A leadership and management coaching institute that combines global best practices and local knowledge has opened in Pembroke.

The Bermuda Clarity Institute offers exercises, workshops, topical leadership master classes, and assessments as well as forums, retreats and facilitation services for the benefit of leaders and their teams.

Bermudian entrepreneur, leadership consultant and author Stuart Lacey is behind the initiative, and will deliver the programme along with two as-yet-unnamed Bermudian female executives with human resources and educational backgrounds.

Mr Lacey said the BCI is also seeking to hire “young, dynamic, locally-experienced delivery specialists”.

Mr Lacey has delivered leadership coaching to some 3,500 CEOs, and has also acted as impact officer for the Women’s Business Network of more than 1,700 CEOs, over the last two years.

He is the author of The Formula for Luck, now available on Amazon. The recently-released book, which is based on the curriculum that Mr Lacey developed, focuses on 10 powerful principles of leadership.

Mr Lacey said the 3,000-square-foot BCI facility at New Venture House on Mill Creek Road will fill a market gap in Bermuda.

The BCI has partnered on the project with the Deutser Clarity Institute in Houston, Texas.

Mr Lacey said: “We did a lot of market research and realised there was a huge gap in offering world-class leadership and management coaching delivered and supported on-island. We tend to have to import it, and flying it in adds a prohibitive level of cost and suboptimal ongoing support, accountability and local market knowledge.

“I wanted to find a company with the world’s best curriculum, with the right kinds of organisational scientists and behavioural specialists, and try to see what the leading edge of change management and organisational leadership looks like today.

“Through my research, I was introduced to Brad Deutser, one of the leading US leadership consultancies specialising in organisational change.

“He and I looked at the opportunity, and agreed there would be a tremendous benefit to a partnership delivered through a locally-owned company that could combine his 20-plus years of curriculum development with the ones I have developed over the last decade. So, it’s world-class and local, a combination of both.”

The BCI said it is where leaders and teams come together to change perspectives, organisations, teams, culture and futures, adding that it inspires originality, positivity, honesty and transformational learning.

Describing itself as “one part think tank, one part idea accelerator and multiple parts learning lab”, the BCI said it “marries science with play in a uniquely immersive and interactive way that is designed to spur individuals, leaders and teams towards the best version of themselves and their organisations”.

The BCI said its highly engaging and tactile dimensional learning system “leverages points of individual and group comfort and discomfort to challenge conventional thinking and open learning pathways”.

The organisation said the hallmark of the dimensional system “is the manner in which original inputs, creative interruptions, intentional distractions and dimensional learning devices are integrated within traditional learning modalities”.

Mr Lacey said: “Change management, reimagining your business model through innovating are especially important due to the acceleration of change under Covid.

“There is a huge growing need for diversity and inclusivity work, team cultural work, transformational work, digital strategy, employee engagement – and it is all driven by a rapidly changing world and resource constraints.

“We have created a space that is highly interactive, very experiential, a lot of fun – and is a bit of a destination in itself. Participants leave the confines of their day-to-day business world and free their minds to be truly open and creative.”

Importantly, he said, the BCI offers ongoing support to its clients.

Mr Lacey added: “The current estimate is that 95 per cent of leadership management training is lost the moment it’s completed largely due to insufficient follow-through, accountability or support.

“We are able to provide a leadership change management and coaching relationship that not only facilitates in-person and remote workshops and training, but where BCI partners with clients offering them support throughout a longer term relationship because change doesn’t happen overnight.”

Mr Lacey said the BCI is designed to benefit international companies with or without local offices seeking team and/or board member training; individuals and teams at companies of all sizes on-island; and underrepresented groups and organisations that would not normally be able to afford such programmes.

In the latter case, Mr Lacey said the BCI’s foundation arm will subsidise participation, where needed. He said examples include government ministries, quangos, charities, not-for-profits, and the public school system.

He added: “We are very intentional in wanting to offer support for the entire breadth of Bermuda.”

Mr Lacey said the facility, which took eight months to build out, is already supporting local clients remotely.

He added: “We are officially open and will be able to host small teams as soon as regulations permit.”

For more information, see the website at www.clarity.bm, or contact info@clarity.bm.