Our third Townhall of the year 2023: Over the course of 2.5 days, our internal curriculum and "New Employee Orientation" were analyzed in detail. Which topics were of particular importance to us and in which areas did the Transformation Engineers receive further coaching?
13.-15.09.23, Pfaffenhofen. The Townhall of the third quarter of 2023 was all about a shared learning organization. In recent months, the internal training and development system of the WARGITSCH Transformation Engineers had evolved into new forms. The trainers utilized the physical meeting of the Transformation Engineers to conduct seven different training courses from a total of five modules in 2.5 concentrated days. These are divided into “Transformation Engineering”, “Consulting Process”, “Management Methods & Tools”, “Communication & Visualization” and “Internal Organization”. The major objective of the curriculum is to create a common understanding of the content, a stable skills base and a qualification profile that differentiates itself on the market. An investment in and a concept for the future that CEO Dr. Christoph Wargitsch, Dr. Christina Weigert (VP Corporate Development) and Michael Urban (Head of Knowledge and Learning) have considered carefully. “The Townhall offered a good opportunity to really breathe life into the whole project, promote personal exchange and give our shared learning culture the appropriate status,” reflected Wargitsch on the choice of timing. The curriculum is intended to have both a training and refresher character, but also serve as “New Employee Orientation” (NEO) for new colleagues as part of the onboarding process.
Already on Wednesday, Urban started strength training with the fourth group in 2023 using Gallup’s CliftonStrengths test, so that all Transformation Engineers can now better recognize and name their natural patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. On Thursday morning, Alexandra Wiebe-Kaaden (Chapter Lead Communication Design) trained another group in “Visual Facilitating”, the visual accompaniment of processes using texts, images and containers on flipcharts, which is used especially in workshops but as well in all other types of events.
Following these, three classic refresher courses were held on Thursday afternoon (“How does consulting work?”, “How do you work with the client?” and “The Pyramid Principle”), in which Christoph Wargitsch and Christian Gleissner (VP Production) shared a common style and provided background information and memorable, sometimes humorous examples from their wealth of experience. During the first course, Wargitsch dealt with the different types of consulting, the tendering process, contract forms for consulting services and the identification of different added values of a project, while the second course dealt with Barbara Minto’s pyramidal communication concept, which focuses on the core message. Gleissner, on the other hand, discussed important parameters and standards in dealing with the customer and also referred to five of the ten principles of the WARGITSCH Transformation Engineers:
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Work Smart.
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Grow together.
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Listen before you act.
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Remember why you started. Stay commited.
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Go beyond.
“I believe these five principles show particularly well what we mean by service quality and what kind of partner we want to be,” Gleissner explained his selection. Thursday concluded with an exercise on “Tools and methods in consulting”, which Urban started with a tool bingo using Mentimeter. This was followed by an overview of the accompanying e-learning material for LMS365, which will also be available for every other course. The “Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram” and De Bono’s “6 Thinking Hats” were refreshed before the participants created, visualized, and presented corresponding tool sets for assigned business cases in small groups.
On Friday morning, fresh and well-rested minds were treated to “An introduction to systems theory”. Christoph Wargitsch covered the main concepts and applications of this interdisciplinary approach in contexts such as the ones found in management and consulting. He covered the basics of systems theory, central concepts (“wholeness”, “emergence”, “hierarchy” etc.) and the systemic way of thinking (“From linear to networked thinking”, “System archetypes in the management context”). The intensive town hall was rounded off by the introduction of new colleagues and internal updates, and a team dinner.
A few weeks earlier, Wargitsch and Urban already ran a trial of the curriculum: the “Training on the Transformation Engineering Framework”, which consisted of a theory section, a tool test and a LEGO®-SERIOUS-PLAY® sequence for systematically modeling their own transformation tasks. Urban was delighted by the successful rollout of the curriculum: “The classroom courses offered great opportunities for practical elements and interaction formats, which made the often abstract aspects of our work in particular clearer and more accessible.”
While developing the curriculum, he repeatedly made use of the expertise of the current working students: “Aurelia, Tobias and Lukas have repeatedly given us insights into academic standards, platforms and practices, which has helped us to speed up many methodological or technical processes. I am very grateful to them for this. I can only agree with my colleague Christian Gleissner and would like to emphasize the principles of “Grow together” and “Work smart” with regard to the establishment of our curriculum, as well as the guiding principles of “Be open, curious and playful” and “Share your knowledge”. A well-rounded process.”
COMMENTS ON THE TOWNHALL
„The introduced training modules not only strengthen our foundation for consulting excellence, but also underline our positioning as a learning organization. Every project has learning effects and every experience turns into a tool for the next challenge. Our strength lies in how we share and apply this knowledge among colleagues. The ‘Share your knowledge’ principle is more than just a phrase; it is the backbone of our continued success in providing our clients with innovative solutions and fresh perspectives.”
„What particularly stuck with me was the variety of content and how it interlinked in sometimes surprising ways. It fitted very well with what I had already learned at university. Seeing how the theoretical principles are put into practice and the extent to which you can deepen what you have learned and then apply them properly was exciting.“
