Stabilising after an exceptional period of rapid growth, the IOPC wanted to bring renewed priority to learning.

We worked with The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) whilst the organisation changed their structure, values and strategic direction, transitioning from being the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Through action research, IOPC challenged the status quo on learning culture. We worked with senior and middle managers to help shift mind set to a new learning model that had been robustly communicated, but had blocks and barriers to landing. This included adoption of the 70:20:10 model, applying on the job learning with less reliance on classroom training. This change programme resulted in visible changes in the way people worked and the conversations they had. Talented leaders across the organisation are creating the culture change they want to see. IOPC are now one of the Civil Services highest performing Departments for staff survey results and engagement levels.

“The project has opened the door to do more, and got the organisation to a point of shifting mind-set, to be open to learning and so the 70:20:10 model is now landing”

The OD way of working brought results where traditional approaches hadn’t previously worked.

“One key thing that Clare brought to us was how she looked at things through a different lens. Over the six months she worked with us we saw changes in behaviour that we could identify as the start of cultural change”.

A combination of enquiry and diagnostics, facilitated workshops, coaching, feedback and consultancy with senior leaders brought credibility to the L&D agenda and got the new products to work.

We were then asked by IOPC to undertake an organisation wide cultural diagnostic, which resulted in the launch of a coaching programme.

“I have found this to be the most beneficial leadership training I have had in my career to date”.

The coaching resulted in leaders developing a new structure for difficult conversations, being more robust at dealing with poor behaviour, growing in confidence, improving strategic thinking skills, increasing resilience and confidence, planning better, leading a team better and making better decisions, the evaluation showed.

“A better quality of coaching than I’ve had before, Clare had the relevant knowledge and guidance. She knows what’s happening in the organisation”.

The culmination of this year of work, first on L&D culture and then on wider leadership development resulted in the organisation dramatically improving their People Survey results in access to learning and development, leadership and management and change management across the organisation.

A year later, IOPC invited us back in to work with them on the design of a leadership development centre, to further continue the culture change work, and we continue to support specific teams on their annual team development events.