Partner approach
We’re focussed on understanding you
From working with many people, roles and organisations, we know how different each is.
We partner with our Clients to understand their needs and goals, tailoring our services to suit.
We have a range of solutions to suit a variety of budgets, timeframes, learning needs and preferences.
We’re committed to achieving measurable positive impact
We understand how essential it is to achieve gains from L&D investment. We focus on areas that will have an immediate benefit on people’s day to day work. From our experience we know this grows their capacity, effectiveness and confidence. This in turn grows their appetite to learn more ways they can flourish in their role and organisation.
What your organisation can expect to achieve
Our approach delivers
Research based, best practices
Our methodologies
Practical bite-sized competency development
Crawl…walk…run!
Not even Usain Bolt started life running.
We all started off moving by crawling. (Well probably even before that, by rolling over and dragging ourselves, but that would just sound odd in our heading!)
And it’s a solid guess that as toddlers most of us fell over many times when trying to speed up before we’d fully mastered walking!
As humans, we develop our abilities by firstly mastering the foundational competencies that contribute to a complex competency, before we are really good at the complex competency. For example, we master left and right coordination from crawling, and balance from walking, before we can do both at pace when running.
The same is true for other competencies.
This is why our competency framework identifies foundational, intermediate and complex levels.
It is easier for people to master complex competencies if they are competent in the foundational and intermediate levels first.
And in some situations, the need for complex competencies can reduce when more people have foundational and intermediate competencies. For example, when people have high emotional intelligence and communication competencies, the need for conflict resolution is often less.
Sometimes a person may struggle with a complex competency, not because it is beyond them, but because they haven’t yet learned the contributing foundational or intermediate competencies. For example, if a person isn’t competent in reading body language, then they may struggle to provide effective feedback irrespective of their feedback skill. This is because they cannot determine how the feedback is being received and therefore, they don’t make the necessary adjustments to their approach.
Our personalised approach helps people develop the competencies they need to succeed in their role, in the way that is most effective for them.
It may be a bit controversional but…
We think differently
Flourishing vs Thriving
Thriving means succeeding despite difficult conditions – pushing through, being resilient under pressure.
Flourishing means succeeding because of supportive and stimulating conditions – growing in fertile ground where the environment itself enables and stimulates growth.
We see a lot of people working in unnecessarily difficult or misaligned conditions. That’s where we can help. We partner with organisations to create the conditions where people and organisations can flourish.
Systems Thinking Approach
We take a systems thinking approach, recognising that organisations are complex, interconnected systems. And results are created from the interaction between all the elements of the organisation. We’re cautious about overemphasising culture without acknowledging the underlying structures, systems and resources that shape it – the very things leaders are responsible for creating and maintaining.
Culture emerges from the competencies and mindsets of the leaders, the teams they choose and the conditions they create together. Our work focuses on these foundational elements that enable flourishing.
Authenticity at Work
We don’t believe in ‘bring your whole self to work.’ Humans are complex beings who fulfil many roles in life. Work is only one role, and work is about finding the balance between being committed and authentic while keeping parts of ourselves, our time, and our energy private for other roles in our lives.
We’re respectful of this complexity and recognise that people want – and need – boundaries between their work role and their other life roles.
Everyone Has a Role
Leadership matters, but it’s not the whole story. Organisations flourish through the interdependencies between all roles and the clarity with which people can fulfil them. We work throughout the organisation to build clarity, competency and collaboration in ways relevant to each role.
Our Ecosystem Perspective
Flourishing work – work where people and organisations genuinely flourish – happens when four elements are in balance, aligned and supporting each other, like a healthy ecosystem.
Think of a healthy ecosystem – it flourishes when:
- Individual organisms are nourished and growing (the person)
- Each has its ecological niche and purpose they are well suited for (the role)
- The system as a whole has the structures, systems and resources to sustain itself (the organisation)
- It contributes to and connects with the broader environment (the community)
We partner with organisations to create these conditions – where people, roles, organisations and communities all flourish.
A Garden as an example of what we mean be cultivating conditions
Think of a flourishing garden. A gardener cultivates – creates conditions, chooses plants, tends the soil, provides water and nutrients, prunes and fertilises – but they can’t control exactly what grows or how. The garden has its own life from the interaction of everything within it. And when conditions are aligned, the garden will flourish. Leaders create conditions (cultivate) within the organisation and the people within the organisation interact with those and each other, creating outcomes for all.
We also work the same way with our Clients – partnering to provide resources, approaches and input to cultivate clarity, competency and collaboration within their organisation. We believe these are the essential conditions in which people and organisations can flourish.
