About absolute-North Ltd.

absolute-North provides leadership and management training to organizations globally. We specialize, and are experts in, Artificial Experience Building. All of our programs are available in the following languages with other languages available on request: English, Finnish, Swedish, Russian, Chinese, Estonian, Czech, Bulgarian and Italian.

Learn more about absolute-North, what we do and how we differ from other training companies by downloading our brochure.

 

 

 

Method makes the manager

It is people who drive the success of your business. One important variable in the people equation is experience. At absolute-North we help managers to gain in a short period of time a multitude of experiences utilizing the latest methods in Artificial Experience Building. Inspired by the US Military, these methods provide participants with experiences that help them to better discover their strengths and work through their areas of development with a personal program. In a short period of time we greatly increase the experiences that managers have to call on in difficult times, helping them to be better leaders.

Read more about absolute-North’s methods by downloading our brochure.

 

 

 

Give them experience and not just knowledge

One challenge of young managers is that they lack experience in handling people well This results in a “learn-as-you-go” situation where managers gain experience often by making costly mistakes on the job. Traditionally young manager programs have focused on imparting knowledge in the form of lectures. Our program is different. We start with providing an experience, using that as a base to bring the theory and knowledge to the participant. The difference is they see immediately the relevance of what we are teaching and how to specifically apply it to improve their skills in managing others.

Read more about absolute-North’s new manager training by downloading our brochure.

 

Todellisia kokemuksia, ei vain tietoa

Uusien johtajien eräs haaste on, että heillä ei ole paljoa kokemusta siitä, miten ihmisiä kohdellaan mielekkäästi ja hyvin. Tämä johtaa opi virheistä -tilanteisiin, joissa johtajat oppivat tekemällä kalliita virheratkaisuja. Perinteisesti nuorten johtajien koulutukset keskittyvät luennoilla jaettavaan tietoon. Meidän koulutuksemme on erilaista. Me tarjoamme aitoja kokemuksia, jotka voidaan sitten liittää teoriaan ja tietoon eli käytännön kokemukset nostetaan teoriatasolle. Osallistujat kokevat tällaisen opetusmateriaalin hyödylliseksi. Kokemuksia voi soveltaa käytäntöön, kun he työssään kohtaavat alaisiaan. Lataa suomenkielinen esite.

 

 

Leadership going from good to great

One meta-analysis (a synthesis of some 80 well-conducted studies on productivity) showed that for persons in high-level jobs, the productivity difference between the top person and the others is huge. The top performer is 127% more productive than the mean and infinitely more productive than those at the bottom. The researchers used the word “infinitely” because the number was so large that it would have been imprecise to say anything else.
So how do you move from just being “good” to being an “exceptional” performer and a highly effective leader? The answer is to provide the good with the opportunity to experience, practice and develop their leadership into something great. This is what we do at absolute-North.
“Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.” (Bennis and Nanus)

Read more about absolute-North’s unique and effective leadership programs by downloading our brochure.

 

Embrace the heart and drive success

The latest research into leadership shows that effective leadership needs more than just reason and logic.  In order to win commitment to organizational change leaders must be able to embrace emotion and use it to win hearts and minds. 

Are your leaders comfortable with their own emotions?  Are they able to use emotion to motivate and inspire those working for them?  It is a skill that can be developed and should be developed if your organization is to become more competitive and more globally successful.  Take a moment and download our brochure on how we can help your people to use emotion to win commitment and also download a free article from Ivey Business Journal entitled Engage the heart: Appealing to the emotions facilitates change, by Gerard H. Seijts and Grace O’Farrell.

Read more about absolute-North’s Embrace the Heart by downloading our brochure.

 

Transforming your feedback culture

Having the right feedback culture is imperative to future global success.
If you are not managing your feedback culture, you are risking the future success of your organization. Having a culture of open and honest feedback where managers and subordinates participate in a constructive dialogue to meet head on challenges and develop opportunities is what drives organizational success. If your organization is struggling with how to meet the challenges of global competition, of how to innovate and produce better products and services, the place to begin is with developing to a higher degree your feedback culture. We can help.

Read more about absolute-North’s Artificial Experience Building for Transforming Your Feedback Culture by downloading our brochure.

 

Leadership of change is vital to organizational success

As is evident from our latest published research (”Leadership developmental needs—a system for identifying them,” Australian Journal of Adult Learning, April 2009), managers across the globe overwhelmingly perceive inter-communication skills as their top development area. Communicating for change becomes an ever more complicated task, and one that is vital for optimizing performance to drive recovery and growth. Our program prepares your people to better communicate strategic initiatives, sell their ideas, and handle difficult situations in a sensitive and sensible manner, taking into account the needs and expectations of the individuals involved, and especially the "survivors" of restructuring.

Read more about absolute-North's Communicating for Alignment by downloading our brochure.

 

Communicating in difficult times

The current economic downturn is forcing companies to tighten their belts, downsize and restructure. These strategic decisions require your managers to communicate to their teams tough decisions. It is wrong to assume that your managers and supervisors will know what to say and how to handle sensitive conversations right the first time. Have they thought out fully the impact their message will have? Have they anticipated the tough questions that will follow? We can help. Our Artificial Experience Building method has helped countless managers around the world to get insight that will help them to deliver the correct message by practicing and receiving critical feedback on message delivery.

Read more about absolute-North’s communicating in difficult times training by downloading our brochure.

 

Microexpressions: Hear what is not being said

People cannot totally conceal their emotions, and microexpressions occur when we try to hide or repress how we feel. Unlike regular facial expressions that last for a few seconds, microexpressions (lasting only about 1/25 of a second) cannot be controlled. Delivered either as individual or group coaching, our microexpressions training can help you to recognize how people feel, see the impact your behavior has on others, and better understand the people you interact with. You will never look at people again the same way.

Read more about absolute-North's Microexpressions Training by downloading our brochure.

 

 

 

A.E.B. for performance discussions

Give them not only the tools but also the experience to do the job right.

Theoretical training alone cannot prepare your managers to handle the challenges that arise during performance reviews. Artificial Experience Building is a powerful method that trains managers to give better feedback, set clear goals, and discuss incentives in a constructive manner.

We create a “safe laboratory” environment where participants engage in real-to-life performance discussions and receive individual coaching and feedback. This builds confidence, improves communication, and creates an atmosphere where subordinates feel supported. We help your company to use performance reviews to boost productivity, increase morale and drive better business results.

Read more about absolute-North’s Artificial Experience Building for Performance Discussions by downloading our brochure.

 

Leadership of urgency

The failure of organizations to transform and meet increased global competition is directly tied to a failure to create a culture of urgency.
A lack of urgency in corporate culture is one of the key forces that result in organizations losing their competitive advantage.  People stuck in processes and patterns that no longer drive the organization forward.  It is as Einstein said, “Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  absolute-North can help you to develop a culture of urgency by helping your key leaders to develop urgent behaviors and communication styles that motive and inspire people towards new goals.  Download our brochure and contact us today to learn more

Read more about absolute-North's Artificial Experience Building for Leadership of Urgency by downloading our brochure.

 

Organizational and individual accountability

absolute-North’s program in individual and organizational accountability asks participants to rethink how they respond to challenges, difficulties and problems to achieve higher levels of trust and performance. Our program focuses on the “new” accountability model where people disclose beforehand what will happen—a “presult” or a predetermined result. The outcome of developing this model is a higher level of trust which frees people from managing the details of others.

Read more about absolute-North's accountability program by downloading our brochure.

 

 

Artificial Experience Building for B to B sales

Finding the right sales approach for your customers can be like hitting a moving target. Advanced techniques in profiling, including use of emotional intelligence and heuristics, can greatly increase the effectiveness of your sales force, helping them to close more sales. This program focuses on understanding better the customer by developing an individual profile of your company contact. At the same time the program teaches salespersons how to build a value map to map your product and services to the needs of the organization they are selling to. Customer profiles, combined with organizational value maps, help your people to sell with more confidence and more effectively.

Read more about absolute-North's B to B sales Program by downloading our brochure.

 

 

Don't let customers trip-up your salesforce

Competition in the marketplace, and the growing world economy, means that customers have more choices than ever. Customers today are more demanding. Your sales people need to be able to read the customers quickly and respond to Their needs with individual solutions. At absolute-North we help to build your people’s sales skills by building their personal database of experience-what we call artificial experience building. Through this method we can help your sales people to gain valuable experience in handling difficult customer interactions. We build our cases from your own company experiences and use professional actors to simulate experiences that help your people to successfully manage even your most difficult customers.

