Landmark Education
Encyclopedia
Landmark Education LLC
(LE) is a personal training and development company which offers educational programs in approximately 115 locations in more than 20 countries worldwide.
Over 1.2 million people have taken Landmark's programs. Considered controversial at times, Landmark Education was founded in 1991. It is an employee-owned, private company
, headquartered in San Francisco
, California
whose origins were from the purchase of the intellectual property
of Werner Erhard
, who developed the est
training. Landmark Education has developed and delivered over 40 personal development programs. Its subsidiary the Vanto Group, markets and delivers training and consulting to organizations.
. According to Landmark Education's fact sheet, its employees own all the stock
of the corporation
,
with no individual holding more than 3%. The company states that it operates in such a way as to invest its surpluses into making its programs, initiatives, and services more widely available.
As of 2005, Landmark Education stated that they have 200,000 participants in all of their courses annually with 70,000 to 80,000 people participating in the Landmark Forum. Over one million people have taken part in Landmark Education's introductory program, the Landmark Forum, since 1991. Landmark Education reported revenues of approximately $75 million .
Quote: "This letter serves as the consent by Landmark Education Corporation for the use of the name "Landmark Education International, Inc." by our wholly-owned subsidiary, currently known as Werner Erhard and Associates International, Inc."
to February 26, 2003 as "Landmark Education Corporation (LEC)", purchased certain rights to a presentation known as The Forum from Werner Erhard and Associates
. Since then, the name of the presentation has been changed to "The Landmark Forum" and the content has been revised. The group of people who purchased the rights registered themselves initially as Transnational Education, as The Centers Network, and (in Japan) as Rancord Company, Ltd.. Incorporation as "Landmark Education Corporation" (LEC) took place later in 1991. "Landmark Education International, Inc.", the first Landmark name incorporated in the State of California, was filed on June 22, 1987. In February 2003, Landmark Education LLC succeeded LEC.
The coursework and pedagogy
of WEA evolved from est/Erhard Seminars Training
, founded by Werner Erhard
in 1971. According to Landmark Education, Erhard consults from time to time with its "Research and Design team". Erhard's younger brother (Harry Rosenberg) works as Landmark Education's Chief Executive Officer, and their sister (Joan Rosenberg) serves as the Vice President of Landmark Education's Centers Division.
Werner Erhard's lawyer, Terry Giles, serves as Chairman of the Board
of Landmark Education. According to a New York Times article, Giles was credited with resolving a long standing rift among the descendents of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(USC) Marshall School of Business
carried out a case study
in 1998 into the work of LEBD. The report concluded that the set of interventions in the organization produced a 50% improvement in safety, a 15% to 20% reduction in key benchmark costs, a 50% increase in return on capital, and a 20% increase in raw steel production. LEBD became the Vanto Group in 2007.
Companies such as Panda Express
and Lululemon Athletica
pay for and encourage employees to take part in The Landmark Forum.
Since that time, the Vanto Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Education, has used Tekniko to license the "Tekniko methodology and intellectual property to a wide variety of corporations."
Rules are set up at the beginning of the program, such as strongly encouraging participants not to miss any part of the program. Attendees are also urged to be “coachable” and not just be observers during the course.
The program is arranged as a discussion where the course leader presents certain ideas and the course participants engage in voluntary sharing with the course leader to discuss how those ideas apply to their own life. Ideas presented, asserted and discussed include the following:
In one program, the Team, Management, and Leadership Program, participants create a ‘game in the world’.
reporter Henry Alford summarized his review of The Landmark Forum by saying "Two months after the Forum, I'd rate my success at 84 percent. I'm more prone to telling loved ones and colleagues, in person and without glibness, that I love or admire them. But I still operate from a base position that people are a lot of effort." Time Magazine reporter Nathan Thornburgh, in his review of The Landmark Forum, said "At its heart, the course was a withering series of scripted reality checks meant to show us how we have created nearly everything we see as a problem …I benefited tremendously from the uncomfortable mirror the course had put in front of me."
Landmark Education makes extensive use of web-published and word-of-mouth
testimonials from customer
s to portray its effectiveness, and supplements these with studies
, surveys
, and opinions.
Some observers question whether and to what degree Landmark Education courses benefit participants. Others criticize the use of volunteers by Landmark Education; others highlight the connections with other groups and with Werner Erhard
. Landmark has been criticized by some for being overzealous in encouraging people to participate in its courses.
Some newspaper articles about the Forum mention rumours or allegations that it is in some sense "cult-like". Landmark rejects the cult label and "freely threatens or pursues lawsuits against those who call it one." Journalists Amelia Hill with The Observer
and Karin Badt from The Huffington Post
have witnessed the Landmark Forum and concluded that, in their view, it is not a cult. Hill wrote, "It is ... simple common sense delivered in an environment of startling intensity." Badt noted the organisation's emphasis on "'spreading the word' of the Landmark forum as a sign of the participants' 'integrity'" in recounting her personal experience of an introductory "Landmark Forum" course. Part of this theme included repeated comparisons between program participants and Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Badt expressed the opinion that the course's word-of-mouth marketing methodology and its considerable focus on proselytizing
amounted to "brainwashing". She also noted that, "At the end of the day, I found the Forum innocuous. No cult, no radical religion: an inspiring, entertaining introduction of good solid techniques of self-reflection, with an appropriate emphasis on action and transformation (not change)", pointing instead to problems lying with uncritical participants.
Landmark Education makes no claims of a religious nature but the relationship of the training programs to religion sometimes occurs in reviews of the training. While some reviewers note the lack of religious factors or the compatibility of the training with various religions, others consider its programs to possess religious features, to address participants' spiritual needs, or even to be a form of new religion
. In their 2002 book Cults, Religion, and Violence, authors David G. Bromley
and J. Gordon Melton
noted that some governments were overly restictive towards New Religious Movements and Personal Development
groups, illustrating this by the appearances of Landmark Education and many other organisations in lists of "Sectes" published by government commissions in Belgium
and France
.
Following a series of investigative articles in the national daily Dagens Nyheter
and programs on the private TV channel TV4 Landmark Education also closed its offices in Sweden as of June 2004.
According to Le Nouvel Observateur
, the French office of Landmark Education closed in July 2004 after labor inspectors, following a site visit that noted the activities of volunteers, made a report of undeclared employment.
.
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
(LE) is a personal training and development company which offers educational programs in approximately 115 locations in more than 20 countries worldwide.
Over 1.2 million people have taken Landmark's programs. Considered controversial at times, Landmark Education was founded in 1991. It is an employee-owned, private company
Privately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...
, headquartered in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
whose origins were from the purchase of the intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
of Werner Erhard
Werner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
, who developed the est
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
training. Landmark Education has developed and delivered over 40 personal development programs. Its subsidiary the Vanto Group, markets and delivers training and consulting to organizations.
Corporation
Landmark Education LLC operates as an employee-owned for-profit private companyPrivately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...
. According to Landmark Education's fact sheet, its employees own all the stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
of the corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
,
with no individual holding more than 3%. The company states that it operates in such a way as to invest its surpluses into making its programs, initiatives, and services more widely available.
As of 2005, Landmark Education stated that they have 200,000 participants in all of their courses annually with 70,000 to 80,000 people participating in the Landmark Forum. Over one million people have taken part in Landmark Education's introductory program, the Landmark Forum, since 1991. Landmark Education reported revenues of approximately $75 million .
History
Landmark Education, known from May 7, 1991Quote: "This letter serves as the consent by Landmark Education Corporation for the use of the name "Landmark Education International, Inc." by our wholly-owned subsidiary, currently known as Werner Erhard and Associates International, Inc."
to February 26, 2003 as "Landmark Education Corporation (LEC)", purchased certain rights to a presentation known as The Forum from Werner Erhard and Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates, also known as WE&A or as WEA, operated as a commercial entity from February 1981 until early 1991. It replaced Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. as the vehicle for marketing, selling and imparting the content of the est training, and offered what some people refer to as...
. Since then, the name of the presentation has been changed to "The Landmark Forum" and the content has been revised. The group of people who purchased the rights registered themselves initially as Transnational Education, as The Centers Network, and (in Japan) as Rancord Company, Ltd.. Incorporation as "Landmark Education Corporation" (LEC) took place later in 1991. "Landmark Education International, Inc.", the first Landmark name incorporated in the State of California, was filed on June 22, 1987. In February 2003, Landmark Education LLC succeeded LEC.
The coursework and pedagogy
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
of WEA evolved from est/Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
, founded by Werner Erhard
Werner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
in 1971. According to Landmark Education, Erhard consults from time to time with its "Research and Design team". Erhard's younger brother (Harry Rosenberg) works as Landmark Education's Chief Executive Officer, and their sister (Joan Rosenberg) serves as the Vice President of Landmark Education's Centers Division.
Werner Erhard's lawyer, Terry Giles, serves as Chairman of the Board
Chairman of the Board
The Chairman of the Board is a seat of office in an organization, especially of corporations.Chairman of the Board may also refer to:*Chairman of the Board , a 1998 film*Chairmen of the Board , a 1970s American soul music group...
of Landmark Education. According to a New York Times article, Giles was credited with resolving a long standing rift among the descendents of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Business consulting
Vanto Group, Inc., founded in 1993 as "Landmark Education Business Development" (LEBD), a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Education Enterprises, Inc., uses the techniques of Landmark Education to provide consulting services to various companies. The University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
(USC) Marshall School of Business
Marshall School of Business
The USC Marshall School of Business is a private research and academic institution at the University of Southern California. It is the largest of USC's 17 professional schools. The current Dean is James G. Ellis. In 1997 the school was renamed following a US$35 million donation from alumnus Gordon S...
carried out a case study
Case study
A case study is an intensive analysis of an individual unit stressing developmental factors in relation to context. The case study is common in social sciences and life sciences. Case studies may be descriptive or explanatory. The latter type is used to explore causation in order to find...
in 1998 into the work of LEBD. The report concluded that the set of interventions in the organization produced a 50% improvement in safety, a 15% to 20% reduction in key benchmark costs, a 50% increase in return on capital, and a 20% increase in raw steel production. LEBD became the Vanto Group in 2007.
Companies such as Panda Express
Panda Express
Panda Express is a fast casual restaurant chain serving American Chinese cuisine. It operates mainly inside the United States, in casinos, shopping malls, supermarkets, airports, train stations, strip plazas, theme parks, stadiums, college campuses and The Pentagon...
and Lululemon Athletica
Lululemon Athletica
Lululemon Athletica Inc. , styled as lululemon athletica, is a self-described yoga-inspired athletic apparel company, produces a clothing line and runs international clothing stores from its company base in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada....
pay for and encourage employees to take part in The Landmark Forum.
Licensing intellectual property
Tekniko, Inc., was owned by Werner Erhard, and was the successor organization to Transformational Technologies, which was incorporated in 1984 by Erhard and management consultant James Selman. Tekniko Licencing Corporation, a California corporation owned by Terry M. Giles, later acquired this technology. In 2001 Landmark Education formed Tekniko Licensing Corporation, a Nevada corporation, which purchased Tekniko Technology from Giles' company.Since that time, the Vanto Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Education, has used Tekniko to license the "Tekniko methodology and intellectual property to a wide variety of corporations."
Course content
The Landmark Forum program takes place over the course of a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and a Tuesday evening. Hours are from 9am to 10pm each of the first three days, and three hours of the evening on the final night. Tuition is about $500 per person in the US. About 150 people take part in each course.Rules are set up at the beginning of the program, such as strongly encouraging participants not to miss any part of the program. Attendees are also urged to be “coachable” and not just be observers during the course.
The program is arranged as a discussion where the course leader presents certain ideas and the course participants engage in voluntary sharing with the course leader to discuss how those ideas apply to their own life. Ideas presented, asserted and discussed include the following:
- There is a big difference between what actually happened in a person’s life and the meaning or interpretation they made up about it
- People pursue an imaginary someday of satisfaction
- Human behavior is governed by a need to look good
- People create their own meaning to life – none is inherent in the world
- People have “rackets”, which are persistent complaints or fixed ways of being
- People can “transform” by simply declaring a new way of being instead of trying to change themselves in comparison to the past
- Course participants are encouraged to call people they know during the course who they are incomplete with and either forgive the other person or apologize for their own behavior.
- The Tuesday evening involves a presentation at which course attendees bring other people to learn about and voluntarily register for an upcoming Landmark Forum.
Community Projects
Some other Landmark Education courses encourage or require participants to create a community project. In the Self-Expression and Leadership Program, participants are required to undertake a project that benefits the larger community or society as a whole.In one program, the Team, Management, and Leadership Program, participants create a ‘game in the world’.
Evaluations and reviews
The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reporter Henry Alford summarized his review of The Landmark Forum by saying "Two months after the Forum, I'd rate my success at 84 percent. I'm more prone to telling loved ones and colleagues, in person and without glibness, that I love or admire them. But I still operate from a base position that people are a lot of effort." Time Magazine reporter Nathan Thornburgh, in his review of The Landmark Forum, said "At its heart, the course was a withering series of scripted reality checks meant to show us how we have created nearly everything we see as a problem …I benefited tremendously from the uncomfortable mirror the course had put in front of me."
Landmark Education makes extensive use of web-published and word-of-mouth
testimonials from customer
Customer
A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...
s to portray its effectiveness, and supplements these with studies
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
, surveys
Statistical survey
Survey methodology is the field that studies surveys, that is, the sample of individuals from a population with a view towards making statistical inferences about the population using the sample. Polls about public opinion, such as political beliefs, are reported in the news media in democracies....
, and opinions.
Some observers question whether and to what degree Landmark Education courses benefit participants. Others criticize the use of volunteers by Landmark Education; others highlight the connections with other groups and with Werner Erhard
Werner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
. Landmark has been criticized by some for being overzealous in encouraging people to participate in its courses.
Some newspaper articles about the Forum mention rumours or allegations that it is in some sense "cult-like". Landmark rejects the cult label and "freely threatens or pursues lawsuits against those who call it one." Journalists Amelia Hill with The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
and Karin Badt from The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
have witnessed the Landmark Forum and concluded that, in their view, it is not a cult. Hill wrote, "It is ... simple common sense delivered in an environment of startling intensity." Badt noted the organisation's emphasis on "'spreading the word' of the Landmark forum as a sign of the participants' 'integrity'" in recounting her personal experience of an introductory "Landmark Forum" course. Part of this theme included repeated comparisons between program participants and Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Badt expressed the opinion that the course's word-of-mouth marketing methodology and its considerable focus on proselytizing
amounted to "brainwashing". She also noted that, "At the end of the day, I found the Forum innocuous. No cult, no radical religion: an inspiring, entertaining introduction of good solid techniques of self-reflection, with an appropriate emphasis on action and transformation (not change)", pointing instead to problems lying with uncritical participants.
Landmark Education makes no claims of a religious nature but the relationship of the training programs to religion sometimes occurs in reviews of the training. While some reviewers note the lack of religious factors or the compatibility of the training with various religions, others consider its programs to possess religious features, to address participants' spiritual needs, or even to be a form of new religion
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
. In their 2002 book Cults, Religion, and Violence, authors David G. Bromley
David G. Bromley
David G. Bromley is a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. He has written extensively about "cults", new religious movements, apostasy, and the anti-cult movement.- Education and career :Bromley received his...
and J. Gordon Melton
J. Gordon Melton
John Gordon Melton is an American religious scholar who was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is currently a research specialist in religion and New Religious Movements with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara...
noted that some governments were overly restictive towards New Religious Movements and Personal Development
Personal development
Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitates employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations...
groups, illustrating this by the appearances of Landmark Education and many other organisations in lists of "Sectes" published by government commissions in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Following a series of investigative articles in the national daily Dagens Nyheter
Dagens Nyheter
is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It has the largest circulation of Swedish morning newspapers, followed by Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet, and is the only morning newspaper that is distributed to subscribers across the whole country. In 2009 DN had a circulation of 316,000, reaching 881...
and programs on the private TV channel TV4 Landmark Education also closed its offices in Sweden as of June 2004.
According to Le Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur is a weekly French newsmagazine. Based in Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation ....
, the French office of Landmark Education closed in July 2004 after labor inspectors, following a site visit that noted the activities of volunteers, made a report of undeclared employment.
Legal disputes
For details of litigation involving Landmark Education, see Landmark Education litigationLandmark Education litigation
Since its formation in 1991, Landmark Education LLC has been involved in about a dozen lawsuits in the United States and a few more in Europe....
.