Learning Events and Capacity Building

An organisation relies greatly on its leadership and management for a prosperous future. They are the people that must translate corporate strategy and vision into operational results. In doing so they must focus energy, motivate their people, make processes more effective and anticipate external and internal developments. C·I·L leadership programmes are designed to enhance the performance of these important cornerstones in the organisation and that of their teams. Creating a vision, Systems & Scenario Thinking, interpersonal communication skills and empowering techniques are key elements of our leadership courses and workshops. Besides generic leadership skills the sessions contain purpose designed modules to fit the specific needs of the client organisation.

Today's business environment grows more volatile and less predictable every day. A forecast of the future is no longer reliable for planning and strategy development. The ability of an organisation to survive and prosper in such an environment now depends on the skills of its leaders to enhance the learning and adapting capacities of the organisation. Scenario Thinking is a technique that provides the tools to anticipate the important external dynamics that will shape the future. These dynamics are the input for scenarios. Scenarios are a set of plausible, relevant and challenging stories about the future. In contrast with forecasts, which attempt to predict one "official" future, scenario thinking leads to a portfolio of several plausible futures. Good scenarios do not predict the future accurately, but enable an organisation and its leadership to learn, prepare for the future and make better decisions today. Building scenarios is an ongoing process that provides competitive advantages now and in the future. The organisation's strategy can now be tested for robustness in all plausible futures. Blind spots and incorrect assumptions can be reduced and new strategic options can be generated. Example: does the current management development program focus on the right skills considering all scenarios? C·I·L teaches executives to look at the future from a scenario perspective. Furthermore we assist organisations and their leaders in the scenario building process. Scenario Thinking and building is however a dynamic process. To sustain the scenario process C·I·L is dedicated to building this scenario capacity inside the client organisation. Naturally we offer our services in a form that best suits the client, i.e. consulting, (in-company) workshops, public courses or train the trainer sessions.

Alignment exists when the organisation responds as a whole. The plan is not the planning document but the set of assumptions on which the leadership bases its actions. When these assumptions are similar, then actions are executed in an aligned way. Vision-based strategy, working with business model and integrating performance management with scenario-based strategy are all effective ways to build alignment. Alignment is one of the key "invisible assets" of an organisation that enables rapid sensing and repositioning as customer needs and markets change

Looking at the world from a systemic point of view helps you uncover causal relationships that are often hidden from view. This worldview increases leadership effectiveness and learning. It provides a more natural sustainable way of dealing with the world. Faced with a problematic event we often look for the "part" that does not work. Systems Thinking encourages you to look at the whole not just the parts. It assists in making assumptions visible and enables you to determine the underlying influence and structure of a problem, avoiding symptom treatment. Applying systems thinking enables leadership to better understand and influence the systems in which they operate and which they may wish to restructure. Ultimately the identification of key leverage areas leads to more effective and sustainable leadership and change strategies. The Systems Thinking techniques that you will learn about have been developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). C·I·L has integrated additional insights from corporate and social environments to further complete the design. Over the years C·I·L principals have taught Systems thinking at many companies and business schools. We not only equip the participants with the skills to practice Systems Thinking themselves, we can also equip internal line managers and change agents through our train the trainer process to transfer the techniques to others in your organisation.