There are many different leadership and management models and theories, the study of which can be helpful in the development of leaders and managers. However, we believe that it is more urgent and important that leaders and managers develop deep personal insight into their own beliefs, attitudes, values and assumptions - conscious and unconscious - and how these inform their leadership/management outlook and behaviours.
Accordingly, our leadership development practice incorporates principles of self-managed learning (where learners are supported to reflect critically on the journey that has brought them to this point and then make decisions about what, why, how, where and when they learn).
We work closely with our clients to identify learning priorities and to ensure that content and experiences are aligned to organisational strategy, values and culture.
Experiential Learning
Our leader and manager development is experienced-based:
- we design/curate and facilitate experiences which simulate current and future leadership and management challenges
- we also work with our clients to create spaces and support for learners to experiment with new approaches in the real world
Our design and facilitation is based upon dual learning outcomes. Alongside personal development in relation to a given challenge or topic, all of our learning interventions aim to enhance individual learning practice and capacity. Accordingly, we lead clients through an iterative cycle of experience, critical reflection and action planning.
Where leadership theory is incorporated, we do so always with the intention of stimulating dialogue between learners and challenging or disrupting prevailing assumptions and patterns of leadership/ management behaviour.
Action Learning
Our highly skilled facilitators offer action learning, either as part of a wider development programme, or as a standalone intervention.
Again, our aims here are always two-fold:
- We facilitate high quality support and challenge to people who are grappling with 'wicked' real world leadership problems (for which there is currently no known solution).
- We develop inquiry skills. And we are also developing reflexivity and inquiry at individual and group-level.
Recent Projects
Our recent leader/ manager development projects include:
- Aspiring executive development
- System leader development
- Graduate management trainee development
- Triumvirate leader development
- Clinical leader development
“Always, it seems, the concept of leadership eludes us or turns up in another form to taunt us again with it slipperiness and complexity. So we have invented an endless proliferation of terms to deal with it… and still the concept is not sufficiently defined”. ~ Warren Bennis (1959) 'Leadership Theory and Administrative Behaviour: The Problem of Authority'