Frequently Asked Questions
See what leaders and program participants are saying about QBS.
Welcome to Quality Business Services’ FAQ page. Here, we address your most frequently asked questions around our innovative leadership programs, including investment, our 70/20/10 learning model, time commitments and more. Dive in to better understand our unique approach to leadership development, balancing personal growth and tangible business outcomes.
We are concerned about the cost, what options do we have?
- Ensure you choose the participants based on the maximum impact.
- Do the first three workshops and portfolios then decide if you want to do the rest (there should be a payback already). This would be approx 65% of the cost.
- Small group coaching instead of 1on1.
- Public programs for a few rather than meet minimum inhouse cohort size.
- Larger cohorts to share the fixed $ component – this lowers the per person price but total will be higher.
- Exclude the qualification at the end (but not the work) – the digital credential and access to MBA credits are still available.
- Spread over financial years.
- Run a 60min taster (if you needed to convince some stakeholders) – a bit of theory and an activity.
Why does COE work?
- COE has been designed from the outside in. We identified the core practices that an effective leader and manager needed then designed the program from there, using practical business language. This pragmatic design has built-in activities for collaborating with team members, line manager and stakeholders which tangibly and sustainably shifts KPI needles.
- Participants are challenged during the program yet they have a village of support around them – COE colleagues, expert facilitator, manager, coach, assessor.
- Another significant factor is the 70/20/10 design – real-world application which embeds the learning. No theoretical case studies but also no predetermined solutions, as every business, industry, function has nuances. This is where the participant gets to think about what will work in their role – they focus COE on the issues they need to work on. The continual focus on reflective practice further embeds learning – what did/didn’t work? Why was that? What do you learn from that? What next?
- COE is not easy. It is not a series of webinars with multi-choice questions or a case study at the end. It is a collaborative learning program that leads to an unforgettable transformation.
What is 70/20/10?
- A learning and development model created in the 80s by researchers at the Centre for Creative Leadership that suggests a proportional breakdown for how people learn effectively. In a nutshell, 10% of the learning comes from formal courses and reading, 20% comes from feedback and collaboration and 70% of learning comes from challenging experiences. COE is a genuine 70/20/10 design.
- Over approximately 8 months, the participant will spend 6.5 days in collaborative workshops – rich in discussion and challenging activities. This has both 10% and 20% elements.
- Between each workshop they will apply the workshop frameworks and concepts with their teams, developing insights and corresponding actions that are progressed to completion. They will seek input from various sources and they will have a sounding board in their COE coach. After each workshop, their work is reviewed by a specialist who provides feedback and suggestions – in effect, an executive coach. The participant is continually reflecting and adjusting (double loop learning) which accelerates the transfer of learning. This is the 70%, supported with more of the 20% and is where the majority of the learning occurs – the stuff they can’t ‘unsee’.
Selection criteria – who should do COE?
- COE is agnostic to function, industry, level, operating model, etc. All the concepts and frameworks apply – the participant will overlay these against their environment to identify the relevant opportunities. Naturally, bigger roles have bigger levers, and a bigger return from the program. The COE coach is there to ensure each participant works at their challenge level.
- COE is ideally suited to those in a leadership role, and one that they will continue in for the duration of the program. Many individual contributors have successful completed the program – especially emerging leaders. They will need a focus for them to apply their learning – it could be an area needing improvement, or they could act in a leadership role.
- We have found that, above all, the attitude to learning is the most important factor: A willingness to try new things, an open mind, an appetite to improve. A red flag for us is when a participant focuses on how good things are, rather than what they aren’t doing.
How much time will it take (leader and participant)?
- You can’t train for a marathon by doing one 5km run! Deep learning and changing old habits is hard and takes persistence. This isn’t one of those programs where you read a few case studies, watch a couple of webinars and attend a tutorial to get your ‘certificate’. We say that you get out what you put in and you will put in quite a bit of effort into COE.
- As a guide, a participant will attend 6.5 days of workshops, spend another 4-5 hours each week applying what they learnt (≈18 days) including discussing at least nine activities with their team, eight with their leader and three with stakeholders. They typically spend 90min per month with their coach (often in 30 or 60 min blocks).
- For each workshop, leaders can expect to spend 30min in a QBS COE leader briefing and another 1-2 hours for each of the six workshops with their participant, either reviewing a specific task or general progress check-ins. This can be incorporated into regular catch-ups, as long as day to day operational issues don’t take over!
Is COE just personal skills development or more than that?
COE is more than personal development – it is a program that is designed to deliver business impacts however HR/L&D’s mandate is typically to deliver/procure people development not business impacts. How do I communicate this?
- Yes, this is can be a challenge especially when HR/L&D get particularly excited with the idea of the COE certification or qualification. The reality is COE is equal parts personal development and business results.
