(CLP) Programs

Appleton Greene corporate training programs are all process-driven. They are used as vehicles to implement tangible business processes within clients’ organizations, together with training, support and facilitation during the use of these processes. Corporate training programs are therefore implemented over a sustainable period of time, that is to say, between 1 year (incorporating 12 monthly workshops), and 4 years (incorporating 48 monthly workshops). Your program information guide will specify how long each program takes to complete. Each monthly workshop takes 6 hours to implement and can be undertaken either on the client’s premises, an Appleton Greene serviced office, or online via the internet. This enables clients to implement each part of their business process, before moving onto the next stage of the program and enables employees to plan their study time around their current work commitments. The result is far greater program benefit, over a more sustainable period of time and a significantly improved return on investment.

Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. All (CLP) programs are implemented over a sustainable period of time, usually between 1-4 years, incorporating 12-48 monthly workshops and professional support is consistently provided during this time by qualified learning providers and where appropriate, by Accredited Consultants.

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Executive summary

Virtual Transformation

Virtual work happens in a different location than the traditional site of a business, creating distance between the plant or office, tools, employees, and management. As a result, both complex challenges and transformational opportunities arise for companies. Working virtually at scale is enabled by relatively recent advances in communications and access to information. Virtual work represents a significant transformation and turning point for business, our economy, and the way we live.

Industry 4.0, developed by German economist Klaus Schwab, is useful for understanding the historical context and importance of virtual business and related trends. In the 18th century, The first industrial revolution enabled mechanical production powered by water and steam-powered machines. With this newly found capability to produce goods at scale, small businesses grew from serving small, local customers to large organizations with owners, managers, and employees. Industry began to replace agriculture as the economic backbone of our society. The work was primarily physical, which needed to be done exclusively at the plant. Employees worked at the factory in their home town, close to, and usually during the same hours as their coworkers.

The beginning of the 20th century marked the start of the second industrial revolution with electricity as the catalyst. Ford established the first assembly line, turbocharging the mass production of goods. The telephone and telegraph sparked new communications capabilities that eventually lead to even more significant transformation in the way we work. Management techniques such as division of labor, just-in-time manufacturing, and lean manufacturing principles refined the underlying processes leading to improved quality and output. The factory remained the exclusive domain for work to get done. It was not yet possible to be productive without being at the plant at a scheduled time to enable workflow.

During the third industrial revolution marked by the invention of computers and electronics in the 1960s, transistors and integrated circuits enabled the automation of machines and work processes. This period resulted in reduced effort, increased speed, greater accuracy, and even workforce replacement in some cases. The hardware and software industries proliferated, integrating and transforming management processes such as enterprise resource planning, inventory management, shipping logistics, product flow scheduling, and tracking throughout the factory. The modern-day knowledge worker was born; a whole population segment needed more for their intellect than for physical work. It was during this period that the virtual worker emerged. New communications tools and labor specialization translated into outsourcing and freelancers who did not need close ties to the organization to add value.

The boom in the Internet and telecommunication industry in the 1990s revolutionized how we connect and exchange information. It also sparked industry-wide paradigm changes, drastically altering the boundaries of the physical and the virtual world.

Today, we are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. It began at the dawn of the new Millennium, enabled by our ubiquitous use of the internet and technology-enabled by the internet in our everyday lives and work. Industry 4.0 is characterized by the fusion of the digital, biological, and physical worlds. The growing utilization of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, and advanced wireless has put us on the verge of an industrial revolution that will surpass the impact of previous industrial revolutions. There is an explosion of new capability to increase work efficiency, our ability to scale and develop improved products and services.

Industry 4.0 enables personal services and productive work that can be achieved anytime, anyplace, through any mobile device. Ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product, making a payment, listening to music, watching a film, or playing a game—can now be all done remotely. Today’s workers can monitor a machine on a production floor, send out a communication to thousands of employees at a time, connect with teammates to collaborate on projects, and access all the information and tools they needed for work using the same mobile devices that we have come to rely on in our personal lives.

Over the last twenty years, working virtually has grown in waves. In addition to freelancers, more corporate employees became virtual. The reality of working odd hours because colleagues were in time zones across the globe, 9/11 and the SARS pandemic began to usher in employees and corporations’ willingness to embrace virtual work arrangements. Sales professionals are traditionally virtual to be close to customers. However, adoption within other parts of the workforce was slow, given the inherent complexities and management cynicism about effectively managing people in a virtual environment.

And then, in March of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic forced everyone but essential workers to work from home. We all became virtual workers. The forced experience went better in many ways than leadership expected. Physical presence technology like Zoom helped us collectively rise to the occasion. Businesses innovated their offers to embrace the need for virtual or “touchless” products and services. We leaped ahead toward the future of work because of our forced adoption of virtual tools, practices, and mindsets.

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The Future of Work

The most provocative and challenging aspect of Industry 4.0 is that we are still in the midst of it; we don’t know how it all works out. Compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving exponentially rather than a linear pace. Add to that the turbo boost COVID-19 gave to the remote workforce and the economic, social, and political turbulence, and we are in for quite a ride.

Amidst all of the uncertainty, we do know that the future workplace will be predominantly virtual. We can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Many companies like Twitter have already announced they will allow all of their employees to continue working remotely. Companies that choose to return to the traditional workplace will still be faced with managing work from home well into 2021 because of COVID -19. We also know that technology will disrupt the way we work and use products and services in ways we can’t even imagine today. Working virtually is enabled by technology and mandated by the growth that it creates. Industry 4.0 will continue to drive exponential change, artificial intelligence, a virtual workplace, and the need to continuously adopt new ways of working to remain competitive. With self-directed, tech-enabled, globally connected teams, the work of managers and leaders will shift. We need to transform the way we connect, get work done, learn, transact and deliver products to customers, teach our children, and integrate work and life so that we can live productive and fulfilling lives.

During the Summer of 2020, a survey on social media asked, “Who led to the digital transformation of your company in the last year? A new CEO? A new chief digital officer? Or COVID-19?” The overwhelming response was COVID-19. Digital transformation has moved to the proverbial “burning platform for every company in the world. Business leaders must prepare for a future unlike the past by embracing the virtual workplace and the global digital marketplace. Key success factors include: Shifting mindsets and building new capabilities for themselves, their teams, and their organization; Developing processes and practices to support and leverage the virtual workforce; Sourcing work and talent globally; Transforming to a modern mode of managing humans and the machines and data that will augment their performance; Turbocharging collaboration and creating an agile workforce; Adopting Industry 4.0 technology; Anticipating the future by understanding trends and the evolution of industries; Innovating new business models, products and services for competitive advantage.