Read more about absolute-North's sales training by downloading our brochure

 

Artificial Experience Building for customer experience

Our highly effective Artificial Experience Building method trains your sales people to provide a higher level of customer experience while reducing their work-related stress in dealing with all customers, foreign and domestic. We build not only their theoretical knowledge but also their personal “database” of experiences to help them adapt to specific customer behavior styles and improve their verbal and nonverbal communication skills in different situations. Delivered by the native speakers of English, Russian, and Finnish, we understand the culture, buying behaviors, and expectations of your customers. Our team will give your staff concrete suggestions on word choice and actions to be used to project a customer-friendly image and handle demanding customer interactions.

Read more about absolute-North’s Customer Experience Program by downloading our brochure.

 

We can help you build well functioning teams and workgroups

Virtual teams are becoming a cornerstone of the new corporate landscape, and a key ingredient of agile and fast companies. Understanding and leading virtual teams is a leadership imperative. For an organization to be highly effective in the global marketplace, it must garner resources from across the global, and create high functioning teams to solve ever more complex corporate challenges. absolute-North’s virtual team training helps your people to understand the challenges of the virtual world and provides them with the skills and tools to turn the challenge of the virtual environment into an opportunity for greater organizational collaboration and business success.

Read more about absolute-North’s virtual team training by downloading our brochure.

 

 

Peer coaching for high performance

Creating a coaching culture is vital to building and sustaining a healthy organization in the highly competitive global work environment. While outside coaches play an important part in the development of specific individuals in the organization, such coaching is costly both in time and resources. A more effective approach is a peer coaching system where you leverage the knowledge of each person in your organization to coach one another. absolute-North’s coaching peers program helps organizations to learn to coach effectively one another to improve business performance.

Read more about absolute-North’s methods by downloading our brochure.

 

 

 

Well functioning virtual teams will be vital to future business success

Virtual teams are becoming a cornerstone of the new corporate landscape, and a key ingredient of agile and fast companies. Understanding and leading virtual teams is a leadership imperative. For an organization to be highly effective in the global marketplace, it must garner resources from across the global, and create high functioning teams to solve ever more complex corporate challenges. absolute-North’s virtual team training helps your people to understand the challenges of the virtual world and provides them with the skills and tools to turn the challenge of the virtual environment into an opportunity for greater organizational collaboration and business success.

Read more about absolute-North's virtual team training by downloading our brochure.

 

 

Give your people the skills to succeed globally

"Think global, act local" has become a must for multinational companies regardless of the industry they operate in. But has your company prepared your employees to efficiently act locally? absolute-North’s program in intercultural communication gives your employees an opportunity to develop their cross-cultural competence in order to better interact with representatives of other cultures, saving your company from costly mistakes and allowing for smooth international operations. Our program will benefit expatriates who are preparing for their foreign assignment, as well as employees working in multi-cultural project or virtual teams.

Read more about absolute-North’s World Wise Workforce training by downloading our brochure.

 

Leading creative people demands smart leadership

Creative people are extremely sensitive to the environment, need context for their creativity, are driven by strong intrinsic motivational factors, and require smart leadership. Smart leaders demonstrate their expertise and authority over creative employees quietly by not pushing them or by not showing them who is the boss. They know their people and what motivates them, shelter them from “organizational rain,” encourage participation, and create a culture of dynamic intellectual exchange.

Read more about absolute-North’s methods by downloading our brochure .

 

 

 

Bridging the generational gap

Each generation has distinct values, behaviors, attitudes, habits, expectations from the work environment, and motivational buttons. Learning how to communicate with the different generations can eliminate many major misunderstandings and confrontations in the workplace, diminish employee turnover, retain young talent, and help in gaining employee commitment.

Read more about absolute-North’s Bridging the Generational Gap by downloading our brochure.

 

3D virtual world training is here!

What sets Virtual World training apart from other virtual applications is the level of engagement by the participant. In video conferencing or teleconferencing, it is easy for people to disengage and read emails or surf the web. In the virtual world the participant’s hands, eyes and ears are all involved in the experience creating a higher level of engagement. It is not about showing PowerPoints or lectures; it’s about simulating real life interactions and providing individual coaching and feedback to drive personal development. Because all that is needed is a high-speed Internet connection and a computer, the cost of training an individual is significantly lower than a traditional face-to-face program. Like to see an online demonstration?

Read more about absolute-North's 3D Virtual World Training by downloading our brochure or visiting our online information page with video examples.