Kent’s Blueprint for Impactful People Development

One-off workshops aren’t enough. Not anymore.

Yet still for many organisations, that’s still the norm. Standalone workshops. Seemingly endless slides. Little space to reflect. Even less time to apply.

It’s like trying to learn to swim by reading about it and then being dropped in the deep end at a random point later in time.

You’ll hope to remember the specific relevant knowledge, however without practice and application, the odds will not be stacked in your favour.

Kent saw the limitations of that model and chose to do something much better. Together with Excel Communications, they reimagined people development in a way that would effectively prepare their people for their challenges.

This was not to throw all the world’s theory at their people and hope that something sticks. Instead, the approach is much more considered, blended, practical, and personal.

In this blog, we’ll explore why this approach works, what it looks like in action, and what can be learned from this journey.

Blog Chapters

1. The Problem With Traditional Training
2. The Solution: Blended, Spaced, And Designed To Stick
3. The Power Of Spaced-Out Learning
4. Real Results: What Kent Achieved
5. How It Aligns With Kent’s Beliefs
6. Can You Use This Blueprint?
7. Rethink How Your People Grow

The Problem With Traditional Training

We all know how it goes.

A leadership learning experience packed with content… but delivered in one go.

Participants leave inspired, because why wouldn’t you if you feel you have received game changing knowledge. However, by the following week, the details of that knowledge are fading.

Within a month, the training might as well have never happened. People would have been better off not committing their time to it, and the budget would not have had a needless training session shaped hole in it.

Think of it like food: you can’t eat all your nutrients in one meal? And expect to stay healthy.

Your body firstly would not allow for it to happen, and secondly, it will not have the same lasting benefits of consumption over time.

Therefore, this isn’t a failure of the learners. It’s a failure of the format.

When learning is delivered in a single, high intensity burst, it overwhelms. People are expected to absorb everything, retain it, and then apply it, and all without support or follow-up.

Kent recognised this. Instead of squeezing learning into a one-off event, they built a programme with Excel Communications specifically designed for retention, application, and real behavioural change.

It’s not about doing more now. It’s about doing it differently over time.

The Solution: Blended, Spaced, And Designed To Stick

Kent was looking to build a suite of signature development programmes for their managers and leaders, supporting them with modern leadership behaviours in line with their vision, beliefs and culture.

So, they partnered with Excel Communications to create a blended programme that reflects how people really learn and grow.

The result? So far, the Kent People Leader Programme has been receiving rave reviews globally from those involved.

The Kent People Leader Programme specifically received a recommendation score of 100% from its global participants.

Why is this though?

Well, here’s the breakdown of its structure…

Here’s how the Kent People Leader Programme works:

• 1 in-person kick-off session to build trust, connection, and energy from day one.
• 5 virtual workshops spaced over several weeks, each focused on a key leadership capability.
• 1 final in-person session to bring everything together and celebrate progress.
• Peer coaching between sessions to encourage reflection, accountability, and practical problem-solving.
• Manager involvement throughout to ensure learning is applied in the real world, not left in the classroom.
• Intermodular activities supported by custom video content.
  
  
  
  

This programme has been hugely successful, because as shown above, it isn’t training for training’s sake. It’s development with momentum.

By spacing out learning, reinforcing it through relationships, and supporting it with line managers, there is a rhythm to the growth. Leaders didn’t just understand new ideas, they had time to build their momentum by practicing them, sharing insights with peers, and applying them back at work.

Which is much more appealing than having your learning experience feel like drinking from a firehose.

The Power Of Spaced-Out Learning

Let’s stick with leadership here.

There’s a reason we don’t learn to lead in a single afternoon… leadership is a skill, not a checklist.

Spaced learning flips the traditional model. Instead of delivering everything at once and hoping it sticks, it breaks content into smaller, focused sessions over time.

This creates room for reflection, experimentation, and practice between each stage. Additionally, we can cover so much more over time.

Because even with all the will in the world, you are unlikely to cover everything in enough detail in one go.

Here’s what spaced out learning unlocks:

• Better retention - When learning is spaced, people remember more and apply it sooner.
• Greater confidence - People get to try new ideas, test them in real situations, then come back with questions and insights.
• Deeper habits - Repetition over time leads to real behavioural change, not just temporary inspiration.

It’s not just about learning more. It’s about embedding more.