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Curriculum

Virtual Transformation – Part 1- Year 1

1. Part 1 Month 1 Virtual Workplace
2. Part 1 Month 2 Disrupting Leadership
3. Part 1 Month 3 Personal Productivity
4. Part 1 Month 4 Relationships & Trust
5. Part 1 Month 5 Future Shaping
6. Part 1 Month 6 Leading Change
7. Part 1 Month 7 Managing Virtually
8. Part 1 Month 8 Distanced Accountability
9. Part 1 Month 9 Virtual Teaming
10. Part 1 Month 10Virtual Operations
11. Part 1 Month 11 Product Reinvention
12. Part 1 Month 12 Business Transformation

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Program Objectives

The following list represents the Key Program Objectives (KPO) for the Appleton Greene Virtual Transformation corporate training program.

Virtual Transformation – Part 1- Year 1

1. Part 1 Month 1 Virtual Workplace – During this course, we will examine what it takes for leaders to be successful in a virtual environment, identify the capabilities and practices required for success, and support participants in their transformation journey. We are living in spectacular times; business and leadership are at a significant turning point. The great reset- working from home, social equity and relations, and the economy’s uncertainty- converge as a perfect storm. The silver lining is the quickened pace of digitization and the new models that characterize the future of work. Virtual workers are here to stay. In the future, teams will consist of members working from different locations at different times. The traditional hub and spoke team led by one manager in one physical place will be a rarity. Undoubtedly, some of the fundamentals of excellent management and leadership will persist, but future success will require a shift in mindset and capabilities. Success in a virtual world requires building an effective virtual workplace, leading constituents through complex transformation, developing new offers, and optimizing operations with technology enabled by the fourth industrial revolution. Although there are benefits to virtual working arrangements, the inherent distance creates specific challenges for leaders. When leaders and employees rely on electronic communication to connect and complete their work, there are more possibilities for misunderstandings, significant barriers to fostering trust, and greater difficulty in coordinating. Virtual leaders must BRIDGE THE DISTANCE for themselves, their own team, and connections to other groups and organizations.
2. Part 1 Month 2 Disrupting Leadership – Leaders must disrupt themselves before leading change with their teams. As Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Successful transformation requires a sense of self-awareness, openness to new ways of working, and a commitment to developing new competencies. Leaders must also adopt modern tools and practices and tools to ensure efficient and effective collaboration in virtual environments. Industry 4.0 is characterized by exponential change, artificial intelligence, a virtual world, and the continuous need to adopt new ways of working to remain competitive. With self-directed, tech-enabled, globally connected teams, the work of managers and leaders will shift. Culture will need to be driven by leaders devoted to serving their team’s needs and helping them navigate through uncertainty to a radically different future driven by machine-man collaboration. Leaders and managers will be called on to ensure that virtual team members are coordinated and accountable to each other. The more traditional roles of recorder, gatekeeper, and process owner will fade away. The increased distance between team members creates several issues. The trust that great teams require is harder to come by in virtual teams that don’t benefit from face to face synergy and social interaction. For this reason, leaders must pick up the slack. Their ability to develop relationships with each of their employees and provide a safe space for the team to develop strong relationships with each other becomes paramount. The adoption of modern communication and collaboration practices are essential for virtual teams. Leaders must “go first” by embracing new technology and architecting a savvy, efficient and effective team operating system. Gone are the days when it is ok for leaders to be the holdouts for using new technology. By experiencing change firsthand, leaders will be more equipped to lead their employees through the changes they need to make. They will develop empathy for employees as they move through their change journey and lead the way by modeling best practices.
3. Part 1 Month 3 Personal Productivity – Today’s most significant challenge for leaders, given the virtual workplace and the ever-quickening pace of work, is personal productivity, the ability to manage personal energy, commitments, and time to be as effective and productive as possible. The virtual workplace exacerbates the situation with new demands for operating in a virtual world, yet also offers valuable productivity tools for those willing to adopt technology and build new habits. Leaders’ roles are changing; it is essential to reevaluate key accountabilities continuously, with an eye towards making more space for higher value add activities. That means ruthlessly editing out mundane tasks by delegating, automating, or eliminating work to make room for strategy, relationship building, and leading transformation. Successful leaders are intentional about their use of time, consistently balancing the urgent with essential activities that get ignored until too late. There are several categories of technology leaders can leverage for productivity. Calendaring and virtual administrator apps take the waste out of coordinating with a simple interface, making calendar preferences public and allowing people to “sign up” for available time. AI tools for communications and research such as Grammarly and AI writer use real-time nudges as you are writing to suggest improvements, point out issues with tone and offer “autofill” to complete sentences. CRM software offers the ability to easily access content that you use over again in communications, like a process description. One of the most insidious time wasters for executives is email. Smart leaders dedicate the time upfront to set up systems for separating the wheat from the chaff. It starts with the use of rules to keep your email box clean. Gmail and outlook use AI technology to learn your preferences and sort mail for you. Developing a team communications system and dashboard as a single source for ongoing works and updates is also key. Related tools in this category help leaders get information out of their heads and onto a task list. The key is letting the tool do the organizing using tagging. One of the curses/blessings of the pandemic has been the integration we have seen between work and life. The watch out is that the two become so blurred that leaders and their employees get burned-out. Boundaries need to be established to ensure that the mere opportunity to work 24/7 does not, in fact, become a reality of working 24/7. The silver lining is the flexibility that remote work gives us all. Time back from the elimination of commutes. Ability to plan breaks when our bodies need it and coordinate more fluidly with family time. Careful attention to this is imperative for leaders to take care of their own health and to ensure they are modeling healthy practices for their team.
4. Part 1 Month 4 Relationships & Trust – We are Social and emotional beings by design. To thrive, we must embrace this and build the capability to manage ourselves and build strong relationships. In virtual workplaces, where distance separates us physically, structurally, or operationally, leaders need to be even more intentional and effective at relationship building and trust. They must do so with their employees, their colleagues, and their networks. Daniel Goleman researched the brain and behavioral science for decades. Through his work on emotional intelligence, leaders have a pathway to develop their capability relationship and trust-building. Emotionally intelligent leaders recognize and manage their own emotions, empathize with others, build strong relationships, and manage complex social situations. Emotional intelligence (EI) is essential as we spend more time in zoom meetings, not privy to body language or social cues. The good news is EI is like a muscle – with awareness, practice, and a willingness to learn from experiences, leaders can improve their emotional intelligence. Teams with high collective emotional intelligence are characterized by respectful conversations, openness, positive attitudes, and camaraderie. A key topic for leaders related to relationships is developing strong networks. Virtual business and Industry 4.0 create many possibilities for networking and collaborating across traditional boundaries. The most effective leaders of the future will reach beyond their teams to customers, colleagues, and even competitors to create value. From a personal leadership perspective, it begins with cultivating a personal online presence and network using LinkedIn and other social media. As the course progresses, we will move into building business identity and offers in a virtual world.
