There are a number of different ways we might work together
No two engagements look exactly the same.
The work may involve an individual leader, a leadership team, a board or an entire organisation. Coaching, advisory, facilitation, reviews, diagnostics, workshops and off-sites are all possibilities, often used in combination rather than isolation.
What follows is less a list of services and more a picture of how the work tends to take shape: the different types of engagements, and some of the methods and tools that may be drawn upon along the way.
Engagement types
A strategic partnership with Arcova is what happens when the work stops being about a single project and becomes about the relationship itself, and the company strategy. We might sit alongside a board or leadership team for years rather than months, working through whatever’s actually in front of them rather than one fixed brief. Sometimes that’s a transformation program running across several phases, or supporting the business to establish and embed an organisational development strategy that will actually enable them to execute their overall company strategy. Sometimes it’s a simpler constellation of separate but connected projects: we already know the context, so nothing starts from zero.
That long view is what lets us understand what’s actually possible for an organisation, not just what sounds good in a proposal or a ‘roadmap’ delivered on top of a hill. We highly value this kind of work, as it’s the purest organisational development work we do (bridging the gap between strategy and execution by looking at all the human touch points in the system).
A high-impact project with Arcova is in service of a single, well-defined challenge, change or opportunity (as “well-defined” as is possible), something an organisation needs solved, not just described. These engagements might be a specific culture piece, an evaluation or diagnostic, a leadership program, a program of work with an executive team, the creation of a capability framework, the reworking of an aspect of the employee experience with the overall strategy and high performance in mind, or perhaps a change initiative, or stand-alone coaching engagement, or some psychometric assessment and advisory for senior or CEO hires, but we start the same way every time: understanding what’s actually going on, what we really want, and what good is going to look like before deciding what to do about it. The work might run six weeks or six months depending on what the challenge actually needs.
A focused learning initiative with Arcova is a short, deliberate hit, not a slow or long build. It might be a single workshop, a lunch-and-learn, or a series of three short workshops, a leadership session, or an offsite, or a more creative team experience; something designed to introduce a new idea or capability and create momentum around it rather than solve a complex problem end to end. These sit at hours and days rather than months. These are high energy or have an intensity about them, but they are not theatre: the goal is to genuinely share knowledge, introduce new skills, and increase insight and consciousness. The evidence-base beneath is weighty – but we also go into these together with eyes-wide-open in terms of what kind of expectations are realistic when it comes to measurable, sustained change.
Some of the tools and methods we might use
Interviews & conversations
1:1s designed to understand what’s actually happening: what people are experiencing, what they think is at the heart of things, and to build rapport and trust
Surveys
Structured data collection useful for identifying patterns, testing hypotheses and assessing baselines and improvements, as well as giving more people a voice, or a safer voice
Narrative techniques
An approach that uses story rather than opinion. This can be used diagnostically to surface what’s happening, or generatively to build shared identity and meaning
Document and data review
Reading the organisation through its own materials: strategies, structures, policies, people data – to understand what the system is actually designed to produce
Psychometric assessment
Structured tools used sparingly and intentionally for opening further conversation
Facilitated conversations
Structured dialogue between people; such as a leader and a team member, two people in conflict, a board and its CEO – with an outsider holding the process
Live observation & interaction
Direct observation and interaction with a leader in real situations at work, followed by structured, immediate conversation
Systems mapping & organisational diagnosis
Bringing together multiple sources of information to understand what is producing current outcomes and where intervention is likely to have the greatest impact
Sensemaking & playback
Returning themes, observations and patterns to individuals or groups in a way that promotes insight, ownership and action, rather than just handing down ‘a report’
Creative & experiential inquiry
Drawing on improvisation and experiential learning to help people explore complex issues through doing and play, rather than ‘just talking’
Live activities
The wide variety of things we do together 1:1 or in groups: private coaching conversations, workshops and offsites
Novel and creative things we co-create
If it ticks a few boxes in terms of efficacy, ethics and within scope of practice, we’re up for it
