Upskill case studies
Building capability, and un/learning patterns of thinking and practice can be deceptively difficult. Here are a select few client case studies, from diverse sectors, to bring to life the t.METHOD process and the results that can be achieved from working with Melissa.
both regeneratively and commercially.
2018 - 2019
t.METHOD | Steps 1 - 7
TRAINING + COACHING + ADVISORY program
good case study for: DAIRY sector. PEOPLE UPSKILLING solution. EXISTING business. FOR profit. Disrupting degenerative MINDSETS + PRACTICE.
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Miraka is a high growth Maori food company based in Taupō. Since inception, it had rapid growth, exporting globally with a $300M+.
Miraka began to explore high value consumer products as a departure from the core milk powder processing business. But with mixed results - several products taken to market didn’t achieve desired results and the Board recognized they needed a different approach.
The Miraka Exec team asked Melissa to investigate.
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Melissa undertook an initial audit of strategy, thinking, processes and execution. She developed a set of recommendations to take forward.
One of the key findings was a gap in capability - both knowledge and practice. Melissa recommended building greater organizational capability in Design Thinking and Innovation skills across all teams.
On the Exec's request, Melissa developed an innovation-building training program.
Initial discovery research interviewing a cross section of staff to gain insight.
Undertook a 6-month training program with a group of Innovation champions. These champions were trained in Design Thinking principles and how to apply them in all types of Innovation and continuous improvement projects.
They were also given tools to up-skill their teams in Design Thinking techniques to lift overall organizational capability.
Separately Melissa worked in more detail with the Marketing and Innovation team, as well as the HR team to ensure Design Thinking was embedded in wider HR-led productivity improvement and decision-making frameworks and programs.
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“The design-led training she took us through was invaluable. She gave us a totally new way of looking at problems . She has this amazing ability to dig down to find the real, not perceived issues. She’s dynamic, empathetic and thoughtful. I’ve used what she taught us in my employment, my personal life and my studies. Using her techniques as resulted in winning the Miraka Auaha (Innovation) Award 2019, a new role, and 99% on my assignment. Thanks Melissa, Indebted. Forever #ravingfan #loyalsupporter” - Sheri Thomas, Miraka Innovation Champion
“Melissa is well prepared but flexible to adapt her approach. She is caring and great with personal relationships, building trust with those people. She gave us simple takeaways that are easy to recall 12 months later. “ - Jason Te Brake, Commercial Manager Miraka
“I was fortunate enough to be selected to be coached by Melissa. I benefited both personally and professionally from Melissa’s expertise, guidance and mindfulness. By following her advice, I’ve been able to achieve significant wins.” - Warren, Sustainability Manager Miraka
“Melissa is a real gem to work with. A knowledge expert who’s inspiring, genuine and caring. I will have the design-thinking skills she gave me forever. She helped me break down problems into bite size pieces and work through the process in manageable chunks. It was a really powerful way of problem-solving - practical and real and you have something to show for it afterwards. The skills we learnt as a team are now helping us resolve wider organisational issues at the root cause, rather than ‘solutions’ that require a whole lot of work but don’t actually hit the mark. This has been really meaningful piece of work.” - Aleesha Price, HR Manager Miraka
"Melissa has been instrumental in helping us unlock our innovation potential. She has an uncanny ability to cut through big problems to identify what’s broken, what works and what can fly. She can see value potential and knows how to unlock it."
Richard Wyeth, CEO Miraka
2021
t.METHOD | Underpinning cross-cutting skills
TRAINING + COACHING
good case study for: CROSS INDUSTRY sector. rapid fire PEOPLE UPSKILLING solution. EXISTING business. FOR profit. Disrupting degenerative MINDSETS + PRACTICE.
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Callaghan Innovation are a New Zealand government agency set up to innovators and entrepreneurs become commercially successful, economic growth.
The Productivity Commission identified that leading 'frontier' firms have weak strategic innovation capabilities (called 'dynamic capabilities', the ability to sense, adapt and transform).
In response, Callaghan Innovation undertook a pilot targeted learning program with 12 leading business exec teams.
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As part of the pilot team, Melissa undertook a series of training workshops, followed by individual coaching.
The training and coaching focused, in turn on:
(i) Sensing capabilities - the mindset and practice for sensing contextual changes (opportunities and threats) in the wider business ecosystem
(ii) Seizing capabilities - the mindset and practices for responding to sensing insight (changes to strategy, new innovation potential)
(iii) Transform capabilities - the mindset and practices for realigning a business (people, tech, processes, systems) to be able to continuously adapt to dynamic change.
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Whilst all took value from the program (100% exceeded expectations), the key results were
(i) 67% went on to make fundamental changes to their management practices and decision making based on what they had learnt.
(ii) 92% embedded beneficial new ways of working
2017 - Present
t.METHOD | Steps 1 - 10
TRAINING + COACHING + ADVISORY
good case study for: EDUCATION sector. PEOPLE UPSKILLING solution. EXISTING business. FOR profit. Disrupting degenerative MINDSETS + PRACTICE.
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Academy EX offer tertiary education solutions for business professionals, using emerging disruptive technologies to solve big world problems.
As part of their Masters in Applied Innovation program, students are required to develop up and take to market their own idea, as a start-up entrepreneur.
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Since their second cohort intake, Melissa has run a series of labs to build up innovational and disruption capabilities.
These align to the steps in the t.METHOD, and the cross-cutting skills underneath.
(i) Discovering Your Why’ - unlocking your personal potential.
(ii) Market Ecosystem mapping - patterns, patterning in, and disruptive levers.
(iii) Market Validation - market scoping + opportunity identifying.
(iv) Systems thinking - practice techniques + tools
(v) Environmental lifecycle analysis - with ecological principles
(vi) Customer Research techniques
(vii) Ideation, prototyping and user testing.
(viii) Building the componentry for powerful value propositions.
(ix) Building a powerful brand, UX and calibrating your Marketing mix.
(x) Business Model blueprinting – how to monetize and operationalize effectively.
Separately, Melissa also talks with the Masters of Resilience students on how Nature does resilience.
Melissa has also been an ongoing expert advisor and coach with several students to commercialize their ideas. As well as a judging panelist in assessments (although she no longer does this, given time constraints).
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““Melissa is calm, thoughtful and holistic thinker. She combines what are typically thought of as 'fluffy' concepts with 'hard' edges of frameworks and outputs. It’s a magic combo. She provides our students with a way to see, and move through the complexity. Her frameworks help give order to the disorder and gets people unstuck. This is the key to momentum - forward motion. It's awesome!”
— Sarah Hindle, General Manager, Tech Futures Lab
