diversity & inclusion · dark world of organisational politics. simply put, career driven...

Divers i ty & Inc lus ion

© ABSTRACT 2019www.accelerateprogramme.com

Introducti on to ABSTRACT

Business Career Accelerator

Diversity & Inclusion ACCELERATE is a proven ‘Career Management Development’ Programme aimed at developing the growth of talented women in business who will lift others as they climb.

This programme has been meti culously researched and designed to fi ll the career skills gaps that will quickly help to accelerate a person’s career if applied correctly.

We are innovati ve soluti on providers and subject matt er experts with a proven track record in Diversity & Inclusion.

We specialise in creati ng and delivering Learning & Development programmes that change people’s lives by craft ing intelligent educati on within trusted frameworks, while embedding behavioural change to permanently improve performance and results.

We are currently based in Edinburgh, York, London, Northern Ireland and operate throughout the UK, Ireland, Poland, USA, India, Hong Kong and Dubai.

98% of all delegates said the ACCELERATE Programme

has made a qualifying diff erence to them Personally, to their

Career and to their Business.

In 2013 ABSTRACT were selected by the Financial Times as research partners on the subject of ‘Women in Business’.

1) Research BackgroundThe overall aim was to identi fy what it was about the very few women that reached the top of the business world and what their key accelerators were? Because of the low numbers of executi ve women in the FTSE 100, we also needed to identi fy what it was about the many women who didn’t reach the top and what their decelerators were?

2) MethodologyCollecti vely, we interviewed 100 women from FTSE 100 Companies with a variety of roles and positi ons from middle management to Executi ve status. Simultaneously, we interviewed 10 men from the FTSE 100 with a similar variety of roles and positi ons as our control group. The interview was controlled by a standardised questi onnaire to quickly establish the symptoms but also encouraged further questi oning to delve into the root causes.

3) Symptoms• Feeling or beliefs about not being good enough (imposter syndrome)• Sense of family betrayal if I am over committ ed to work• Felt like a lack of opportuniti es for people like me• Seems unsupported at work (and in some cases at home) • Belief that my work should speak for itself • Staying within my comfort zone is a good thing• I don’t know where I want to be• Politi cs has negati ve connotati ons

The Provenance


4) Root Causes• Lack of confi dence, usually stemming from their early years and being

reinforced throughout their learning years and adult years • Accepti ng the majority ownership or sense of responsibility for family life • The conscious and unconscious bias, acti ve at work • Intolerant managerial expectati ons and infl exible working conditi ons• Lack of career management skills and appeti te • Poor business and social networks • Failure to promote themselves and their brand • Lack of business sponsors • Disengaged with offi ce politi cs • Lack of focus around vision or longer term ambiti on • Lack of support programmes and specifi c networks

5) The fi ndingsThrough much research and many interviews, we discovered that there were fi ve main areas of diff erence between what many career-savvy business folk have been doing for centuries and where others tend to either disengage with or deliberately avoid:-

• Building and maintaining confi dence• Engaging with organisati onal politi cs• Developing personal brand• Seeking sponsors and uti lising mentors• Identi fying transferable skills and opportuniti es• Managing change and recalibrati ng

So we developed each area into a standalone module and pulled each module together under the banner of ‘ACCELERATE’ and fi nished it off with a sixth module to consolidate the learning.

We fi rmly believe that this programme provides the tools and inspirati on for anyone to manage their own careers successfully, so they don’t have to rely on the goodwill of someone else to manage it for them.

ACCELERATE Is Born

Generic research showed that there were 3 key fi lters that historically decelerated a woman’s career:

The conscious or unconscious bias This has been driven by our society for hundreds of years where men have predominantly employed men and generally promoted like minded men to do similar. There has recently been numerous government backed initi ati ves to re-educate society and businesses as to the value of women at higher levels, even to the point of issuing quotas through the Lord Davies report.

The family/career choice Again, prett y much driven by our society, as women begin full ti me or lifeti me careers, they have historically had to choose between the progress of their careers and the development of their families. We are in the midst of a mild revoluti on at present, where women and men are jointly considering the development of their families, whilst potenti ally balancing both careers.

The career skills/management gap We found that this was the part of the trilogy where we could add the biggest value. Although there has been enormous progress made through women’s networks, women were largely allowing their work to speak for themselves and not acti vely managing their careers upwards through various levels. These are the navigati onal diff erences that for hundreds of years have supported the meteoric development of mainly male careers.

Generic Research


Programme DevelopmentAft er much in-depth analysis and testi ng we were able to develop and design the programme content to the six vital components that clearly accelerated senior or executi ve careers.

