Solution

AKF partnered with The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)® to design and deliver the WiL programme. It kicked off with a co-led meeting with opening remarks from the AKF General Manager and an inspiring keynote speech by an Afghani executive from Roshan Telecom, who shared insights from her journey to become a female leader in a complex environment.

The WiL programme design engaged a multi-module and multi-modal format over a 6-month period to create safe spaces for honest discussions and active exercises leading to heightened experiences. The 4 core modules, which were presented in live online sessions, focused on the following themes:

• Women’s Leadership Identity and Self Awareness
• High Stakes Communication
• Building Networks and Partnerships
• Power and Influence

CCL infused WiL’s learning journey with a thoughtful variety of lessons, experiences, and conversations which were each tied to the participants’ personal leadership challenges. In addition to the live online core modules, the programme elements designed to boost engagement and learning included:

• 3 assessments, debriefed by an International Coaching Federation (ICF)-certified CCL executive coach
• 6 hours of executive coaching across the 6-month training period
• A conversation with each participant’s line manager to understand the AKF leadership landscape
• 3 intermodular sessions focused on effective leadership from an equity, diversity, and inclusion perspective for participants, allies, sponsors, and line managers
• A capstone event to celebrate achievements and share stories
• Informal “Learning Circles” hosted by AKF to build relationships between core modules
• A Reflection Journal jointly developed by CCL and AKF for participants to record their learning experiences, insights, and thoughts

An action-oriented 6-month AKF mentorship component connected to a Collaborative Learning Project to ensure sustainable impact post-programme.

Solution

In partnership with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)®, Cognizant’s Leadership Development Academy designed its signature women’s leadership development program, Propel, for mid- and senior-level women leaders across the globe. A journey that began in 2018, the program was collaboratively designed to accelerate a diverse leadership pipeline and enable women business leaders to thrive and succeed in a digital era.

“It has been an exhilarating experience to have over 1,000 of our trailblazing women leaders go through the Propel program. We partnered with the Center for Creative Leadership to create this development journey that has helped us build a community of women leaders which supports and celebrates one another,” shares Sreedevi Palit, Solution Architect and Program Manager of Propel. 

The 3-month Propel experience includes: 

• Expert sessions with CCL faculty, aligned to themes enabling women leaders to amplify their leadership brand, enhance executive presence, and expanding their strategic networks;
• Mentoring support;
• Peer networking and access to internal and external leaders and thought leaders; and
• Building a community of women that supports and celebrates one another.

With a sharpened focus on global gender diversity in their leadership pipeline, Cognizant pledged to MAKERS – a global organization dedicated to inspiring change-makers of tomorrow – to put 1,000 high-performing women in leadership levels through Propel by the end of 2021. 

Solution

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)® is committed to supporting our work to strengthen leadership for social change — creating leaders who can embrace change, build strong teams, and successfully overcome challenges they face, particularly in educational communities.

A sizable endowment from alumna Dr. Margaret Waddington has enabled CCL, in partnership with the Vermont Principals’ Association, to provide a leadership development program for K-12 leaders across the state. The Dr. Margaret Waddington Institute for School Leadership flagship program launched in 2017, and has served almost half of Vermont’s principals to date. 

“The Vermont Principals’ Association is committed to developing and growing leadership skills in Vermont School Leaders. Our partnership with CCL through the Dr. Margaret Waddington Institute for School Leadership has been an immense blessing. Evaluations at the end of the program clearly demonstrate the strong positive effect on school leaders. The networking, skill training, and understanding of self as a leader is instrumental in successful outcomes for participants. It is our hope that every single educational leader in Vermont will have the opportunity to participate in the program; it is simply outstanding.,” said Jay Nichols, Executive Director of the Vermont Principals’ Association and Vermont 2018 Superintendent of the Year.

The goals of this cohort-based multi-session program are to:

• Develop principal capacity to create a positive school culture;
• Increase psychological capital of principal participants;
• Improve principal ability to build trust with their teachers and staff; and
• Help principals feel supported through a collaboration network of school leaders across the state.

This year-long, innovative leadership development program for K-12 principals features a mix of learning applications, including: 

• Face-to-face and virtual classroom sessions
• Curated leadership tools, books, and video content
• Personalized executive coaching (both in-person and virtual follow-up calls)

Solution

Jollibee Foods Corporation chose to partner with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)® out of a desire to form a trusting relationship with a solution provider. JFC wanted a partner that would work closely to understand the company’s unique needs and develop a solution that would deliver results.

The journey began with a custom face-to-face coaching skills program, Coaching for Greater Effectiveness, provided to 200 top leaders at JFC. Starting with senior leaders allowed for buy-in and support of the initiative, and ultimately led to increased traction as the larger-scale conversational skills program, Better Conversations Every Day (BCE), was rolled out to all managers through a train-the-trainer model.

The program was pivoted to a live online virtual format in 2020 to nimbly adapt to the COVID-19 situation and continue the momentum of the initiative.

The CCL team worked closely with JFC to co-create the journey and program design, making adjustments along the way to maximize the impact in both the face-to-face and virtual environments. The journey included learning modules, assessments, online digital tools, and post-program pulse checks.

