VUKA! is an Nguni word meaning: 'to come alive', 'resurrect', 'bring to life', 'wake up'.
The intervention needs to be seen as a journey. VUKA! is dependent on an organisation's willingness to build in processes that ensure the sustainability of the change that will definitely have occurred in each individual!

VUKA! takes people on a voyage on which they discover what they don't know about their country, about each other, and more importantly, about themselves.

In this space of curiosity, interest, and sharing, each individual in the group is called to account for the perceptions they hold. In effect they are confronted by their own conditioning.

What emerges is a new, shared reality. Visions and values are shared, and acceptable behaviours congruent with those values - are negotiated.

Thousands of employees from numerous corporates such as the First Rand Group (FNB/WesBank/etc) have engaged in this experience. The impact on staff morale and customer service has been massive as has been the improvement in profitability.

Organizational research has shown that VUKA! enhances staff commitment, motivation, morale and confidence and creates a competitive, vibrant and challenging organization. Great pride is engendered in the staff’s subsequent inclusive view of their South African-ness. At the most basic level this translates into vastly improved productivity and profit levels.

People
• Attract and retain the best talent.
• Align values.
• Live a culture that is based on human values (simply the way we treat each other!)
• Explore different ways of interacting with others from different ideologies and become more innovative at our game.

Process
• Employees are more committed.
• Decrease in employee turnover.
• Decrease in the number of disciplinary enquiries.
• Morale within workgroup communities improves tremendously.
• Sharing best practices minimises errors and risk at the same time improves productivity.

Customers
• Makes it easier for clients to relate to staff as language, culture, gender and other barriers are broken.
• Improves communication and dialogue with clients.
• Creates sales opportunities from understanding the needs of different clients.
• Present clients with solid and relevant solutions that will add value to their lives and improve our ability to provide quality sales and service.

Financial
• Builds communities and a sense of belonging to an extended family.
• Easy to copy a product but not easy to copy a culture, therefore provides clients with a competitive advantage.
• People are happier therefore more productive, which adds significantly to the bottom line.
• Introduction of new clients to our business through word of mouth and client referrals.
• Attract more business as customers from diverse backgrounds find the organisation a home where they can do business without being prejudiced against (tapping untapped markets).
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Vhuta Umlilo is a one-day refresher programme for those who have already participated in VUKA.
Topics dealt with during this experience include stereotyping exercises, gender & identity, vision & values and accountability.
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The Impressions programme, aimed at all customer-contact staff, has as its objective the alignment of ‘first’ and ‘lasting’ impressions. It enables participants to align their outer selves (body language and presence) with the inner self (self-confidence and identity), and ensures that the whole person represents the ethos of the organisation to the client with integrity. Increased self-awareness and understanding of the impression we create leads to greater motivation, enthusiasm and improved customer relations.

Business Benefits to the Impressions Workshop

The Stanford Research Institute says only 12% of monetary success is determined by academic and technical knowledge, while 88% is determined by the ability to deal with people. Research has also shown that should an individual have a negative experience from a Front Line/Customer Service staff member, they will in turn tell between 8 and 16 people about that bad customer service experience. Imagine then how your Front Line Staff could impact positively on the Customer experience after having attended Impressions 2010!
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Mbatata is an experiential programme designed for call centre staff to develop active listening and deep communication skills. Through this programme one is able to walk truly in the shoes of others, humanising the interaction with callers and actively communicating the values of the company.

The emphasis of Mbatata is on applying our very human skills to the workplace, resulting in improved client relations, team work, and job satisfaction.
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Vulindlela has been closely involved with SAWID (South Africa Women in Dialogue) since its inception in 2003.

SAWID, initiated by Mrs Zanele Mbeki, seeks to "provide a platform for ongoing dialogue among South African women to establish a common agenda for the development of women and to seek to strengthen Pan-African women's partnerships in conflict resolution and the management of peace and stability on the continent."

Vulindlela™ has facilitated many of the SAWID workshops, which focus on issues of vision, understanding and awareness of women's identity, self-love, non-judgement, and the movement towards women's positions as role models for the nation.

Mike was invited to launch the United Kingdom chapter of SAWID in London at South Africa House.

The methodologies used for SAWID can be used for other women' s groups wishing to address similar issues.
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(An experiential programme for South African youth.)

VUKA Ngane is a pro-active intervention designed to overcome the "geographic apartheid" that we have inherited i.e. racial groups still tend to live separately. In addition, VUKA Ngane addresses all forms of prejudice and assumptions at an age where adolescents are questioning philosophies and identity.
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The VUKA! experience has also been specially adapted for people in South Africa’s educational environment through our Leeto For Education Programme.
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So often executives and employees go on excellent training workshops and come back to work feeling very inspired, yet they seem to struggle to apply the learning’s and integrate the new behaviour into the workplace.

This costs the company a great deal of money and with the emphasis on “return on investment” with regards to training, coaching provides a solution as coaching assists in sustaining behaviourial change in the workplace through the alignment of the individual’s goals with the goals of the organisation. It is an empowering and self-developing process, where employees begin to take more accountability and are more committed to the achievement of the organization’s goals.
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A tailor made experience unique to the specific needs of a company or organisation can be designed. Examples of specially designed interventions have focused on such issues as anti-bias and trust building.
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