What a journey it was! At the end of the big Finale when watching photographs of our 6 months journey many of us teared up, touched by the experience.
I must say it was one of the most exciting learning journeys I’ve been on in a while.
The client
A market leader in the fashion and design industry (I delivered this programme in partnership with Impact International)
The participants
Young high potentials that had been selected as future leaders in the business
The goal
To prepare the participants for a challenging, dynamic leadership environment
The solution
Here is an overview of the 6 months leadership journey.
Overview
The programme consisted of five modules and two one-to-one coaching conversations. We had twelve participants and worked with two facilitators (the client and I). Each intervention was unique with a specific focus while staying truthful to its underlying experiential nature.
In parallel to the learning interventions all participants worked on a real business project to help the organisation meet its strategic long-term goals. They were introduced to an overarching theme and specific challenges of the business to then develop their own creative ideas to finding a solution. These were to be presented on the last module to a group of executive managers and the company’s CEO.
Methodology
Here is an overview of various tools, models and approaches used.
On a short introduction day at their office space, we spent time getting to know each other, to bond and to develop a shared understanding of the underlying principles of experiential learning and needs oriented leadership we met again for an intense 2-day programme in the Lake District.
During Module 1 we lead an interactive MBTI session, ventured on a journey through the Lake District, which started with rowing over Lake Windermere, followed by a hike to a hut where we stayed over night and participants had time to prepare for the next day. The next morning two groups met with two community partners – a retirement home and a school for students with learning difficulties. Our participants then delivered a three hour interactive session for the residents and students. The stress and pressure leading up to this consequential project was immense as was sense of achievement after we travelled back home to our hotel for reviews and feedback.
Module 2 focused on communication, influencing and leading others. We introduced GROW coaching and Non-Violent Communication. For both approaches our participants had time to practice with their own real cases, observe each other, give and receive feedback and practice some more. On day two the amazing Remy Bertrand lead us through a day of Improvisational Theatre that was all about acting spontaneously within a VUCA world. We took part in exercises aimed at exploring playfulness, breaking old behavioural patterns, paying attention to body language cues and listening, stepping into the unknown and becoming responsive and un-stifled (we laughed a lot). On day three we ran two business simulations that created various leadership vacuums and required real leadership action. We finished with an in-depth feedback session that was authentic and challenging as well as empathetic and supportive.
Module 3 – planning and leading your career. We investigated personal values and drivers as well as our unique quirks that can get in the way through the lens of career anchors and derailers (during the derailer practice everyone was to display their personal destructive behaviour in an exaggerated way as part of a little theatrical scene – some were complaining about the imaginary family dinner, others not listening, others blaming – I found myself telling inappropriate jokes…). A senior manager ran a personal and honest session on his own take on managing a successful career where he shared personal anecdotes, successes, set-backs and suggested stakeholder mapping as one of many tools to manage a career. Furthermore, we introduced a process to prepare for authentic and impactful presentations (and gave time for practice), worked on managing emotions and stress, as well as developing presence and story telling as a tool to bring a presentation to life.
The Finale only lasted for half a day but it was a dramatic and appropriate final highlight of this intense 6 months journey. The CEO and three executive managers formed a ‘Dragon’s Den’ panel to listen to our participants’ presentations on their two business projects that they had been working on throughout the 6 months. What our participants delivered was far beyond of what anyone would have expected. At some point the CEO jumped up from his seat clapping and one of the executive managers said at the end “I’m blown away. I mean this not as an empty figure of speech – I really am blown away! This was absolutely impressive.” Each group delivered on tackling a specific business issues (internal communications and sharing best practice on the one hand and marketing strategies for a ‘digital native’ audience on the other). The solutions presented were so good, that the CEO decided to implement them straight away and invited the participants to present to other parts in the business so that their findings and suggestions would benefit the organisation on a larger scale.
We finished the day with a final review, watching pictures from our journey, some fizz, cake and a visit in a nearby Turkish restaurant.