Involvement of JFC leaders throughout the process was a critical success factor. In addition to participating as sponsors and key stakeholders, a number of JFC leaders were trained as virtual breakout room hosts and led the small group discussions. The approach further increased the level of coaching capability within the organization and created comfort as participants were able to speak their local language.

Incorporating learnings from initial sessions into future iterations was key to maximizing the ROI for the initiative. With accumulated exposure to virtual coaching and training, it became apparent that facilitators and coaches needed to adopt additional tools and techniques to maintain high levels of engagement with participants. More interactive activities, such as polling, annotation, and quizzes were utilized in the program design as a result.

Solution

Having worked with CCL previously to boundary-spanning capabilities across the organization, Kao Americas decided to work hand-in-hand with CCL again to undertake a customized, multi-phase, highly immersive effort to define the organization’s strategic priorities and align its culture for success.

The work began with identifying the goals and the required cultural attributes to support those goals by engaging its senior leadership team and 50 additional strategic leaders from every sector, function, and level of the business. The leaders examined the current values, practices, and behaviors within the organization and then defined what a healthy culture should look like to drive its strategy forward.

“It’s essential that we started there, capturing the voices and perspectives of stakeholders and getting them involved in the process in a way that would immediately begin to shift the culture,” says Mike Smith, Strategic Business Partner at CCL. 

This foundational work would prove critical as Kao ran headlong into an unprecedented roadblock: the COVID-19 pandemic. Work as the organization knew it ground to a halt, just as it had begun to pilot the first conversations around cultural attributes with in-person workshops. 

Realizing this format would no longer work, the newly formed Culture Champions Team tapped to spearhead the rollout plan regrouped and shifted to virtual “Culture Circle Conversations” with pared-down content designed to produce engaging discussions. The result: free-flowing conversations across functions and employee levels that facilitated the understanding of cultural attributes needed to further enhance the organization and build momentum for the transformation.

“The work we did in the first phase actually positioned us well to respond to the pandemic. Pivot was our word of the year in 2020,” Carolyn recalls. “We had to be resilient as a change team. We were adapting and learning and supporting each other through extremely difficult challenges — exhibiting the behavior that we wanted to see across our organization.”

With strong support from senior leadership, the culture change was brought to life in 2021 through high-impact experiences that introduced new content, tools, and resources to the entire organization.

Attributes such as learning agility, emotional intelligence, psychological safety, and a growth mindset were honed in on, to strengthen collective behaviors and instill new culture practices to the day-to-day work at Kao.

Soon, new leadership practices that supported the desired people-centered culture began taking hold in their everyday work.

Solution

The Global Fund engaged CCL and its partner the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) to design and deliver the Elevate program. The partnership’s discovery work with the Global Fund determined that, individually, many Global Fund professionals were highly adaptive leaders. It was the organization’s collective capacity to adapt that needed unlocking. Together CCL, GCSP, and the Global Fund designed a multi-module and multi-modal program that would focus on developing collective practices to support a more positive and adaptive culture. Participants included the Management Executive Committee as well as their direct reports, and midlevel managers. In total, the Global Fund’s 180 most senior people managers embarked on Elevate.

With a learning journey spanning 4 modules across 2 ½ years, Elevate engages participants through multiple modalities:

• 1-day Workshops
• Assessments
• Individual coaching
• Experiential simulations
• Momentum boosting clinics
• Short agility bursts

The Global Fund is nearing deployment of Elevate’s fourth module. Module 1 focused on Mental Agility and introduced the Theory of Change. This set the scene for Module 2, where the focus was on People Agility and challenged participants to build, nurture, and role-model a climate of psychological safety, trust, collaboration, and personal growth. Module 3, fully virtual, was titled Change Agility and focused managers on the adaptive requirement to navigate paradoxes that are not problems to solve, but tensions to lead.

Solution

A deeply entrenched international presence and perspective, combined with research-based solutions and program-customization capabilities, positioned CCL as the right partner to develop the Leading the Future Program.

A cohort of senior leaders from Glanbia offices in the U.S. and Ireland was selected to participate in the program, representing teams from across the organization. The program was centered around 3 immersive experiences to introduce participants to a global perspective — each devoted to high-priority leadership skills — and held in the following locations:

• Palo Alto, California (Silicon Valley): Disruptive Thinking and Future Mindset
• Shanghai, China: Innovation and Global Mindset
• Dublin, Ireland (Glanbia headquarters): Leading the Enterprise

Experiences featured visits to organizations situated in program locations, and were bolstered by an international group of thought-provoking guest speakers. The Institute for the Future, PayPal, Baozun, and the Accenture Innovation Center were among the organizations participating in the program.

The experiences challenged participants’ perceptions and points of view, further instilled a change-positive state of mind, and generated an in-depth understanding of leadership’s business and personal sides, including:

• Ability to transition from a tactical business-unit role to empowered enterprise level strategic thinking and decision-making
• More calculated risk-taking — and less fear of failure
• Courage to dream, think differently, and pursue unconventional paths
• Renewed emphasis on current business, while creating a framework for future growth
• Enhanced global outlook reaching beyond geographical borders
• Wider understanding of digital advances and their positive impact
• Empathetic leadership style, and agility in accommodating an evolving and diverse workforce
• Adeptness at attracting and retaining early-career leaders who have business-critical skills

Leaders participating in the program are further skilled in navigating not only through disruption but also within a company culture where innovation flourishes freely across lines of business.