Counting Down My Top 10 Favorite Learning Experiences and Sharing Advice for New L&D Professionals
- May 25
- 2 min read
#10: Seven Valuable Leadership Lessons from Reality TV Programs
Recently I wrapped up an article series focusing on the four essential elements of impactful learning experiences. When facilitators execute these elements successfully, learners leave their training sessions feeling informed, engaged, entertained, and inspired.
I was eager to author another series but was drawing a blank on a topic. As I began reflecting upon my early years in the postsecondary classroom and more recent years in corporate training spaces, several learning experiences stood out to me.
While a late night talk show host gig is probably not in my future, I decided to compile a list of my top 10 favorite learning experiences.
I hope that by sharing my work, I spark your imagination, inspire you to experiment with new approaches, and encourage you to pitch audacious ideas for your learning projects. At the end of each article, I‘ll offer a few suggestions for you to consider. Drum roll, please…
#10: Seven Valuable Leadership Lessons from Reality TV Programs
Reality television shows are everywhere. Regardless of your personal feelings on this genre of television programming, several valuable leadership lessons can be learned. We’ll explore these lessons in this fun and informative workshop.
In 2013, the Director of Talent Management at a small private university in Maryland hired me to deliver this two-hour leadership training. The audience was a mixed group of faculty members and administrators.
Throughout the session, we explored leadership lessons centered around seven key themes: change, conflict, coordination, compartmentalization, competency, communication, and consistency.
Why This Experience Makes My Top 10
Reason #1: There was obvious entertainment value.
Reality television programs are an insatiable guilty pleasure for millions of viewers. Salacious gossip, backstabbing frenemies, and cutthroat competition serve up endless drama. Both real and manufactured.
Part of the attraction of these shows is they provide a diversionary escape from our everyday lives. Like rubbernecking behavior on the interstate during rush hour, we can’t help but slow down and gaze in amusement (or bewilderment) at the antics of the “characters” we tune in each week to watch. Although not quite as polarizing as politics or religion, supporters and detractors alike tend to have strong feelings about this form of entertainment.
And I wanted to tap into that.
My goal in designing the session was to explain how certain truths in the reality television world correlated to fundamental leadership principles in the workplace. I enthusiastically embraced the challenge of making a connection between this unexpected pairing of wildly different subjects.
Following a welcome and introduction, I jumpstarted the session by asking several fun trivia questions, including these:
What show is generally regarded as the first reality television program?
What event in 1988 contributed to the proliferation of reality shows?
In 2013, how many types or subgenres of reality shows were on television?
Note: The answers appear at the end of this article.
Read the remainder of this article for free on Medium here.
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