A combination of state and federal government schemes designed to enhance the formal qualifications of Australians have the added bonus of providing the resources for corporate culture change programs.

The challenge is that many leaders aren’t aware of the opportunity they have available to them and therefore don’t fully leverage the culture change opportunity.

As a facilitator of such programs I help senior leaders recognise that the real benefit of the programs is the conversations about their business that the course material catalyses. In simple terms, the course material and the courses themselves create the space for staff to talk about their organisation in a safe way. In other words, they have the opportunity to have Conversations That Matter®.

In every session that I have facilitated staff have learned something about their business that they did not previously know. Often this knowledge was considered by others in the room to be “known by everyone”. Yet it quickly becomes obvious that not everyone did know.

For example one organisation with whom I have been working has a bonus system in place that rewards staff for submitting ideas via their intranet that, if adopted and they produce measurable business improvements a bonus is paid to the employee. A lot of the mid-level managers in the program didn’t know that the system existed.

If it wasn’t for the program and the opportunity to talk about organisational systems designed to enhance idea generation, the conversation that resulted in the knowledge sharing would not have occurred. This type of conversation occurs in every session.

The opportunity to overlay the program with a specific culture change focus is both available and logical. Why not use government funding to pay for a program that enables real conversations about the organisation to be conducted that are influenced by theory! In addition, the program provides employees with a nationally recognised qualification.

In fact, it is my experience that corporate programs offer the greatest opportunity for theory to be understood and applied because the program creates the space for colleagues to apply theory to the practical operation of their business. In many cases the theory can then be applied in real time.  When properly understood and facilitated such opportunities can provide enormous benefits for everyone.

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in how such a program can benefit your organisation and employees.