Kapirum has senior consultants and also a strong network of associates with complementary skills and experience.
People do not change unless they understand why, and it is only if we have this understanding that genuine personal commitment to change can be achieved. We use our skills to engage with people at a deeper level in order to make this happen.
Size and scope of projects
Kapirum has senior consultants and a strong network of associates with complementary skills and experience. We can do small coaching assignments but larger projects involving our team over several months. We would tailor the resources to the individual client's needs. We can work with your own staff/teams. We would discuss this with you and agree on the most effective model.
The virtual environment
This has come quickly with the COVID health crisis, but it is very likely that it will stay with us now in our working practices. Obviously, we do lose some things without face to face contact but what is needed, and what we can do for you, is provide managers with new skills to be effective in this new environment. For some time now my associates and I have been conducting coaching and many other development sessions online and clients have been positively impressed with the 'feel' of it and the results. With new skills, managers can achieve good engagement and impact on their communications.
Lego® Serious Play® Method
(both online and in person courses)
It is a facilitation technique for a new way of thinking, communicating and solving problems. It is based on a set of beliefs about leadership and organizations.
Because leaders do not have all the answers, their success depends on hearing all the voices in the room. Individuals deeply want to contribute, be part of something bigger, and have a sense of belonging. It is important that all participants have a voice.
This is why the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method leads individuals through a series of questions whose answers come from building 3D LEGO® models in response to the facilitator’s questions by using selected LEGO® elements. Starting from these 3D models, participants will be able to throw themselves into group discussions, knowledge sharing, problem solving and decision making. Whatever the participants’ culture and language, this method, through its techniques, will change conversation in business or organisations forever.
As Plato used to say: “You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than you can from a lifetime of conversation”.
Core Strengths Program
Kapirum Consulting is in partnership with Core Strengths, the best solution that helps your business improve working relationships and consequently build better teams throughout your organisation. Our assessments, training and platform will make you actively shape the conversations that move businesses forward.Rather than focusing on WHAT people do, The Strength Deployment Inventory assessment focuses on understanding WHY people behave in a particular way and HOW we relate to each other.
The SDI 2.0 is based on four interrelated views:
Motives: You’ll learn the three core motives behind your approach to people, performance, and process.
Conflict: Your Conflict Sequence, a unique result, shows your changing motives as conflict escalates, giving you the chance to correct course.
Strengths: Your Strengths Portrait presents all 28 strengths you use at work.
Overdone Strengths: Everyone pushes their strengths too far in some cases. You’ll learn which ones you overdo—insight that can keep you from losing effectiveness.
Leadership-styles and effectiveness
This is a common issue in organisations and for individual managers. We can help you explore leadership effectiveness and/or deal with a specific issue you may have.
Leadership has a lot wrapped up in it, full of assumptions and often not examined enough before applying solutions. It is highly sensitive to the context and culture of an organisation. We are familiar with several models but don't have a standard one. We would want to understand this before proposing any kind of solution. We may well do a little diagnostic work to confirm your suspicions or ideas. Head of department, project leadership, lead on diversity, stakeholder cohesion - these are all very different leadership roles and good performance in a Bank will look different from a Hospital.
We would typically understand the context, your objective and then the people involved. Using various well-tested methods, we can assess people to see how well they match a model of good leadership in your particular context. We can then make judgements about which areas are amenable to development in order to see clear improvement. It's a generalisation, but current knowledge tells us that you cannot improve everyone in all areas - some things are easier to develop/teach than others. So what is essential is to work on the things that the person can do and also have a clear impact in their situation rather than force someone through a training mould.
This can be measured by whether the person feels more capable and confident and others around them notice the changes/ improvements and any other concrete data.
Communication and Influencing Skills
This is a very broad word and often used in vague complaints by many people (he was the project manager and everyone knows he doesn't communicate very well). This is too important - we need to be much more specific and precise about this. There are many elements and subcategories of communication which we highlight below. We focus on the verbal, vocal and visual.
In doing this kind of development, we make use of many techniques, including role play, challenge, reflection, and forum theatre (with groups). These help people to deal with real situations in the workplace, get good quality feedback, and practice their own strategies. This is where the value of performing arts skills comes in.
