“The LevelX program offers participants a unique environment to explore leadership development skills and build a deeper sense of team among the participants. The opportunity to build a car together and the use of the various automotive/racing metaphors create a comfortable and fun leadership development experience for an organization seeking something different.”
-Harry Pepper, senior consultant
At telos, we are committed to continuously proposing new development concepts in strategy, leadership and change that produce strategic value for our clients to help them achieve their goals. We recognize our responsibility to earn our clients’ trust every day.
As a result, any new, innovative concepts we introduce are designed to deliver rigorous, transformative experiences that accelerate growth by equipping leaders to embrace people as their competitive advantage, challenge what is possible and mobilize discretionary effort. To fulfill our commitment, we regularly explore collaborative opportunities with organizations offering fresh, unique exercises that can boost the transformative impact of our work.
Recently, we conducted a beta test of just such a novel exercise called “Level X,” the leadership velocity experience. While speed describes only how fast an object is moving, velocity defines both how fast and in which direction an object is moving. Similarly, leaders must define velocity within their organization, setting the pace and plotting the direction.
The Level X exercise is an immersive experience where participants explore leadership challenges through tactile activities that culminate in the assembly of a life size car. This helps leaders expand their knowledge while absorbing foundational insights they can apply to their daily leadership challenges.
The exercise content merges leadership concepts with the hands-on experience of building one of two vehicles:
- The first is the LevelX RC — a full-size race car replica fashioned out of corrugated plastic; or
- The second is the LevelX EV — a working electric vehicle that participants build and then drive.
The exercise participants are initially divided into teams, each of which is assigned a sub-assembly to build. For example, the windshield assembly allows the driver to see direction and respond to changing road conditions. Similarly, leaders have the best view in an organization, enabling them to adapt and drive change based on what lies ahead. Ultimately, all teams reconvene to assemble the entire vehicle.
Three telos associates participated in this beta test exercise: Betsy Ross, Harry Pepper and Sally Turner. Each of them worked on a different sub-assembly team and developed suggestions on how best to connect with telos content. Here are some photos from their exercise.
We look forward to collaborating further with the Level X development team to make this exciting new exercise available to telos clients.