Training & Consultancies
We help you enhance the skills of your leaders, managers and human resources partners to translate strategy into actionable plans. we connect business, culture, and people for enduring performance.
PURPOSE-LED TRANSFORMATION
Hardwiring Strategy, People and Performance
Every organization needs a purpose. Beyond profitability. A clear, authentic and powerful ‘reason for being’ which shapes its strategic choices, drives decision-making and sets the goal posts of expected behavior.
Putting purpose at the core of strategy permits organizations to rally their employees around a shared goal. It creates emotional engagement with the customer and generates overall better outcomes. Without one, or one no longer in sync with evolving societal expectations and competitive realities, organizations lack focus, efficiency and meaningful growth. The dilemma is amplified by some organizations being stuck in modes of thinking and working which are out of step with the times.
Is your organization able to deliver on its mission-critical objectives?
Sustainably and with impact? AK+Partners’ Purpose-Led Transformation Program is designed to markedly improve organizational performance, build customer relevance and inspire stakeholders by changing underlying behaviors and capabilities. Bespoke to each client, the Program is a highly interactive two-phase journey which starts with shaping strategic orientation and aligning the team around the organization’s purpose
The first phase is about taking tough decisions for the future, agreeing on what not to do and about making informed choices to maximize sustainable performance. It is also about taking a deep dive into culture – the beliefs, values, rituals and symbols that govern the operating style within the client’s organization – and ensuring its congruence with the mission.
The second phase focuses on translating strategy into an implementable operating roadmap with metrics, defining new capabilities and setting talent development plans. Priority is placed on cascading the mission to all levels of the organization, and using corporate storytelling as a strategic tool to inspire and generate necessary inertia across different stakeholder groups.
The Program combines in-class workshops, virtual learning, individual coaching, 360-degree surveys, and different cognitive, culture and behavioral assessments to build knowledge, real-world skills, and transform silo thinking into a winning team approach. Its durability rests in sustained involvement with our clients over an extended period (typically 12 to 18 months) during which we continue to address gaps and quick wins to socialize desired people behaviors, build capabilities and drive established mission-critical objectives. Again, both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of this phase is guided by each client’s phase one and two experience.
Simplicity, immediate impact and minimizing risk, while maximizing change, are the success measures for each mandate.
Investing in purpose pays. Let’s start the dialogue.
"With their broad and in-depth business knowledge, their proven, practical experience and their intuition, Stéphanie and her executive partners greatly supported us not only in teambuilding, but mainly also in focusing on existing and new business areas, and building a respective strategy and action plan. They're a great team, and helped us becoming a great team, too!"
Simon Maurer — Skyguide, 2017
CATIL® Leadership Profiling & Talent Review
Most succession planning decision relies on the assessment of the supervisor of the potential of their employees. Add objectivity and rigour in the talent assessment leveraging on scientifically validated tools to Identifying, Growing and Nurturing your Talent.
We will work with you to build a customised process and benchmarks gaining speed and reliability in your people’ s readiness assessment. The assessment reports will enable you to conduct meaningful career dialogue, plan individual and group wide development programs.
- Define the most determinant success factors for each position in your organization with our integrated and fully customizable CATIL solution.
- Assess your talent against key position criteria and gain an objective and complete view into your talent pool and leadership pipeline.
- Formulate targeted development initiatives for each individual focusing on their main improvement areas while leveraging from their strengths.
- Design and plan organization development allocating resources where there is maximum impact for the business today and into the future.
- Enhance recruitment and succession planning processes, methodologies and tools with simple and complete job profiling.
- Redesign and better align reward and incentives programs to shape best-in-class teams.
"The CATIL talent review process really impressed me, putting the finger on the dot of something we intuitively knew, though translating it into an amazingly precise description of employees. It is fascinating to see how such a simple tool can be that powerful."
Boet Brinkgreve - President Firmenich China & President Ingredients Division, 2015
Team Development Programs
Every organisation has the ambition to have a collaborative workforce. Collaboration is either an inner drive or a way to fulfil a purpose. The only way to achieve both is to bring the team together, help them understand their differences, increase tolerance, work on common objectives. we achieve this with customise team development day which little by little boost team performance.
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
- Leading team reflection towards solutions and objectives setting
- Enhance relationships and collaboration
- Assess team’s attributes to determine strength and development area
- Building action plans, collective and individual
Leadership Academy
Agile Pillar (5 days): Gain agility in navigating through complex people and business situations
- Decode the Human: Develop your emotional intelligence, get insights on self-leadership and gain impact on others.
