We are passionate about sharing our expertise on leadership, organisational development, strategy, and team excellence with audiences around the world. We are available to speak at events, webinars, and conferences on these topics, and are always excited to engage with new audiences and share our insights.
Our experienced team bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to each speaking engagement, providing actionable insights and practical advice that can be applied in any industry. If you’re interested in booking us for your next event, we invite you to check out our “About Us” page for more details on our team and the services we offer. We look forward to hearing from you!
For a taste of Distinction events and webinars we have delivered in the past please check out our YouTube channel.
Upcoming Distinction Events
CIPD Central London: Agile HR: How to Get Started
Thu 5th October
18:00 – 19:30 BST
Online
An Agile mindset and ways of working are now crucial capabilities for all HR, People and Culture teams needing navigate our current climate of business complexity, uncertainty and change. People professionals also play a critical role in modernising people practices for the now of work and helping to steer business agility across the broader organization.
Agile HR is an exciting topic transforming our profession, but it can be intimidating and hard to contextualise. Natal Dank, co-author of Agile HR: Deliver Value in a Changing World of Work, will help you understand what agility means for People teams and how to apply the mindset and tools to enrich the employee experience and deliver business impact.
Be inspired to break boundaries and explore an outside-in perspective on how you can revolutionise your own team, function and career.
In the session Natal will explain the why, the what and the how of Agile HR. She’ll also share some of her most recent real-world case studies gained from working with People teams across the globe including companies such as TomTom, Unilever, Cambridge University Press and Assessment, Tombola, Macmillan Cancer Research and Arup.
This session is perfect if you:
- are new to Agile HR and want to get started.
- already work with Agile HR and are looking to be inspired by new approaches and learn from a real-world case studies.
- are experienced with Agile but want to apply the skills within an HR context.
- just curious!
Tickets for the event are free and can be booked here.
CIPD Central London: Team Coaching – How to help your team triumph
Thursday 8 February 2024
18:00 to 19:30 GMT
Online
Join us with Declan Woods from teamGenie learn more about team coaching.
How does it differ from facilitation… or team building… or group action learning…
What is involved in a program of team coaching?
Is the team ready for coaching yet? Is the team’s leader?
How might a team benefit from team coaching?
What should I look for when choosing a great team coach?
If you’re confused by team coaching, then you’re not alone. We know what great team coaching practice looks like – we created the global industry standard in team coaching.
The interactive webinar will be delivered by CIPD Fellow, Dr. Declan Woods, Global Head of Team Coaching Standards and Accreditation with the Association for Coaching (AC), and CEO of global team coaching company, teamGenie®.
Tickets available here
Past Distinction Events
Asia Organization Development Network: Proactive OD for Thriving Organisations
10:00 – 11:30 IST / 11:30 to 13:00 BKK / 12:30 to 14:00 China Time
Saturday 29 July 2023
We are delighted to have been invited to deliver a session for the Asia Organization Development Network (AODN). We’ll be sharing our OD practices and insights on the critical subject of ‘Prevention is Better than Cure’.
To attend, please email asiaorgdevnetwork@gmail.com
Civil Service OD&D webinar: Prevention is better than cure
Wed 12 July 2023
13:00 to 14:15
Are you ready to shift your focus from reactive to proactive?
Organisations often misuse their OD practitioners, relying on them to fix problems instead of preventing them. Join us for an enriching, immersive session featuring Dani Bacon and Garin Rouch FCIPD from Distinction Consulting. Together, we will delve into strategic and practical methods for positioning Organisation Development at the frontline of problem prevention and optimising our potential in the increasingly volatile BANI world (Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, Incomprehensible).
In this webinar, we will dive into three key areas:
Creating Tripwires by Building Psychological Safety: Learn how fostering a culture of psychological safety can serve as an early warning system for potential issues. We’ll explore ways to encourage employees to voice ethical dilemmas, suggest improvements, and challenge unsafe practices.
Stack the Odds in Your Favour when it Comes to Strategy: Discover the importance of participative decision-making and how OD can bring diverse perspectives into the decision-making process, leading to more creative, adaptive, and successful strategies.
Assessing and Building Change Readiness: Understand the critical role of assessing organisational and individual readiness for change and how OD practitioners can help build resilience and adaptability to ensure successful change initiatives.
This webinar is for you, if you are looking to continue to develop your OD practice in proactively preventing organisational issues and increase likelihood of thriving organisations in the face of complexity and uncertainty.
Please contact Susanne Gidda, Civil Service OD and D Professionalisation and Capability Lead at the Cabinet Office
CIPD Organisation Development and Design Group: From VUCA to BANI: Rethinking Your OD Practice in a Complex World with Martin Saville, Mayvin
Tues 27 June 2023
12:00 to 13:15
It’s no longer news that the world is becoming increasingly complex and unknowable. VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) has been part of OD practitioners’ lexicon for many years now, but even VUCA no longer seems to capture people’s experience. More recently the term BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible) has found favour in these overwhelming, near-apocalyptic times. What does this mean for us as OD people, as leaders, as humans?
