Case Story:
Publishing Concepts
Unlocking the Firm’s Potential
The Challenge:
Sustaining Growth Without Complacency
For more than 100 years, Publishing Concepts has helped educational institutions and associations engage alumni and members through data collection, directories, marketing programs, and fundraising initiatives. With more than 350 associates, including 225 Inside Sales professionals, the company’s performance depends on how well its people learn, adapt, and execute every day.
Employees consistently recognized Publishing Concepts as a great place to work. But for CEO Drew Clancy, that recognition did not go far enough.
Drew believed that engagement alone was not sufficient. He wanted growth to be visible, continuous, and shared across the organization. As the company succeeded and scaled, he saw a familiar risk emerge. Strong performance can quietly lead to complacency. Teams keep delivering results, but leadership habits fail to evolve.
Publishing Concepts had a strong culture, but Drew wanted a system that would ensure people kept getting better under pressure, not just more comfortable.After reading An Everyone Culture, Drew reached out to The Developmental Edge® to explore how organizations could embed leadership growth directly into the flow of work rather than relying on episodic training or individual coaching.
The Solution:
Turning Leadership Growth Into a Team Sport
Drew’s philosophy was simple and deeply aligned with TDE’s approach.
“My job as a leader is to help everyone in my company learn, grow, and achieve the most that they can for themselves. When they unlock their potential, they unlock the company’s potential. We all get better by getting better together.”
Within Publishing Concepts, Inside Sales Representatives manage the accounts that determine the company’s success. That made the twenty Inside Sales Leaders who coach and support them a critical leverage point for scaling leadership capability.
Working together, Drew and TDE embedded two complementary development processes directly into the rhythm of daily work.
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Developmental Sprint®
We launched multiple Sprints to help leaders surface self-limiting assumptions, test new behaviors in real time, and learn alongside peers. Leaders worked on high-impact improvement goals tied directly to their actual responsibilities, supported by peer coaching, experimentation, and accountability. -
Developmental Workout®
At the enterprise level, Drew and the senior leadership team engaged in recurring Workouts to tackle core strategic challenges. These sessions created a shared framework for examining assumptions, integrating multiple perspectives, and quickly moving from discussion to decision.
Together, these processes ensured that leadership development was not something people did on the side. It became part of how work got done.
From Abstract Values to Daily Practice
Many organizations talk about unlocking potential. Publishing Concepts built a repeatable system to do it.
The Developmental Sprint® process provided a practical way to turn the ideas in An Everyone Culture into everyday behavior.
As Drew explained:
“The Sprint gives you a framework for operationalizing what can otherwise stay abstract. Who does not want to unlock their company’s full potential? The Sprint shows you how.”
Publishing Concepts began with an open Sprint that allowed participants to choose their own improvement goals. When results appeared quickly, Drew worked with TDE to align future Sprints directly with the company’s vision of Unlocking Human Potential.
Each quarter, PCI launched new cohorts focused on shared themes aligned with business priorities. Growth became collective rather than optional. Roughly one-third of the organization has already participated, with full participation expected as internal leaders continue to scale the process.
Immediate, Lasting Impact
Participants in the Sprints described the experience as:
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Stimulating accountability and growth
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Creating space to focus on essential improvement areas often overlooked
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Delivering impact that lasts beyond the Sprint itself
Stimulating accountability and growth
Creating space to focus on essential improvement areas often overlooked
Delivering impact that lasts beyond the Sprint itself
At the same time, the senior leadership team used the Workout framework every two weeks to rapidly diagnose and resolve complex challenges such as sales territory design and incentive alignment.
Across both processes, a consistent pattern emerged:
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Leaders worked on real problems, not hypotheticals
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The team surfaced and challenged assumptions openly
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Peers supported and held each other accountable
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Teams moved from insight to action quickly
Leadership growth became shared, visible, and practical.
The Leadership and Culture Transformation
As Developmental Sprints and Developmental Workouts became routine, shifts in leadership behavior became visible across the organization.
Communication became more direct and transparent. Leaders practiced candor with care. Teams stopped avoiding difficult conversations and started using them to move forward.
Inside Sales Leaders emerged stronger and more effective at developing their teams. Retention improved. Capability deepened. People felt invested in and supported rather than evaluated in isolation.
At the senior level, the Workout framework created a shared language for navigating complexity. Instead of revisiting the same issues repeatedly, leaders surfaced assumptions, aligned across functions, and made decisions with confidence.
The development process itself modeled the culture Publishing Concepts wanted to scale.
The Results:
Continuous Growth Without Complacency
The impact has been sustained and tangible.
Developmental Sprints® strengthened communication, trust, and engagement across teams. Inside Sales Leaders became more effective multipliers of performance. Retention improved as people saw a clear growth path.
At the enterprise level, the Workouts created real momentum.
“We use this framework every two weeks to quickly identify and solve problems,” Drew said. “This creates meaningful momentum. We move faster, and we get real satisfaction from how quickly we move forward together.”
Most importantly, Publishing Concepts avoided the hidden risk that often follows success.
By embedding leadership growth into real work and making it a shared experience, Publishing Concepts turned development into a competitive advantage that continues to scale with the business.