5. Part 1 Month 5 Future Shaping – Future shaping means understanding trends and possible trajectories and taking meaningful action to move your team or business forward. Future shapers must anticipate what’s next and colonize the future. It starts with “reading the world,” learning critical trends, and honing your ability to anticipate and “skate to where the puck is going to be,” as Wayne Gretzky was famous for saying. Honeywell uses the term Future Shaper to refer to employees who make the future a reality; it is a vital component of the company’s broader digital transformation strategy. Likewise, virtual business transformation requires future shapers; Leaders with the capability to build differentiated customer experience, increase operational efficiency, and improve data-driven decision making. Two frameworks, Industry 4.0 and VUCA, are fundamental for futuristic thinking. We have introduced Industry 4.0, also known as the fourth industrial revolution, and will continue to delve into it throughout this course. VUCA is an acronym developed by the Army War College to describe our post 9.11 world. It stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Future shaping leaders use this lens to understand what is happening today and prepare for a future unlike the past. Bob Johansen of the Institute of the Future offers up a leadership response for the VUCA world using the same Acronym. To lead successfully in a VUCA world, leaders must act with: Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility. When it comes to blazing a trail for the future, leaders must adopt new mindsets and practices. In the past, leaders could establish a strategy with a clear vision, a solid understanding of business fundamentals, and a disciplined, but reasonably linear path. Not so anymore. Strategy today is much more like a sailboat’s tacts. Having a plan for the VUCA environment requires identifying agents that impact your business and journey, exploring scenarios, creating guardrails for decision making, and developing alert systems to signal when the plan is off course.
6. Part 1 Month 6 Leading Change – The first six months of Virtual Business Transformation focuses on the personal elements of leadership required for success: paradigm shifts, openness and ability to change, personal productivity, emotional intelligence, and future-shaping capability. At this point in our journey, we dive into what it takes to make change real. We will introduce the fundamentals and best practices for leading change, returning to the conversation three more times over the two-year course to go deeper into specific practices for leading change and transformation. Changing ourselves and leading change are both extremely difficult. Change boils down to switching behavior, and our brains are hard-wired to hold on to the way we’ve always done things, the status quo. Research shows that more than 70% of change initiatives fail because of people resistance, not because they weren’t good business ideas, driven by sound analysis, systems, and facts. However, as we learn more about the brain, we learn more about the science of adopting new habits and successfully leading systemic transformation for organizations. Regardless of your industry, work gets done through people. Leaders need effective practices to help employees adapt to new ways of work. Understanding the difference between change and transition is essential. Change is an external event, an action or decision, whether planned or unplanned, that impacts us as individuals. Transition is the psychological reorientation that we go through to come to terms with change. Successfully navigating your organization through transition is realizing how the three phases impact individuals. William Bridges describes these phases in his book Managing Transitions. Phase one marks an ending, often fraught with confusion, resistance, and the emotion of loss. Opportunity exists in phase two, the neutral zone, as people open up to a new way of thinking, stretch themselves, and innovate. The third phase, the new beginning, requires support, reminders, measurements, and rewards to sustain new habits. Leaders must first shift themselves for the new realities of work and then become expert in leading others through change to move their constituents towards the future.
7. Part 1 Month 7 Managing Virtually – As traditional workplaces fade into the past, virtual teams enabled by the Industry 4.0 technology will need great managers more than ever. However, the role and capabilities required will shift dramatically and quickly. In the not-so-distant past, managers had a heavy hand in directing work. They told employees precisely what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Most of the time, managers supervised work as it happened and where it happened. Traditional managers led small groups of employees who were all in one place, doing similar work to each other and from day-to-day. Industry 4.0 will bring exponential change, artificial intelligence, distributed teams, and the need to adopt new ways of working to remain competitive. It might make you wonder how relevant managers will be in the future of work. With self-directed, tech-enabled, globally connected teams, how will the role of the manager evolve? Here are four shifts: Robots and artificial intelligence apps will get better at administrative tasks than managers. Managers will add value by showing care and concern for employees, fostering relationships with their employees and other groups throughout the organization, and helping their teams navigate the organization to create connections across departments, levels, and time zones. Managers can’t just tell people what to do anymore; work moves too quickly. Command and control management is out. Instead, great managers empower employees to do what they think makes sense, and coach employees regularly to hone their instincts. Great managers make sure employees are aligned with the business, moving in the right direction, and provide clear guardrails to know when things go off track. Organizations are not bound by 9-to-5 hours in virtual workplaces. As more employees move to flexible work schedules. Managers need to bring teams together in non-traditional work settings and provide visibility to team member contributions. As critical jobs evolve and automation irreversibly changes old routines, the ability to disrupt work is essential. Managers lead this by encouraging a culture of innovation and adaptation to new situations, providing creative thinkers the opportunity to thrive as shifts happen. Boosting a healthy level of risk and cultivating a culture where it’s okay to fail is essential. Managers will also be critical for helping their employees upskill and drive man-machine collaboration. Performance monitoring, scheduling, and reporting will be automated, along with learning and development tools to help individuals grow. Managers’ most significant contribution to performance will be as a catalyst for building high-impact teams. In that role, they must develop a psychologically safe environment, align the team around a shared vision, connect team members, build interdependence, and modern systems for communicating and collaborating.
8. Part 1 Month 8 Distanced Accountability – Many people wonder how to manage work effectively with little interaction and visibility between employees and their managers when it comes to working virtually. When forced into working remotely because of situations like the pandemic, there was a surge of technology that surveilled employees’ activity by counting strokes on the keyboard or similar tasks. While there may be some value to these tools, the real shift managers and knowledge workers must make is to assess results through mutually agreed upon expectations. The foundation for this is a proven and simple process for helping determine what employees own: key accountabilities. Key accountabilities are the essential things an employee must do to excel at their job. Unlike job descriptions, which typically list tasks, key accountabilities describe specific responsibilities that are broad in scope but are uniquely owned by one person’s role. Take a bookkeeper, for example. One task we often associate with bookkeeping is processing invoices. The relevant key accountability would be “Ensure accounts receivable are paid timely so that the business has healthy cash flow.” Invoicing is a task, while the broader key accountability clarifies that the bookkeeper is responsible for understanding procurement processes, troubleshooting, developing follow-up systems, and continually improving processes. For managers who want to be more strategic about assessing performance from a distance, delegating, or achieving better results, key accountabilities are a game-changer. In this module, we will develop it as a core capability. The heart of this practice is to identify the five essential things for which the employee is responsible. The test is that if the person completed the five items, they would not reasonably be expected to do other tasks to meet performance expectations. Once key accountabilities are clearly articulated, continue to add context by ranking importance and estimating the time needed to complete each one. The process can be taken one step further by reflecting on continuous improvement. Reflect: “Is this the most effective use of time.” “Where is the employee getting caught up in non-value work?” Consider how could that work be delegated, automated, or ceased altogether to allow more time to be spent on more valuable activities. Go through the key accountabilities exercise with your team, either during one-on-ones or as a group. Provide coaching to your team members as they assess their priorities and determine their “should be” goals. Ask open-ended questions to engage them in conversations about what key shifts are required for future success.