Our guest expert is the brilliant, Martin Saville from Mayvin. Mayvin have been developing the notion of ‘practice’ as a possible response. This powerful, simple idea, which underpins our Masters in People and Organisation Development, is helping organisations, their leaders and change-makers learn closer to the grain of their work and find some peace in the storm.
In this interactive session we will share more about their approach to ‘practice-based learning’ and offer a chance to play with some simple tools to help you think about your own OD practice development.
CIPD Central London Branch: How to Be a Productivity Ninja
Tue, 6 Jun 2023
09:30 – 11:00
Overwhelmed? Struggling with constant distractions, information overload and a rapidly changing business environment? Under pressure to juggle productivity and wellbeing? Challenging time ahead? We’re here to help.
Time is not your most precious resource: your attention is. We help you manage attention and focus, projects and actions, as well as choices and habits.
At the end of this session you will have developed an understanding of the systems and techniques set out in Graham Allcott’s ‘How to be a Productivity Ninja’ book.
You’ll reduce stress by eliminating those nagging feelings of doubt, guilt and overload panic, and replace them with a focused, playful, purposeful and productive momentum.
With guest speaker – Hayley Watts, Think Productive:
Hayley helps people who have too much work and not enough time. Hayley is interested in helping organisations and individuals to improve their meetings and meeting cultures. She is an accredited facilitator and loves nothing more than facilitating conversations that help move teams forward. Hayley is an experienced Productivity Ninja, discovering the world of productivity whilst working as a stressed-out CEO she has learnt to implement tools and techniques that will work for anyone whose role gives them some level of autonomy over deciding what they can do next. Hayley has trained thousands of people to help them do the same. Hayley is the Co-Author of ‘How to Fix Meetings’ (shortlistsed for the Business Book of the Year Awards 2022). Hayley is especially interested in habits and how different people can create habits and motivate others to do so too.
CIPD Central London Branch: Leading change without the chaos
Wed, 17 May 2023
18:00 – 19:30 BST
CIPD Organisation Development and Design Conference, Montcalm Marble Arch
20 April 2023
13:50 – 14:30 (BST) CIPD Organisation Development and Design Conference, Montcalm Marble Arch
Join us at the annual CIPD OD and D Conference where we will be running a workshop on Day 2 all about the role of OD in supporting effective decision-making
Workshop: Evaluating effective evidence-based practice for decision-making
Get ready for an engaging and thought-provoking session that will answer the question on every leader’s mind: “Is it possible to implement change in an organization without creating chaos?”
Join us as we share strategies and tactics for leading change, while minimizing disruption to your teams and organisation.
Our experienced change leaders will take the stage to share their experiences, challenges, and insights on how to manage change effectively. From engaging employees proactively in the change process to effective communication, building trust, and what to do when things inevitably go off course.
We are excited to be joined by Liz Childs, Organization Development Consultant at the House of Commons, and other engaging guests. The session will be facilitated by Garin Rouch FCIPD, Co-chair of CIPD Central London and Chair of CIPD London Organization Development Design Group.
By the end of the session, you’ll leave with a better understanding of how to lead change in a way that inspires teams, improves organizational performance, and drives success. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from the best and feel equipped to approach change with greater confidence!
Get your tickets here.
CIPD Central London Branch: Organisation Design: Top Tips for Getting Started
Tue, 14 March 2023,
18:00 – 19:30 GMT
Are you keen to learn more about how organisation design? Are you about to embark on your first organisation design?
Organisation Design is so much more than shuffling boxes on an organisation chart. HR should be at the heart of any organisation design, rather than relegated to implementing the plans handed to them by other leaders. To make a full contribution, HR needs to be engaged early and often in the design process.
In this interactive session, we’ll be exploring the key questions:
- What is organization design and what does it involve?
- How to start your career in Org Design
- What are the pitfalls of Organisation Design?
- What are the misunderstandings of Org Design?
- How is organisation design changing?
We’re inviting 3 Organisation Design experts to share their insights and experiences of designing and restructuring organiations for optimal performance. Our expert speakers will guide you through some of the approaches, tools and techniques they use.
So, whether you’re just at the beginning of your Organisation Design journey, you’ve already taken your first step or you’re just curious to know more, we hope you’ll find this session enlightening and useful.
How to host and design transformative hybrid spaces
Wed, 1 March 2023
12:00 – 13:15 GMT
We’re excited to announce our involvement with the Winter CIPD London Organisation Development and Design group session open to senior OD practitioners.