Feedback/difficult conversations
Imagine a manager who seems to do well with internal relationships but then falters with important external stakeholders he is not in charge of. This is a typical situation involving personal pride, frustration, and discomfort and avoidance. Improved interpersonal skills can make a huge difference in these kinds of situations. It can aid the success of a project or stop it failing. We would help such a person discover why they have problems or frustrations. What exactly do they find difficult about these stakeholders and how to address the situation differently in order to get improved reactions. We would explore work styles, personality types and relationship models to gain understanding and improvement. In doing this, of course, we are also giving them a skill they can use as a team leader.
These skills rely, in part, on the use of open/closed questions in order to get more information out of a staff member. Careful use of this technique can uncover information about the real causes of difficulty and allow them to be addressed.
Feedback can also be problematic when the hierarchy is involved. Giving difficult feedback to one of your direct reports can be challenging even though, or even because of, the power imbalance. In dealing with a team member, there are fears of upsetting the person or damaging the relationship when you need to give negative feedback. We will understand the manager herself then introduce techniques that take the fear and uncertainty out of the interaction and make a good outcome perfectly possible.
Active listening
We can train people in this technique which involves listening in a deeper way. For example, noticing not just the words that are said but the tone of voice, any other non-verbal signals (frustration, emotions). These can help decode how serious the problem is, how worried the person is, the possible implications, and also convey a lack of experience or support needed. It helps a manager to really understand the problem and how someone is feeling and, therefore, to give the most effective response in the situation. It is not easy to master but, once improved, it makes a massive difference to your interactions. It could mean keeping a good staff member, developing a junior project manager and still achieving the desired outcome.
Diversity and Inclusion
We all have some unconscious bias, but it is vital for managers to know what these are. If we don't, there can be severe negative consequences in relationships with colleagues or, at worst, financial claims due to poorly executed recruitment or disciplinary processes. This is becoming a growing problem for many organisations not sufficiently aware of the equalities act (2010) and leading to painful reputation damage and also costly employment settlements.
More positively, in terms of business results, research shows that diverse teams produce the best results. However, they are not the easiest to recruit for or manage. We all feel more comfortable with certain kinds of people, but managers need to be better than this.
We can help your people understand their unconscious routines and preferences, so they can be more aware and combat these to make better decisions and avoid expensive pitfalls.
Enhanced Team Strengths
Simone has recently become a Strength Profiles accredited practitioner.
The Strengths Profile tool provides an in-depth insight into a person’s performance, energy and use in each strength. This online assessment will help you to understand and develop your own and others' strengths. Your Profile will reveal what and where you perform well at and what energises you, together with career suggestions giving you the ability to achieve great things. Knowing your strengths you are more likely to achieve your goals. It won't just benefit you, but the whole organisation that works with you.
The second step is exploring the Team Profile. Identifying all of a team’s strengths according to their realised and unrealised strengths, learned behaviours and weaknesses, so they can foster a culture of working on the right things at the right time.
Away days and set-piece events
These are both necessary and rare. A new Head of Department, a new strategy or project needs a clear start. It is hard to get a date in the diary, and many will complain that "it's a waste of time - the last one was - and we have 'real work' to do". So it needs to be effective and used in the future. Failure, or even an average sort of result, breeds apathy and irritation. Most of these away days fail - you've been to one.
We would ensure your successful result by careful planning and organisation. We would create sessions, and use techniques to get fresh thinking, be clear on critical elements, realise what has to change and how, and capture these ideas, so that they are used. We would build in ownership and elements to ensure the momentum carries on after the day - perhaps a half-day follow-up.
Again, our facilitators are not just professionals in people development but have performance skills that can achieve greater connection and engagement than is usual in these environments.
One-to-one Coaching and Strengths Assessment
One-to-one coaching gives clients an opportunity to analyse their own actions and gives them time to focus on their future goals. It is an opportunity where individuals can explore their own potential and find the confidence to innovate, try new approaches and, in the end, take risks that they may otherwise feel too hard to do.
Normally we try to use different coaching styles according to the bespoke needs of a client
Executive Coaching: generally focuses on improving your performance as a leader
Performance Coaching: works together with the organisation by bringing out the fullest potential of a team at every level.
Transformational Coaching: works on helping clients explore the assumptions, limiting beliefs, values, personal attitudes so that they can change the vision of the world and of themselves.