The Wider Context Many organisations are faced with the need to change their form and the way they work. More must be done with less, while at the same time a high level of responsiveness to increasing complexity must be maintained. Effective partnering is becoming a crucial skill, both within and between organisations, so that difference and diversity can be harnessed to enrich a shared future.

Organisational Challenges Within such an environment, fixed structures and processes are no longer sufficient. Individuals and groups at all levels have to be aware of the issues and questions facing them, evaluate alternatives from an informed and mature viewpoint, and implement confidently an integrated response. To achieve this capability people must learn to be responsible for their own development and training, collaborating with their co-workers in continuously updating their practice in the light of new experience. It is personal initiative framed by organisational awareness that creates operational effectiveness and continuous improvement.

Partnership Oasis and the commissioner design together the optimal programme to address the organisation's needs, establishing an Individual Development Culture. Organisational change through individual development will embrace managers, practitioners and those with whom they work. Whether through coaching, group learning or mentoring, the desired outcome is to develop individuals with enhanced organisational skills, and a strong ability to manage themselves, their co-workers and difficult situations. These skills will be self-sustaining, with people having learnt to build on shared experiences so that in the future they can handle new and increasingly complex situations in an integrated and responsible way.

• Improving individual performance
• Enhancing competitive advantage
• Increasing collaborative advantage
• Aligning organisational values and strategic thinking to practice
• Enhancing individual, partnership and cross-functional relationships
• Developing individual capacity to anticipate future needs
• Sustaining effective response through developing conscious choice
• Developing faster learning
• Working with individual and organisational trends, conflicts and questions
• Challenging the status quo

The Oasis Contribution The Oasis School of Human Relations brings over 20 years' experience of unlocking the internal resources of individuals, groups and organisations. It has developed a human relations practice that places learners at the centre of their learning. They gain insight through accurately articulating their own experiences and thereby transforming them into understanding, either on a one-to-one basis or in a group of individually and mutually responsible adults. This combined peer and experiential approach empowers people to own their ongoing self-development, and being a collaborative and shared process extends naturally to those with whom they work and live.

Designing Individual Development processes The emphasis here is on designing an organisational wide development approach that may blend its focus upon aspects such as mentoring, peer learning sets and practice supervision, or possibly shorter-term executive coaching. The following outlines what Oasis can provide if the context calls for this form of response.

Coaching is underpinned by the belief that individuals have the resources to become more effective in their life and work. The role of the Coach is to work in partnership with them to help unlock those resources. Coaching is about change. It is not to give comfort, but to help the individual become more effective. Executive Coaching may focus on strategic issues within working life, concentrating on development as a leader with an organisation.

Life/ work coaching often looks at the balance between home and work or the effects of organisational change. Coaching often brings career development into focus. Coaching is action focused and not usually long term, perhaps one to six sessions, with follow up sessions later if required.

Individual mentoring offers a longer-term relationship to assist a person in working with key questions, aspects of professional and strategic development or their own deeper processes. It provides the opportunity to examine issues relating to specific aspects of self, work, life and the wider context.

It can include elements of coaching and personal development but essentially offers a more holistic relationship between those involved encompassing whatever is required to assist the individual in their progression. The role of speaking partner as guide comes to the fore in this collaborative relationship.

Team Mentoring represents a mentor relationship with a team or group as opposed to an individual. This offers a mentor to enhance a team's performance whatever the content or learning focus. It is an alongside method of furthering the development of a mature or creative team. Alternatively the mentor can be used to form a team or bring a longer standing team through evaluation and closure.

Project Mentoring is for project teams that are developing a human relations initiative such as 'in-house coaching provision'; 'programme design' or 'a participative approach to organisational effectiveness' then we can provide a project specific mentor to help formulate the design, delivery, review and evaluation of such an enterprise. This approach is intended to develop the skills and understanding of those involved rather than developing reliance on external sources.

Peer Learning Sets are often referred to as action learning. A group of people come together with a facilitator to work on work/ career related issues. They may be from one or more organisations, but would usually not work in the same department. Participants will work on live issues with an individual to help that person find solutions from within their own resources. Peer learning groups take more account of the affective competences as well as behavioural and cognitive capabilities.

Learning Networks - are made up by bringing two or three people who work in the same team, together with others from different departments or organisations. They work/ learn together using live issues, often to tackle the 'wicked' problems.

To talk to us about individual development provision, delivering programmes for mentors or simply to find a practitioner for yourself, contact Lise Ribeiro.