How GE HealthCare Rebuilt Leadership to Fuel Business Growth

Building a Leadership Culture from the Ground Up

When GE HealthCare, a leading global healthcare solutions provider, became an independent company, it was more than a structural change. This was a chance to redefine who they were as an organization. And at the center of that transformation was a pivotal question: What kind of leaders will carry us forward?

With more than 50,000 employees across 160+ countries, the stakes were high to unify fragmented leadership practices and create a culture that could deliver results in a complex, fast-moving industry.

Stepping away from GE’s renowned Crotonville leadership model only intensified that urgency. After years of success with Crotonville, the spin-off created a gap where learning and development (L&D) was largely paused—leaving a void in structure and credibility. GE HealthCare’s L&D team had to move quickly to rebuild momentum, earn trust, and meet the demand of employees eager to grow.

GE HealthCare’s L&D team saw a rare opportunity to lay the foundation for a leadership culture that would shape the company’s future. But they had a lean team and less than a year to design a strategy that would drive behavior change, build the talent pipeline, and turn leadership into a catalyst for business growth.

Competency-Based, Business-Aligned Leadership

GE HealthCare’s L&D team saw leadership development as a way to anticipate and solve real business challenges—not just respond to change. They needed a framework rooted in the company’s mission that would drive performance, support cultural transformation, and prepare leaders for future challenges.

To achieve this vision, GE HealthCare partnered with DDI to identify the business drivers and leadership behaviors most critical to success. Dr. Todd Harrison, VP of Global Leadership Academies, coordinated the effort from within, participating in every executive interview to ensure strong alignment with stakeholders. DDI consultants led the interview process—facilitating discussions, analyzing themes, and translating insights into a research-backed leadership strategy.

Drawing from the L&D team’s cultural insights and the senior leaders’ voices, the interviews surfaced GE HealthCare’s strategic direction, emerging challenges, and the capabilities leaders would need to navigate the next three to five years.

The GE HealthCare team knew leadership development would only gain traction if it was seen as a business-critical lever, not an HR initiative.

DDI was the first company I have worked with that took a business-minded approach to leadership development. This was the secret to our success—and the first time we had ever achieved this level of alignment and support.

Dr. Todd Harrison, VP of Global Leadership Academies, GE HealthCare

With this information, the team narrowed its focus to four key business drivers: shifting organizational paradigm, driving process innovation, enhancing organizational talent, and executing competitive strategy.

DDI used these drivers as the foundation for a nested competency model across four leadership levels: emerging, frontline, mid-level, and senior leaders. Core behaviors—like communication and leading change—were scaled to fit the context of each level. For example, leading change at the executive level became facilitating change for frontline leaders and adaptability for individual contributors. As a result, every employee had a clear path for growth that directly connected to business priorities.

GE HealthCare plans on embedding competencies into every stage of the talent life cycle: hiring, succession, development, and career mobility. Hiring managers will use them to select candidates, leaders have begun to rely on them for succession planning, and employees reference them for career development. This consistency across 50,000 employees replaced fragmented approaches with one clear standard for what great leadership looks like and how to build it.

Implementation at Scale: Leading Without Limits

Now with a system and executive support, GE HealthCare’s L&D team turned to execution. Their goal was to drive real behavior change by nurturing skills that leaders could immediately apply in their day-to-day roles. Based on the chosen competencies, the team designed core development programs that reinforce a shared leadership culture across titles, levels, and geographies.

To achieve this, they launched Leadership Academies aligned to the four leadership levels. Each academy reaches hundreds of leaders across the world each year. While every program is tailored to the unique needs of its participants, all are anchored in consistent core features including assessments, blended delivery, peer networks, and reinforcing follow-up activities.

DDI facilitators work hand-in-hand with GE HealthCare’s Learning Academy Leaders to deliver live sessions that are relevant, impactful, and grounded in the competency model. Delivered through DDI’s Leadership Development Subscription, the learning content builds critical leadership skills using research-backed methods that focus on behavior change. These sessions prepare leaders to apply their new skills immediately so they can tackle real business challenges and move the company’s vision forward. GE HealthCare’s L&D team provides rich business context, while DDI brings leadership development expertise and a valuable external perspective to drive measurable results.

It’s a true partnership. It feels like DDI is an extension of our team.

Cinzia Beretta, Global Leadership Development Leader, GE HealthCare

Strategy Meets Behavior Change

The outcome? A high-impact program that leaders are eager to join—so much so that there’s been a wait-list since launch.

But the excitement isn’t just about the prestige of enrollment. Graduates consistently report that what they learned is directly valuable to their roles. More than 98% say they plan to apply those skills on the job—evidence that the experience doesn’t just shift skill sets but transforms mindsets.

It’s because of our partnership with DDI and the way we connected leadership to our business strategy at a critical inflection point that we’ve accelerated so quickly. This rigorous, well-designed, well-researched model is propelling us toward our future.

Dr. Todd Harrison, VP of Global Leadership Academies

In just the first year, more than 650 leaders completed the program across all levels and regions. The impact reaches far beyond the classroom.

Leadership development is no longer a support function—it’s a strategic driver. GE HealthCare’s L&D team is now recognized as essential to shaping the company’s future and achieving its goals.

Sustaining the Strategy

GE HealthCare’s leadership story is still evolving. Together with DDI, they built a scalable, high-impact system that’s tightly aligned to business needs—and designed to adapt as those needs change.

To expand the reach of their leadership strategy, GE HealthCare launched an open enrollment “Leadership College” program. Designed to support individual development and evolving business priorities, the program extends DDI’s self-paced and facilitator-led content to a broader audience—reinforcing key behaviors beyond the Leadership Academies and deepening the impact across the organization.

What began as a response to a pivotal moment has become a long-term strategy to develop leaders who can drive culture, performance, and growth. And in the process, GE HealthCare’s L&D team has achieved more than program success. They’ve earned lasting influence and a meaningful role in guiding the company’s direction.

Their story shows what’s possible when L&D builds leadership development from the business, for the business—with the right strategy and the right timing to bring it to life.

See how DDI can help you drive business success through leadership culture.