Emerging Future for Management Consultancy

CASE STUDY (2016)

The use of an experiential approach at Illuminate Group

• Social Presencing Theatre / 4D-Mapping
• 3-Steps-Dialog

Challenge

“What future is emerging for Illuminate Group?”

Context

Originating in the purchase of a registered training organisation in 2011, Illuminate Group subsequently added leadership development and management consulting services to its original vocational training. Illuminate was increasingly in demand in Perth and had the potential to rapidly take on additional work and grow. However it also had a strong values-based culture, and to minimise risk to the culture and employees’ job security the expansion rate had been deliberately constrained by Sarab and Navinder Singh, the owners and leaders of the organisation. The resultant high workload had, however, made it difficult for them to be reliably responsive to the needs of non-client stakeholders, at times including their own organisation. Curious to better understand what was happening within and around the organisation, CEO Sarab Singh invited threefold to help Illuminate explore its emerging future. This was done as the first step in a regular two-day team development session.

Approach

4D-Mapping, a tool from Social Presencing Theatre, was chosen to support team members in shifting into a deeper level of awareness of their organisational system. The insights were then used to inform the following team development days. This 4D-Mapping included:

1. Practising body mindfulness as a warm-up. This helped people settle into a space of presence, listening to their bodies
2. 4D-Mapping with predefined roles/stakeholders
3. The generative dialogue in three phases, sharing:
   1. Facts – what was observed with people’s physical senses?
   2. Interpretations – what feelings, images, intuitions or interpretations arose?
   3. Conclusions – what insights were gained and what conclusions drawn?