16PF
16PF - we use the 16 Personality Factors inventory for selection and development of individuals and teams. Leadership Connections are Accredited 16PF administrators and we use this approach to help organisations find suitable personnel
Our Approaches
Open Space
Open space is a set of principles that can be used to transform any meeting or conference into a much more engaging, productive way for people to meet and address issues of strategic importance or common concern.
Using just five basic principles it creates a highly flexible and self organising approachg, which works quickly and effectively to create new ideas and translate them into action.
For more detail please click here or scroll down.
Our Approaches
Click on the headings below to see more on some of the approaches that we use.
Supporting leaders to overcome their obstacles and develop themselves - through coaching and mentoring
Increasing the effectiveness of management teams through leadership team development
Identifying and improving leadership across the organisation through talent management and leadership development
Mobilising large groups for change through creating inspiring conferences and motivational speaking
Increasing the effectiveness of the Human Resources function through HR strategy and skills development
Open Space
What is Open Space?
Open Space was the brainchild of Harrison Owen who realised that most people described the best part of conferences as being the coffee and lunch breaks. As he investigated it further it became clear to him that there were some principles which applied to these informal discussions which could, and he thought, should be applied to the way entire meetings are run. These principles (and one law) are:
- Whoever comes is the right people, which reminds people in the small groups that getting something done is not a matter of having 100,000 people and the chairman of the board. The fundamental requirement is people who care to do something.
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have, keeps people focused on the here and now, and eliminates all of the could-have-beens, should-have-beens or might-have-beens. 'What is' is the only thing there is at the moment.
- Whenever it starts is the right time alerts people to the fact that inspired performance and genuine creativity rarely, if ever, pay attention to the clock. They happen (or not) when they happen.
- Lastly When it’s over it’s over. In a word, don’t waste time. Do what you have to do, and when its done, move on to something more useful.
The Law is the so called 'Law of Two Feet', which states simply, if at any time you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing – use you two feet and move to some place more to you liking. Such a place might be another group, or even outside into the sunshine.
Open Space meetings are also known as Open Space Technology meetings, Open Space events, Open Space conferences and Open Space gatherings.
How does an Open space meeting work?
In an Open Space meeting the participants create their own programme of self-managed sessions (such as discussion groups, experiential workshops, ideas sessions and planning meetings) related to a central theme of strategic importance, such as: How can we make our company a great place to work?
Open Space meetings allow diverse and often very large groups of people to get together, discuss issues of heartfelt concern, share ideas, pool their knowledge and develop plans for collaborative action.
There are no invited speakers, and just one facilitator to explain the procedure and facilitate the plenary sessions.
Open Space meetings are particularly effective when issues are very complex, involve conflict or have a number of protagonists - especially where these must be resolved quickly. It works best when people need to work together as equals to decide how they will bring something new or bring about a significant change.
A prerequisite is that the focal issue or theme must be of genuine concern to all those involved, as participation is normally voluntary.
The participant group can be of any size, from twelve people to a thousand or more, and the meeting is usually held over at least one day - although shorter meetings are possible using the same principles.
Typically by the conclusion of a meeting, the following promises have been kept:
- Every issue of concern to anybody has been laid upon the table.
- All issues have been discussed to the extent that anybody cared to do that.
- A full written record of all discussions exists and is in the hands of all participants
- All issues have been ranked in priority order.
- Critical “focal issues” have been isolated and Next Step actions identified for their resolution.
When is it best used?
Open Space is a way to enable all kinds of people, in any kind of organisation, to create refreshing, energising and different meetings and events. Over the last two decades and more, it has also become clear that applying the principles, as an approach to leadership , can create inspired organisations, where ordinary people work together to regularly create extraordinary results.
In Open Space events, people create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme of strategic importance.
With groups of 5 to over a thousand - working in one-day workshops, three-day conferences, or regular weekly meetings -- the common result is a powerful, connecting and strengthening of planning and action.
Open Space works best when the work to be done is complex, the people and ideas involved are diverse, the passion for resolution (and potential for conflict) are high, and the time to get it done is short.
And, while Open Space is known for its apparent lack of structure and welcoming of surprises, it turns out that the Open Space meeting or organisation is actually very structured -- but that structure is subtle and goes unnoticed as the work gets done. Newcomers to the approach are often surprised that progress can be made a great deal faster than expert or management-driven designs.
Let's Talk
The easiest way to understand how we can help, and whether you feel that you could work with us, is to begin with a conversation.
We don't believe in a "hard sell" and often find that people get value out of the exploratory discussion - whether or not we go on to work together.
Please Contact Us – we would love to hear from you.