- Listen to Influence: Explore realities with powerful questions, influence others, create a culture of collaboration through feedback.
- Inspire to Grow: Adapt communication styles to situations, empower your teams, foster continuous improvement. Become a mentor.
- Lead Complex Negotiation: Capitalize on your negotiation experience to excel, learn a unique and pragmatic method: PACIFICAT© developed by ADN Group. Empower your teams to win and stop being “hostages”.
Advance Pillar (4 days): Increase your impact as a leader and contribute to advanced team performance
- Manage People to Perform with PI: learn what drives your people, gain a deep understanding of what motivates them, work on your leadership style.
- PI Masters: Become a PI practitioner (2 days instead of 1 day). Learn how to decode the full PI results and get certified, understand how it applies to recruitment – team development – coaching and succession planning, train on how to give meaningful PI readback.
- Build Winning Teams: Create synergy and collaboration, empower the team to gain autonomy and flexibility, boost innovation and creativity.
- Lead Team to Success: Understand the ingredients to team performance, assess team behaviors for continuous improvement, establish modus operandi and values for sustainable performance (360Feedback included).
Accelerate Pillar (4 days): Think the business, develop a sound Strategy an accelerate execution
- Set your Vision: Spot your business implications through a deep analysis of the context and competitive landscape; identify key leverage points and your competitive advantage to shape your mission and objectives, lead ideation to define your ”must win battles“. Make strategic choices beyond the obvious, assess opportunities and align on priorities, create team development plan to lead execution.
- Inspire People to Execute: Review your roadmaps, assess organisation and capabilities, boldly communicate your vision. Understand the enablers and disablers to your success, define your critical positions and critical capability gaps, assess your talent pool.
Influencer's Academy
Agile Pillar (3 days): Get the awareness and skills you need to fuel your influence
- Decode the Human: Develop your emotional intelligence, get insights on self-leadership and gain impact on others.
- Listen to Influence: Explore realities with powerful questions, influence others, create a culture of collaboration through feedback.
- Inspire to Grow: Adapt communication styles to situations, empower your teams, foster continuous improvement. Become a mentor.
Advance Pillar (3 days): Deepen your understanding of people and business thinking to gain more impact
- Manage People to Perform with PI: learn what drives your people, gain a deep understanding of what motivates them, work on your leadership style to influence your organization.
- Practice your Influence: Deal with complex situations, conflicts, difficult people and messages. Remain a positive influencer and lead to successful outcomes.
- Think the Business: Learn and apply techniques, build a successful business case to best position your unique value proposition.
Accelerate Pillar (3 days): Steer discussions adding value to your team and achieve ambition
- Lead Complex Negotiation: Capitalize on your negotiation experience to excel. Learn a unique and pragmatic method: PACIFICAT© developed by ADN Group. Empower your teams to win and stop being “hostages”.
- Be a Change Agent: Understand your environment and influencing factors, measure impact of change, plan and follow up for quick wins.
Recruiting Academy
Agile Pillar (2-3 days): Sharpen your interviewing skills to adapt to new demanding environment
- Master Questioning: Engage into a meaningful dialogue from probing to feedback, create a valorizing experience for your candidate, ensure you leave a good impression.
- Know what Are You Looking For to Find it: Define job critical success with stakeholders, work as a team to investigate best fit candidates, practice-practice-practice… to probe evidences.
- Virtual Class: Virtual Interviewing Practice Classroom (90 min): Leverage from experience and excel, get feedback from peers and experts in a small group set-up.
- Webinar: Discover Diagnostic Tools to Decode Your Candidate (1 hour): Learn more about behavioral and cognitive assessments and Interview Guide support.
Advance Pillar (3 days): Increase your efficiency and confidence in recruitment and boosting your employer branding
- Decode de Human! PI Masters: Become a PI practitioner. Learn how to decode the full PI results and get certified, understand how it applies to recruitment, team development, coaching and succession planning, train on how to give meaningful PI readback.
- Attract Passive Candidates: Learn methodology to build long-term relationships, understand motivations and create mutual interests, play an active role in searching for passive candidates.
- Webinar: Hiring in Today’s World (1 hour): Understand evolution in attracting and acquiring talents, discover the elements impacting your role.
Accelerate Pillar (3 days): Master Assessment to upscale!
- Refresh your Practice – For PI Masters only: Leverage from your experience, ensure you apply best-practices, get more personal feedback on your skills. Test yourself.
