“I’m sorry,” I said to the delegate I had been working with. “What’s magic?”

“I get it!” they said. “It’s so clever – Emotional Intelligence underpins it all, and you’ve linked all the modules we are doing to it, and I understand now how it can help me at work – thank you!”

Well, that made my year in 2020 – not just the fact that they think what we deliver for them is ‘magic’, but also that ‘thank you’. Affirmation that the enormous effort the team made to make our ‘Technical Leadership Programme’ happen for one of our largest clients in 2020 was worth it.

From September 2020 to June 2021, 156 delegates spent six months working in cohorts of 12 on a modular programme delivered virtually and in bitesize, formal and informal learning interventions. The ultimate aim was to enable confidence to enhance organisational technical resilience, drive leadership behaviours in line with organisational competencies, improve personal resilience and self-awareness, and foster long-lasting networks within the technical leadership community.

The ‘magic’ happened because of the dedication, skill, knowledge and adaptability of the team involved. The man hours needed to design, project manage, coordinate, and upskill were (and still are) extraordinarily huge; but so, so worth it when we hear that what people are experiencing is making a difference to them as they work on ‘real life’ challenges.

We always knew that this programme would form the blueprint for our ‘philosophy of learning’ as we face out to a changed world.

At the heart of everything is The Learner. We needed to make it easy for them, and as relevant and as personalised an experience as possible. We also made sure that the manager/organisation became an integral part of the learning – trusting their team member, linking their learning to their day-to-day work, providing feedback.

This strategic partnership approach to deliver pragmatic, results-focused development around core emotional intelligence skills, leadership and team dynamics, means we will always focus on the ‘so what’ – with specific and immediate application back into an organisational context.

We designed a modular/integrated approach to delivery, with social and informal activities such as one-to-one coaching, Action Learning Groups, mentoring, and ‘buddy’ pairing; together with formal structured virtual sessions to act as the spark to ignite an appetite for continuous personal development. All this supported by self-directed learning, pre and post work, and bespoke playlists of research in digital formats to appeal to all learning preferences.

I’m excited to keep the ‘magic’ going, to make a difference to the confidence and competence of the people we work with!

If you want to discuss how we could partner with you, get in touch.

“Fantastic – warm, welcoming and knowledgeable. Very impressive how they talk, keep to time, and run the technology at the same time.”

“I think the facilitation was excellent – engaging without being overbearing. At no point did I feel pressured into contribution, which I have found to be a real risk for video/tele calls when people are put on the spot.”

“A note of thanks – really well facilitated session – very inclusive. And impressive how they have got to grips with the IT in a calm and collected way.”