9. Part 1 Month 9 Virtual Teaming – Building high impact teams is an essential responsibility for leaders – taking a group of individuals, directing and amplifying their efforts so that together they achieve great results, feel valued for their contributions, and benefit from positive relationships with their teammates. It’s a challenge in traditional settings where the team is located in the same place and works the same hours. Add in the complexity of the virtual workplace, and the complexity increases significantly. A virtual team refers to workgroups, where some or all members interact primarily through digital means, and the team members are engaged in interdependent work. Leaders who can develop, sustain, and grow high impact virtual teams are essential for future success and highly valued by their organizations. During this module, we will provide a roadmap and proven practices for building high impact teams: Connect, Align, Collaborate, and Make it happen. Step one is to provide team members with the space to connect and build relationships with each other. For this reason, the conventional practice was to bring virtual teams together physically to get started. That is just not practical anymore, but we can create that same or an even better sense of connection by facilitating well-designed conversations with the intent to share personal experiences, find common ground, and discuss shared aspirations. During this stage, high impact teams develop norms, a shared language for treating each other as team members. Accepting and following team norms builds early trust. Another critical element in this phase is creating a sense of shared possibility. Through open discussion focused on ‘what we could do together,” team members start to buy into what the team is doing and collectively agree on what success would look like (it’s important not to get caught up in the “HOW” too early). Communicate and CollaborateEffective collaboration is 80% relationship building and 20% modern collaboration technology and practices. Both break down with most teams’ sloppy email and meeting habits; focused intent is needed to make communication more effective and efficient for all by shifting out of automatic behaviors. Successful virtual teams create a team communications plan which addresses each available communications channel (email, IM, phone, meeting, and others) and specifies when that channel is appropriate and the “etiquette” for effective team use. Once the team has communication basics, they can begin to use modern collaboration tools to turbocharge their work. Technology solutions like Microsoft Teams, Trello, and Mural are abundant and relatively low cost, but they need to be adopted and used more. The issue boils down to breaking old habits and starting new practices. Given the complexity of our work, the VUCA world we live in, and the need to bridge distance on virtual teams, interpersonal skills are foundational. Great teams develop their emotional and social intelligence and create interdependence. Make it HappenThe goal is to create a team that keeps each other accountable and is committed to each other’s success. High impact virtual teams achieve great things, celebrate, and grow together. Instead of burn out, they finish with the energy to take on more challenges and often retain close relationships for many years.
10. Part 1 Month 10 Virtual Operations – Industry 3.0 ushered in computers and catalyzed the automation of work processes. Over the last 50 years, more and more of our work has been automated or digitized, such as; submitting an expense report, monitoring and regulating inventory, or onboarding an employee Two forces are exponentially impacting the digital transformation of business operations: Industry 4.0 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Industry 4.0 focuses heavily on interconnectivity, automation, machine learning, and real-time data. The global pandemic did two things: made clear the need to build processes and operational models that would allow us to continue working remotely and showcased the possibility of new ways of operating. Business leaders must invest significant energy and resources into transforming their operating systems to meet today’s needs and be competitive for the future through the technology of Industry 4.0. According to Accenture, only 13 percent of businesses have realized their digital investments’ full impact, enabling them to achieve cost savings and create growth. The optimal mix of technologies could save large companies up to $16 billion. While every company is different, the need for connectedness and access to real-time insights across processes, partners, products, and people transcends all businesses and industries. Industry 4.0 Operations Transformation Transforming your operations is imperative for business. In this module, we will focus on business operations by examining operations for working smarter with technology: How can processes be improved to enable a more effective virtual workplace?; What are the most significant pain points, and which enabling technologies could address them?; Where can you leverage real-time data so that operators, managers, and leaders make better decisions?; In what ways can work be augmented by man-machine collaboration or artificial intelligence; How can predictive analytics, real-time data, internet-connected machinery, and automation help you address potential issues before they become big problems?; How do we develop stronger cross-functional collaboration?
11. Part 1 Month 11 Product Reinvention – Once they have transformed their own thinking, capabilities, and organization, business leaders must focus on reinventing products, services, and customer relationships. It starts with a solid understanding of trends and industry trajectories that leaders develop by reading the world. This module focuses on innovation, design, and implementation of competitive and disruptive solutions required for success in our virtual, digital, VUCA world. The realities are that products are becoming software-driven, smart, and connected; leaders must understand the drivers of change and the business and industry implications. Disrupters like Amazon are creating consumer standards that reach across sectors. Success will require new levels of collaboration within and outside of the organization. Participants will develop a concept using our innovation and future business history processes to survey the landscape, discover, and translate chaos to act with clarity. Key steps include: Identifying market dynamics and potential impacts on business strategy and product offerings; Diligent discovery of customers, their customers’ needs, end-users, and competitive offerings; Generating a roadmap through disruption using our “Future Business History” approach; Developing an imperative for action, building commitment, and a new focus for the organization; Developing and implementing the new product/service with speed and agility; Leveraging data, artificial intelligence, and other Industry 4.0 technology to sustain and continuously evolve products and services.
12. Part 1 Month 12 Business Transformation – And now we have to MAKE IT HAPPEN! No doubt, the business leaders participating will have a clear vision and strategy for their virtual business transformation by this point in the course. During this module, we will review and work collaboratively to create robust plans for leading transformative change. Transformative change involves complex, systematic shifts beyond incremental improvements that fundamentally change organizations from their previous state. For solid organizations, mission, values, and aspects of culture persist. However, how the organization works, relates to customers, leverages technology, and thinks about their future must fundamentally change. Business leaders must be the catalysts and drive the change. We will review and apply our proven process for Making Change Real, including the following phases: Planning and mobilization – the discipline of considering impacts before rushing into action: It is critical to clarify specific objectives, scope, and timing of the intended changes. Leaders must consider the consequences the change will have on the organization at an enterprise, program, and employee level. Tools for accomplishing this include a change blueprint, organization gap analysis, impact and exposure map, and benchmark assessments. This phase aims to develop specific strategies for successful implementation, ensuring there are real structures for sustaining the change. Embedding agility into the organization DNA for present and future success: One thing is for sure; more change will be coming. Wiring the organization for success now and in the future is essential. Transformation plans must include developing the capability to lead change throughout the organization and creating a growth mindset culture that encourages all employees to get better continually. The toolkit comprises an embracing change learning curriculum, Emotional Intelligence, developing expectations & distributed accountability, and conversations for change guides. Building new capabilities for the future: As jobs evolve, so will the skills needed to perform them. According to the World Economic Forum, forty-two percent of the core skills within roles on average are expected to change by 2022. It is imperative to reskill the workforce by creating structures to develop employees and support change. The future’s top skills include digital fluency, building relationships, self-awareness, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration. Tools for leaders to use for this phase include “Professional of the future” competencies & career paths, talent development process, and the adoption curve model. Engaging constituents to accelerate change: Leaders must engage all constituents affected by the change to ensure their support, commitment, and adoption of new ways of working. This module will identify strategies to help leaders increase urgency, collaboration, and creativity throughout the teams and organizations impacted. The tools and processes to make this happen are stakeholder analysis, strategic planning engagement events, surveying, creating communities, two-way communications that leverage modern technology.

