Dave Burton
Potential Development Ltd,
Potential Development Ltd was formed by Dave Burton in 1990 to provide people-based training and consulting services in the corporate market place. Since then the company has carried out a wide variety of successful assignments, often using 360 degree feedback, for organisations such as Royal & SunAlliance Insurance, Otis Elevators, Telecom NZ, Fletcher Forests, Walker Datavision, BHP-New Zealand Steel, Unisys, and the New Zealand Institute of Management.
While most of his work is done in large organisations, the focus is always people - how they communicate, how they work together, how they can best realise their own potential and how they can contribute effectively to their organisation and its success.
The key services Potential Development now provides are in:
- Leaderskill's 360 degree feedback programs: Upward Feedback®, 360Facilitated®
- Management, Leadership & Team Development
- Strategy Review and Implementation
- Change Management
- Coaching and Mentorship
- Facilitator Training.
Potential Development also has associations with a range of other complementary suppliers who can provide training and development services in areas such as:
- Presentation Skills
- Business Skills
- Project Management
- Performance Appraisal Systems.
Principal Consultant: Dave Burton
Dave Burton is Managing Director of Potential Development Limited. He has been working as a consultant and trainer in the field of Total Quality Management and Team Development since 1989. In that time he has carried out a variety of major assignments for Unisys in Australia, Asia and New Zealand, and for Royal SunAlliance Insurance, NZ. He has also undertaken projects for other large enterprises such as BHP NZ Steel and Telecom NZ.
Prior to 1990 Dave worked for 15 years in the Information Technology industry with Burroughs, then Unisys and became very familiar with the corporate environment, and the challenges of maintaining a focus on people in the midst of a growing emphasis on high technology and organisational change.
His work has:
- built awareness of how Quality is critical to organisational survival
- set up the structures of Continuous Improvement
- trained the Facilitators to carry on the work
Through his work, Dave has built up a wide range of skill and experience as a Manager, Consultant, Trainer, Facilitator, Coach and Mentor. He undertakes a variety of training himself to ensure that the services he offers are effective, enjoyable, ethically sound and appropriate to the people with whom he is working. He has a relaxed, friendly style and creates a climate in which dignity, trust, respect and honesty prevail.
Since taking on 360 Facilitated®, he has focused his activity on the mentoring of managers and teams in a way that generates enthusiasm for cooperative change. Respect for people has brought success to Dave's work; time after time.
Dave is married with three grown children and lives in Auckland. He has travelled and worked extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia and the Middle East, and has a strong interest in people, their culture and their development.
360 Facilitated® & Potential Development
360 Facilitated® surveys have proved a powerful way of giving the managers and other "Responsibility Holders" in an organisation practical insight into their behaviour as managers and leaders of people and of tasks.
Practical insight is one thing: the real challenge is what to do as a result of gaining it. 360 Facilitated® offers a wide range of ideas and guidelines as to how the responsibility holders can enhance their behaviour in each of the 20 Areas of Behaviour surveyed. This information can then serve as the basis for an on-going program of professional development, which has benefits for both the manager and the organisation.
However, 360 Facilitated® can do more than this. It can provide an unparalleled level of insight into the organisation, the range of behaviours and culture that exist within it, and the directions that it could usefully take to further its development.
The adoption of 360 Facilitated® as an organisational development tool is a significant step for any organisation. It will have measurable effect at all levels. As a consequence it is important that the process is carefully managed and integrated with any other developmental activities that are taking place so that a consistency of approach is maintained.
The process of 360 Facilitated® also demands a high level of accuracy, integrity and professionalism from the supplying organisation as well as expert facilitation at each stage of the project.
Potential Development Ltd provides the following services to address these issues and ensure the highest levels of professionalism and beneficial outcome.
Project Management and Integration
This has proven to be a key area in the successful use of 360 Facilitated®. Potential Development offers professional Project Management and Integration Services to ensure that the respective phases of the project take place in a timely manner, that they are linked to other activities in the organisation, and that close communication with the sponsoring group is maintained.
Processing Services
In association with Leaderskill Group, Potential Development provides all of the Servicing requirements of 360 Facilitated®. These are as described on this website. Online (or paper) materials include questionnaires, workbooks and Professional Development Plans. Potential Development and Leaderskill also undertake to maintain the necessary levels of confidentiality and security associated with the handling of sensitive information.
Facilitation Services
Potential Development Ltd provides a full range of expert facilitation services. These cover initial briefings and introduction to the process, group debriefings, individual debriefings and team debriefings. These services can be tailored to fit in with the way 360 Facilitated® is being used in each organisation, and embody an approach which is friendly and informative while dealing with information that can at times be provocative.
Organisational Profiling
The insights gained into an organisation and the patterns of behaviour within it are a significant benefit of the 360 Facilitated® process. Potential Development provides a wide range of statistical analysis and organisational profiling services. This information can be used to tailor organisational change or training programmes. It can also be used as a benchmark so that when 360 Facilitated® follow-up surveys are conducted, the extent of the change that has taken place can be accurately measured.
On-going Professional Development
As well as providing a snap-shot of each manager's current performance, 360 Facilitated® also provides the basis for an on-going Professional Development Plan. It encourages the manager to set improvement goals and provides a variety of learning paths in the framework of the Leader/Manager Model™. One of the key learning paths is the provision by Potential Development of coaching and mentorship for each manger to support and guide them during what can be a challenging time. Potential Development also provides a full range of relevant training courses and workshops.
This range of services transforms 360 Facilitated® from a diagnostic tool into an evolutionary and practical method of developing new standards of management and leadership within an organisation. These new standards of management and leadership in turn lead to new standards of performance, loyalty and personal fulfilment both from the managers and other Responsibility Holders in the organisation, and from the people who work for them and alongside them.
e-mail:
