back to listings SME Profile: Odyssey

Odyssey

22 Fazeley Studios
191 Fazeley Street
Birmingham
B5 5SE


Tel: +44 (0)121 352 6658
Email: liz@odysseyuk.net
Web: www.odysseyuk.net

Welcome to Odyssey


Fundamentally, what we’re about is enabling sustained behavioural change. We do this so that the leaders we work with can contribute as productively as possible to their organisation’s response to our rapidly changing world.
To achieve this we work in partnership with our clients to understand the challenges they face and clarify what they expect from those who will lead their response. We then, again in partnership, design and deliver bespoke interventions that enable useful and sustained behavioural change.

What people we have worked with say about the work we have done

“Two years ago there was little traction in the idea that service managers could become the engine room for change. Now we have 80 or so managers thinking in this way. This gives us a far better chance of coping with future challenges than just having a dozen directors at the top of the council structure doing so.”
CEO of a local authority

I was introduced to the Odyssey Team at a time where I was experiencing significant organisational change.  It was clear from the onset that Odyssey were an experienced and professional team, yet personable and responsive to the needs of the managers in the Council. Odyssey developed and delivered a leadership programme, to equip managers with the capabilities to drive the Council forward. The objectives of the programme were clearly presented and included a variety of methods to help managers reflect and review their learning. Each of the 5 learning events provided the opportunity to utilise tools and techniques, enabling me to focus on and acknowledge on specific behaviours and consider how I may harness them to my benefit. I obtained a better understanding of who I am and how I think, feel and behave in a range of situations. Significantly, I also learned of other people’s behaviours, their strengths and how to communicate with them. Since completing the this programme, I have made alterations to my management style and now feel more confident and motivated to deal with challenges and to finding solutions to my goals.
Delegate

I have always been a signed-up supporter of collaborative working in theory and practice but this programme has improved the environment for this, and my ability to carry it out, by: - providing the tools to do it more effectively, - giving greater contact between lead officers and therefore built trust and understanding, - spreading the word for a collaborative approach between the whole AONB (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) family rather than among a subset
Delegate

How we work

Workshops; bringing key leaders together to anticipate future changes, engage with stakeholders, shape and share common messages, develop key skills and behaviours and then sustain collaborative action.

Using action learning, 1:1 coaching, targeted skill inputs and “fieldwork” to increase knowledge and skills and, above all, to build the confidence to deliver.

Using tools such as MBTI or Lumina Spark© to explore specific options for improved personal and team performance.

Using our experience of L&D management to put in place infrastructure that connects the right people to the right learning at the right time

Our focus

We design and deliver transformational journeys to meet the specific change related needs of our clients. This approach is underpinned by research that has been judged to be a unique contribution to the field of learning and development. That research focused on the process of behavioural decision making and how to prompt and sustain change to the way people make critical decisions in their “real world”. With that framework in place, we can then draw on a wide range of new and existing tools and techniques to help us deliver that sustained behavioural change.

Business strategies are built from words, numbers and pictures but are only brought to life by the day-to-day behaviour of people. Our role is to help shape that behaviour so that opportunities to bring the strategy to life are taken and skilfully managed.

Typically, the “journeys” we design offer leaders the opportunity to:

•Explore and understand the environment they are operating in through conversations with their stakeholders

•Explore potential responses to the challenges faced via, for example, visits to “role model” organisations

•Define the outcomes necessary to respond effectively to the environment they are operating in; which we call context.

•Shape messages that bring the context and outcomes to life for others and, most importantly, inspire them to contribute

•Identify the day to day opportunities available to bring outcomes closer

•Explore how to skilfully manage those opportunities using Forum Theatre

•Gain feedback as to their impact and how best to target self development via Lumina Spark©, MBTI and/or our bespoke 360° feedback tool

•Participate in targeted knowledge or skill inputs, become a member of an Action Learning Set and receive 1:1 coaching

In some cases, learning experiences alone are not sufficient to enable sustained behavioural change. The “real world” that people go back to has to welcome their new ways of behaving. Where necessary, therefore, we work with clients to explore and respond to questions such as:

•How relevant, acceptable and/or possible is it in your existing culture to do what you’re asking people to do?

•What might you need to change in order to make it more relevant, acceptable and/or possible?

Focus on organisational 'infrastructure'

If you want your investment in learning and development to pay off, you’ll want to ensure that the opportunities you’re offering are right for your business and that the right people can access them at the right time. Our clients are able to draw on our experience of delivering pragmatic and cost effective learning and development in a variety of businesses to either help them enhance their existing systems and procedures, or put in place a Learning and Development infrastructure that can maximise the return on their investment.

Who we are

http://www.odysseyuk.net/index.php?page=who-we-are

Some examples of our recent work

http://www.odysseyuk.net/index.php?page=case-studies

Where we can help

While, in detail, the challenges we work with clients to meet are all different, there are a number of archetypal questions that arise time and time again.

 


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