Hi Mike:

Both the post and the comment stream provided some interesting food for thought. Here are a few contributions to throw into the mix:

1. Experiential learning has and always will exist, but only to those who seek it out. Learning only takes place where willingness and awareness are present.

2. I disagree with those who believe leadership development budgets are shrinking. My experience is just the opposite. Our leadership development practice has been growing at more than 30% per annum over the last three years, during a tough economic climate where companies have supposedly not been spending. The world has experienced a leadership vacuum in recent history, which has served to awaken many to the value of reestablishing leadership as a competency. As the market becomes more complex and dynamic, smart companies are spending more on leaders not less - they regain an understanding that leadership is more than a title.

3. As for new trends, I could list many, but here are a few to ponder:
    a. Leaders will do more than talk about social capital, but they'll actually begin to understand it and embrace it by doing more than just having a social presence. Integrating social media into business process and leadership models will become the rule rather than the exception.
    b. Leadership moves from a proprietary model to an open source model where principles of scarcity give way to sharing. This will happen in a way that takes the concept of distributive leadership to levels not previously experienced.
    c. Leaders will realize the need to shift from the goal business to the discovery business. They will finally recognize everyone is now in the design business.
    d. Companies will awaken the the fact that diversity has been misunderstood, if not abused. Rather than dealing with diversity as a compliance mandate to deal with protected classes, it will be embraced as a necessity for challenging paradigms and bending norms to more efficiently drive innovation.

Thanks Mike...