If you have any questions or want to book your place,

then call us on +44 (0) 1252 710 333 NOW!

Alternatively, send an email to me at mark.russell@realbusinessedge.com and tell me about your business challenges and opportunities.

And more recently, Delta Programme© has been recognised for the results it has helped business-owners achieve both personally and professionally.  In May 2007, it picked up a prestigious award at a glitzy ceremony in London as an innovative way of helping business people solve problems and learn in the process.

The Challenge

Businesses like yours, like mine face enormous challenges in 21st Century, namely:

• Rising complexity of organisational problems such as rapid globalisation, competition, rapid technological change, talent war etc.;

• Need to develop new leadership skills;

• Increased importance of effective, high performance teams;

• The drive to capture and transfer valued knowledge;

• A greater need for learning but less time for it.

Businesses and business leaders need help to solve problems and challenges with truly innovative and sustaining strategies; develop teams that continually improves their capacity to perform and adapt; and capture, transfer and apply valuable knowledge at the individual, group, organisation and community levels.

Typically, business people prefer to listen and learn from other business leaders and peers whom they admire and respect. They also believe that valuable knowledge and skills are gained from acquiring relevant experience solving real problems in the real world rather than from formal qualifications or the theoretical models of the academic world. 

Most are more interested in how to apply leadership and business skills in a practical way so as to achieve beneficial change quickly.

In other words, they learn through doing in a process known as action learning.

History of Action Learning

Action learning involves a group of peers working on real problems and learning while they do so.

Action learning has emerged as an effective tool used by organisations to solve critical and complex problems. Many companies use it to develop leaders, build teams, and improve corporate capabilities. Action Learning has been successful used to create new products and services, reduce costs by improving production and delivery operations, expand customer bases, improve service quality, and change organisational cultures. 

Reg Revans introduced action learning in the 1940s. Since then there have there have been multiple variations of the concept. It is based on the premise that:

"There can be no learning without action and no (sober and deliberate) action without learning."

Revans suggests that businesses and people cannot flourish unless the rate of learning is greater than that of the rate of change being experienced.

Learning has two elements - programmed knowledge (traditional instruction) and questioning insight (critical insight).

Most forms of action learning share the elements of real people resolving and taking action on real problems in real time and learning while doing so. The great attraction of action learning is its unique power to simultaneously solve difficult challenges and develop people and organisations at minimal costs to the business.

What is the Delta Programme©?

Delta Programme© is a remarkably simple programme of peer-to-peer action that helps business people solve problems in the real world and to learn while they do so.

Based on "best practice", Delta Programme© has SIX key components:

1. A qualified problem (project, challenge, opportunity, issue, or task) that is urgent and important to the individual or business;

2. A group of peers or a team ideally composed of four to eight individuals;

3. A process of insightful questioning and reflective listening;

4. Action taken on the problem;

5. A commitment to learning;

6. A coach.

• An opportunity to step back and reflect on personal and professional needs with valuable input on specific problems coming from other group members;

• A powerful and effective way for people to learn from one another and to develop personally and professionally;

• A process where you support other group members and learn with and through one other;

• A way of learning from, and being supported by, a skilled coach;

• The chance to work on real problems in the real world and build individual, team and organisational capabilities simultaneously all at minimal cost to the business.

You are expected to raise and tackle difficult questions, discuss sensitive and sometimes controversial issues, and share the learning in a supportive environment. 

Confidence and trust are critical to the programme. Time is spent building a strong rapport and bonding between group members and there is an unwritten understanding that “what is said in the room stays in the room”.

Delta Programme© programmes may be run with peers from an organisation or a mixed set where you can work with peers from different sectors and different professional backgrounds.

How does it Work?

Once you have decided to join, your requirements will be assessed and you’ll be placed with an appropriate Delta Programme© Programme. This could be with an existing group or a new group and will be given support to help you integrate into the group.

You’ll meet with a group of peers for six sessions over a six to nine month period - roughly every six weeks (to accommodate business peaks and holiday periods). Each session will usually last at least half of one day.

Typically, the group will meet at a bespoke quality location that is geographically convenient to most group members. The venue will be a dedicated training environment with an atmosphere that is conducive to learning and enables you to take a step back from the business and focus on developing personally and professionally.

Group members will come from a variety of professional backgrounds and work in different sectors. What you have in common is a problem to be solved and the need for structured time to reflect and to share learning.

The following system drives Delta Programme©:

The presenter is required to:

5. Take action between sessions;

6. At future meetings report on the action taken and the results achieved.

Group members ask questions in preference to making statements and must refrain from giving advice, telling anecdotes, making judgement, or comparisons to their own situation.

