Developing Leaders Across Two Hemispheres
Two programs, two continents, two languages — equipping operational managers and early-career scientists in a single global energy enterprise with skills they could use the next Monday morning.
A global energy-services enterprise with operations spanning more than 120 countries had two distinct development needs and two very different audiences: experienced Latin American managers who led multidisciplinary operational teams, and early-career geoscientists entering their first real projects at a global development campus in the Middle East.
The challenge was not to run two workshops. It was to design two competency-based programs — one in Spanish, one in English — each built on the frameworks the enterprise already used internally, delivered four months apart in opposite hemispheres, and measured against outcomes the enterprise could verify. And to hand the client a bilingual curriculum it could run again without Taligens in the room.
Two Cohorts, Two Different Gaps
The Latin American cohort was made up of experienced team leads and managers responsible for multidisciplinary operational teams across the region. Their gap was not technical knowledge — it was the structured practice of leadership: how to select for the right competencies, coach for performance, negotiate across functions, develop a team through its stages, and align people to a shared purpose. And they needed it in Spanish, with locally relevant context, not a translated American curriculum.
The Middle East cohort was the opposite profile: early-career geoscientists with less than two years' experience, rotating through a global development program before entering their first real project assignments. They needed to enter those projects able to read a project plan, speak the project management language the enterprise used internally, and understand what good looks like as a team member — not just as a technical contributor.
The engagement carried one additional constraint: it had to succeed twice, in two hemispheres, against internal certification standards, with no pilot run. The Latin America program had to produce bilingual assets the enterprise could reuse. The Middle East program had to prepare every participant to pass a certification exam aligned to the enterprise's internal project delivery framework.
Competency-Based, Outcome-Measured
Both programs were designed as competency-based, outcome-measured learning experiences — not awareness workshops. That distinction shaped every design decision: each session was anchored to an observable behavior, each module closed with a participant artifact, and each day built on the previous one.
Three frameworks provided the shared vocabulary across both programs. The Lominger Leadership Architect competency cluster model structured the leadership work and the behavioral assessment tool each manager completed in Latin America. The PMI PMBOK process groups and knowledge areas — mapped to the enterprise's own internal project delivery framework — structured the project management content for the Middle East. Tuckman's stages of team development served as the diagnostic lens across both.
The pedagogy in both programs followed the same principle: introduce a concept, immediately exercise it in a team simulation or live case, then close the module with something a participant could use on the job. A survival team exercise in Latin America exposed how groups make decisions under pressure. A running fictional project case study in the Middle East threaded stakeholder analysis, risk planning, WBS decomposition, and change control through a single escalating scenario — so participants built integrated understanding, not a checklist of isolated topics.
Two Programs, One Standard
Managing Teams for Success — Five Modules, In Spanish
A five-day leadership program covering the full arc of a manager's responsibility for a team: selecting the right people, coaching for performance, influencing through negotiation, leading teams through their development stages, and aligning people to a shared purpose. Delivered in Spanish, with bilingual participant workbooks, slide decks, and facilitator notes retained by the enterprise for future Latin American cohorts.
Effective Project Team Members — Certification-Graded
A two-day project management intensive for early-career geoscientists, covering all five PMI process groups mapped to the enterprise's internal project delivery framework. A running fictional case study — threaded through six escalating exercises — built integrated understanding of stakeholder management, scope control, risk planning, and project close-out. The program closed with a written certification exam.
A Bilingual Curriculum the Client Could Keep
Every module from the Latin America program was produced in both English and Spanish: participant workbooks, slide decks, facilitator guides, a SMART goals template, and a leadership behavioral assessment tool. The Middle East program produced a PMBOK-grounded workbook, a PERT estimation tool, a written exam instrument, and a participant evaluation template — all licensed to the enterprise for ongoing internal use.
The aim of the leader is to align people — not simply to organize and staff business units. These sessions were designed to communicate vision in ways that increase commitment, not just compliance.
How It Unfolded
The engagement ran in five phases, each one converting the design insight of the previous into delivered capability.
- Framework Alignment
Mapped every learning objective to frameworks the enterprise already recognized internally — PMI PMBOK, the Lominger competency clusters, and the enterprise's own project delivery vocabulary — so classroom concepts translated directly into language participants heard on the job.
- Curriculum Design
Built two distinct programs from the same design principles: one five-day leadership arc for experienced managers, one two-day project management intensive for early-career professionals. Every module was structured to close with a participant artifact — something tangible and immediately applicable.
- Latin America Delivery
Five days of facilitated leadership modules in Spanish, anchored to the Lominger competency framework. Exercises included a team decision-making simulation, behavioral interviewing role-plays, SMART goal drafting, force-field analysis for team change, and a leadership behavioral template completed by each participant.
- Middle East Delivery
Two days of project management instruction in English at a global development campus, grounded in a single running fictional case study. Participants worked through stakeholder analysis, communication planning, WBS decomposition, PERT estimation, risk planning, and project close-out before sitting a written certification exam.
- Curriculum Transfer and Certification
Full bilingual curriculum — workbooks, slide decks, facilitator guides, assessment tools, and exam instruments — handed to the enterprise for ongoing internal use. Facilitator notes signed off by the in-country sponsor in Latin America. All Middle East participants certified against the enterprise's internal standard.
What It Produced
Four outcomes that outlasted the engagement — two measured against a certification standard, two built into the curriculum itself.
Every participant certified in the Middle East program
All ten early-career geoscientists successfully completed the program and were certified. First-pass exam scores ranged from 50% to 100%, reflecting a deliberately demanding assessment; every participant who required a second pass reached 100%, demonstrating that the in-class remediation and case work fully closed the gap.
A complete bilingual asset set licensed to the enterprise
The Latin America engagement produced five participant workbooks, five slide decks, a facilitator guide, and two reusable templates — all in both English and Spanish — so the enterprise could re-deliver the leadership program to future regional cohorts without additional design or translation work.
Tangible outputs participants could use the following Monday
Every module closed with something a participant could carry back to the job: a behavioral interview guide, a coaching plan with SMART goals, a stakeholder communication matrix, a risk register, a team-stage diagnostic, and a completed leadership behavioral template. The programs were manufacturing lines for those artifacts, not endpoints in themselves.
Spanish delivery that removed the translation barrier
Delivering the leadership program in Spanish — and producing a full bilingual asset set — eliminated the friction that normally distances Latin American operational managers from corporate leadership frameworks. Participants could debate coaching, negotiation, and team dynamics in the same language they use with their teams.
Is this kind of engagement right for your organization?
This model works best when the following conditions apply:
- Your workforce spans multiple countries or languages — and your development programs need to meet people in their working language, not just translate materials after the fact.
- You have distinct audiences at different career stages who need programs designed separately, built on the same standards, and grounded in the frameworks your organization already uses.
- Your organization uses established project management or leadership frameworks internally — and you want development programs that integrate with that vocabulary rather than compete with it.
- You need programs that produce durable, reusable curriculum assets licensed for your own ongoing use — not one-time workshops that require the original designer to come back every time.
- You want every module to close with a tangible participant deliverable — something that can be used on the job the following week, not just a reflection on what was learned.
Ready to build development programs your people and your organization can actually use?
Let's talk about designing competency-based learning that meets your teams where they work — in the language they work in.