Benefit Cosmetics: Bringing resilience & performance to life

Watch our conversation with Nina and read Nina’s article as she reflects on the impact and outcomes of her collaboration with WDHB.

Context

Benefit Cosmetics is a global beauty brand whose annual Global Leadership Conference brings together executives and senior leaders from across its markets, with a strong focus on people development. WDHB partnered with Benefit to design the experiential learning component of the conference’s People Day.

Challenge

Benefit Cosmetics brought together 120 executives and senior leaders in Berlin for its Global Leadership Conference, aligning on long-term strategy and regional priorities under the theme “Benefit Games,” inspired by elite athletes from around the world.

For People Day, Nina Walters, Director of Global Talent and Organizational Development, wanted to turn a great conference into an unforgettable one. With leaders at very different stages of their careers, a topic as broad as leadership, and only three hours to work with, she needed a format that would give every participant something tangible to take back to their teams. She also wanted learning that would stick: hands-on and immersive, far from a traditional classroom, and a chance for leaders to see a different side of themselves and each other.

Solution

Drawing on WDHB’s experience of partnering with elite athletes as a metaphor for leadership, WDHB worked closely with Nina on a short timeline to explore several iterations of sports and athletes before landing on the final design.

“We had a very short timeline to pull this off, but talk about being able to deliver! Morgan went through several different iterations of sports and athletes that we could offer and collaborated with me in such a supportive way where she was able to bring my ideas to life and even surpass them. Morgan and the rest of WDHB’s team made the entire process really easy, and together we planned highly interactive and inspirational sessions using the metaphor of elite athletics. I really appreciated everything that I got to learn from WDHB’s collaborative style and approach to experiential learning.”
— Nina Walters, Director of Global Talent and Organizational Development, Benefit Cosmetics

The result was five simultaneous breakout sessions, each led by an elite athlete: breakdancing, archery, rowing, guide running and taekwondo. Leaders joined small groups, where a facilitated dialogue let the athletes share their stories of highs, lows, setbacks and resilience. Leaders then engaged in conversation with them, humanizing the athletes and drawing organic connections back to leading at Benefit.

Finally, participants took part in the sport itself, experiencing the leadership themes first-hand and turning them into powerful, personal takeaways.

Impact

The sessions were kept a surprise until the athletes were announced on stage, and the reaction in the room set the tone for the day.

“I couldn’t even hear what words were coming out of my mouth when I was trying to announce the names of the athletes on stage because it was so loud in the room. I heard later that there were tears, as well as this overwhelming sense of joy and shock.”
— Nina Walters

Feedback after the conference was very positive, particularly on the experiential approach to leadership development. Participants connected genuinely with the athletes’ stories, and moving their bodies after days of sitting in a conference brought fresh energy to the group.

“Immediately following the conference, we received very positive feedback, especially in terms of our experiential approach to leadership development. I think we can all agree that no one likes to be talked at, especially a group of senior leaders coming together from all over the world for an event like this. They needed this experience to be a moment of coming together with peers, which we were able to provide.”
— Nina Walters

Every leader left with something personal to take back to their teams and implement immediately, whatever their leadership background or stage of development.

“The energy and spirit of our people shone through because WDHB understood our culture, how we like to communicate and how we engage with our work.”
— Nina Walters

Read Nina’s full reflections: Benefit Games: Unleashing Leadership Potential Through Experiential Learning →