“Taking the same program as your colleagues helps you talk about the same things and speak the same language.”
“Afterwards, I got way more out of the TIAS program than I’d imagined at the beginning.” These are the words of Luc Wismans, until recently Innovation Manager at the mobility firm Goudappel Group. Soon after Luc finished the open Executive Leadership & Management Program at TIAS, his management role turned into a seat on the Board at Goudappel, as Director of Technology & Innovation.
The need for more structure
Luc Wismans had no aspiration to take over the role of the general director who intended to retire. He did however see that the TIAS program could offer value in his role as innovation manager. “I come from the content side. What I did as innovation manager, I did using all the skills and knowledge that I acquired myself, combined with a hefty dose of common sense. That alone was already quite valuable to my mind, but I really needed to bring more structure into it, and get a better feel for what was going on at the strategic level.”
Linking up with personal development needs
Luc was mainly interested in the modules and master class that would benefit him as innovation manager. “This was mostly about better managing certain things and ensuring they actually get taken up. Because I had the budget, but not the people. So I was usually busy trying to drum up support.”
Personal leadership
He started with the Governance master class, followed by the Strategic Leadership and Organizational Leadership modules to gain different tools and insights to approach problems. “That ultimately provided a great deal of value, but I got a lot out of the Personal Leadership module in particular, especially in my development. I hadn’t really considered that module, but ended up deciding to take it because I thought it might be good to take a look at myself. After all, in your day-to-day work, you don’t have time to pause and examine certain aspects and take a critical look at yourself. How do I behave in different situations? And why do I actually do that? What’s behind it? I notice it gives you some peace of mind. Even if you think you know yourself, you get to know yourself even better because they challenge you to look at yourself in specific ways. As do the other participants sitting around your table. That really helps you get your head around certain things.”
The learning objective?
“Just the question ‘what is your learning objective?’, which you ask in Personal Leadership, I found really poignant. You think you’ll be able to write the answer fairly quickly. But when they challenged me on it, my learning objectives turned out to be completely different from what I wrote down. I saw the same thing with other participants. In some cases, the learning objective even appeared to have been formulated by someone else.” So Luc thought it would help create support if he took a more diplomatic tack in certain cases. “Not that I was always heavy-handed, far from it. But when I thought my learning objective through, it turned out to be ‘how can I use my power to ensure’ – I’m known for my frankness, openness and transparency – ‘that I can create support?’”
“By constantly looking out for what factors are at play in other organizations, you recognize things you never noticed before in your own organization.”
Name Luc Wismans
Position Director of Technology & Innovation at Goudappel Group, a company specializing in all aspects of mobility. In this role, Luc bears final responsibility for technology, innovation and digitization, an increasingly essential file in the company’s area of activity. That’s also why Goudappel added a new director role with this portfolio to its formerly two-member Board.
Aside from this position, from his role at Goudappel Luc has been an Associate Professor at the University of Twente for years, with the aim of bringing together theory and practice by translating research findings from the university into added value for Goudappel’s clients. This role ultimately gave rise to the position of innovation manager, and recently also the third seat on the Board of Goudappel.
“Organizing people well in a time of digitization, which means leadership, is the major challenge facing every organization.”
Combining theory and practice
What Luc thought was really powerful about the TIAS program, something he also recognizes in himself, is that the lecturers have both feet planted firmly in the real world. “Theory is combined with case studies that lecturers can share from their own experience, because they themselves were closely involved in that process.”
Learning from peers
Another plus that stands out to him is that the Executive Leadership & Management Program is an open program, in which you develop yourself alongside other participants at the same level in other organizations. “On the one hand, you recognize a lot of yourself in others, even though we all come from different sectors. So you can really offer value to one another. On the other hand, this creates an effective network. I visited another participant this week to discuss something. I also highly appreciate the combination of real-world stories from lecturers and the space to delve into cases from your own work with other participants. As a result, you still have these kinds of discussions with various people after the program.”
Comparison
What Luc found particularly positive about the learning environment of the TIAS program is that participants are constantly asked to compare their own situations to those of others. “There is always space to react to what you are learning and hearing. The funny thing is that sometimes the reactions of the other participants help reveal the insights the lecturers are imparting. Such as when a lecturer presents a case that seems far removed from your experience, but another participant does in fact recognize it. Seeing how they translate the lecturer’s case into their own situation on the ground suddenly improves your own understanding.
Raising topics for discussion in your own organization
“By constantly looking out for what factors are at play in other organizations, you recognize things you never noticed before in your own organization. You get so used to doing or organizing things in a certain way, you never think to bring them up for discussion. But when a participant talks about running into certain issues in that exact area, and identifies them as a cause of the situation that you never discuss, you suddenly see the cause and the effect. That makes you wonder if that’s going on in your own organization, which spurs discussion with colleagues.”
“I’ve gotten confirmation that we’re already doing some things right at Goudappel, and I now have the energy to take up and change some other things.”
A new perspective
Looking back on his learning experiences, Luc is even more convinced than before that the leaders of today are not the decision-maker in any way. “Leading today is much more about ensuring that people do the right things and arrive at a shared vision based on mutual discussion. You make strategic choices together, instead of a leader saying: ‘we’re gonna do this and that.’ The program convinced me of that, perhaps even more so than before.
It also helped me take the time to look critically at how the Goudappel organization is currently doing things, compared to all of the different possibilities and priorities. I’m now better able to decide where to channel my energy. The general structure of the program, with all of its tastes, solutions and cases, offers a new perspective.”
The same material, the same language As the main benefit of going through the TIAS program along with other managers, Luc notices that managers in the organization are starting to speak the same language. “It was great to see everyone making their own way through the program, while we were learning the same material and concepts. This way, we understand each other better, and can also refer to the material from the modules more easily. Such as the concept of ‘scenario planning’ from the Strategic Leadership module. During the program, I heard from several people that we don’t do this enough in our organization. So I arranged a meeting with our younger employees to give scenario planning a try. I didn’t need to explain why to other manager with experience from the TIAS program. Taking the same program helps you and your colleagues talk about the same things and speak the same language. I also think it’s unprecedented for a company to have so many people taking a leadership program at the same time. When even more managers learn to talk the same language and use the same concepts, that can only mean more benefits for Goudappel, I think.”
Organizing people On a personal level, Luc notices he has more confidence and peace of mind, as well as a few more tools under his belt. “I’ve gotten confirmation that we’re already doing some things right at Goudappel, and I now have the energy to take up and change some other things. I’m more aware of my own role and those of others in the company as well. This is also related to another epiphany I gleaned from the TIAS program: you may think you’re unique as an organization, but you’re really not. Because organizations involve people, they face similar challenges and issues everywhere. Organizing people well in a time of digitization, which means leadership, is the major challenge facing every organization.”