I noticed their large masthead last night here in San Diego. Does anyone have experience with them? Are they a valid training program or another LGAT or other kind of cult?

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LEC_escapee
I noticed their large masthead last night here in San Diego. Does anyone have experience with them? Are they a valid training program or another LGAT or other kind of cult?

Can't tell much from their website -- it sounds like the usual gobbledegook -- but a quick trip around the internet turns up some pretty scary stuff including associations with the CIA and MKULTRA, Manchurian Candidate-type activity, the World Anti-Communist League and the Nazi-sympathizers, Prescott Bush and his cohorts, the John Birch Society, etc., etc.


This bit is somewhat reminiscent of "Leadership Dynamics," one of William Penn Patrick's programs that was driven out of business after accounts of abuse became public:

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Our Philosophy: Ideas into action into ideas

The Center is an educational institution engaged in a continuous and fruitful cycle of turning ideas into action, and action into ideas. We teach, and as we teach, we learn. Then we act on what we learn, developing new views of leadership, new assessment techniques, programs and strategies that respond to the evolving challenges faced by leaders and their organizations.

We believe that self-knowledge is the single most important factor in the practice of leadership. Becoming more acutely aware of one's strengths and weaknesses is a type of "unfreezing" which leads to setting goals and taking action to improve. As a result, rather than teaching how to manage or analyze or strategize, we help leaders "learn how to learn" from their colleagues, their organizational and competitive contexts, and most importantly, from their own experience. Individuals rarely have the opportunity to receive extensive feedback in the workplace – to understand how others perceive them. Center programs provide leaders with the time, tools and environment needed to gain a comprehensive, accurate view of themselves, and to set personal development goals and begin working toward them. In fact, the Center's extensive use of assessment and honest, productive feedback is frequently cited as the most valuable part of our programs.

Typically, the Center's leadership programs are built on a developmental model of assessment, challenge and support. We combine 360-degree feedback, individual assessment, personalized attention in a safe, confidential environment designed to encourage candor, self-examination and experimentation with new behaviors vital to development. Participants are pushed to explore their strengths and identify their development needs in special activities, breakout sessions and simulations that replicate real-world challenges without the real-world consequences for failure. The result is creative exploration, insight and experiential learning that has time and again helped to inspire executives and managers and to revitalize and focus their organizations.
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Here's an interesing article from that Moonie rag, The Washinton Times. (The link is dead so I haven't verified it -- pulled it off a newsgroup.) Anyhoo, it's sort of interesting that there is a "parallel universe" of organisations that concern themselves with human manipulation, "social engineering," and covert influence that trade in guile and deceit. It appears there are at least as many of these as there are legitimate organisations. A predator doesn't do very well if he can't disguise his intentions and most of these organisations, as does Landmark, teach the *appearance* of ~authenticity & integrity.~



[www.washtimes.com]

August 28, 2000
Study says success follows popularity
By John Blake
COX NEWS SERVICE

ATLANTA As waves of youngsters head back to school, it might be tempting
to suggest that popularity doesn't matter. After all, the rugged
individualist is an American icon.

But popularity does matter, even and perhaps especially in adulthood. As
Sally Field once gushed when she accepted an Oscar as best actress:
"You like me."

Popularity rules. People who play the popularity game often become
leaders in government or business, movie stars, advertising pitchmen, the
president of the local garden club, the person on everybody's guest list.

A study by the Center for Creative Leadership, a business consulting
group based in Greensboro, N.C., discovered that the biggest reason
executive careers derail is an inability to be a popular leader.

For instance, this year's presidential race will focus only partly on
issues. It ultimately may become, as in past elections, a popularity
contest. People vote for people they like.

It has been 64 years since Dale Carnegie published his book "How to
Win Friends and Influence People," which has sold at least 14 million
copies. The Dale Carnegie Center of Excellence, based in Atlanta, helps
2,000 people annually with their "people skills."

"People who know how to make people like them have a tremendous advantage
in life," said Roger van Bakel, an editor with the Ad Age Group, a New
York-based collection of advertising and marketing publications. "People
want to work with them. People want to hire them. . . . I think that
rugged American individualism is a bunch of crock."

Popular people don't even have to be particularly good at what they do,
he said.

Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova has never won a singles title
on the professional tour. Yet Forbes magazine lists her as one of the
richest athletes in the world because her attractive looks make her a
sought-after commercial endorser. In fact, Miss Kournikova earns more
each year than Martina Hingis, the top-ranked women's player.

"Because she is incredibly hot, she makes more money than Martina Hingis,"
Mr. van Bakel said.

"Likability is the name of the game in advertising."

The more popular a business executive, research suggests, the greater the
chance of success. A 1996 study by the Center for Creative Leadership,
seeking to learn why some business executives succeed while others fail,
determined that most executives who failed to advance did so because
they lacked "people" skills.

"A lot of these managers were good," said Jean Leslie, co-author of
the study. "They knew the ins and outs of their job, but they were
considered demanding, aloof. They isolated themselves from others and
didn't have empathy."

Successful business executives displayed "interpersonal savvy," she
said. They were good listeners, made themselves available to others and
were supportive of other people's ideas.

"A lot of the work of more senior executives is relationship-oriented,"
Miss Leslie said. "The technical skills become less important than the
interpersonal relationships."

Even the sharpest managers can fall when they lose favor with their
employees or their bosses. Lee Iacocca, former president of Ford Motor
Co. and by all measures an excellent business executive, was fired after
helping introduce the fabulously successful Mustang. When Mr. Iacocca
asked his boss why, Henry Ford II reportedly replied, "I just don't
like you."

Cultivating popularity is crucial in politics as well. Perhaps no
other U.S. president in recent years has been lauded as much as Ronald
Reagan. But Alan Abramowitz, an Emory University political science
professor, said Mr. Reagan was widely considered to lack knowledge of
policy and foreign affairs.

"If you don't have popular support, no matter how good your ideas, no
matter your knowledge, you're not going to be able to lead Congress or
lead the people," he said.

A popular person doesn't even have to be a celebrity to exert tremendous
influence, says Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point," a book
that explores the power of ordinary people and events to spark social
transformations.

Such people Mr. Gladwell calls them "connectors" wield tremendous
power, he thinks. That's the reason Paul Revere, not William Dawes,
is remembered today, he said. Both men took a midnight ride on the
same night in opposite directions to warn people that the British were
coming. But nobody listened to Mr. Dawes because he was unknown.

"People listened to Paul Revere because they all knew him," Mr. Gladwell
said. "He had the biggest Rolodex in New England."

Thanks for the responses. Looking at their website i thought it was suspicious.

I don't think it'll be easy getting any info from them directly regarding their history, affiliations, or credentials either. I inquired, never got a response back. Maybe I insulted them by comparing their site to LE's.... :roll: its a duck....

Talking about ducks...
EST (later Landmark) used to have a course called: Centre Leaders Programme (CLP). That first crossed my mind when I read the title of this thread. May this group is a spin off from those years. Just for the record, I don't know, because I know nothing about this group.

It would be interesting to know what they mean by Creative Leadership.

Sounds like an oxymoron to me ...

I wonder if it's anything like Creative Accounting?

LOL good one Jack :D

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I wonder if it's anything like Creative Accounting?

I think you've nailed it right on the head!! :lol: :lol: