Instead of studying leadership, why not spend some time studying leaders and strategies in the wild? You can learn a lot from leadership experts, but you always see the leader and what he or she does through the expert’s personal lens. Supplement that learning with studying real leaders in real life situations and draw your own conclusions. The posts in this series will help you.

Every week I’ll point you to articles by and about real leaders in real situations and to articles about how real companies are faring in the marketplace. Read them. Think about them. Draw your own lessons and conclusions from them. Then try to apply those lessons in your own real life.

This week I’m pointing you to articles about David Kelley, Richard Plepler, Les Trachtman, Grupo RBS, and John Barrows.

From Linda Tischler: Ideo’s David Kelley on “Design Thinking”

“The smell of ramen noodles wafts over the Stanford d.school classroom as David Kelley settles into an oversize red leather armchair for a fireside chat with new students. It’s 80 degrees and sunny outside in Palo Alto, and as the flames flicker merrily on the big computer screen behind him, Kelley, founder of both the d.school and the global design consultancy Ideo, introduces his grad students to what ‘design thinking’ — the methodology he made famous and the motivating idea behind the school — is all about.”

From Business Week: HBO’s CEO on Growth, Sexual Harassment, and Life After ‘Game of Thrones’

“Richard Plepler, a quarter-century veteran of the network, on what’s next.”

From Joel Trammell: Being a Second CEO

“Les Trachtman specializes in what he calls being a ‘second CEO,’ replacing founders to help grow and scale companies. In fact, he’s done it six times. As the CEO of The Trachtman Group, he also helps top organizations across the globe successfully navigate the founder/successor transition. He is sharing his expertise in his new book, Don’t F**k It Up: How Founders and Their Successors Can Avoid the Clichés That Inhibit Growth.”

From Wharton: How a Brazilian Media Company Managed Its Digital Transformation

“How does a traditional media company stay relevant in the digital age? For Grupo RBS, a Brazilian media conglomerate that owns newspapers, and radio and TV stations, the answer was to embrace the change and look for opportunities to thrive. Tulio Milman, a journalist at Grupo RBS, explains exactly how the 60-year-old company learned to pivot, in this opinion piece.”

From John Barrows: Why a Gen-X CEO Hired a Millennial to Help Him Keep a Learning Mindset

“If I don’t find ways to stay relevant to today’s 20-somethings, I will become a dinosaur in five years, probably less. For all the talk about how younger people desire and need learning experiences, the opposite is also true: The rest of us need to learn from them — and from how they learn.”