Authoring leadership scenarios is easier than you think

Many people envision building leadership development programs like this:

• Lengthy workshops and masterclasses
• Expensive, heavily-produced video courses
• Enormous L&D costs without any ROI justification
• In-person events, teachers, and classes

But there is a faster, smarter way to build leadership skills, and it is easier than you might think.

The best corporate training available today is trending toward simulation training. Simulations allow for interactive, skill-building experiences where leaders can practice decision-making in real-world scenarios.

You don't have to be a writer, designer, or psychologist to create these scenarios. You just need to start small, stay focused, and tap into evidence-based learning science.

Why experiential learning matters for leadership skills

Adult learners learn best by experience. No surprise, therefore, that experiential learning is a mainstay of modern L&D design.

Simulations mirror actual problems leaders encounter every day: difficult decision-making, dealing with uncertainty, leading in high-pressure situations. Scientific studies show that scenario-based, hands-on practice builds readiness to lead faster than lectures or self-study eLearning​​.

Firms like Capgemini, Lincoln Financial, and IBM already use immersive simulation to build their leaders of tomorrow​​​.

The anatomy of a leadership scenario

A great leadership simulation is not creative writing. It’s structuring critical moments that reveal leadership behaviors.

Here’s what you need:

• Context: A common business situation, such as leading a team through change within the organization or addressing underperformance.
• Decision points: Two or three realistic decisions leaders would make in the moment.
• Consequences: Immediate, actionable feedback that teaches, not punishes.

The goal isn't to choreograph the "perfect" response… It's to provide leaders with a safe space where they think, decide, and learn from consequences.

Pro Tip: Find “moments that matter” — key events where leadership behavior actually has a material impact on business results. (Capgemini developed their entire emerging leaders program around these.)

How to get started creating leadership scenarios

Effective simulations require no complex technical skills to build or high production budgets for filming video courses and training. Here's a simple, repeatable process anyone can follow:

• Decide on the leadership behaviors to build
  Examples: giving feedback, making ethical decisions, leading through conflict.
• Choose real business situations
  Stay anchored in real business issues, not abstract theory.
• Plot 2–3 decision paths for each scenario
  Allow a range of "good" and "bad" options to show some nuance in selecting leadership styles. Don’t make these choices obvious.
• Create rapid feedback
  Provide real-time feedback based on the decision made, as it would happen in real life.

By focusing on skills-based training, you enable employees to "do" leadership rather than simply "learn about" leadership.

Why this approach drives business impact

Effective businesses are demonstrating that interactive, scenario-based employee development achieves:

• Improved time-to-proficiency for new and developing leaders​​.
• Rich skills insights to inform future learning plans​.
• Increased participation compared to conventional leadership workshops​.
• Better link between leadership behavior and business outcomes.

As decision-making is role-played under real-world scenarios, leaders become more equipped and self-assured at the times it matters most.

A view of the future: AI-powered scenarios

Although the concept of creating leadership scenarios seems straightforward. How do you actually apply this content?

The easiest way to do this is through AI-powered simulations. AI is beginning to augment L&D teams by suggesting points of decision, generating realistic responses and scripts, and aiding in the tailoring of simulations at scale.

Teams of 100,000+ are now going through simulations that contain synthetic media avatars, and the scripts were written almost entirely with AI. This makes the whole production more efficient, and AI offers the ability to improve scenario-based learning in a way that wasn’t possible before.

Later this year, ETU will introduce ETUCreate, a next-generation authoring tool powered by AI. It's going to democratize simulation learning in 2025 and beyond.

Leadership simulations at scale

Leadership continues to be the most important topic area to upskill. Developing leaders can transform a company quickly, and simulations offer the only viable way to make this happen at scale.

By focusing on real decisions leaders need to make and giving considerate feedback, you can build strong, scalable training experiences that create real behavior change.

Leadership development of the future is experiential, skill-focused, and data-driven. And it’s never easier to achieve. Try a leadership simulation here to learn more.