Who and Why, Leadership & Team Development

Who and Why

James Thornton Institute of Leadership
&
Team Development

A self managing organization of like minded professionals committed to leadership and team development was envisioned in 1993 during an Executive Development Program at the Banff Centre of Management. The vision continues to evolve through James Thornton Institute of Leadership and Team Development (JTILTD). JTILTD is dedicated to developing senior leaders and high performance teams through professionally delivered programs and products focused on:

Team roles, work/job and changing organizational shape theories, based on the work of Meredith Belbin and Associates and
Action Learning, based on the philosophy and teachings of Reg Revans

Our key strengths are current expertise with both theories / philosophies and their time tested products and programs that focus on developing senior leaders. These globally used products and programs, delivered through a network of professional associates, provide the ways and means of:

enhancing individual self knowledge and leaders' relationship skills.
providing feedback and personal counseling to assist with personal leadership development & career planning.
selecting and developing high performance senior leader teams while solving real problems for organizations.
suggesting actions, assessments, or programs that would help to resolve issues, thereby accelerating and maximizing senior leader team performance.
discovering special talents and aptitudes among senior leaders (many hidden from view) that can be exposed and used benefiting both the leader and his/her organization.
optimizing the success of assigning the best candidates when making placement decisions and matching tasks to people.
contributing to self actualization, the achievement of one's full potential through creativity, independence, spontaneity, interpersonal relationships and a grasp of the real world.

Background

Initial talks between JTILTD and Belbin® began in 2003 as a result of a consulting and research project for Oro Holdings Ltd., a Calgary based company. The project consisted of the design and creation of a preparatory workshop for participants entering into a formalized Action Learning program. The title of this work is 'A Senior Leaders' Preparatory Workshop for Participation in an Action Learning/Team Problem Solving (TPS) Program.' (Fyke, 2002) Interest and research for this project continued, and became Jim's master thesis at the University of Calgary. Jim continued to pursue a deeper understanding of Action Learning with the goal of improving team performance. He creatively combined Reg Revans' Action Learning theories with Dr. Meredith Belbin's Team Roles theories and methodologies, and produced a number of powerful leadership and high performance team development offerings.

Jim received his accreditation in Belbin® Team Roles in January 2004. The accreditation provided a deeper understanding of Belbin®'s work, and allowed him to build relationships and contacts in the EU. Face to face meetings were held with both Meredith and his son Nigel Belbin and Meredith's long time friend and close associate Barrie Watson. During their trip to the UK, Jim and Sandy visited with various contacts at several Universities, Colleges and IFAL. They viewed Reg Revans works at Salford, and held several meetings with colleagues in the UK and Germany.

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