For Kent, this meant their leaders weren’t just attending sessions, they were growing in real-time, surrounded by support and space to think.

The outcome? Learning that moved from the slide deck into day-to-day leadership.

Real Results: What Kent Achieved

Great learning design means nothing without real impact. At Kent, the results speak for themselves.

The People Leader Programme didn’t just deliver content, it delivered change. Leaders walked away not only with new skills, but with the confidence to use them.

What changed?

• 100% said they would recommend the programme to a colleague.
• 95% of participants said that the content was relevant to them and their role at Kent.
• 93% agreed that the programme made them feel confident that it would improve their performance.
• Increased self-belief - Participants reported a stronger sense of confidence in their leadership capabilities.
• Better collaboration - Peer coaching created bonds across teams and business areas, leading to greater cross-functional understanding.
• Real-world application - Leaders didn’t wait to apply what they learned. They put it into practice between sessions and kept building on it.
• Manager involvement paid off - Having line managers involved in the learning journey meant accountability, alignment, and reinforcement back on the job.
  
  

Karen Blanc, Kent’s VP of Inclusion & Belonging and People Development, described the power of the partnership, stating: “Since becoming a new organisation 3 years ago, we’ve been standing up our suite of signature development programmes for our people at Kent, to support people leaders in doing their best and most awesome work, while breathing life into our Kent beliefs. Excel Communications were an obvious match for us on this from the start – their sense of fun, agility, and utter competence shone through, and felt like it aligned with what we were trying to do. And we were right!

Together we developed two programmes – well, I say together, but they took our brief and ran with it, engaging with stakeholders from throughout our organisation, without me having to worry much about it at all!

Their coaches are well received in all of our Kent locations all around the world, and we can’t wait to keep delivering the programme to even more Kent people.”

How It Aligns With Kent’s Beliefs

Kent’s commitment to people isn’t just written on company documents as a nice sentiment, it’s fully embedded in how they develop talent.

They are well and truly walking the walk.

From day one, this leadership programme was designed to reflect Kent’s commitment to building a smart, brave, and agile workforce. It wasn’t about ticking a training box. It was about equipping people to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose in a fast-changing world.

Ways the programmes brought Kent’s commitments to life:

• It grew Kent’s impressive armoury of people development initiatives, such Ready to Accelerate, the Kent Graduate Programme, and the Kent People Manager Programme.
• It supported career progression across levels, including those transitioning into leadership for the first time.
• It emphasised inclusion and belonging, clear priorities in Kent’s people strategy, and created a space where individuals felt supported to grow, contribute, and connect.
• It helped people grow in ways that matched the business’s energy transition goals, blending technical excellence with human capability.

The programme didn’t just teach leadership. It modelled the kind of leadership Kent wants to see across its global teams… connected, courageous, and continuously learning.

Can You Use This Blueprint?

Kent’s leadership development programme isn’t just a one-off success story… it’s a blueprint for how learning should look in modern organisations.

In today’s fast-paced, remote-enabled, ever-evolving world of work, the old model of leadership training is no longer enough. People need more than information. They need space to reflect, support to apply, and structures that help learning stick.

That’s exactly what blended learning delivers.

Because whilst short, snappy and fast immediately satisfies people’s heavy work schedules in the short-term, it will not serve them with lasting knowledge in the long term.

What makes it work:

• It meets people where they are - offering flexibility without sacrificing depth.
• It transforms learning from an event into an ongoing experience.
• It supports behaviour change through peer and manager involvement.
• It strengthens culture by building connection, trust, and shared language across teams.

This isn’t just about training. It’s about helping people grow in ways that drive real business performance.

If you’re building the next generation of leaders for example, Kent’s approach offers a clear lesson that growth doesn’t happen in a day. But with the right rhythm, support, and structure, it can happen everywhere.

Rethink How Your People Grow

Kent didn’t just refresh their training; they redefined how leadership is developed across the organisation.

By choosing a blended approach, they gave their people time to learn, space to reflect, and support to apply.

The result? Stronger leaders. Clearer culture. Real-world results.

And the best part? This model is adaptable. Any organisation, in any industry, can build learning journeys that feel more human, more effective, and more impactful, just like Kent did.

If you're ready to move beyond one-off workshops and start developing your people for long term success, we’d love to help.

Many thanks,