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Methodology

Virtual Transformation

Our VUCA world and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

This course leverages two frameworks for leaders to understand our world and the trends impacting our future. The first framework is VUCA, which was coined after 9.11 by the US military. It is an acronym for our Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world. We will use the VUCA framework to understand the context that leaders must act within and reveal how leaders can respond successfully to these challenges and lead their employees. Industry 4.0 refers to a new phase in the Industrial Revolution that focuses heavily on interconnectivity, automation, machine learning, and real-time data. While every company and organization operating today is different, they all face a common challenge—the need for connectedness and access to real-time insights across processes, partners, products, and people.

Disrupting Leadership

To make change real, leaders must start with themselves. In this course, we address critical shifts to themselves as professionals, then move to shifts required to manage others, leading high impact teams and entire businesses. Participants focus on the fundamentals of influencing others, leading change and whole system transformation.

Blended Learning

Participants experience world-class virtual learning through a digital learning model designed to adapt to each participant, creating an intuitive learning flow. The content has been developed and taught by an expert in digital business transformation, leadership, and high impact teams. Each concept will be introduced with practical ways to put the idea into practice — micro-changes that add up over time and help leaders change their teams, organizations, and lives for the better. Through social learning, participants learn from each other and build strong relationships with peers who can continue to learn from one another after the program. Each module includes interactive exercises and activities. Monthly assignments serve as the foundation for the course project, which is a complete business transformation plan for the virtual workplace and digital marketplace.

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Industries

This service is primarily available to the following industry sectors:

Manufacturing

In the US, the manufacturing industry has seen highs and lows. When the economy is flourishing in the financial sense, manufacturing represents a key sector. When the financial industries start suffering, so does the manufacturing process. Demand for goods and services declines, thus causing fallout in manufacturing plants. Creating economic value through manufacturing is a balance that the public and the government need to prosper.

What does manufacturing look like in the 21st century? The most significant opportunity for manufacturing in the US is Industry 4.0. What is Industry 4.0? It is the marriage of traditional manufacturing with the information technology in which the US is still dominant. Big data, new analytics, and new computer-driven technologies like 3D printing can give American industry a critical advantage in the new century. We have a labor force now that is skilled in technology, and we need to use this resource to our advantage.

To improve efficiency, we need to have the right tools on the production line to do that. Gone are the days of everything on the line requiring a human “touch”; technology has enabled companies to shift costs and social roles to better productivity. For the US to compete at this level, the critical piece is creating a cross-trained workforce in technology concerning the production line. We can no longer afford to have just one or two people who “know” how a specific production part works. Changing our labor force will increase efficiency and, in the long run, lower costs that will keep the US competitive in the manufacturing industry. As a country, we need to do more to leverage the skills of the American worker. If we don’t take the opportunity to help our skilled workers adapt to the new technologies, the US will not be the competitive giant it once was.

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Healthcare

The healthcare industry is one of the world’s largest and growing industries. Healthcare is an enormous part of the US economy. Healthcare is divided into many sectors, including hospital activities, medical and dental offices, diagnostic laboratories, healthcare training, and the homeopathic industry. These sectors can be narrowed down even more; healthcare services and equipment, pharmaceutical and biotechnical industries, and related life science. The size of the healthcare industry has become a cause of concern for many people. They have said that healthcare has lost the personal touch that was once known in earlier times. When healthcare began, it was simple. A town had a doctor, and everyone saw that doctor. The doctor knew everything about the patient, and there was immeasurable trust between the two people. As populations grew, the need for more doctors grew. Then there was a need for more significant facilities such as hospitals. Hospitals then needed more doctors and support staff to administer the required care that patients deserved. After hospitals grew, then the need for laboratories for testing grew and support staff for that sector. Today, everywhere you turn, there is a healthcare-related business in the area. These include laboratories, pharmacies, ambulatory care centers, walk-in clinics, blood banks, and testing facilities. The majority of these are For-profit industries.

