Our Programme
Top Year is a modular development programme for motivated talents to grow their skills and discover their potential. Participants gain a more in-depth knowledge of who they are, what drives them and how to contribute to their company. While on the job, participants can work on their communication skills, grow their teamwork capabilities and deliver on team assignments.
Top Year provides a diligent process for companies to engage, learn and grow with the next generation, building on past experience across responsibilities and ages. Top Year takes place in the practical work context and is tailored to the company’s and the person’s needs.
It facilitates a creative environment enabling simple product, process and people innovation.
The Top Year programme integrates learning on the job, teaching and coaching by a team of dedicated experts, and delivering individual and team performance on projects for the company.
Through role plays, team exercises, skills training and project work, participants grow their self-knowledge, effectiveness, teamwork skills and prepare their future.
Role plays for self-knowledge and communication
Role plays with a professional actor allow to experience how we communicate, what helps or blocks dialogue and how we can affirm ourselves while respecting the other.
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We all know who we are. When we communicate we make contact with the other person, through language we ‘uncover’ what is hidden in us. Communicating is an activity in which we exchange meanings by responding to each other’s signals, by means of sound (tone of voice), form (symbolism, image, text) and behavior (actions).
It is impossible not to communicate. Language reveals our inner attitude, disappointments, desires and repressed aggression. We speak who we are.
The role play is about congruence in action and contributes to fundamental self-examination. In a group or alone, participants discover their own mode of communication. Does your communication correspond to who you are? What does your tone of voice convey? What is the secret of language? How do you see yourself and how do you think others see you? What are the motives behind your behavioral patterns?
The role play is both a tool for personal development and a diagnostic tool. On the one hand, the participant is becoming increasingly aware of his own competences and points of attention, enabling him to set concrete goals. On the other hand, the role play gives the trainer insight into the talent and personal performance of the participant.
Those who practice their communication skills in role-plays develop their expression, language, voice, composure and empathy. Eventually role-plays lead to the successful integration of thoughts, emotions and behavior.
Team exercises for leadership & teamwork
Team exercises allow to discover each other’s strengths and use each other’s capabilities in a neutral risk-free environment. You discover your natural behavior and what you can do to improve. You prepare for future project work with your team.
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Leaders of the future renew, change and move the organization forward. They inspire their colleagues and enable others to act. Your own values and principles form the basis of your motivation. For effective leadership, a professional set of tools, skills, techniques, methodologies and a good dose of self-knowledge is indispensable. You move from ‘span of control’ to ‘span of support’, from ‘can’ to ‘want’.
Module 1 – personal leadership
3 days to gain insight into the drivers behind yours and the other’s behaviour. Discover what you can do to broaden your zone of influence. Receive feedback on your abilities to lead within the culture of the company. Discover the difference between motivating and inspiring and what that means for your own leadership.
Module 2 – focus on the other
Learn how to assess the needs of others and how you interact together in order to be able to realize goals. Recognize different communication styles. Experience the power of asking the right questions. Acquire the skills to positively change the behavior and attitude of others. Move from ‘span of control’ to ‘span or support’, from ‘can’ to ‘want‘.
Projects
Top Year projects address questions around customers, products or processes. Through project work, participants bring their ideas and motivation to their company, connecting with other management levels, responsibilities and generations.
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Through project, you bring ideas to fruition and help the organisation progress.
You analyze key drivers, present potential improvements and engage others to set ideas in motion. You apply what you have practiced in the role plays, team exercises and skill trainings. You learn how to tackle a problem and solve it. You discover your capabilities and motivation.
Success factors for project work:
- Committed sponsor
- Defined width of the assignment
- Clear problem definition
- Desired deliverable
- Agreed timeline
- Measurable success
- Follow-up in implementation
Role plays, team exercises, skill training and project work are constantly intertwined in the Top Year programme to create impact. Participants learn and grow through challenges, feedback, reflection, repetition in an average of 2 days per month of face-to-face contact.
"I am very happy we have started this programme together with the Top Year team. And that it has been very successful. We needed the vision, the energy, the capacity to convince our management to commit to Top Year. We could not impose our views - but had we not done the Top Year programme, we would have gone backwards."
Schedule
