual work environment and business issues faced on the job, the higher the impact, and the greater the likelihood that new skills and behaviors practiced during training will actually be applied at work. We have a rich history in tailoring our programs to meet unique customer requirements so that participants can more effectively bridge from what is presented in the classroom to its application on the job. We have long believed in the power of Action Learning where participants work on real problems, develop solutions that they will apply on the job and are held accountable for their implementation and the results achieved.