Human energy management

In response to the needs of many clients from the corporate and government environment, we have developed what we believe to be a unique 2-day “experience”. Organisations that have already used the programme are enthusiastic about what it achieves on a sustainable basis.

Everything we do has, as its purpose, to respond to the wisdom of Oscar Wilde who said: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist, that is all”. We believe we have failed if we are unable to significantly enhance the ability of all who participate to become more fully alive, and in that way infuse the organisation with new vigour too.

The Human Energy Management Programme is a combination of six quite distinct processes that are customised and combined to meet the specific needs of the client:

1. An intellectual, conceptual and joyfully paradoxical journey out into the wider world, searching in Old African Culture, Nature and in New Science for pictures of the world which give us more hope and more scope to achieve differently and more substantially as individuals, in families and in organisations – perhaps even as a country. We seek outstanding models of wonderful possibility and draw conclusions as to what leadership can achieve. We create a new, simple and convincing definition of leadership that combines the best of the West with what is appropriate and works in Africa. It is accessible to anyone, and would be entirely relevant to the client. We become “energy aware”. We observe, perhaps for the first time, that effectiveness and energy are opposite sides of the same coin – you cannot get excellence without energy.
2. A personal inward journey for each of the participants enabling them to take time, to take stock of what they have achieved and, more importantly, who they are and what they would like to spend the rest of their lives achieving or becoming. We use a simple process to encourage the development of a challenging personal plan committed to paper. Each person takes responsibility for his or her own plan and for generating their own personal energy on an ongoing basis.
3. A journey upwards towards what we call a Quantum Leap – an approach to what is possible, which changes organisations radically. We learn to fly together. We use a process that is very different from the normal SWOT analysis and scenario building processes that have been used in the past. We will examine the specific needs and issues surrounding the client in order to facilitate alignment to a shared vision for the team. The process really creates inspiration, and the potential for changing even the industry in which the client operates.
4. A dynamic group team build and visioning exercise that will result in lasting cohesion and bonding – at an intellectual level and at the level of personal relationships. Our experience is that the results are much more sustainable than the usual river rafting physical adventures and just as much fun! The quality of relationships in a team changes permanently as individuals start to truly talk and listen to each other.
5. A new awareness of the real benefits of diversity – that far from being a cost, an efficiency risk or a burden – variety truly is the spice of life. Nature truly understands and we learn that without diversity eco-systems, including human eco-systems, start to die.
6. An accurate and useful survey and measurement of personal energy (a “snapshot”) and of the energy levels in the organisation and the design of a diagnostic “camera” to take home.
7. Leadership Blue and Red.pdf.

What about outcomes?

1. A very compelling shared sense of what the client could aim to achieve emerges – what is possible for a high energy team? This is called a Quantum Leap – a destination way, way beyond where the team has previously aimed. With that comes a personal commitment from all who participated in this emergence.
2. For each willing participant – a plan for balance and authenticity in the rest of one’s life, done simply, powerfully and in personal peace. This is a plan for living more fully.
3. A set of very effective “fractal” tools – tools that become habits – which will enable participants to journey with enhanced confidence and sustainability where they, and the organisation, are living much closer to their full potential.
4. A much wider awareness of what real leadership of Africa entails and a newfound capacity to lead differently but with much greater effect. We like to think of it as the difference between driving and flying.
5. Significantly more trust and deeper insights into the relationships which make up the team. These high levels of trust are achieved through an interactive combination of intellectual and experiential exercises. The outcomes are much more sustainable than bungi jumping or white water rafting.
6. Lots of learning, lots of good hard work, some real “aha’s” and unforgettable fun in delightful surroundings.
7. A set of new pictures that supports a lasting awareness and understanding of willing positive human energy as the driving force of legendary individuals and teams. A new way of behaving, a new way of being that makes a leader.

Approach

We use an integrative approach in the sense that we draw from the best of business, scientific and human development thinking. Our learning process is considered to be pragmatic in execution, and many participants say its impact is profound and lasting. The Learning to Lead team meets with members of the top management team prior to the program to gain a deep insight into the issues facing the client. The program is then designed to address these specific issues in an innovative and lively way.

We provide participants with practical tools that they can use every day in their families, communities and organisations to bring about sustainable change. But we do not claim to be the latest, ‘quick-fix’ concept that will ensure success. The success of our programs relies on participants using the array of tools we provide against the background of new and compelling pictures of how humans work best as individuals, together and in teams.

Using practical exercises, stories, partnerships, group work, discussions and other exciting methods, participants experience and identify the inhibitors, which adversely affect their performance and the achievement of their objectives. We call these energy traps and we learn to see them and escape them. At the same time we identify those things we do which boost energy and which we need to do more of.

We have synthesised the experience into 8 Modules over 2 days of teaching. Each module takes approximately 2 hours.

Testimonials