How we design our programs

Design principles

In each program we start with what people know - their own life experiences. Participants are asked to take a systematic and profound look at their lives and the way they work with other people. In this way, change comes from within rather than being imposed externally.

1. Experiential learning. Participants learn by doing. We show them how to combine what they can already do with what they have learned, and then apply this to their working lives and lives in general.
2. Deep learning. We fully engage the whole of a participant's thoughts, feelings and actions. Deep learning changes a person's view of the world, and in the longer term leads to significant behavioural development.
3. A safe learning environment. Our expert presenters, aware of the deep changes participants are being asked to make, set up a ‘safe-enough' learning environment (one that is supportive while still being challenging).
4. Action research and action learning. Participants are ‘active' in their own learning - they are asked to regularly evaluate what they are learning, why they are learning it, how it could be improved, and what the next step might be.
5. Many methodologies to choose from. We work with a wide variety of frameworks and use them only where appropriate. This is of great assistance in a time of increasing cynicism towards ‘fancy new fangled ideas' (QA, Teams, Best Practice, etc) which are often presented as ‘the answer'.
6. Innovative programs. Our programs are innovative, interactive, exciting and challenging. The presenters commonly hear comments such as "This is a very different program from what we are used to ... I'm enjoying myself".
7. Personal courage. The presenters have the courage to take people on in order to stimulate and motivate them, and participants are asked to show courage in changing themselves. Many feel inspired to commit or recommit to tertiary and other studies following our programs.
8. Congruence of work and vision, action and values. The presenters match what they say with what they do and believe, modelling to participants how this can be done in the workplace.
9. Coaching ‘in the moment'. The focus is on the real actions of participants, not on the wishful thinking ("I'd like to ...", "I'm going to ...") often seen in other development programs.
10. Peer networks: We encourage participants to develop ongoing networks for support and development and to further their work aims. Participants form their own Network Resource Groups (NRGs) unsupervised by the presenters.
11. Learning for life. We have many effective ways to increase the learning capability of participants. This is essential if the leaders of the future are going to create ongoing change, because to do so they must continue to learn throughout their lives.
12. Working with our clients. We are committed to up-skilling and broadening the abilities of our clients. With a number of our clients, such as OPSME, we have an ongoing partnering relationship.

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