- Design Your own Assessment Centre – AC: Learn how to design an AC from A to Z, discover tools to gain focus in your assessment and best-practices, save time and be efficient.
Becoming a PI Practitioner™
The most powerful leadership and management tool used by over 9,000 companies around the globe. The objective of the 2 days seminar is to equip the human resources and management team with a common language and an efficient management tool for operational and strategic people decisions. During the workshop, participants will discover the power of PI Behavioral Assessments™ and its diverse application to recruitment, development, coaching, profiling job success, organization design, succession planning, and team building.
To register, contact us.
Managing People to Perform™
This 1-day workshop enables participants to develop increased self-awareness and an understanding of what drives day-to-day behaviors. The participants will discover the fundamentals of the PI Behavioral Assessment™, its four factors and how each natural profile influences the management and communication style. The aim is to equip the management team for an impactful communication and management.
Masterclass Complex Negotiation - Essentials
Negotiations have become increasingly complex: pressure linked to time, stakes which are difficult to pinpoint, multiple stakeholders, irrational behaviour, threats, bad faith, ultimatums. The ADN Complex Negotiation Masterclasses are based on an operational and pragmatic approach relying on the unique experience of the ADN founders. These masterclasses are organised around the PACIFICAT© referential and are addressed to all involved in negotiating: human resources, social relations, buying/ selling, crisis negotiation, diplomacy, client, etc.
Train efficient negotiators using a practical approach based on « in the field » experiences. Provide a unique and pragmatic referential to prepare, conduct, close and debrief all types of negotiations. Understand the human factor and integrate psychology in the relations during complex negotiations. Get the participants to practice after every theoretical input to better anchor efficient practices.
Pre and post tests will help each participant in identifying capabilities, development areas and team complementarity.
In summary, during the workshop you will: develop in-depth understanding of advanced negotiation; be more efficient and effective in complex situations; build team performance to strive in the most challenging negotiation and projects.
Strategy is nothing without execution. Our approach is holistic. Enduring.
It focuses on the ‘what’ (developing the vision, mission, strategy and operating plan) and the enablers, the ‘how’ (addressing culture, leadership, teams and organization design). It implies individual awareness and teamwork, and in making aspirations tangible by translating them into behaviors/actions.
We are proposing a highly interactive and thought-provoking three-step process which can be delivered in a 2 to 3 days workshop as an initial building step. It focuses on the environment in which business operates, the key functional areas of management, and the development and implementation of corporate and business unit strategy.
It is based on a collaborative learning environment with emphasis on senior executive facilitation combined with intensive interaction within Managers’ group of peers (from across the world and business units) to promote the informal exchange of ideas and expand perspectives.
CATIL® Talent Assessment & Interviewing Techniques Workshop
Enhancing talent management with CATIL® translates into reducing waste of time and money due to recruitment mistakes, unwanted turnover, loss of talent; and poor succession planning. The CATIL® interview is about asking powerful questions and making the most of it. This leadership development workshop covers all steps of a recruitment interview and delivers an effective methodology for a systematic probing of required competencies. Practical exercises are presented by experienced recruiters who coach each participant to optimize the learning experience.
CATIL® Coaching Techniques
Developing talent and preparing an organization succession pipeline is key to performance sustainability. CATIL® coaching is about enabling your line manager and HR professional to take an active role in the growth of employees by transforming performance issues into concrete development actions and shaping future leaders for success. The workshop provides participants with the knowledge and skills to handle delicate, frank conversions and to generate actionable development plans. Practical exercises are led by experienced coaches to maximize participants’ learning experience. For PI analysts, the workshop provides an opportunity to learn how to apply the PI Behavioral Assessments™ for enhanced preparation and a greater focus on employees’ needs during coaching sessions.
Delegation Essentials
Efficiency is an imperative for companies in present times. Delegation is a must for leaders and managers to increase work speed, reach greater success, rapid progress of employees and make time for other strategic responsibilities.
Delegation is an empowerment of others, which means it takes a certain form of courage for executives to put responsibility in employees’ hands. Sharing the decision making with people when you are the one accountable for the results of what was delegated is a perceived as a risk for some leaders – an investment for others.
To empower and grow people takes skills and techniques: to delegate efficiently means to know what needs to be handed to another employee, their readiness and motivation and how to deliver it through a constructive discussion. Ultimately, delegating is to grow people and boost entrepreneurship!
Objectives
Learn to assess “readiness” of employees and adapt your style with the Situational Leadership model and delegate efficiently with the coaching GROW model.