The cost of healthcare is a significant concern for most Americans. Health insurance was developed back in the 1900s when President Roosevelt felt that the US could not be healthy if its people were sick and poor. At this time, the government wanted Americans to have insurance, but it did not provide it, and other outside industries were responsible for giving it to their employees. The only time the government provided insurance was to the soldiers in the military and their families. Thus the healthcare industry became privatized. It wasn’t until the 1960s and the creation of the Social Security Act of 1965 that a government program covered retirees and people who could not generally afford healthcare.

Fast forward to the present day; what does healthcare look like now? How do people afford to get care? How does medical care look? These are a few of the questions that are asked every day. Healthcare systems now need to work toward a future of disease prevention and well being instead of just taking care of the sick. Innovation in the healthcare industry revealed itself recently during the Covid-19 pandemic. Gone were the traditional doctor’s appointments for fear of spreading the disease. Introduced were tele-med conferences with patients that were just used previously with the doctor to doctor discussions in the past. Patients are now able to have an appointment from the comfort of their homes. The invention of home-based devices such as blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, to smart technology on our wrists has enabled patients to be in more control of their health. As virtual healthcare increases in capability and popularity, organizations will need to increase the training and education of a new wave of healthcare workers. Technology will hopefully streamline the healthcare industry and eventually lower the costs.

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Education

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional knowledge shall be made generally available, and higher education shall be equally accessible to all based on merit. Education is a fundamental right given to every person. Within the US, knowledge is necessary for a person’s upbringing and life in general. Although many states vary with their education rules regarding age, the consensus is that a child’s education starts in elementary school and ceases at the secondary level in high school. Everyone in this age range has to be given access to free public education. Education is both an instrument of national development and a means of crossing national and cultural barriers.

There are many different types of schools that are available to families. There are free and public schools, private and tuition-based schools, religious schools, and online K through 12 schools. How a child is educated is not always the same; however, the outcome is usually to receive a secondary school diploma. Post-secondary education is purely voluntary and not required for all students, although it is always encouraged.

Technology has profoundly changed education. At the very least, it has created more access to education. Thanks to technology and the invention of the internet, access to mass amounts of material are available with a few keystrokes. In the past, learners had to rely on written hard copies of books and journals to further their education. Books were only available at schools, libraries, and for purchase. Today, information can be gathered quickly and in copious amounts. Children in this decade do not even know what an encyclopedia is! As in any industry, there are supporters and contrarians to this level of education. The question that has been at the forefront lately regards the availability of technological resources for all learners. Does everyone have the same access? What about the less affluent communities? Is it fair to expect lesser affluent areas to do the same work as the more affluent areas? Access to devices and technological infrastructure is not equal in all parts of the country, state, and even city.

Opportunities for communication and collaboration have also expanded due to technology. In the past, students learned in a lecture hall at the college level led by a professor. Students were required to be in person and handwrite lecture notes to participate in the class and eventually pass the course. The professor was the sole source of information for a particular curriculum. Today, all students have laptops and the ability to connect and collaborate virtually with one another. In essence, the classroom walls have been knocked down and replaced with never-ending access to people and information.

Technology has also changed the role of teachers and learners. This has never been clearer than in the present day as the world battles the global pandemic of Covid-19. Learners have been forced to remain home and use technology to access their education. Teachers are now required to teach in front of a screen all day and only a percentage of students are allowed to come into the school buildings. The pandemic has had the following results in the education sector:

The good: The teacher can deliver a more personalized learning plan to his/her students. For instance, if a child struggles in one area, the teacher has access to many tools at the touch of a finger that can aid that student. Also, children have to learn to be self-regulated. Many will have to independently figure things out without having a teacher in the room with them.

The bad: Digital resources are not evenly distributed among students and school systems. Many districts had to step in and provide students with devices to teach them. Also, bandwidth in older school districts has not been updated and has resulted in many technical glitches that have affected the school day.

The ugly: Some educators were not ready to go all digital. Some states have seen a mass exodus of professionals in the education sector. It will take many years to bring staffing levels back to what is needed in the school districts. Overall, the global pandemic has disrupted every layer of the education sector. The future is uncertain; however, teachers have always been resourceful and will persevere over time.

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Biotechnology

As an industry, biotechnology is the creation of medicines that are derived from living organisms. In contrast, pharmaceuticals are created from artificial materials or sources. The initiatives are very similar because the long term goal is to develop medicines that will make the world healthier. Biotech is generally divided into two groups: medical or agricultural applications. With this in mind, identification and sourcing of DNA in the biotech field have helped the industry grow immensely since the 1970s. Top US firms in biotech include Amgen, Novo Nordisk, CSL, and Gilead Sciences.

Medical biotech with revenues that exceed $150 billion annually usually receive the bulk of investment and research dollars. This is a large component of the thriving healthcare industry. Biotech has been vital in the initial drug discovery and screening processes. Some companies also go a step further and utilize the research data from the newly developed drugs in clinical trials to help prevent future diseases.

Agricultural biotech uses research and development differently. They use it to enhance utility and improve yields in crops. If food can be made healthier for the animals ingest, then eventually all food products will be more nutritional.

The pharmaceutical industry differs a bit because it researches, develops, and sells medicines made mostly from chemicals. The top pharmaceutical companies include Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Merck.

How else are the industries similar? The workforce in both sectors is striving to make a difference in the world. Employees often feel that their jobs relate directly to helping people live healthier lives. On the downside, there is limited job security in both industries. The fast-paced growth has caused many companies to merge. They do this to pool resources, and as a result, there is often duplication in the workforce, thus causing people to get laid off. Both industries are also highly stressful. There are strict government regulations and deadlines that cause employees to “burnout”. Trends are changing on the work front because both industries are now learning how to communicate and collaborate better. There is more often a team approach versus an autonomous one. This concept, as well as many strides in digital resources, has fostered much better working environments.

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Locations

This service is primarily available within the following locations:

New York NY

New York City is one of the most heavily populated cities in the US. With an estimated population of over eight million people within 300 square miles, it is a very densely populated area. The population had been trending upward through 2020 with the future looking to top 8.6 million given the many large companies expressing interest in making NYC their hub.

NYC has a rich history from its settlement through the present day. Historic events have shaped it to be the indomitable city that it is today. The establishment of Ellis Island in the late 1800s created a cultural melting pot. Over 12 million immigrants passed through the island from all over the world and settled into NYC. The headquarters of the United Nations was established in 1945 after World War II. Starting with 51 member states it has since grown to represent 193 countries. This helped cement NYC as a global cultural center. NYC has also teen tragic events, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the September 11, 2001 bombings of the World Trade Center. After September 11, NYC suffered a huge economic impact to all sectors, with the hardest hit being the financial sector. It has taken many years to recover the losses, but once again NYC has reclaimed their leadership status as a global powerhouse.