Design & BuildWe designed the programme into a unique journey of discovery for the delegates. Transforming each of the six components into individual modules, to be run with impact over the course of 3 + 6 months. The delegates were encouraged to put what they had learned into practi ce and return in six months’ ti me to review their respecti ve progress. This 5 +1 modular process over the course of 9 months in total, creates peer pressure from within their cohort and drives individual responsibility to develop and succeed where possible.

ContentThe content is a wealth of intellectual property built to moti vate and drive self actualisati on. It is a mixture of ideologies, tools, techniques, models, assessments and reports. Each part builds into the next and creates a ti pping point during module fi ve, where it all comes together, handing over personal power to the delegates. It combines short lectures with self-refl ecti on, group work and the peer coaching of each other.

DeliveryEach module is delivered at pace by our carefully selected and impeccably trained facilitators. They are not only subject matt er experts, but they are industry experienced with a deep understanding of people. The key to a consistent and quality transfer of learning is in the arti sti c delivery. This includes changing the delegates mental states every 20 minutes, moving through various topics and working on individual tasks to working in pairs to working in small groups. Also, a large element of learning takes place with fun and by operati ng with each delegate’s respecti ve learning style.

ACCELERATE Context

Delegate CriteriaACCELERATE is delivered to cohort groups of up to 20 delegates using two expert facilitators to deliver each module. The delegates are typically in higher or intermediate managerial roles and have been identi fi ed as part of a talent populati on. Ideally cohort groups will be blended from across an organisati on to opti mise the learning experience and also to encourage the building of networks across diff erent business areas.

Programme ScheduleDelegates att end each of the following 5 modules every three weeks in succession across a three month period:M1. Building Superior Confi denceM2. Mastering Organisati onal Politi csM3. Maximising Your Personal Brand & Profi leM4. Att racti ng Sponsors & MentorsM5. Boardroom Expectati ons & Future ReadinessThe delegates collecti vely return six months later for: M6. Personal Progress Review

Primary Objecti ves3 Develop the talent pool at middle management.3 Promote gender diversity.3 Help close the gender pay gap.3 Encourage business area cross ferti lisati on.3 Build equal opportuniti es succession plan for the good of all businesses.

Secondary Objecti ves3 To seriously invest in the middle/senior ti er of business personnel.3 To develop the identi fi ed decelerators that can slow down a person's career.3 To improve the key personal and career navigati onal skills that some people have applied more naturally for many years.3 To assist talented people, so they may progress as far as they choose - right up to the boardroom if desired.

ACCELERATE Programme

M1. Building Superior ConfidenceDuring our research, we quickly discovered that one of the biggest career development gaps was personal confidence. It came as no surprise that some individuals were far more confident about applying for a promotional role, even though they perhaps had far less capability than some others that would not apply, but why? While it may be due to years of conditioning, we have proven that this can be overcome very quickly by understanding the six key elements of confidence. We also realised that by recognising and reinforcing our strengths, we appreciate and accept that confidence is purely situational. Also, the really confident people, tended to actively take every opportunity to push out of their respective comfort zones, providing there were related benefits with their identified career paths. Once harnessed, we found that it was also important to be able to manage the impact of everyday business stresses.

Key Objectives3 To appreciate that it is often ourselves that hold us back from breaking through the proverbial glass ceiling.3 To truly understand confidence and how it can be applied in certain situations.3 To recognise your own strengths and admire yourselves for all the good things that you do so well.3 To give yourselves permission to push out of your comfort zones.3 To apply and even maintain these tools and techniques when things get tough.

M2.Mastering Organisational PoliticsThere are a lot of misconceptions around the perceived dark world of organisational politics. Simply put, career driven people have been inconceivably more willing to engage with individuals and networks near and far in order to grease the wheels of their business and career objectives. It is short of naïve to think that the corporate world is an even playing field and that your work alone will get you noticed. So, wouldn’t it be great to be able to negotiate that most nebulous of concepts, the corporate culture? What if you discovered that there was such a thing as good politics? Every organisation has a political climate and avoiding it is not an option if your career is to survive and thrive. In this ground-breaking module, cultural intelligence is broken down into its constituent parts in order for you to be able to truly engage with the world of organisational politics, both constructively and authentically.

Key Objectives3 To define organisational politics as a good thing to engage with.3 To understand the key elements of organisational politics and manage the identified activities that will accelerate your career.3 To effectively manage your three dimensional business network so it helps yield your career objectives.3 To deliberately build personal trust within targeted areas of the business that will assist your career objectives.