At each session, part of the time may be given over to training the group in some aspect of management or leadership.

At the end of each session the group reflects on the process and gives feedback to each other on what has taken place.

The Coach

Coaching is necessary for the group to focus on the important (i.e., the learning discovery, development and personal growth) as well as the urgent (i.e., resolving the problem). The coach helps the team members reflect on both what they are learning and how they are solving problems. 

Through a series of questions, the coach enables group members to reflect on how they listen, how they may have reframed the problem, how they give each other feedback, how they are planning and working, and what assumptions may be shaping their beliefs and actions.

The learning coach also helps the team focus on what they are achieving, what they are finding difficult, what processes they are employing, and the implications of these processes.

The coaches for Delta Programme© will be Mark P. Russell and Rick Peet.  Both have participated in and coached Action Learning Sets and have wide-ranging experience of working in many different types of businesses and industry sectors. 

Mark Russell MBA (Henley) Mark was born and raised in Kenya and has lived in Africa, Middle East and Europe.  A retired rugby player who played for London Harlequins (1991-96) and had representative honours in England and South Africa, he travelled the world touring and playing rugby at the highest level. He believes that these experiences taught him the importance of proper planning and preparation and the extraordinary results that can be achieved through teamwork, co-operation and learning by doing. After completing his MBA in 2003, Mark set up Oakhill Consulting and then joined forces with Rick Peet to establish AVN Picktree Business Strategies. Mark is a member of International Foundation for Action Learning, which exists to support and develop the work of action learning in the UK and worldwide. Outside of work his time is taken up by being an All Pro Husband and Dad, keeping an aquarium of tropical fish and playing golf (often very erratically!).

 

Rick Peet BA FCA Rick Peet is Managing Director of accountancy practice AVN Picktree and has over 25 years of experience working with small owner managed businesses. He has been a Finance Director in a motor dealership, safety equipment manufacturer and IT Recruitment Agency.  In these positions he has helped to grow businesses from £300,000 turnover to £20 million and profits from next to nothing to over £1 million. Rick is also co-director of AVN Picktree Business Strategies. A keen traveller, Rick has recently climbed Ben Nevis and walked the Inca Trail to the lost Inca city of Machu Piccu in Peru. He plays golf badly, guitar almost as badly and enjoys a wide range of music - often to the detriment of his eardrums!

 

Testimonials

Other comments from participants on previous programmes include:

“It made me feel positive about achieving my goals.” “It opened my mind but also gave me the required focus to take action.” “It made me think about what I want from my business and to go and get it.” “Thanks very much for all your help, support and guidance. It has been a fun learning experience, very interesting and informative and has changed the way I think about my business.” “A year ago I took over the business as MD.  The organisation was losing clients and money and on the verge of folding.  After a lot of hard work by the team, sales are healthy and profit levels strong and the pipeline of new business is robust.  Challenges still remain but I am confident about the future of the business. Key lessons that I internalised during the programme were: Make working with you rewarding and fun Honesty Value Pricing Transparency Xmas dinner tastes better when there is money in the company bank account!” “The programme taught me the importance of listening with empathy: to our customers, our staff, our consultants and such like. It also dawned on me that there is no “silver bullet” solution and that improvements must be continuous and never-ending. I never realised how important marketing is to the success of any business and I learnt that results can be achieved if you involve and empower everyone in the organisation. On a personal note, I believe that it is OK to think of what I want out of the business and to use this as a starting point.”

 

What else should do you need to know about the programme...

 

In July 2007, Delta Programme© was been selected to deliver action learning to 100 CEOs, Managing Directors and Business Owner-managers of small and medium sized enterprises in the South East.  Funded by European Social Fund the project is being run by Business Link Berkshire on behalf of South East England Development Agency and aims to bring action learning to business people who want to develop themselves, and drive their businesses forward.

 

 

The programme has been evaluated independently by Henley Business School to assess both organisation results and individual development...

"The overall results were very positive and showed that this type of development opportunity was highly valued by the small business owner managers involved.  By the end of the programmes real, immediate business benefits were reported. Significant leadership skills development were also seen in many cases." David Black Skills for Business Network Project Manager Management & Leadership Programme 23 March 2006

 

The Delta Programme© also picked up an Award in 2007 at a glitzy ceremony in the City of London attended by over 300 firms of accountants from across the UK and Ireland.

 

The prestigious Award, sponsored by AVN The Accountants, is the only one of its kind where the winners are actually chosen by a panel of fellow accountants.