The power of learning together – how organisations strengthen leadership development

For organisations looking to build leadership, capability and strategic thinking, developing together with others is not a compromise on relevance. Very often, it is what makes learning more relevant in the first place. While some development needs are best addressed internally, shared learning can be a particularly powerful way to bring in fresh perspective, challenge and insight.

Why exposure to other organisations makes learning stronger

Most organisations are trying to solve increasingly complex challenges while learning mainly within their own organisations. That can be efficient, and at times highly relevant, especially when the goal is alignment, integration or building a shared foundation. At the same time, it can also narrow perspective. When people develop only within their own organisational context, there are fewer opportunities to test assumptions, challenge familiar ways of working and gain insight from how others approach similar questions.

Learning with others brings something additional. It adds contrast, challenge and fresh perspective. It creates opportunities to test ideas, compare approaches and see familiar questions in a new light.

In that sense, shared learning offers more than knowledge transfer. It can ignite reflection, strengthen judgement and support meaningful renewal. When people learn alongside peers facing similar challenges in different settings, they are better able to see what is unique to their organisation, what is shared more widely, and what may need to change.

As Paulo Aguiar, an MBA Highlights programme participant, reflected, “The exchange of experiences showed me how the problems I face on a daily basis are similar to the problems in totally different businesses.”

That is one of the real strengths of learning with others: it helps people recognise shared challenges, draw insight from different contexts and return with a broader perspective on their own.

This kind of exposure can strengthen learning because:

• It helps people see beyond their own assumptions. When they encounter different ways of thinking and working, their own practices no longer appear self-evident.
• It enables meaningful benchmarking. Solutions by other organisations help clarify what is working in your own operations and where there is room for improvement.
• It sharpens thinking through dialogue. Leadership, change, capability and innovation look different across organisations. Seeing how others approach the same themes can spark new insights and open up new possibilities.
• It makes learning more concrete. An idea may feel convincing within one’s own organisation, but broader discussion often sharpens it. Examples, practices and approaches are easier to bring back into everyday work.
• It encourages people to learn, unlearn and rethink. A safe peer environment makes it easier to question old models and explore new directions.

Some of the most valuable development comes not only from content, but from reflection, dialogue and challenge.

Exposure to other organisations can make the learning environment richer, more challenging and often more practical too.

What developing together with others can look like

Learning with others can take different forms, depending on the need, the scale and the strategic context.

Open programmes for individual participants

In open programmes, individuals join a learning journey alongside peers from different organisations, industries and roles. This allows them to step outside their usual context and engage with a broader range of perspectives, experiences and practical examples.

Multi-company programmes for teams or organisations

In a multi-company programme, several non-competing organisations explore a shared strategic theme together. Each company brings real priorities and real questions into the process, creating a learning experience that combines shared insight with direct business relevance.

Consortium and co-created learning models

Some organisations choose to go further by joining a consortium or co-created learning setting. Here, companies collaborate over time to shape the agenda together around shared capability needs. This creates a powerful balance between relevance, peer learning and collective insight.

Why the mix in the room matters

The value of learning with others does not come only from crossing organisational boundaries. It also comes from who is in the room.

When participants bring different roles, industries, experiences and levels of seniority into the same learning space, the conversation becomes more dynamic. People do not approach the same challenge in the same way — and that is exactly what makes the learning stronger.

A well-composed group creates productive diversity. It helps participants see issues from multiple angles, question their own default thinking and discover approaches they may not have considered otherwise.

As Tomi Sirén, another MBA Highlights programme participant, reflected, “A wider contextual reflection and group work with other students offered valuable external perspectives during every module.”

That is exactly what a strong learning group can do: create a space where people not only learn from the content, but also from the perspectives, questions and experiences of those around them.

