A 2 or 3 module in-house tailored programme for companies needing to change from within to deal with the challenges of Sustainability, Re-structuring, Merger or other wide-scale corporate change.

“A thought leader is a company or person recognized among their peers, competitors or customers as having the vision, confidence and ability to take their insights and repeatedly turn them into focused action. The litmus test is the ability to command the resources necessary to get things done.”

Brendan Dunphy

Why Thought Leadership? 

Most industries are in a state of accelerating change; to be more sustainable, combat commoditisation, build new competitive advantage and maintain margins and customer loyalty.

Most companies are now “flat” companies that rely on self-motivated managers to drive the business forward; few have leadership bandwidth to instigate and direct necessary change.

The classic answer to this challenge is to hire consultants with the skills, perspectives and ideas that are lacking internally. This may be successful but regardless of the success (or its price) there is a danger that the organisation will become dependant on these external interventions, unconsciously devaluing the knowledge and abilities of its employees and maybe alienating them in the process.

Evidence suggests that for most organisations there is not a shortage of ideas but too few ideas are successfully turned into business value. Too many ideas remain just that and fail to cross the hurdles inadvertently placed in the way by the organisation, its history, leadership and culture. Most managers do not have the time to define, package, present or sell their ideas. Many good ideas fail too attract the attention of management, acquire the necessary resources to succeed, or are badly positioned, justified or sold. 

Thought leadership is about commanding the high ground within an industry or domain of expertise; developing a vision, understanding the reality, earning respect, communicating effectively, constantly learning and never letting go.  The litmus test is the ability to command the resources necessary to get things done.

In most companies we can find an individual “star” or leader to generate novel ideas and tenaciously turn them into value. But these individuals are rare and unless they own or run the show (think Steve Jobs or Richard Branson) an organisation can be left floundering to compete.  

This programme does not intend to generate the next generation of charismatic thought leadership “stars”; it is designed to equip participants with the knowledge and tools to shape their ideas and turn them into business value and without constant external intervention. 

Participants will:

• Gain a deeper understanding of their industry and the challenges they face in meeting corporate goals and adapting to changing regulation, markets and customer needs.
• Generate novel approaches to entrenched problems and new challenges  that require deeper levels of understanding, greater collaboration and better execution than ever before.
• Learn how to work together to expand their capabilities to solve difficult and complex problems relevant to them and their business.
• Make visible and overcome ingrained and irrelevant attitudes, thinking and behaviours that are a barrier to progress.
• Improve the communication, influencing and advocacy skills necessary to sell ideas and succeed.
• Generate viable solutions for immediate implementation post the workshop.

Who should attend?  

Senior staff and management from Technology, Marketing, Product Management, R&D and other core functions needing to increase their capabilities to change in response to their strategy, competitors and customers.

Workshop Overview 

The programme is highly flexible and designed to meet the specific needs of the customer and delegates. Below is a high-level program outline. Detailed outlines would be developed for each module working closely with the business sponsor, once the specific goals and objectives have been identified and agreed during initial needs analysis.    

Module A: Skills & Tools to Succeed  

• The concept of Thought Leadership
• What TL means in practice
• An antidote to Groupthink
• The Star vs. the Team
• The Business challenge (e.g. sustainability, innovation or competition)
• Changing Behaviours, Attitudes...and Thoughts!
• Tools & techniques to succeed (inc. exercises):
  • Advocacy
  • Influencing
  • Stakeholders
  • Others
• Action Learning Projects introduction

Duration: typically 2, maybe 3 days. 

Module B:  The Business Challenge 

• The strategic imperative
• The industry context & value network
• Major trends & drivers
• A look elsewhere
• Where we are today
• External points of View
• Internal points of View
• Action Learning Project work
• Insights gained
• x-teams

Duration: typically 2, maybe 3 days. 

Module C: Strategic Innovation Projects 

• Solving strategic challenges in x-teams
• Radical Innovating
• Project work and coaching
• Project presentations & review
• Workshop review & next steps

Duration: typically 1 or 2 days. 

Give us a call to discuss how best you can utilise this program to achieve your goals.