Award-Winning Leadership Development Programme
Most leadership development programmes are designed to be completed.
This one was designed to be remembered and make a difference.
At the Learning Excellence Awards 2026, Haven’s General Managers’ Leadership Development Programme, designed and delivered in partnership with Inspirational Group, received:
- Merit Award – Experiential Learning. Click to view award submission.
- Gold Merit – Outstanding Course or Initiative. Click to view award submission.
This recognition matters. But the real story is what this programme achieved.
This is a leadership development case study in what happens when training moves beyond content and into real-world performance.
The Challenge: Leadership at Scale Across 39 Complex Businesses
Haven operates 39 holiday parks across the UK, each functioning as a complex, multi-layered business.
General Managers are responsible for:
- Large, diverse teams
- High-pressure seasonal operations
- Guest experience, commercial performance, and culture
There is no single playbook.
Leadership in this environment demands adaptability, emotional intelligence, and decision-making under pressure. Traditional leadership training does not prepare people for that level of complexity.
Rethinking Leadership Training: From Content to Capability
Instead of asking “What training do our General Managers need?”, Haven asked a more fundamental question:
“What kind of leaders do we need them to become?”
This shift moved the focus from training delivery to leadership capability and performance.
Together, we designed a two-year experiential learning programme built around real-world application, not theory.
The Leadership Development Programme: Four Experiential Learning Milestones
At the core of the programme were four immersive experiences, each designed to develop a critical leadership capability.
These were not classroom sessions. They were high-impact environments where leadership had to be applied in real time.
Lead – Sandhurst (Leadership Under Pressure)
At the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, GMs experienced leadership in high-pressure simulations requiring trust, clarity, and decisive action.
Deliver – Mosimann’s (Operational Excellence and Emotional Intelligence)
In a Michelin-standard environment, GMs delivered excellence under pressure, learning how standards, precision, and emotional intelligence drive performance.
Think – Entrepreneurial Challenge (Strategic Thinking and Innovation)
A 48-hour business challenge required GMs to develop real commercial ideas, using tools such as AI to solve problems quickly and effectively.
Interact – Communication and Team Performance
Combining elite sport, a simulation exercise, and community projects, this milestone focused on communication, resilience, and leadership in complex environments, and making a genuine difference for others.
Why Experiential Learning Works in Leadership Development
This programme was built on a simple principle: leadership is developed through experience, not theory.
Experiential learning works because it:
- Places leaders in realistic, high-pressure environments
- Forces decision-making in real time
- Creates immediate feedback and reflection
- Builds behaviours that transfer directly back to the workplace
- Creates long term reference points through emotional connection to the content and experience.
Each milestone was followed by structured reflection and application, ensuring learning translated into measurable performance.
The Impact: Measurable Leadership Performance and Business Results
The programme achieved consistently high satisfaction scores, with ratings above 4.6 across all modules.
More importantly, it delivered measurable impact at organisational level.
General Managers returned to their parks:
- Leading with greater clarity and confidence
- Applying emotional intelligence in day-to-day management
- Driving stronger team performance
- Thinking more strategically about growth and innovation
Business strategies generated during the programme are now feeding into Haven’s innovation pipeline, demonstrating clear commercial value alongside leadership development.
A Leadership Development Partnership, Not a Provider Relationship
This programme was built through close collaboration between Haven and Inspirational Group.
Every stage was co-created, ensuring the programme reflected Haven’s culture, challenges, and ambitions.
What This Case Study Shows About Modern Leadership Development
This award-winning leadership development programme demonstrates what is possible when organisations invest in experiential learning and performance-focused design.
When leadership training is:
- Grounded in real environments
- Designed around behaviour, not content
- Focused on measurable outcomes
It does more than develop leaders.
It transforms how organisations perform.
View more images from this award-winning leadership development programme:
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