This matters because a varied room can help people:

• Challenge narrow thinking. When everyone shares a similar background, the discussion can become predictable. A broader mix introduces useful friction and opens up new ways of seeing the issue. 
• See the same challenge through different lenses. A strategic question may look very different to a CEO, an HR leader, a business unit head or a specialist. Bringing these perspectives together leads to richer reflection and stronger judgement. 
• Learn across industries. Some of the most valuable insight comes from outside one’s own sector. Different industries may be tackling similar challenges in ways that inspire fresh thinking. 
• Connect strategy with reality. A room made up of people from different organisational levels can create stronger conversations between vision and execution, ambition and implementation. 
• Build broader understanding. Hearing how others experience leadership, change and collaboration can deepen empathy and improve dialogue back inside the organisation.

The mix in the room does not create value by accident. It matters most when the group is thoughtfully brought together around relevant themes and a shared willingness to contribute. When that happens, the group itself becomes a source of insight, challenge and renewal.

Benefits for individuals — and why that matters beyond the individual

For individuals, learning with others can be both stretching and energising. It offers more than new knowledge. It helps people build the perspective, confidence and judgement needed to lead more effectively in complex environments.

Participants often gain:

• Broader perspective and sharper judgment. One’s own work and context are seen in a new light when you see how others frame similar challenges, creating a stronger foundation for decision-making.
• The courage to question familiar ways of working. Learning with peers often gives people the confidence to challenge what has become “the way we do things”.
• Stronger networks and peer support. The relationships built during a programme can continue long after it ends, offering ongoing reflection and support. 
• More immediate application. Because the learning is often tied to real business challenges, insights can be brought straight back into day-to-day work and put to use.

As Carolina Garzón, a current EMBA participant, put it, learning with peers from different industries has been one of the highlights of her EMBA experience. Through group assignments and discussions during the modules, she has been able to learn from others and expand her horizons.

These may begin as individual gains, but they do not stay with the individual. They influence conversations, decisions and leadership inside the organisation. In that way, personal development becomes organisational value.

Benefits for organisations

For organisations, the benefits go well beyond sending people to learn. When participants develop alongside others, they bring back insight that can strengthen thinking, accelerate renewal and support action.

Better decisions and stronger thinking

When people have tested ideas beyond their own context, they tend to return with broader perspective and better questions. External dialogue can help surface blind spots, challenge weak assumptions and improve the quality of decision-making.

Greater agility and renewal

Organisations are better able to learn, unlearn and adapt when they are not relying only on internal experience. Exposure to how others think and act can help companies rethink familiar patterns and respond to change more effectively.

More practical impact

When learning is connected to real priorities, the value is not theoretical. Participants bring back language, examples and approaches that can strengthen internal conversations and influence action. In multi-company and consortium settings, organisations also benefit from shared investment and collective insight. As Jessica Öberg, CEO of Combitech, noted at the Hanaholmen Industry Forum on 20 April 2026, real strength can be created by sharing tools, processes and even investment costs in areas where there is no direct competition. The same thinking also applies to organisations: knowing where collaboration creates value can be a source of strength.

When internal development is the better fit

Learning with others can be powerful, but it is not always the right format for every need. In some situations, the greatest value comes from developing internally, with a focus on alignment, shared direction and organisational integration.

Internal programmes tend to make more sense when the priority is to build something that needs to be held consistently across the organisation, rather than challenged or benchmarked from the outside.

This is often the case when organisations need to:

• Strengthen their own strategy without looking outward
• Build alignment, shared understanding and a common foundation
• Support integration during change or growth
• Bring large groups on board around a common capability

This is not an either-or choice. In practice, the strongest development strategies often combine both.

Learning with others can bring fresh perspective, challenge and external insight, while internal learning helps turn that insight into shared direction, common language and coordinated action.

The real strength lies not in choosing one model over the other, but in knowing when external perspective creates the most value — and when internal development is what the organisation needs most.

Final words: development that multiplies value

Developing people matters. Developing them in a way that connects them with others multiplies that value.

When individuals and organisations learn across boundaries, they gain more than knowledge. They gain perspective, challenge, reflection and the confidence to act. That is what makes shared learning so powerful: it helps people see more clearly, think more broadly and bring stronger insight back into their own organisations.

Learning with others does not dilute organisational relevance — it strengthens it.