Enabling people to succeed - Together

 

Founded in 1965 Coverdale is a pioneer in experiential (inductive) learning and coaching. We are experts in human and organizational development and have supported individuals, teams, organizations and communities in over 80 countries. At present we have offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

The focus of our work is on skill development in areas such as cooperation and teamwork, leadership, self-management skills, conflict management and negotiation. Our approach is evidence-based and continuously evolving by linking theories from appropriate disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, adult development, communication, and organizational studies, with current coaching, training and development techniques.

We apply our methods to executive coaching, facilitation, consulting in organizational development projects as well as project management or intercultural cooperation.

Our coaches and consultants have front line management experience in a wide variety of industries: they know what it means to lead teams and organizations first hand rather than only academically. 

The Coverdale organization is a network of co-owned companies. This enables us to direct all our efforts on delivering results for our clients.

We are guided by our mission and a deeply rooted set of guiding principles and values.

What makes Coverdale different?


  • Our track record - Coverdale has over 50 years of hands on experience. The practice is built on a solid foundation and continuous improvement.

  • Coverdale has worked in over 80 countries worldwide and has offices in 10 countries in North America, Europe and Asia.

  • Our client solutions are driven by the client's mission and business aims. We focus on pragmatic application, flexibility and robust adaptability.

  • Our training programs develop real skill not just impart knowledge - and deliver sustainable solutions.

  • Our coaches and consultants have front-line leadership experience and know what the challenges are first hand rather than only academically.

  • Our approach is evidence-based and continuously updated based on latest research in adult learning, organizational development and coaching practices.

 

Our Core Purpose

Enabling people to succeed - Together

 

This is why we exist. It is what we are about.
Our whole raison d'être is to help others be successful. It guides everything we do. 

Today’s and tomorrow's markets are characterized by shareholders demanding best-in-class performance,
by continuous price pressure, rapid innovation, the pre-dominance of intellectual over financial capital
and by investors, regulators and other stakeholders demanding higher ethical standards.

We believe that a sustainable competitive advantage in this market environment can only be achieved
by a workforce that is highly engaged and very skillful in cooperating with each other
to reach organizational goals. This needs to be supported and driven by leadership
that is cooperative and participatory and is open minded to invest
in their own continuous skill development.

Our Values

Our Organization

 

Coverdale has been from its beginnings a completely decentralized organization: There is no headquarter, no corporate holding, practically no hierarchy and no need for a command and control structure. Ownership and accountability is largely distributed to the team members that work with Coverdale.


The benefits for you:

  • Virtually no overhead and related cost. 
  • Client time is spent on work for the client, not on filling out reports to regional or global headquarters. 
  • Flexibility and agility: We can respond rapidly to local and global needs of our clients, assembling multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-lingual teams and deliver anywhere in the world to the same high quality standards without having to address internal organizational formalities.

Our Heritage

 

The Coverdale Organization was established in 1965 by Ralph Coverdale.

 

A pioneer in experiential and inductive learning and a forerunner in organizational development, our passion for constant innovation, insight and excellence continues to grow.

Coverdale has developed from a UK training organization into a well-established international consultancy and has helped provide organizations and their people with the vision, creativity, commitment and skill necessary to bring about sustainable change, performance improvements and enhanced bottom line results.

Hundreds of thousands of people in over 80 countries worldwide have been touched by the methods Ralph Coverdale developed.

 

Ralph Coverdale was a former Jesuit novice, soldier, psychologist and management consultant. Ralph was one of the most striking and influential figures the UK has produced since the Second World War, yet to the public and even some of the business world, he was almost unknown.

After leaving the army in 1947 Ralph went to Oxford, where his supervisor was the renowned experimental psychologist, Bernard Babington-Smith. It was during his Oxford days that Ralph developed and refined his theories on how people think and work to get things done. He believed passionately that thinking and management were skills that could be developed, seriously challenging the orthodox view of the time regarding people having fixed skill sets, and locked IQs. Ralph and Bernard worked together for many years after the formation of the Coverdale Organization and developed Coverdale Learning, which is a highly developed form of learning through action - and has been subsequently described as action or inductive learning.

Ralph was a man of great insight and passionate beliefs, and was strongly driven by the view that co-operation to mutual benefit was infinitely more productive than conflict and competition. Ralph Coverdale died in 1975 aged 56. His peers recognized him as the man who 'invented' coaching and was a pathfinder in the field of inductive and experiential learning.

 

For over 50 years Coverdale has continuously updated and enhanced the approach based on latest empirical research.