The first session at FEI began on October 13, 1968. Fifty-three executives were in attendance. All were from within the federal government and all but two were supergrades. The session lasted eight weeks, a period intended to take the executives away from the office long enough to allow them to "look seriously at themselves and their careers and to consider what changes they needed to make for the future." The curriculum fostered ways of improving executive performance in the Federal government, and developing people who played those roles as high-performing leaders. A key feature of the program was executive self-direction and responsibility for learning. Program objectives were to heighten executive responsiveness to national needs and goals, to increase appreciation for the totality of the governmental system, and to improve knowledge of managerial processes. The Institute concentrated on the individual's personal growth and development; but the end interest was seeing that this growth enabled the individual executive to perform more effectively as a manager.
