EXTRA-ORDINARY DEVELOPMENT FOR EXTRA‑ORDINARY PEOPLE
The public sector landscape is constantly evolving and is not set to stop any time soon. Ever‑changing social, economic, political, technological and environmental circumstances are demanding that organisations and their people respond and adapt to these external forces in a way that has never been done before. Add to this customers who are demanding more and better services with vastly reduced resources whilst operating on a publicly‑exposed platform within a sometimes volatile local political landscape, the people who can deliver and thrive in this environment need to be something really extra‑ordinary.
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOUR ORGANISATION IF EVERYONE IN IT HAD THIS LEVEL OF CAPABILITY?
OUTCOMES. . .
FIT4FUTURE LEADERS
Participants will:
- Acquire a comprehensive and interconnected set of tools, skills, personal profiles, behaviours and a mindset essential for the delivery of a service fit for future
- Understand how to transition from ‘expert’ to ‘leader’
- Learn how to plan for, and deliver, high performance-based and versatile leadership in a fit for future service
- Develop versatile EI-based confidence and thinking capability in approaches to people, situations and decision-making
- Gain effective strategies for preventing and solving problems, innovating solutions and services and influencing in VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) environments
- Learn how to inspire and engage everyone to think in terms of ‘what’s possible’ in the way that internal and external customers are served
- Acquire acute clarity of personal strengths and development opportunities in the context of leading people in a VUCA environment
- Build strong, versatile and collaborative relationships and networks of people across the organisation
- Develop resilience and tenacity strategies and skills required for when the going gets tough
RESILIENT THINKING
Participants will:
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Understand the value of, and self-assess against, emotionally intelligent competencies in business to discover personal opportunities to develop more emotionally resilient traits
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Be more aware of the of the impact of personal beliefs and thinking patterns in
difficult situations and how to flex for better outcomes and improved wellbeing -
Identify personal emotional anchors that inhibit resilience capability
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Learn ‘perspective thinking’ habits to help evaluate the value in alternative views and possibilities
C-SUITE - APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
Participants will:
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Undergo a simple, yet highly effective, organisational and C-Suite assessment in a safe and professionally facilitated environment
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Through facilitated discussions, collectively explore key elements of this information with view to forming a development assessment of the team and its fit for future potential
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Understand and appreciate the diversity and value of the team dynamic, each others’ perspectives and corporate challenges
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Receive a bespoke summary report with recommendations on future development/activity requirements
THRIVE
Participants will:
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Explore what it means to ‘thrive’, why it’s important at work and what are the most common inhibitors
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Discover the 8 interconnected elements of the Thrive Dashboard and against each, self-assess current levels of ‘thrive-ability’
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Learn practical knowledge and skills for good mental health and wellbeing at work
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Discover new ways of thinking and acting differently which will improve your ability to thrive
GROWTH CULTURE
What you get:
- A professional consultation service to advise on creating/providing the essential golden thread of vision and strategy to performance deliverables through the performance management tool (see below)
- A high quality, industry-compliant and user-friendly Performance Review Form which covers all the elements you would expect to see on a quality-assured tool
- A set of comprehensive user-friendly guidelines for on-going reference
- A simple user-friendly Behavioural Framework to help address attitudinal or behavioural performance deficiencies
- A simple ratings system and guidelines
- Project Management from Ascensio to support in making the pack suitable for your organisation’s need, e.g. confirming key process dates, branding, minor tweaks to text, etc.
- Half day ‘en-masse’ familiarisation training for users of the new process
Participating organisations will:
- Generate a ‘sit-up-and-take-notice’ organisation-wide attitude to excellent performance management
- Facilitate confidence in approaches to addressing difficult situations and performance-related issues
- Increase engagement due to people feeling more successful and confident in their roles
- Increase productivity due to people having clarity about the expectations of them within the organisation – both in the what and the how
- Improve leadership capability and credibility
- Reduce performance-impacting KPI’s – e.g. absenteeism, sickness, stress, etc.
- Improve collaboration and communicationacross teams
- Improve levels of personal responsibility and accountability which in turn will reduce dependence on leaders leading to improved levels of capacity
COMMERCIAL CAPABILITY
Defy austerity by developing the commercial capability of your people. These practical workshops develop a sound commercial focus in decision-making and problem-solving amongst the masses when responding to customer needs, whilst upskilling your more senior population with a range of commercial strategies, tools, skills and mindset required to help them achieve more with less for your customers.