- Discover how to adapt styles based on readiness level and personality traits (refresher on key Drives – Predictive Index).
- Understand the fundamentals of delegation with the five “R” model.
- Manage the delegation through a coaching approach with the GROW model.
- Learn by doing and receiving BOOST feedback from peers.
Emotional Intelligence Essentials
“Assesses one’s own feelings, identifies and influences those of others.” Emotional intelligence is critical to success in our relationships: recognise own emotions, as well the ones of others and regulate them is the key to build bridges to and impact others. Understanding our differences and leverage on those for more a productive work.
Objectives
- Decode the human and gain self-awareness on the impact you have on others.
- Build your resilience and cope with pressure.
- Enhance your decision making when managing people.
- Boost collaboration and create synergy leveraging on people’s differences
- Enhance your leadership!
Listen to influence! Essentials
Communication is a must for any company across each industry. Valuable and important messages are constantly being communicated, and for the company to push progress further, all of them need to be heard and fully understood. Feedback is also necessary as it goes in pair with active listening, to communicate and improve upon what has been said. Sharing feedback with colleagues is just as important as listening to what they have to say intently, and it will boost the company’s success! This 1-day workshop consists in 2 modules covering the following:
Objectives
Active Listening
- Improving productivity and ability to influence, persuade and negotiate.
- Learning how to avoid conflict and misunderstandings to make the workplace even more successful.
- Staying focused during conversations and comprehending the complete message behind the other party’s words.
- Determining how to respond appropriately and get the information wanted out of people.
Feedback
- Mastering the art and methods of delivering a message the right way, even in most difficult cases.
- Understanding what to do and not do when giving feedback and using different models to structure it.
- Learning how to pass on difficult messages and boost people’s confidence.
- Help employees grow and improve to benefit the company and increase engagement.
Brain Bootcamp Essentials
Increase the value of your individual and team Collaborative Agile Performance (CAP). Based on theatre and improvisation training, this unique workshops will raise Awareness, build Agreement, enhance Agility and foster Alignment.
Developed by professional actors, the Brain Bootcamp will make you work on your focus, agility and team synchronisation without you even knowing you are working on it!
The workshop addresses Personal Effectiveness and Team Productivity, shaping a culture of collaboration and innovation. Our approach, unlike most communication or team workshops, immerses participants into a world of spontaneous creativity – no expertise required, no books, no theory. Active participation is at the heart of this unique experience. Memorable and impactful, the workshop builds Extra-sensory perception (your 6th sense) and intuition. Team performance is accelerated by synchronisation and acceptance. Collective trust is built and agreement leads to innovation, ideation and decision focus.
Objectives
- Deliver a training experience that will boost mental agility and readiness to respond under pressure in complex situations.
- Generate self-awareness, increase self-confidence, and enhance emotional intelligence.
- Develop collaborative instincts and empathy; find the inner strength to adapt to different people and contexts.
- Adapt behaviour and attitude to maximize performance and entrepreneurship.
- Increase results: influence and better sales, cross-functional alignment, leverage your human capital.
We recognize that every team has specific needs, therefore we develop bespoke programs. Our added value will be to focus on knowledge transfer and an holistic approach combining the business, your people and culture. We deliver among other things Assessment Centres, Development Centres, Executive Coaching, Change Management, Team Development and much more.
"I feel very fortunate to have been one of the first to have the chance to spend this day as part of the evaluation process for future managers. AK+Partners gave me lots of insights on myself and what to improve, it made me learn a lot of new aspects of my personality and my professional profile."
Development Center Participant, 2017
"Applying the key learnings of the Complex Negotiation workshop allowed me to significantly improve my efficiency for the preparation of sensitive interviews. By clarifying the fundamental purpose of the interview and determining the best way to open the discussion, the flow of the next steps to follow became so obvious, as if by magic! "
Catherine Reichlin - Mirabaud, 2018
"Truly a wonderful session! It was great to use the “Strategy House” model to formulate our Vision and Strategic Objectives, and now look forward to delivering a great Talent strategy for the business."
Anthony Smith, Firmenich, 2018
"We've been working with AK+Partners since 2009. Stephanie helped us to develop strategy for our business. She delivers great value and demonstrated a profound ability to learn quickly about your business environment which definitely helps to facilitate and challenge us during the workshop. Key in her workshops is that she forces teams to think bigger than just a strategy - but to think about the implementation and the resources each strategy will require."
Maria Tkalich — Nescafé, 2017