A leadership program designed and built by Nous for Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission has won the 2019 Award for Best Leadership Development Program, recognising outstanding achievement in learning and organisational development.

The award, given by the Australian Institute of Training & Development, was announced at a gala dinner in Melbourne on October 17.

The award recognised the Team Leader Development Pathway (TLDP), which provided support for more than 200 current and emerging leaders at the TAC. The TLDP offered a bespoke, contemporary learning experience that blended work with learning, and empowered the TAC to measure and monitor the program’s impact.

The TLDP experience is self-directed and designed to flow with work. The TLDP builds leadership and management capabilities in team and specialist leaders. A new online platform, Take the Wheel, allows participants to access learning content anywhere, anytime from any device and chunks learning into short bites leading up to a workshop.

The project was led by Melbourne-based Nous Director Greg Evans and Senior Consultant Julia Bunjevac.

“The TLDP was grounded in a practical workplace learning strategy that aligned directly with TAC’s strategic direction. Nous worked closely with the TAC to develop its understanding of how learning could be integrated into the workplace sustainably, minimising impact on workflow while building leadership capability rather than getting in the way,” Greg said.

“It is great to see the work that Nous did with the TAC recognised by the AITD, and shows how other organisations can benefit from a strategic approach to improving the skills of emerging leaders. The TLDP has delivered tangible, measurable results,” Julia said.

After running 13 programs in the past 12 months, participants rated the course an average of 4.37 out of five stars for general satisfaction, and one participant said it was “the best leadership program we have been offered”. An evaluation report found the leadership development had fostered a culture in the organisation of addressing, not ignoring, performance or behavioural issues.

The program now has a long waiting list of leaders keen to upgrade their skills.

The TAC was pleased to partner with Nous and honoured to win the award, for which there were 11 finalists.

Leanne Micallef, the TAC’s Learning and Organisational Development Partner, said: “Nous provided expert advice, guidance and design when working with them to co-design the leadership development experience for our team leaders. Their skilled consulting challenged my thinking as a senior L&OD professional and educated me in the most cutting-edge and contemporary L&D practices. This led to us collaborating to design an innovative learning strategy that has led to proven capability uplift.”

The TAC is a Victorian Government-owned organisation set up to pay for treatment and benefits for people injured in transport accidents, promote road safety and improve Victoria’s trauma system. It has about 1,000 staff, who last year supported 58,000 people after an accident.