M3. Maximising Your Personal Brand & ProfileBrand is often what determines our association with a particular product or company, so why should that principle be any different when applied to you as a businessperson. Whether you have deliberately designed it or not, you currently have a brand; those key traits and regular behaviours that others would instantly recognise as ‘you’. Wouldn’t it be powerful to invest the time to understand your personal brand, together with the impact it has on those around you? While being technically competent with reasonable levels of IQ is undoubtedly important, we found that those who had an equal balance of EQ (emotional intelligence) were more likely to connect and progress much quicker. In addition, you will explore ways to choose what you want to be renowned for, as well as how to design and improve your profile in a way that remains authentically true to you.

Key Objectives3 To understand the importance of your own personal brand and how this can affect your profile within the business.3 To create your own brand statement strapline & embed authentic behaviour.3 To undertake a business assessment for yourself to understand your effectiveness in certain situations.3 To understand the key components of Emotional Intelligence.3 To authentically manage your profile across the business.

ACCELERATE Modules & Objectives © ABSTRACT 2019www.accelerateprogramme.com

M4. Attracting Sponsors & MentorsAnother popular misnomer, is the concept of having a sponsor or mentor. For many years it has been the ‘must have’ for any aspiring executive, but how do you obtain one? Who should it be and what will they do? Who is advocating for you on those crucial promotion panels? Almost every key decision about your future career, including annual appraisal ratings and pay decisions will take place when you are not even in the room. To fulfil your career aspirations and potential, you will need both sponsors AND mentors. This may mean applying a variety of personal styles to open up opportunities. Once attained, you will need to contract with them and control what you want them to do, ultimately driving your desired career outcomes.

Key Objectives3 To understand the subtle and yet significant difference between sponsors and mentors. 3 To identify the sponsors and mentors you most need to fulfil your personal and career objectives.3 To influence your progress towards attaining sponsor and mentor support. 3 To develop your negotiation techniques in order to achieve your desired outcome(s).

M5. Boardroom Expectations & Future ReadinessWhether your board position is imminent or still an aspiration, this is where the attributes gained from the ACCELERATE Programme principles are put to the best of use. Everything you have learned along your career path has placed you another step closer to your goal and when you are almost there, you will discover that all the same principles apply, but they are severely magnified with the rewards and consequences greatly increased as well. This module examines the roles and responsibilities of a board. It highlights your transferable skills and guides you through the possible steps towards the boardroom, providing you with some of the tools and techniques needed to be resilient and commercially savvy enough to stay there.

Key Objectives3 To understand the roles and responsibilities of a Company board and be able to manage the boardroom environment.3 Discover the various routes to the boardroom and harness the expected boardroom behaviours.3 Know what your transferable skills are and where they might fit in along your journey.3 Be inspired and set your own board CV, taking the appropriate actions hereafter.

M6. Personal Progress ReviewHaving had a reasonable amount of time back in the business to practice and develop some of the tools and techniques learned throughout the first five modules, this final event allows you all to assess your commitments to yourselves and to your careers. It is also a great way to evaluate what has gone well or not so well and establish why. Knowing that there is some form of accountability for a suitable return on your investment, is not only good practice, but is far more likely to yield your desired results sooner rather than later. The ACCELERATE alumni get a final chance to network with peers from previous cohorts and meet key influential stakeholders from around the business.

Key Objectives3 To revisit what you have learned about yourself, sharing your personal experiences and best practices.3 Appreciate constant change and be adaptable and ready for the next change.3 Review, re-assess and re-calibrate where you are now and where you want to be.3 Explore your personal career vision and set your highest level goals so you are fit for the short and long term future.

© ABSTRACT 2019www.accelerateprogramme.comACCELERATE Modules & Objectives

Post Programme Development (additi onal)Alumni can return for this module approximately 12 months later.

ACCELERATE positi vely aff ects the livesof our delegates, our clients and

their respecti ve businesses.

www.accelerateprogramme.com

With increased responsibility in an ever-changing world, you will regularly need to have a suitable toolkit, becoming more naturally empowered to form sound judgement and make good decisions. In a 24/7 environment of informati on access, you may have become addicted to the ‘Want for Inclusion’. You will learn when to get involved and how to step away. You will also learn how to avoid the phenomena that is groupthink! The key to this module is taking the most complex of subjects and making it simple. In just a few moves you will be able to cut through the fog and clearly see the problem to solve, ask the right questi ons and make informed decisions from a simple trilogy of answers.

Criti cal Thinking

Key Objecti ves

3 Make miti gati ng and accepti ng risk part of the way you work and think.3 Engage and improve your judgement and decision making across the business.3 Increase your customer/stakeholder advocacy through doing the right things.3 Create clarity of thought and become most eff ecti ve at the highest of levels.

