The werk4
Leadership Journey
For leadership teams, middle managers and especially team and product leads in the tech industries.
The Leadership Journey is a process which develops individuals and organisations and allows the competencies of leaders to be linked to productivity and success of the organisation.
Launch yourself or your company on a voyage of learning and consolidation of essential leadership practices that fit your sense of purpose and integrity.
Werk4 has been driving change projects and developing leaders for over 35 years
The Leadership journey
development path designed for tech industries, with flat / agile leadership structures and an affinity to online collaboration
A timebound adventure. The leadership journey is a 10–12 month program designed to run 100% online.
This timeframe sends messages that are central to our beliefs:
- Learning takes time
- To develop, you need to see your current behaviour reflected against “what the book says” and make your own mind up
- Leadership is serious – and so is the development track
- Confronting your own personal learning disabilities and blockers is fundamental in accepting learning design
According to research “every dollar invested in leadership development yields a ROI ranging from $3-11, with average ROI of $7″
Werk4 is a change management and leadership consulting organisation based out of Vienna, Austria. Our motto is “development professionals” and our mission is to make leaders conscious of their leadership responsibilities and change potential.
Journey elements
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Kick off
Participants and consultants come together for the first time. Programme overview. First dive into leadership concepts. Pre-work description for the checkpoint. In case of an in-house journey, executive sponsors attend.
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Checkpoint preparation
The “checkpoint” is a 2 hour discussion where you describe your learning goals and your “masterpiece”. To prepare for this, you are going to ask 4-6 people what they think of your skills, and where they think you can grow. We give you 4 weeks for this phase.
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Checkpoint
You’ll share your feedback findings, and flesh out your “masterpiece”, which is a business project you are going to tackle in order to practice the leadership skills that have an impact on your business, and you want to develop.
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Trinity learning + webinar-live. (TLset)
Leadership concepts delivered over pre-recorded filmsets, viewed in trios (trinity learning groups) that are set up at the beginning of the journey and re-shuffled over the course of the year. Then, 90-120 minutes webinar live with the full cohort to allow the participants to exchange, hear examples of real-life experience and really practice the related communication skill.
The journey contains 15 TLsets spread over the year and is the absolute heart of a system that trains organisations in “self-motivated learning”.
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Practice sessions
2 x 2 hours in trios to practice the leadership essentials of “leading with questions”, “critical feedback” and “active listening”.
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A 3-hour discussion process with 4 participants to deep dive into each participant’s current business situations and challenge. The learning group process & structure is action focussed in nature and provides participants with real-time solutions to real time problems they are facing in their organisations. The ALG is also a template for peer-to-peer coaching and problem solving. AFTER the journey, you’ll want to set this up internally as a “sensible approach to leadership exchange”.
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Closing session and close out report
The formal end of the journey. A discussion of achieved learning goals and the progress of their “masterpiece”, and a retrospective of the learning journey process and content. For in-house journeys, executive sponsors are invited to discuss “key leadership challenges for the organisation”.
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Why is a long time a good time?
- because “practice makes perfect”
- because “if you know it but you don’t use it, you don’t know it”
Committed to online development
Even before the pandemic, “blended learning” was a werk4 design principle.
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20 years ago, we had sales reps on telcos reporting on meeting results to the trainers and their peers on a weekly basis.
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15 years ago, we championed “fixed line meetings” over video conferencing and glass fibre networks for cross country project teams.
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7 years ago, we were doing “roleplay-online” over MS teams
because it is small, repetitive and “bite sized”
The story of Online Training
Why Choose The Leadership Journey, the Werk4 method?
The German word “Werk” has a double meaning.
- A work of art, a masterpiece in the making
- A place of work, a factory, an assembly hall
Seasoned experienced professionals
Passionate in their fields, from a multi-national background
Internal quality guidelines
To match our clients internal processes
Proven positive record
Our consultants came from, and grew up through their industries
Unique approach
Our consulting and change background leads us to make recommendations on organisational development
Not just an online course
With months of continuous learning, trainees will have the guarantee of a series of positive outcomes.
Resource Guarantee
We have capacity to run journeys for 300 candidates simultaneously (for large initiatives)
Pricing
If you are an individual who is paying on your own:
- Get in touch
- We will send you the Journey overview
- You’ll pay in 3 stages
- The total journey price is €3500, and includes approx. 80 hours of investment / not including the individual effort needed to run your feedback discussions (approx. 5 hours additionally)
If you represent a company:
- Get in touch
- We will take the time to discuss your specific needs and tailor the best approach
NGO?
For NGOs that can convince us that you are saving peoples lives or generally helping the world to be a better place, our content is free (apart from all the time and energy you need to invest to make it work!)
Who is it for and what are the organisational benefits?
New Leaders
I have taken over a team and I am struggling to even begin working out what I should do, what’s important, what I might be doing wrong – I need something that gives me a fundamental orientation in leadership direction, and grows with me over time.
Fast Growth Companies
We’ve never invested much into training before – apart from technical skills. Now we have promoted all or best technicians into lead positions and are growing fast. The old guard needs to hand over responsibility and the new management tier wants a common language.
Ownership Shifts
Buy-outs, take-overs and mergers have doubled our size within a few years. We don’t know who we are, our identity is questioned. Lots of well-intentioned leads who expect more than a band-aid or quick fix. We need to work on our culture and values.
High Leadership Demands
Everybody needs leadership skills, personal mastery and good communication because our values say that everyone needs to come to the table with a decision and stand up for their ideas.
Structural Changes
We have split the traditional leadership function into 2 – with team leads managing the teams, and product leads managing the quality of product development. This has created the situation where everyone (almost everyone) is a leader in their own domain, and needs the skills to support this vision.
Common Language
We had a couple of years where we hired a bunch of leaders from big corporate – and they all have a different playbook.
From Start-up to Grown-up
We are transitioning from a start-up mentality into a more mature organisation with established processes – decision making is taking longer and we need a discussion around leadership to ensure that our spirit and quality doesn’t get lost in confusion.
Organizational Development
We are a massive blue-chip organisation – we’ve probably tried everything in the past, and are looking for a programme which is fresh and speaks to a younger audience in terms they can understand. Through this, we are looking to change or enhance the way we think about organisational development.
Our Customers
Some reasons why we work with leaders for years and years
Leadership journey participant
‘’This program really makes a difference. The way it’s organised over the span of a few months, it gives you the opportunity to implement the concepts in real life and receive feedback in Q&A sessions. ’’
Leadership journey participant
‘’This has been a true learning experience for me. Ive got seriously valuable input from the meeting management discussions, which have helped in designing consistent quality in meeting outcomes.’’
Leadership journey participant
‘’this program has managed to help me create “continuous conversation” as opposed to a “1-off” for the ongoing topics of motivation and well-being.’’
Leadership journey participant
‘’This was a lesson in active listening for me. I’ve learnt how to “let people find their way”, it really improved my delegation skills’’
If you want to read positive reviews, there are some examples here. An eventual client needs references to put in front of their decision makers, and these need to come from comparable industries and professionals.
When we get to this stage, we’ll supply you with referees and case studies.