Leadership development might be one of the most significant loss-making ventures in modern business. Companies spend big money on developing leaders—about $3.4 billion annually by some estimates—yet research shows that 50 to 60 percent of executives fail to achieve the strategy they were hired to execute within 18 months of taking the job.

It’s not for lack of talent or effort. Leadership is simply more challenging in today’s ever-changing and highly complex business environment.

But $3.4 billion dollars is a lot of money, and if that outlay on development isn’t doing the trick, what will?

Maybe it’s as simple as a gentle nudge.

Nudging leadership development

Nudge theory was popularized by behavioral economics researchers Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.

Nudge theory focuses on the design of choices, which influences the decisions we make. The theory is broadly based on heuristics—a Greek word that now means self-discovery—which are mental shortcuts that people take to solve problems or make quick decisions.

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