- This is an opportunity for HR/L&D to show they can procure development that will hit a range of KPIs that the business care about – engagement, cycle times, customer experience, productivity. They should speak with the business leaders about the challenges they face such as particular KPIs. The typical COE graduate delivers annual benefits that are worth at least 5 times the program investment and a 20% improvement to business KPIs is commonplace. In other words, you can have your cake and eat it at the same time!
How does COE lead to a Diploma of Leadership and Management?
- QBS has worked with a registered training organisation (RTO) to map the activities in the COE portfolios to the units of competency in the qualification. We carefully selected the electives that best fit COE. Any gaps were carefully reviewed and the portfolios were modified to close the gaps but in the most meaningful, efficient way for the participant. After all, COE is more about the development of the participant and the impacts they will have, than a piece of paper (we don’t want the tail to wag the dog). The successfully completed portfolios is the evidence for the “Recognition of Prior Learning” (RPL) for the qualification. We also developed a clear set of minimum requirements so that the participant knows what is and isn’t acceptable. We steered away from things like a minimum number of improvement opportunities – we figured if we said at least one, we will get one! We are more concerned that your portfolio is an accurate reflection of where your team is at.
- Now that we have portfolios and minimum requirements, your portfolios will be rigorously reviewed against the requirements. As it is a regulated environment, this work may be reviewed by an auditor. Sometimes it feels picky but if the portfolio says discuss with your team and manager, you need to provide the evidence that you did both. You are able to resubmit your portfolios – most need to. The other, and probably more important, purpose of the assessment is to ensure you are getting the most out of the program. The assessor will suggest improvements, give you feedback on actions, sometimes ask you to think more deeply about an activity, occasionally point out an inconsistency, draw linkages between activities and portfolios. They want you working at your challenge level which is where you will start to make a big difference.
There are lots of places offering a Diploma of Leadership and Management. How is COE different?
- That is true and COE is a disruptor. There are hundreds of RTOs that are approved to offer this qualification. The difference is these are a slavish reflection of the units of competency and in academic speak. They teach the units in isolation, usually focusing on soft skills, and will give you a certificate of attainment for each unit as you progress. In COE you must finish all six portfolios – and only then will you earn the qualification. We have taken a holistic systems thinking approach, following the life cycle of a leader/manage – we designed it from the outside-in using the language of business. We even have content in COE that is not in the qualification such as using data for decision making and waste identification through value stream mapping.
- RTOs are usually focused on assessing for minimum competency – if it meets it, you get a tick. They will also use tests and case studies whereby all of COE is applied in the role. We look for more – we look for synthesis, deep reflection, integration of concepts, value-add. The assessor will suggest improvements, give you feedback on actions, sometimes ask you to think more deeply about an activity, occasionally point out an inconsistency, draw linkages between activities and portfolios. They want you working at your challenge level which is where you will start to make a big difference. All of this helps to embed your learning.
Some people already have a Diploma or degree, can they get credits for what they have already done? Why would they do COE?
- First and foremost, COE is not about earning a qualification. That is just an awesome bonus! If, for example, you had completed one of these units in a prior qualification, there is no way we can unstitch that from COE and, even if we could, it would be like a removing the bottom card in a pack of cards. Everything in COE is integrated and interwoven. So no, you can’t get credits for past work. We can pretty much guarantee that even if you did this qualification recently, you will get a truckload of new learning from COE due to the way it has been designed.
- We have people with a Masters degree tell us that this program gave them so many practical things they can use immediately in their role. Remember, you’e not doing it for the qualification!
My manager says COE is expensive
- You can certainly get cheaper diplomas and they will be academically oriented using lots of case studies such as a made up example that you analyse. COE is about solving your business challenges in real-time, not reading case studies. It is 100% in your role starting off with developing, then progressively executing, a strategic plan based on the COE concepts. We see graduates get an annual payback of at least five times the program cost plus the benefit of customer and employee KPI improvement. To help you with this, you get the support of experienced business coaches plus the feedback of an experienced assessor. The QBS team are all business leaders with years of experience in various industries and have decided to share their business experience with people like yourself.
- You will likely pay for the program from a training budget but the benefits will be reaped elsewhere in productivity, reduced complaints, reduced attrition, safety improvement, higher sales, etc.
Who we don’t work with …
- Organisations that are only interested in online learning.
- Organisations that don’t want a tangible ROI on their L&D investment.
- Organisations that won’t support in person attendance at any workshops.
- Organisations that want awareness not real change.
- Organisations that won’t give their people 4-5 hours per week for the duration of the program to apply what they have learnt for the benefit of their role, team and business.
- Organisations that don’t want to invest in expert, independent coaches to support your people through the program.
- Organisations that want to decompose training into micromodules rather than an end to end program covering all aspects of a leader’s role.
- Organisations that are not interested in a full qualification at the end.
- Organisations that are not interested in externally developed and facilitated programs.
- Organisations that don’t want programs using practical business language.
- Organisations that want the participants to work on theoretical case studies.
- Organisations that don’t want their people challenged.
- Organisations that want to issue qualifications or credentials based on what they already know.
- Organisations that want this month’s jargon and buzz words.
