Longer, Slower, Deeper: Increasing consultancy effectiveness.

Corporate Boards must prepare for a radical shift in thinking! On Monday, 9 December 2013, The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) launched the new IR – International Reporting Framework. The IR Framework will set the standard for Boards in how they report on their impact: financially, environmentally and now socially. In order to do this, crucially Boards will have to change how they think. Increasingly, Boards need to be able to articulate the way that they create ‘value’ and how to tell it in a new way. This requirement for integrated thinking, for many, will be new. How different parts of an organisation come together to affect a product or process is necessarily complex. As Susanne Stormer, VP Global Triple Bottom Line of Norvo Nordisk says, ‘The next frontier is in understanding the interactions, the dynamics [our emphasis] between different capitals’ [by which she means capital as an exchange-concept not capital cities].

So, how do Boards get help in thinking in this new way? By working with consultants, coaches and trainers who have experience of The Tavistock Institute’s methodologies, in particular those who have participated in the Certificate in Dynamics at Board-Level programme.

The Certificate in Dynamics at Board-Level is now open to applications for its second cohort. The programme will run as 4 x 2-day modules, residential, from May to October 2014. Delivered at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park to the west of London, the course will give participants, all senior practitioners in their own right, access to TIHR methodologies and thinking to deepen their practice. The cohort is carefully constructed to ensure that the right level of seniority, mix of gender and geography create an optimal learning environment.

Guest faculty from the Institute and other significant players in Boardroom Development will contribute to the learning experience of participants. A participant in the 2013 cohort said about the concepts and learning on the course:

‘…I was amazed how I could put them in practice from day 1 with my own clients. The learning was really deep and powerful‘.

2014 promises to challenge all Board-Level players to up their game, the IIRC Framework shares deep resonances with the thinking that TIHR established over 80 years ago, creating organisations that are better for society as a whole. As Professor Mervyn King, President of the IIRC says in relation to the IR Framework, ‘there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come’. He could just as easily be referring to the Tavistock Institute’s Certificate in Dynamics at Board-Level!

Applications are now being invited for the next programme beginning in May 2014. For a brochure with full details including outline, fees, venue and module dates or if you have any questions, please contact Rachel Kelly, Professional Development Coordinator:

e: R.Kelly@tavinstitute.org
t: +44 (0)20 7417 0407