Participating organisations can choose to engage in the activities that suit their needs.  Here’s what delegates have to say about their experience…

Round tables for an intimate confidential group (max 4) of senior innovators and leaders.

Participants benefit from their peers’ deep experience and the facilitator’s rich toolkit.

The Innovators’ Circles – what senior innovators have to say

“The Innovator’s circle is support we all would like from our own organisations but rarely experience. The ability to discuss pressing work-related issues with likeminded individuals from different corporate cultural influences in an open and “safe space” is both cathartic and enabling.”

“We often try to think of radical and innovative solutions to our problems when we are in the office – “brainstorming” our way out of the situation – when the real answer is much simpler and often hidden in plain sight. It takes a “friendly stranger” to point these things out sometimes.”

“The topic I chose was relevant and timely. The thoughts and actions developed in the Innovators Circle will guide my approach to resolving the situation.”

“I joined an Innovators’ Circle session as the first in-person Innovation Network session I had attended since getting back to normal after Covid.

The session was organised in a pleasant setting, with an engaging atmosphere that led to some really interesting dialogue between the delegates.”

“The agenda for the session was to discuss, as a group, an ongoing issue that we each were personally attempting to deal with in our organisations. This led to some insightful discussions around wider geo-political issues that are affecting us all right through to some specific actions that each of us could take back and apply.”

“Engaging with like-minded innovation leaders face-to-face in this way made me realise how much I’d missed it!”

Two rounds of mentoring of 4-8 sessions each.

The Innovators’ Matches – what the Mentors say

“Having the chance to go through ideas and question techniques in the breakout sessions in the orientation was really useful – it allowed that dry run and gave me confidence. It was also very interesting to be the ‘mentee’ in these sessions and see how that felt as well.”

“The open ended ‘power’ questions helped me drill down into some of the issues experienced to then help reach a solution just by asking questions. Using these was a reminder not to jump to offering solutions but to help build understanding, on both sides.”

“The power questions worked really well in my sessions. The other was to ensure that we made an agenda for the next mentor session at the end of the current one, this was then the framework for the next session and really helped to keep things on track- I also found that having the framework actually led to better exploration, as it refined my questioning approach and often made the conversation go somewhere new.”

“I was surprised how quickly it felt ‘natural’ between myself and my mentee- which was great as it drove the sessions and meant we were able to cover more ground.”

“This was an opportunity to develop my active listening, whilst developing awareness of when to offer advice and when to use more effective questioning in a more coaching style.”

“It has certainly been more interesting than I had first thought and having two different mentees was enlightening to show the difference in how different people may approach it and the value it brings when embraced.”

“Personally, it’s been interesting to see how many of the problems we have at work are very similar and in advising on how problems may be approached I get to see them through a fresh lens.”

“It has reinforced my believe that sometimes setting aside time to run through what you’re trying to do with someone removed from it all can often highlight things you may have missed previously.”

The Innovators’ Matches – what the Mentees say

“The orientation session helped shape expectations of the sessions to come.   Learning about power questions was useful and how to use them to keep the discussion focused on its goal(s).

“The time to talk through things and have a 3^rd party’s opinion / advice from someone one more senior in position was valuable.”

I found value in the discussions on career progression, the importance of an academic background to drive innovation within the industry; useful discussions about engaging with stakeholders and senior leadership; insights on dealing with challenges and setbacks.

“Different insights into common themes has given me different avenues to explore.”

“I feel more relaxed about not knowing how to do something and am more inclined to seek advice to tackle the problems that I encounter.  The belief that there is an unrealistic performance expectation is no longer there.”

“It’s helped me learn how to better capitalise on my skills to excel in my current role; helped me bring into focus ambitions / expectations about career progression and define areas of improvement for career progression.

“I’ve gained additional approaches for stakeholder management.”

“the mentoring has opened-up what possibilities are out there, and how to align myself to be able to transition into different opportunities that I can create. So there was strategy and an improvement in my self-awareness, and where to gain addition insights about my capabilities.”

“It came at a perfect time for me and my work situation and was having to juggle a lot of different hats. And my mentor proved to be a great, he was impartial and able to bring some clarity to the headaches I was having .“

“The professional manner by which my mentor addressed the various questions and problems that I had. Sharing of career related literature applicable to me.”

“I appreciated the very open, insightful, and supportive discussions.”