ACCELERATE Advanced Module

Source: ACCELERATE delegates over a 5-year period

ACCELERATE Destination Data

Essentially, the percentage of delegate outcomes can be filtered into the following categories:-

30% of delegates have been promoted or seconded into a higher position.

• Promoted• Seconded into a higher or more

senior role

34% of delegates have developed wider roles and responsibilities.

23% of delegates are happy with or managing their current status.

13% of delegates have a different scenario.

• Developed current position into a much wider role

• Changed position for a similar role with better prospects

• Negotiated better pay package• Applied for initial board positions

externally

• Improved capability to deal effectively in their current roles

• Happy to stick with their existing career choices

• Secured a more senior role in another organisation

• Gone or going on maternity leave or Career Break with a confident and planned approach

• Returned or returning to work with identified career aspirations and confidence

• Left the organisation


Revisited self-assessments revealed an increase in the following areas:-

Confidence

36% uplift in personal confidence.

This is an amazing increase which was reflected in the delegates attitudes and courage at the end of the programme.

Organisational Politics

Resilience Brand

37% uplift in engaged activities.

This is an incredible increase which was demonstrated by the delegates examples of everyday engagement and benefits.

100% of delegates can now identify with and actively promote their own brand.

Delegate Example Brand Statements:Secretariat: “I make the complex simple” Finance: “I am a people person, who works with numbers” Risk: “I separate the red flags from the noise”HR: “I get things done by challenging and inspiring others”

100% of delegates now have at least one specific or generic mentor.

This is not only satisfying but 52% of delegates are now acting as mentors themselves, for colleagues within their business, lifting others as they climb…

Sponsors Mentors

11% uplift when managing setbacks.

This was much lower, but not surprising, given that most delegates already had relatively high levels of resilience (70% average base line) working within challenging industries for many years.

100% of delegates have actively attracted several sponsors in strategic positions aligned to their overall career objectives.

This is encouraging as everyone now has someone willing to shout out their respective names in the corridors of power.

ACCELERATE Destination DataSource: ACCELERATE delegates over a 5-year period


Delegate Testi monials

This was the fi rst course I had been on that was purely focused on personal development. What I oft en say to people when I talk about ACCELERATE is

that it ‘lit a fi re in my belly’. I loved the programme, and took a huge amount away from it, parti cularly about myself. Very few Senior Manager roles come

up, so when the one I’m in now came up, I went for it. It was a bit of a gamble; I did a huge amount of preparati on for the interview referring back to my

course notes. In my interviews I referenced a tonne of what I’d learned about myself from the course. HR were present in the fi rst interview, and they were

parti cularly impressed with feedback I was able to reference from the course. I was delighted when I was off ered the job. I felt I had something to prove

(probably more to myself), and that I did!

Absolutely the best development program out there. I walk away from each session a bett er more confi dent manager and employee. The practi cal

applicati ons of criti cal thinking are a game-changer!

Client Testi monials

We have several elements to our ‘women in business’ delivery, though we have never experienced such a consistently positi ve response as the ACCELERATE

Programme has provided. Therefore, we have invited ABSTRACT to consult on the design and delivery of our Global Talent programme. ACCELERATE has given us the best set of feedback and engagement scores of any programme we have

delivered, ever!

Thanks again for all you have done for our Rising Stars. The Advanced module was extremely well received. ABSTRACT have gone out of their way to provide

so much support – the women feel it and I can’t tell you how much that means to them. More generally, you would be beaming with pride if you

could see your “graduates” putti ng the lessons you have taught them to work.

The Resonance

Consultati onA member of our executi ve team will conduct a carefully craft ed consultati on to understand where you are now, where you would like to be and by when.

Research & DevelopmentWe conduct our research and development within your specifi ed business areas to compile an accurate training needs analysis.

Design & BuildThe prescribed components are then designed and placed into the ACCELERATE framework to ensure maximum behavioural change of your delegates throughout delivery.

Programme DeliveryOur highly skilled, engaging and eff ecti ve coaches, presenters and facilitators are trained up to deliver the programme to our precise high standards.

Evaluati onWe measure the eff ecti veness of our delivery, together with the post programme assessment of your initi al objecti ves and return on investment.

Want to ACCELERATE the growth of female talent

within your business?

Book your consulta� onwww.accelerateprogramme.com

If not now...when?

ABSTRACT Methodology


Divers i ty & Inc lus ion

diversity & inclusion · dark world of organisational politics. simply put, career driven...

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