Participants will:
Commercial Awareness
- Appreciate why Local Government needs to be more commercially aware and what the opportunities and benefits are in your service area
- Understand how to contribute to developing a customer-centric commercially-focused culture
- Understand what inhibits commercial thinking and how to develop to help secure the future of your own service area
Commercial Capability
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Commercial Awareness content in a more strategic context, plus:
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Experience a sequential commercial planning process in practise – taking away at least one commercial idea to implement
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Take away a set of commercial planning tools for ongoing and repeated use Â
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Learn creative techniques for problem solving and/or opportunity sourcing
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
The reliance of information transfer and sharing across teams in Local Government is critical for meeting customer needs and maintaining efficient services but unhelpful silos and historical dogma can block this and make life difficult for everyone involved. This innovative and thought-provoking workshop helps participants to understand how trust is really built, empathise with others’ perspectives and learn quick, simple and easy techniques to build real trust.
Participants will:
Participants will:- Understand how real trust is built and how to develop it in yourself and others
- Learn how unhelpful beliefs and thoughts inhibit trust and effective working relationships and how to reframe for better outcomes
- Develop empathy and perspective skills to help facilitate a ‘what’s possible’ mindset when working with internal and external customers
- Practise empathy and trust building techniques
POSSIBILITY THINKING
Participants will:
Participants will:- Learn how to co-create to innovate
- Understand how to use Savvy Maps to solve complex problems and/or influence at an organisational level
- Solve a real-life problem or create an opportunity by practically applying the tools
WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
THIS IS WHAT JUST A FEW OF OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE PROGRAMME…
“In all honesty I didn’t want to go on a six-month course and tried everything to get out of it. On day one I sat with my arms folded determined not to engage. The facilitator got my mark pretty quickly and I have to say by the end of the first session I had an inkling I might actually like the course. I got so much from this my self-belief sky-rocketed – I didn’t realise my own capabilities until he pointed them out – several of my old colleagues have gone from strength to strength and all accredited to this training, so I say thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Director, Housing Association, North West
“Our evaluation results told us that…
- 99% of participants ability to lead others has improved
- 100% of participants are in receipt of a toolkit that will help them to prevent and solve most people and performance problems
- 91% of participants feel more equipped to manage situations that they find difficult
- 96% of participants would recommend this programme to others
…and we are really seeing the benefit on the ground. We would highly recommend this programme to anyone.”
Head of Change & Transformation, East London Borough
“Ascensio delivered the programme brilliantly, being at all times professional and respectful and completely focused on each individual developing the tools to build on their strengths. It was always edgy and thought provoking. The combination of the leadership programme’s strong base of leadership theory and practical example together with the facilitators subject knowledge and coaching ability produced the best programme I’ve taken in my 35 year career.”
Strategic Commissioning Director, London
“I can’t emphasise the business impact enough. This wasn’t merely a new appraisal process; it was a performance management process that sits at the very heart of everything that we are trying to achieve as part of our wider culture change programme. Feedback from managers now that we are in our third year of the new approach is that it has made their role as a people manager a lot easier by giving them a clear and robust framework within which to recognise excellent contribution but also to tackle areas of poor performance. People here are now much more performance focused and the appraisal process and behavioural framework has been one of the main contributors to this change.”
HR Director, BMJ
“The Savvy Map has helped me navigate through some real tricky issues – not everyone is a ‘fellow-traveller’!”
Participant, West Midlands
“The realisation of the impact the D-C Culture is having on my team is a real eye-opener.”
Participant, Bristol
“We are more capable of meeting the challenges of leading staff through change and focusing on the bigger picture.
Without this experience I think we would have struggled to meet some of these challenges not only behaviourally, but in terms of capability too.
The managers who have been through the programme are now absolutely confident of their roles and are able to lead their teams through periods of change and uncertainty.
We are more capable of meeting the challenges of leading staff through change and focusing on the bigger picture.
Without this experience I think we would have struggled to meet some of these challenges not only behaviourally, but in terms of capability too.
The managers who have been through the programme are now absolutely confident of their roles and are able to lead their teams through periods of change and uncertainty.”
Corporate Director, North London BoroughCorporate Director, North London Borough
“Thanks for all your energy, effort, enthusiasm, contributions and wisdom over the course of the last year. The programme is clearly making a significant impact across the organisation and your candid insights outside of the core programme are really helpful in my ongoing efforts to shift the culture…”