REX EXecutive Roundtables are designed to overcome the shortcomings of traditional executive development. REX Executive Roundtables address the complex issues of management and leadership. Most professional development activities deal with elementary concepts and skills presented in generic formats. This may be appropriate for learning a specific skill, such as a computer application. It may also be useful for mid or entry-level employees. However, for senior professionals "training" is often a waste of time and money. REX Executive Roundtables provide continuous, sustained support for your efforts to improve yourself and your organization. Most professional development consists of either a workshop or seminar, lasting one or a few days; or attendance at an association meeting for 3 or 4 days. You go, you sit and listen, and you leave, without any opportunity for discussion, fine tuning to your situation or follow-up. Back at the office you return to the 'to do' list that has accumulated while you were away and your good intentions slip away. A Roundtable presents you with new ideas, methods and tools; then engages in a discussion with your peers to tailor these to you situation. Then at the next session you will be asked, 'What happened? How'd it go? Can we provide any more help?' This continuous, sustained support enables and accelerates implementation. REX Executive Roundtables are a forum for dialogue about real and immediate concerns. Usually professional development occurs in large groups, which offer little opportunity for participants to talk about and grapple with the very real challenges they are facing now. Instead they work on hypothetical cases, which are devoid of the complexities and multiple dimensions of reality. Participants are left on their own, after they return to work, to apply the theoretical concepts to their actual circumstances. REX Executive Roundtables create a supportive and confidential environment where you can be honest. Even when a professional development activity is designed to address real-life problems, participants usually are reluctant to be completely open about their situation. In public settings people want to put a positive face on themselves and their organizations. This seriously hampers the ability to deeply understand and address the causes of problems. REX Roundtables are structured and chaired to foster absolute confidentiality, extremely high trust and deeply honest conversations By bringing together a small group of high-level professionals, in a supportive and confidential environment, over a period of years, REX Executive Roundtables have a real impact on the participants and their organizations. Some entities go by the label "roundtable," but fail to deliver the benefits described above. A recurring meeting of executives, whatever it is called, will not in itself lead to new insights, practical solutions and effective implementation to real problems. A roundtable must be designed and managed with care, to enable members to build trusting relationships, and to bring "out of the box" thinking to the group. This requires a skilled facilitator. Without careful steering, a round table will lose its energy and direction. Either it will wither, as members lose interest, or it will evolve into a pleasant, but not very effective social gathering.