Right tools, right time, right way

New technology creates new opportunities and new challenges in equal measure.

For organizations new technology can transform learning opportunities, open up scale and reach and improve efficiencies especially at a global level.

But it can also create confusion, uncertainty, and risk as new platforms vie for attention in an increasingly dynamic marketplace.

How can organizations design learning solutions that take advantage of new technology whilst avoiding being hijacked by new shiny things that promise the earth?

Learning has to have personality, bringing the learning to life. Even the lowliest instructional design requirements can be delivered with zest to the benefit of retention and application.

For deeply personal learning (learning to lead for example) the learning journey needs to be engaging at a deeply personal level.

The ability to bring a learning space to life is crucial whether that is face-to-face or virtual or a blended combination of the two.

We have become experts in virtual facilitation, in the seamless blending of virtual and face-to-face and in ensuring that we stay on top of the way in which technology enables learning.

We have developed MOOCS (with partner Universities). We have won awards for virtual-only design. We have partnered with best in class technology companies like DESQ and FUSE and learned hugely from working with our clients (like Google and Spotify).

In life, there are rarely full functioning silver bullets. Just hard-won experience and expertise.

That is one thing that technology doesn't change.

Bringing the outside in

As life in organizations becomes busier and busier it becomes more and more difficult to get our heads up and keep an eye on the things that are important.

Like the marketplace. Or customer groups. Or technology.

We know that we should be out and about networking, learning from experts and staying one step ahead of our competitors.

In Market Journeys are uniquely designed learning opportunities to gather expert opinion, insight, and experience from outside of your organization relevant to the leadership challenge you are facing.

These are the conversations, insights, and experiences you need to help you move forward. They structure the gathering of market intelligence and external perspective in ways that help you shift your thinking and inform your strategy.

They are carefully designed so that knowledge and insight emerge through investigation, through curiosity and a sense of adventure; it is a process, not an event.

In Market Journeys are always challenging because they are designed to inform a shift, a move forward, a deliberate and vital step in moving forward.

Leadership action in a community setting       

Sometimes the most powerful learning comes from being outside our comfort zones, navigating unfamiliar territory and having our assumptions challenged.

Sometimes we learn most about ourselves when we are completely engaged in helping others.

Community Action Learning (CAL) is a deliberate and carefully planned approach to blending organizational learning objectives with real-world community needs to the benefit of both.

A dedicated Impact team has continued to build a huge global network of community organizations giving us unparalleled reach in building effective partnerships in learning and in action.

We have used CAL to help companies strengthen their leadership capacity by testing leaders in unfamiliar, ambiguous and complex territory.

CAL has helped transform participants’ approaches to innovation, to employee engagement, to stakeholder management, to teamwork, project management, and strategy development.

In a world where all our organizations and our leaders need to be more comfortable with diversity, where we need to break down siloes between groups and connect to our sense of common purpose CAL provides a vehicle to deliver real learning through real change.