Professorial Associates : Leadership and Management Development; Organisational Change and Development; Innovation; Action Learning; Challenging Learing Methods

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What do we do?


We get to know the strategic challenges your business is facing. Recently, we find that many of our clients are confronted by challenges in three major areas; Innovation and introducing changes to products, services and systems which enable the business to compete and stay ahead of the competition; People, improving the skills of your staff in leading, dealing with diversity, communicating, managing change, managing innovation and working internationally; and Strategy, reading the constantly changing competitive landscape, identifying a sustainable strategic position, aligning organisational systems to deliver the strategy, and managing the implementation of the strategy to achieve key business objectives.


To make full use of the quality of our faculty, we need to work closely with senior executives and Board level directors so our work has the appropriate organisation wide impact. We involve senior executives in the review of the needs of the business to get their buy - in for our proposals. But we also recognise that it is imperative to involve staff from down the line in developing some of the changes that will be implemented. We engage your staff, both in the change process and also with their identification with the aims of your business. We help you to develop a high engagement, high morale, and a high-performance culture in your business. It is in releasing and harnessing the energy, enthusiasm, ingenuity and creativity of your people that we make our major contribution.



Where do we start?


​We start by working with you to diagnose the current state of your business and the developmental needs of your staff. What does your business do well and also not so well? What are your core competencies and deficiencies? How successful is your current strategy and how robust is it to deal with changing political and economic circumstances? This diagnosis creates the broad context for the changes that will be agreed with you, and the context for the developmental activities that your staff will undertake.

 

Ideally, we involve some of your senior staff as resources for the developmental programs we design. This might be the CEO or Regional General Managers, or senior functional Directors to work with our professors to deliver a workshop, for example, reviewing the business or marketing strategy, so everyone is on the same page. Once everyone is pointing in the same direction, it is possible to challenge the participants with coming up with new ideas about how to achieve the strategy in more efficient or effective ways.     


One of our aims is to develop the talent in your business and create the context in which they can make a full contribution to your success. To do this, we get to know your staff, and to make an assessment of their developmental goals. This might by the use of assessment centers, psychometric measures of core abilities, or 360 degree feedback of key competencies. We also look at the context of their work and the managerial roles they play. This context might change, so we want them to be proactively involved in designing and implementing changes to the systems they are managing.    


What can we do for you?


Based on the joint diagnosis of the development needs of your senior staff, and the changes to their work roles or systems, we design innovative programs which will change your work systems and bring out the hidden depths of your major talents. The programs are engaging and challenging. Participants are required to propose changes to their departments or divisions. These changes become the stretch goals of the program, which are not only challenging, but also will affect the future responsibilities and career prospects of each participant -  this tends to engage their interest! To successfully implement these changes, participants need to sell these changes to other departments and divisions and to senior management. This work is challenging and requires the participants to be actively involved in setting and achieving their own learning goals for the program.


Bridging the Knowing - Doing Gap  


The learning methods involve participants in a very active way in solving real business problems facing their organisation, their divisions or departments. We do not offer dry seminars in which the learning is left in the classroom or written in participant's notes. In contrast, every participant will be required to apply their learning to solving critical issues in the business. The methods we use involve Action Learning, scenario planning, individual and group projects, influencing others and selling ideas, and demand that the participants get involved in introducing change. In this way, we get participants to bridge the  "knowing-doing gap", so that at the end, your staff not only know what they should be doing, but are also capable and confident to take action and achieve objectives. Using these methods we change the focus of the program from theory to practice; from learning to performance; from insights to action, and from discovery to delivery.    


What is the outcome for you, the client?


What are our overall objectives and hopes for our clients? It comes down simply to changing the culture of the way in which work gets done in your business. We want to develop the self-confidence of your staff, so  they have the courage to use their initiative and act proactively to bring about desirable changes at work. To create a "can - do climate" in which your talents feel optimistic and empowered to achieve their goals. We want them to have the courage to say what they think and to ask challenging questions about how the business is run. We want them to have the enterprise and gumption to get things done and make changes, to have integrity and be accountable and take responsibility for results and for their decisions. The overarching objective is to develop their ability to learn from their experiences and share this knowledge with other departments and members of staff.


If these outcomes sound as if they might be of interest to you and your business then please contact us, but of course it is up to you.