We’ve invited the extremely engaging Gwen Stirling Wilkie to be our guest practitioner. An accomplished author and practitioner, Gwen will be sharing her knowledge, insights and expertise on Hybrid working. She’ll be exploring how we can deliver results in an Omni-Working environment.
She’ll be covering:
▶️ How do I approach designing change interventions blending different approaches (hybrid, asynchronous, F2F)?
▶️ How do I design and deliver an engaging and inclusive hybrid workshop?
▶️ What capabilities do we need to develop in our managers to thrive in a hybrid environment?
▶️ What is the role of HR and OD in building that capability?
You’ll even have the chance to contribute to her doctoral #research!
This interactive session is open to senior and experienced OD practitioners
How to Start Your Career in Organisation Development and Design
Thu, 26 January 2023
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM GMT
Are you curious about going into Organisation Development? Are you just at the beginning of your career, or are you an HR practitioner who would like to take on more OD responsibilities. Maybe you’d like to go into OD consulting? We wanted to run a practical and insightful session to help you get started. Every person’s journey into Organisation Development is different so we’ll be exploring different routes into it!
So, we’ll be inviting a range of OD practitioners
In this session, we’ll explore a number of different pathways:
· How to become an internal OD practitioner
· How to become an organisation design expert
· How to become an external OD practitioner
Our panel of experts will be sharing their experiences and answering your questions. We’ll explore how they got started in OD, what does a day in their life look like and what courses they’ve studied. So, whether you’re just at the beginning of your OD journey, you’ve already taken your first step or you’re just curious to know more, we hope you’ll find this session enlightening and useful.
Organisation Development Skills for HR Practitioners
Tue, 20 September 2022
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM BST
This interactive and engaging 90 minute session is all about how you can apply an Organisation Development approach into your work as an HR practitioner. There has never been a greater need for OD skills in the workplace to support your stakeholders and initiate and drive change.
Organisation Development is a highly developed field that takes a systems based approach to improving the effectiveness of our organisations. Adopting the mindset and skillset of an OD practitioner into your HR practice can be extremely valuable.
This session will introduce the essential skills and approach you need to add value to your stakeholder relationships and create significant change.
The session will cover:
• Introduction to OD and how it works
• How to work with your organisation as a system
• How to take an OD partnering approach to working with your stakeholders
• You’ll also receive a toolkit of tried and tested decision-making tools to enhance the quality of your decisions
The session is based on high-quality research with rich insights to help HR leaders sharpen their OD skills.
So, whether you’re in HR or Learning and Development and want to understand how to incorporate OD skills into your approach or you’re simply curious about understanding what organisational development is and how you can apply it this session is for you.
20-21 April 2022
10:20 – 11:00 (BST) CIPD Organisation Development and Design Conference, Leonardo Royal London Tower Bridge Hotel and online
Garin is joining Karen Dumain, National OD Capability Development Lead, NHS England and Improvement and David Wilson, Global Head of Organisation Development, Standard Chartered Bank on the panel to discuss:
How can OD&D be aligned with business goals to improve performance?
Friday 25 February 2022
10am BST Inside Track Podcast
Last week Dani spent some time talking to Tony Lockwood on his Inside Track podcast. They had a great conversation about change and transformation and the importance of putting people front and centre of our programmes.
It’s on all the usual podcast apps but quick links to a couple here:
Thursday 16th September 2021
09:30 to 16:15 BST CIPD Lincolnshire
CONFERENCE: The World is Changing. Are We?
This event is open to all & will explore the concepts and practical issues around returning to the workplace. How do you make it right for your business, build on what’s worked during lockdown and ensure the ‘new approach’ aligns to your business’ needs rather than reverting to what was in place before?
Excellent speakers covering culture and engagement, leadership and hybrid working: Jo Moffatt Jo Mason Dani Bacon Garin Rouch MCIPD MSc FLPI
plus a panel of experts for a practical Q&A session Thomas Martin Paul Burrows Chris Owen CMIOSH
Book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-world-is-changing-are-we-tickets-166136750493?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
Monday 28 June 2021
18:00 to 19:30 BST CIPD Central London
WEBINAR: Effective Decision Making for HR professionals
Wednesday 7 July 2021
12:30 to 13:30 BST Culture Recruitment
WEBINAR: How to Achieve Hybrid Working Success
Book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-achieve-hybrid-working-success-tickets-158727075957
Wednesday 21 April 2021
12:00 to 13:00 (GMT) The Progress Club
WEBINAR: 4 Steps to Supercharge your decision-making
Book here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theprogressclub
Wednesday 17th March 2021
12:30 to 13:30 (GMT) Culture Recruitment
WEBINAR: How HR leaders can sharpen their Decision-Making skills
Book here: http://How HR leaders can sharpen their Decision Making skills