Learning in the corporate setting not only relates to individual competence development but also to a demonstration of business impact and a contribution to the strategic ambitions of the company. An approach to learning design that blends generic principles of learning and instruction with strategic goals important to the particular context, anchored in a commitment to authentic and engaging learning activities is needed. We describe how a particular action-research partnership has developed such an approach to learning design, give examples of learning events that illustrate the design, and then synthesize results of 12 of these events from three perspectives the designer/researcher, the instructor, and the participant--in order to reflect on the lessons learned and apply them in an on-going way to a dynamic learning evolution. Although the experiences reported are from one global corporate setting, the research-based reference model used to steer this approach to learning design is by its very nature adaptable to other organizational contexts.