Leadership development case study: IOP Publishing

As IOPP continued to evolve, the organisation recognised that future success would depend on leaders who could fully step into the role of leadership. They needed leaders who could inspire others, make confident decisions, lead through change and create the conditions for high performance across their teams. 

The culture was highly collaborative and purpose-driven, but there was an opportunity to strengthen challenge, feedback, ownership, pace of decision-making and accountability. IOPP wanted to create a more resilient, agile and performance-focused leadership culture, without losing the values and sense of purpose that made the organisation unique. 

The brief

IOPP wanted a partner who could challenge both their thinking and their leaders. 

The ambition was to elevate leadership capability across the organisation’s Executive and SLT populations, creating a shared leadership language and practical way of operating that would support future growth and transformation. 

The programme needed to feel credible to a highly intelligent, analytical and often sceptical audience. It needed to be grounded in the realities of IOPP’s world and focused on the behaviours that would have the greatest impact on organisational performance. 

Together, we identified three core leadership ambitions: 

• Be more curious: seeking diverse perspectives, challenging assumptions and embracing new ways of thinking. 
• Be more strategic: looking beyond the immediate, thinking more broadly and creating and delivering an effective strategy. 
• Model the way: taking ownership, leading by example and stepping confidently into the role of people leadership. 

The solution 

The programme began with an extensive discovery process involving more than 40 employees across the organisation. Through interviews, focus groups and stakeholder conversations, we explored IOPP’s culture, leadership strengths, and ambitions, identifying six critical behaviours that would accelerate capability: self-awareness, ownership and accountability, communication and feedback, curiosity, change agility and effective team leadership. 

The discovery also highlighted that the Executive Team and Executive-1 population required distinct development experiences. Whilst both groups were working towards the same organisational outcomes, their roles in driving change were fundamentally different. 

For the Executive Team, we designed a series of Director’s Cut Sprint Sessions, launched ahead of the wider programme. These sessions focused on the unique responsibility leaders have in shaping culture, creating the conditions for high performance and role modelling the behaviours they wanted to see across the organisation. The sprint series explored three critical themes: 

• The Courage to Get Better 
• What Makes You Worth Following? 
• Driving Performance and Navigating Change 

Together, these sessions created space for honest reflection and accountability, helping the Executive Team understand how their own behaviours and leadership patterns influenced the wider organisation whilst equipping them to lead the broader change journey. 

Alongside this, we designed a bespoke leadership programme for IOPP’s top 30 leaders, combining immersive masterclasses, one-to-one coaching, group coaching and the Ivy House Alt360 feedback process. 

The journey was structured around three leadership transitions: 

Leading Self: Building the self-awareness, confidence and critical leadership capabilities needed to fully into leadership. 

Leading at IOPP: Helping leaders understand their role in delivering the organisation’s strategy, creating alignment across teams and building a stronger connection between leadership behaviour and organisational success. 

Leading Change: Equipping leaders with the tools, resilience and mindset needed to lead through uncertainty and support their teams through change. 

Once psychological safety had been established within both populations, the Executive Team joined the wider leadership cohort for subsequent sessions. This was an important symbolic moment. Leadership development became a shared experience across levels, creating greater openness, trust and authenticity whilst reinforcing that everyone had a role to play in shaping the future leadership culture of IOPP. 

The Impact 

The programme helped create a more connected and confident leadership community, better equipped to lead through change while continuing to deliver on IOPP’s mission. Leaders reported greater confidence in giving feedback, stronger cross-functional collaboration and a greater willingness to challenge constructively and make decisions with clarity. 

The results speak for themselves: 

• Programme NPS: +78 

• Behavioural shifts across all six focus areas, including:  

1. +54% increase in self awareness 
2. +56% increase in effective team leadership 
3. +42% increase in communication and feedback confidence 

• 87% reported being more effective collaborators 

• 91% reported stronger inclusivity and relationship building 

• 78% said they are now proactively managing their wellbeing