NYC is home to a conglomerate of many industries. including finance and banking, technology, education, healthcare, manufacturing, media entertainment and fashion, and the arts. The second industrial revolution pushed NYC to the forefront and helped it to become the world’s largest manufacturing center. The access to many waterways and ports enabled NYC to flourish in business and everything that followed.

High technology has been a dominant sector for growth over the last 30 years. The area around the Flat Iron district in Manhattan was coined as Silicon Alley in the 1990s during the dot.com explosion. The technology sector now spreads outside of Manhattan into the five boroughs and neighboring suburbs. Growth in this sector continues to rise as companies adapt to using more technology to run their day to day business. Google, Facebook, and Amazon all have locations in New York. With technology moving forward with increasing speed encompassing construction, manufacturing, medical, energy, transportation, biotech, and agriculture, NYC is poised to be a world leader in years to come.

NYC was an early epicenter for the COVID pandemic in2020. As a result, the city has started to experience a decrease in population. People started to leave the dense, urban city in an effort to remain healthy. Employers have enabled employees to work remotely from their homes and residents are taking the opportunity to move to more spacious areas. There is much speculation of the long term affects the pandemic, economy and social justice issues will have on New York.

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Dublin IE

Dublin is the economic center of Ireland and a leader in the country’s economic expansion over the last several decades. Dublin’s traditional food processing industries, textile manufacturing, brewing, and distilling led the countries agricultural economy for years.

From 1995-2007 Dublin and the country of Ireland experienced an amazing period of economic growth known as the Celtic Tiger. In just over a generation, Ireland transformed from one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to one of the most successful. The sad and ongoing persistent emigration of its best and brightest ended as Dublin developed an enviable reputation as a thriving, knowledge-driven economy. This shift was enabled by years of practical, open policies by the Irish government with respect to both the education of its people and posture towards business. Dublin’s turnaround was further bolstered by their participation in the European Union, the dotcom era, and a boom in the software industry as Dublin became popular as an offshore location given the well-educated, English speaking workforce.

This period of prosperity was briefly interrupted by an economic slowdown in 2008 which led to depression for several years. In 2014 Dublin began showing signs of an economic upturn.
Bolstered by loan programs funded by the European Union, Dublin focused on recapturing their momentum. Dublin’s International Financial Services Center, IFSC, has enabled financial services to become a significant player in the global economy. Based on the UK’s decision to leave the EU, many large companies moved their headquarters from the UK to Ireland to avoid getting caught up in Brexit. Dublin offered these companies some significant tax advantages for moving to their which opened up opportunities for new jobs in new industries within the city.

Today Dublin has a robust multicultural talent population pool to draw from, which creates a vibrant energy for the town and boasts one of the youngest populations in Europe due to the number of colleges and universities. As a whole Dublin has done well capturing this growth opportunity and has become very attractive to large corporations. At times accommodating the growing population has had its challenges. Tech companies have come up with many creative solutions, including working towards a more digital workplace. They embrace the need for flexible work schedules and remote work options so that people can move outside the city to more affordable housing. Managing digital work and increasing productivity in this region has become a top priority. The Irish government has taken the lead in making all of this work for Dublin’s industries. Dublin’s size also lends to its “small-town vibe,” which has attributed to its success in attracting and retaining the large multi-national companies. Recently, traction has picked up even more as companies choose Dublin as a location for tax purposes and for their intellectual property.

As a result, Ireland’s Gross Domestic Product has skyrocketed from being one of the poorest nations in the world, to having one of the highest GDPs per capita. Ireland has been ranked as the sixth-most competitive country in the world for doing business by the Institute for Management Development. Ireland now has the second highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the world, higher than Canada, the UK, and Canada.

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Hyderabad IN

Hyderabad is the capital of Telangana, India. The name means “Haydar’s city” or “Lion city” named after Caliph Ali Ibn Talib, a fierce leader that was believed to be a successor of the Prophet Muhammad. Telangana is a state in the country of India located on the south-central side of the Indian peninsula. It is the eleventh largest state in India as per the 2011 census. It’s current population hovers around 6.8 million based again on the 2011 census. The population doubled in a ten year period due to immigration from all other parts of India, making Hyderabad the nation’s fourth most populated city. Today the population of Hyderabad has exceeded 1.3 billion.

Hyderabad had a long-standing reputation as a global trade center in India. Its main trade was within the pearl industry and was nicknamed the “City of Pearls”. When railways were introduced in the late 1800’s, they connected the city to major port cities such as Mumbai and Kolkata. Factories were built alongside the rails thus transforming the city into a modern city that relied on manufacturing to advance its economy. In the 30’s and 40’s, Hyderabad started importing more technology to the region to aid the industrial manufacturing process. From there imports containing pharmaceuticals and electronics began to diversify the economy to become more of a service-oriented hub rather than manufacturing.

In the 1990’s the economy changed again from primarily a service industry to a more diversified sector made up of IT companies, biotech companies, insurance, and financial institutions. In addition, companies known for transport, communication and real estate also added to the growing economy. This growth forced Hyderabad to split its business into four primary sectors within the city which helped it to become a desirable place for many large companies in all fields to establish their headquarters. It is known that Hyderabad is one of the best cities to do business in the country.

One of the main sectors in Hyderabad is the Biotech or Bio-Pharmaceutical sector, also known as the Genome Valley. This infrastructure attracted major players in the industry to come and set up offices, warehouses and research facilities in the region. Today, Hyderabad is now considered to be a biotech hub of India. It provides state of the art biotech essentials to the rest of the world. It is a leader in research, training, collaboration and manufacturing activities for the largest biotech companies around the world.

Another large sector of Hyderabad is the Hi-tech sector also known as Cyberabad. Specializing in service related IT products enabled the city to attract many US based companies to build offices and add to the growing economy. Multinational firms located there include financial services, media services, entertainment services,electronics and IT.

Today, Hyderabad is poised to become a world leader in business. They continue to attract many new businesses to the city and have many projects in the pipeline in the biotech area that will help it leapfrog into the big leagues.

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Austin TX

Austin is the capital city of Texas. It is located on the Colorado River banks and is home to numerous rivers and waterways in Texas. It has recently emerged as one of the fastest-growing cities in the US. The town was named Austin in honor of Stephen F Austin, known as the “Father of Texas” because he was the republic’s first Secretary of State. Austin boasts a diverse population and has been in growth mode for several years, with its population breaking the one million mark in 2019.

