Whether you’re looking to create solutions to live issues, engage your external partners or inspire teams within your university take the next step with us to inspire braver and bolder leadership. We use experiential techniques, supporting and stretching people to nurture a curious and developmental mindset.
Our approach is to challenge and ignite people through interactive, immersive experiences. A selection of the techniques we use includes: group challenges, simulations, thematic inquiries, provocations, personal and collective writing activities, stakeholder mapping and action planning, visioning activities, and structured forms of dialogue which bring about insight and inspire action.
Forge successful relationships with the people you work with
Forge successful relationships with the people you work with
Unite teams around a shared purpose
Unite teams around a shared purpose
Have engaged conversations about what matters most and make change happen
Have engaged conversations about what matters most and make change happen
Deepen connections with students, partners and the community
Deepen connections with students, partners and the community
We set out to strengthen our team culture and to nurture an ongoing commitment to share ideas and our individual expertise to achieve our ultimate purpose – to enhance the student experience. It was vital to get the tone right and we achieved this working with Invisible Grail.”
Professor Malcolm Todd
Former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Derby
Now Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Leeds Trinity University
We’ve worked with
Sheffield Hallam University
Building a narrative that gets noticed with the Business and Enterprise Team
This Business and Enterprise Team wanted a collective, energising vision that would speak to who they are and what they’re here to do, and that would resonate and engage people throughout the University. Using creative facilitation, we worked with the team to articulate their ambitions and help start make these a reality. A process of inquiry, requiring the team to manage a series of conversations with provocative external guests, helped to draw out people’s leadership and build collaboration.
A strategic narrative for the Department of Social Responsibility and Sustainability
An award winning department was looking for a strategic narrative. This called for our most creative techniques: thinking in metaphors, linking words and images to their values, inspiring them to dream big. 6 months later, senior stakeholders were brought into the conversation, and their vision and ambition flourished.
A new narrative for the Community Engagement Teams
In a city keen to cement trust between its communities and its University, 20 colleagues debated and created over 4 days. We helped to facilitate an emerging narrative and a set of action plans for delivering a nationally funded pilot project. This will pave the way for a new model of civic engagement and leadership for Irish universities. It includes creating a virtuous circle between community engagement and widening participation in higher education.
Executive Team Development with the Faculty of Business and Law
Four different dates over a year. A team in formation, galvanised by a new strategy and the desire to bring colleagues with them to maximise a strong Faculty profile. We used creative problem-solving to nurture a climate based on greater trust and emotional intelligence.
Collaboration across the College Education Strategy Group
We worked with a team of 13 academic and professional services leaders to deepen their approach to working across a large College of Social Sciences and International Studies. Encouraging them beyond daily tactics and towards a bigger picture, we challenged assumptions and practices. The next steps for the team were to focus on interpreting and implementing the University’s new Learning and Teaching Strategy.
Creating a culture of high impact and collaboration
A 3-hour online session with four recently-appointed Deans to set the tone for how they wanted to create a culture of high impact and collaboration. Through mapping their leadership, reflecting on their impact as a team and visioning where they want to go next, colleagues articulated their next-stage actions for living out their newly formed leadership manifesto.
Strategy 2025 development
We became critical friend and author-in-residence to the Strategy 2025 team. We spent 13 days on campus with themed focus groups, listening during institution-wide consultations and online meetings, including those with leaders from international campuses. Our drafts paved the way for Court approval and the Strategy launch.
Technical University Denmark
Supporting and adapting to people’s needs: a half-day online workshop
The need to understand and adapt to different working styles, approaches and personalities can be heightened when we work from a distance, and especially online. To support middle managers across the University, we developed a half-day workshop for colleagues to use new techniques and leave them feeling energised and motivated. Over three hours, colleagues experimented with facilitative leadership styles and left with an action plan to help apply their learning to their leadership practice