Contact Information:
Jeff Scholes
Linkage, Inc.
781.402.5558
press@linkageinc.com
www.linkageinc.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Closing the Gap Between Baby Boomers and Generation Xers: Action Learning Accelerates High-Potential Development

LEXINGTON, MASS. (March 14, 2002) - For companies facing the reality of losing their baby boomer-dominated top management to retirement within the next few years, action learning is being hailed as a high-impact, low-cost solution to an impending business concern. A study conducted by the Center for Organizational Research (CFOR), a division of Linkage, Inc., entitled "Action Learning Today," reveals that action learning rapidly accelerates the development of high-potential (hi-po) Generation X leaders who are currently several levels lower in the organization and prepares them for top leadership roles.

Action learning is a leadership development method that gives promising up-and-comers the chance to tackle real, high-stakes business challenges, develop solutions, and test their mettle for a more challenging position in the future. Working in cross-functional teams to complete stretch assignments, participants develop new problem-solving and teamwork skills at an accelerated pace. Action learning is also significantly less expensive than traditional development programs. Much of the work is accomplished on the job, which reduces travel and tuition costs. Many companies develop the capacity to run their own, customized action learning programs in-house.

CFOR's "Action Learning Today" study profiles five action learning best-practice companies, including Delta, Motorola, American Century Investments, Bank One, and The Southern Company. The Southern Company, a prominent US electric utility conglomerate, faced enormous growth expectations and the looming mass exodus of its top leaders, many of whom were approaching retirement. The company used action learning to assess its younger talent pool and then rapidly accelerate their development. The company gained a clear picture of who was in the succession pool, and they now have a talent pipeline poised to take on new assignments once the anticipated wave of senior management retirement begins.

Although action learning has been in use for a decade, the CFOR study found interesting new trends: "Initially, companies used action learning to develop their most elite level of high-potential candidates. In effect, it was the Cadillac of leadership development programs," says the study's lead researcher, Dr. Mary Young. "Today, action learning also comes in more modest versions, akin to Saturns and Corollas." The study describes multiple action learning projects involving employees at various levels of their organizations.

CFOR provides data-driven strategic research and customized best practices information to organizations worldwide on human resources, organizational development, and corporate strategy and management. CFOR improves the way professionals approach their work and elevates their thinking around key strategic issues.

About Linkage, Inc.
Linkage, Inc. is a global organizational development company that specializes in leadership development. Serving the public and private sectors, the Company provides clients around the globe with customized leadership development and strategic change solutions that include and integrate consulting, training, assessment, coaching, and benchmark research. With a relentless commitment to learning, Linkage also offers a full range of conferences, institutes, summits, public workshops, and distance learning programs on leading-edge topics in leadership, management, HR, and OD. More than 100,000 leaders and managers have attended such a Linkage program since the Company's founding in 1988. Linkage is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, with regional offices in Minneapolis, Atlanta, San Francisco, London, Brussels, and Singapore. On two occasions, Linkage has been named to the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States.