About WAL | GCWAL

A Model 40+ Years in the Making

Most organisations know what needs to change. Few have built the internal capacity to make change last. WAL builds that capacity, applied to real work and embedded permanently.

The WAL model resulted from the innovative work and research of GCWAL's founder, Emeritus Professor Selva Abraham, who also founded the Australian Institute of Business. WAL is an extension of the Work-Based Learning process Professor Abraham has been investigating with managers and researchers since 1979.

Understanding WAL

What is the WAL Change Model?

How the WAL change model creates change that endures. The 3-minute video below explains it.

The WAL change model requires the hands-on involvement by participants

WAL Change programmes embrace the following maxim:

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." — Benjamin Franklin

We do not just Tell

Via lectures, content delivery, slides

As in standard training & workshops

We do not just Teach

Via frameworks, case studies, simulations

As in most executive education

Instead, we actively Involve Participants

Via real work, real problems, real change

Through the WAL change model

Participants define the problem.
Participants do the work.
Programme Advisors provide guidance.

How the WAL Change Model Works in Practice

The WAL model is not facilitated from the front of a classroom. Three roles define how it operates, and why its outcomes last.

Participants define the problem

The CEO or divisional director identifies the change challenge. Each participant — a manager in their own area — selects the specific problem they will work on. There is no pre-set brief and no case study. The problem is real, it is current, and it belongs to them.

Participants do the work

From planning through implementation, the participant leads their change project for the full duration of the programme. They search for ideas to help in the change project, reflect and apply relevant knowledge to achieve performance outcomes, including project outcomes, process outcomes, and learning outcomes.

Programme Advisors provide guidance

GCWAL Programme Advisors bring WAL expertise and academic rigour to each participant. Their role is to guide, challenge and support. The direction, the decisions, and the outcomes remain the participant's.

Why WAL Produces Change That Lasts

It develops the capability of participants to plan and implement change in their departments, divisions or organisations.

Real problems

There are no classrooms, lectures, or simulations. Every project is an organisational problem with real consequences. The outputs are solutions to the project and embedded project, process and learning outcomes for participants.
Ownership of the solution

The Programme Advisors do not prescribe the solution to the project; they guide the process only. The solution is owned by the people who have worked on it and will sustain it.
Built for complexity

The cyclical nature of the WAL change model adapts to what is discovered at each stage of the project. Resistance by stakeholders and other challenges become opportunities for change rather than obstacles.
Capability stays behind

The following remain long after the programme ends:
- documented project, process and learning outcomes
- a reflective culture
- WAL Practitioner Certification for qualified participants
No cultural translation

The WAL change model works across cultures without imposing a structured template. It begins with the culture it is in.

The Differentiation

The Problems With Most Change Programmes

Most change programmes fail to achieve their intended outcomes, because they do not build the internal capability to make change stick.

Expertise flows one way

From external consultants or facilitators to participant. The organisation receives a framework, not a capability to enact change.

Change is taught in workshops

Change behaviour taught in workshops evaporates on return to complex real-world environments.

The solution is designed outside

External consultants or facilitators prescribe the path. The organisation follows, without ownership.

How WAL differs from other Change Programmes

The difference with the WAL Change model lies in where the change comes from, what participants achieve, and what remains afterwards.

	The WAL Change Model	Other Change Programmes
Who defines the change	The CEO or Divisional Director defines the problem. GCWAL Programme Advisors guide the process, never prescribe the solution.	The agenda and the solution arrive from outside the organisation, prescribed rather than owned.
What participants achieve	Real change outcomes — plans, implementation reports, project, process and learning outcomes.	Completion certificates rather than actual change.
How it handles complexity	The WAL change model is designed for incremental and transformational change.	A fixed template is applied the same way regardless of context.
Where knowledge comes from	Knowledge is generated inside the organisation through a structured process.	Generic content brought in from outside.
Organisational legacy	Knowledge is embedded in the organisation permanently — through documentation, changed practice and upgraded management capability.	Momentum fades once the external consultants/facilitators leave.

WAL Practitioners Share Their Experience

Natalie Holyoake

Business Improvement Specialist

Andrew Cook

Principal, API Insurance Company

Michael Morgan

Chief Officer, SA Metropolitan Fire Service