Austin is the home of the University of Texas, as well as many other colleges and universities. As of 2018, Austin was second in the nation for the millennial population, with 24.5% of the 20 to 34. Although this is common for college cities, the community has remained and is continually growing. Because of this, Austin boasts a reserve of young talent that employers often seek out.

Austin blossomed in the 1990’s dot-com era. It earned the nickname “Silicon Hills” because tech and development companies arrived by the dozens. Since then, it has become a center for tech and business. Many Fortune 500 companies have either built headquarters or regional offices in the city. Examples of these companies are; Amazon, Apple, Google, and IBM. 15 miles north of Austin is the city of Round Rock. Round Rock is the home of the international headquarters of Dell, which employs over 16,000 people. Most recently, Apple announced that it’s shelling out $1 billion for a new campus in North Austin, with the potential to add 15,000 more workers to its employ. Since 2018, Austin has emerged as the next big player in tech development. It currently houses over two thousand tech companies that are continually growing and lending their innovation to a once quiet town. The city is also home to over 85 pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

The future of Austin is boundless. Austin has a friendly and comfortable vibe that attracts people by the thousands because of the availability of labor, quality education, and a favorable housing market. The quality of life in Austin is also described as resilient. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies are still confident that Austin will rise to the occasion even in these uncertain times.

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Chicago IL

Chicago is the most populated city in Illinois and the Midwestern US, with a population of 2.7 million as of 2019. Chicago is the Chicago metropolitan area’s principal city, which boasts a population of over 10 million, which makes it the third-largest metropolitan area in the US and the fourth largest in North America.

Chicago was established in 1837 on the shores of Lake Michigan. Located between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River enabled it to become a central transportation hub. In 1848, the Michigan Canal was built, which connected the two waterways. At this point, Chicago became the fastest growing city in the Midwest because it was able to produce and transport goods to other parts of the country and receive goods it needed for manufacturing. Manufacturing became Chicago’s most significant industry for the next century. In addition to the waterways, railways were also established, thus aiding the city with goods’ transportation. The flourishing economy attracted employees from all over the world. Immigrants came from European countries such as Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic. The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 tested the infrastructure of Chicago, but the city was resilient and was able to regrow to be even stronger. The Great Depression hit Chicago hard, but it proved its resiliency once again and was able to overcome and flourish. The onset of World War II created the need for wartime goods such as field rations and torpedos. Factories were designed to build aircraft, engines, metal sheeting, and almost anything else metal needed for the war. Chicago was the second-largest producer of wartime goods behind the city of Detroit. Today, manufacturing is still one of the largest industries in Chicago.

Other industries located in Chicago include banking and finance, communications, education, technology and telecommunications, and transportation. O’Hare International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world. Chicago houses the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the Chicago Board of Trade. The Chicago Board of Trade created the first standardized futures contracts in the US, thus becoming the world’s largest and most derivatives market. The first futures that were traded were agriculture-based and still exist today. The market resulted from the early days of transporting agricultural products such as wheat, soybeans, and corn between the US. In 2017, Chicago exchanged 4.7 billion derivatives with a face value of over one quadrillion dollars.

Chicago is one of the largest international hubs in the US. The midwest location connects the East and West Coast and has attracted many large companies to establish their headquarters in the metropolitan area. It is one of the most diversified cities and makes it the most balanced economy in the US. For six consecutive years since 2013. Chicago is ranked as the top metropolitan area for corporate relocations. Boeing, Abbott Laboratories, and the healthcare division of General Electric call Chicago home. Many retail giants like Sears, Walgreens, Ace Hardware, and Crate and Barrel are mainstays.

In 2013, ChicagoNEXT was created to recruit more technology-based firms to Chicago. The goal was to attract more tech companies, workers, and venture capital; improve the city’s own IT infrastructure and STEM education; and nurture an ecosystem that supports talent and encourages it to stay, instead of being recruited elsewhere. Reinvestment is vital in the metropolitan area. Chicago is also known as a city of neighborhoods, thus allowing specific industries to be clustered together. An example of this is Lincoln Yards, which was developed to encompass tech companies, high-end condominiums, retail, and green spaces. Its location on the north branch of the Chicago River is attracting the likes of Google and Amazon to Chicago.

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Program Benefits

Testimonials

Carpenter

”This program bring a lens to your business that will help you focus on the things that matter and the essentials that will move you and your organization forward. The instructors provide excellent counsel and creative business solutions to complex issues. They will quickly identify your issue through insightful questions and provide the support to develop the capabilities, processes and technology required for success in the future. I am always amazed at the way the team can take a situation that I am wrestling with, and like solving a Rubik’s cube, untangle the problem in a simple straight forward way that makes the resolution obvious.”

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Vericle

”Ms. Ennis has implemented a highly productive business management brainstorming and accountability process. Together, we systematically discovered and track implementation of new ideas to accelerate growth and improve customer service. The programs uniquely combine diverse business perspectives with razor-sharp focus on my own business. Ms. Ennis is a great business steward and knows how to direct many companies by assisting them to make clear decisions when trying to overcome obstacles.”

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St Peters Health System

”It’s not just a one-time classroom setting. It was on-going. It was also with their peers and they had the opportunity to learn from each other. The biggest shift was the managers had self-awareness. It was the ability for them to let their guard down and say “ok, maybe I do need help.” Who is the manager I want to become? What does that manager look like? And how do I take the necessary steps to become it. The results have been really impactful. From the start we immediately saw that the way they engaged with their employees changed. They went from really stopping, listening, paying attention to what their employees was giving them as feedback. Whereas in the past they were just rushing through their day to get “their job” done as a manager, instead of saying my job is to work through my people. The staff was so engaged in growth mindset, they said we should do this in new hire orientation, they should all go through this.”

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Educate

”The program has helped unleash the leaders in our organization. The managers who have worked with Ms. Ennis are not only able to apply what they have learned from her, but they are passing it on to others in our organization and driving meaningful positive change in the way we lead, talk about leadership, and help our people and the organization to thrive.”

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Integramed

“Leveraging the program for manager development has taken our management practices to the next level. Busy managers love the self-directed learning and the opportunity to collaborate and learn with their peers across the country.”

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More detailed achievements, references and testimonials are confidentially available to clients upon request.

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