We are a leading Organisation Development (OD) Academy and our purpose is to help organisations be effective in a healthy way.
Our work is to help change, improve, develop and grow all types and sizes of organisations and assist the people inside those ‘systems’ to be better at how the work gets done, and how people interact in order to achieve their purpose.
We do this through training first class OD practitioners, developing and enabling leaders, managers, and teams at all levels of the organisation to execute on their work in an effective and healthy way!
In order to maintain the requirements and quality standards of the above mentioned institutions, WVA operates strictly according to these standards. Our developers, faculty, facilitators and consultants are people with a deep understanding of the foundations of OD coupled with many years of relevant experience in the field. All our faculty members are also active consultants in the OD field and all our consultants also acts as either faculty and/ or content developers for our academic offerings. The above does not only ensure that we offer extremely relevant content to our delegates and students but also that all our classes and workshops are made practical by design and by the faculty members who operate in the field on an ongoing basis. We believe that there a few OD consultants in Southern Africa that comes close to the calibre and standard of WVA employees and associates.
CHE ACCREDITATION: H/PR1159/E001CAN
SAQA ID: 115552
DHET REGISTRATION: PENDING
SABPP ACCREDITATION NO: 6319P055WA & 6319P145WA
Worldsview Academy has been selling ‘Licenced Interventions’ to our Global community for many years. We have partners across the globe and over 2500 accredited facilitators of which 60% is outside of South Africa.
We currently have active projects in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Greece, Mexico and Congo Brazzaville.
See our Global Partners for more information
Our History
Our history from 1994 – 2015, in the voice of our founder, Craig Yeatman. Do you see our ‘Eagle” logo now?
It was 1994 and there was a business… doing ‘people stuff’. It was youthful, exuberant, hopeful and feminine. It was an eaglet in its aerie. What could it become?
One day, two insanely brilliant women appeared, one after the other. First, Lee Knobel, from one end of the world, and shortly after, Liora Gross, from the other end of the world! They brought the vision of OD, a different bird from the HR duck it thought it was. WorldsView Consulting fluffed its feathers: the eaglet moved to the edge of the aerie, ready to take its first flight, to see the world and seek out a place of its own – an aerie where eagles could gather from far and wide to see of the world many views.
From the start, products were developed that lit fires of South African IP across the globe: Nine Conversations in Leadership™ and Purposeful Teams™.
Late 2008 and 2009 the global financial crisis hit. The cliff tops, where the eagle settled, were treacherous and the wild winds were relentless. The business was running, but it wasn’t making enough money for the group and investors to properly sustain itself. Building a strong enough nest to hold a community of eagles would prove challenging.
As it became increasingly difficult to sell its products to organisations, the company focussed heavily on sales and marketing to build an external sales community.
The community quickly fell in love with Nine Conversations in Leadership™, in particular, as they learnt about selling leadership. 9C™ was proudly South African, and was competing against other established interventions and institutions.
The development of new IP essentially halted, the focus was on bolstering sales. Battling incredibly tough market headwinds Worldsview forged ahead with their sales objectives. Sales partners were nourished and loved. But only one new golden egg was laid in the airy nest – Heart of Leadership© …
In this time, Craig Yeatman and Fiona Mac Farlane were challenged by Dr Louise van Rhyn (a leading OD practitioner in South Africa) to establish the Academy for Organisation Change (AOC) to develop OD practitioners – a challenge they took up!
In 2011 it was time to change or choke.
Simply surviving didn’t translate into making a difference, and global networks started to crumble. Three products were not sufficient to increase sales; more products were required to maintain growth and performance. Shareholders put pressure on the company to develop new products in return for further investment. This was the lowest point in the company’s history. It seemed the aerie was falling apart.
Company and sales processes were changed from a predominantly sales-centred operating model to a more holistic approach that included IP creation and training for OD practitioners who delivered the IP.
Now two companies existed side by side, closely related and connected, but somehow competing with and alienating each other. Sales partners became more and more confused and unclear on the internal workings of the organisation and the global sales network weakened further. Finally, in January 2012, Craig merged the two companies and WorldsView Academy for Organisational Change was born. An aerie renewed, stronger this time.
The Research and Development component of the business was brought back to life and given more prominence in the structure of the company. The Higher Certificate in Organisation Development and Change was created. “Upstairs at WorldsView House” was redesigned and renovated, with new training rooms and an extensive OD library with good coffee and meeting space to welcome visitors.
The company next started developing software for clients to fully use both the academic and intervention offerings. Finally, when clients insisted that while they now had academics, interventions and software, it still took too long to make sense of, internalise and use within their organisations, the consulting arm was formally established to help them.
Everything in place and functions and roles clarified, the aerie felt strong and safe. The aerie had lots of room and much to offer. It now called more eagles to join.
2015 – right now
Worldsview Academy continued on its ‘trend’ of forming and transforming itself. The past 5 years saw growth and retraction in a difficult financial landscape. The Higher Certificate in OD and Change reached great heights, many students registered and qualified, the faculty and partner network grew and Worldsview paved the road to be a respected as an OD thought leader.
OD Café’s became a much loved monthly event, hosted in the beautiful venue, a welcoming space for anyone interested in OD to come and have breakfast, mingle and learn together. New products such as “New Manager Bootcamp’ and ‘Ready to Lead©’ was developed and landed well in many organisations. The permanent team became small but strong whilst growing the partner network locally and internationally.
We do not yet know what the world will look like after the COVID pandemic, but Worldsview Academy is resilient, confident and stronger than ever. We are ready to take on the emerging (new) normal!
