Executive education · Leadership development · Organisational change
I build the learning programmes your strategy depends on.
Experienced in designing and delivering programmes across Africa, Europe and the UK – for organisations whose strategy needs people to think, lead and work differently. My particular strength is working with mission-driven organisations facing complex systems challenges – designing leadership and capability interventions that connect learning directly to action, and helping participants work on the real problems their organisations and communities are trying to solve.
10+
Years across 21+ countries
-
8
African countries reached with the Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA)
-
R10M+
Programme budgets led at UCT GSB
-
2
Continents – Africa and Europe
Where this work has landed
- UCT Graduate School of Business
- African Management Institute
- AGRA
- Cambridge Judge Business School
- FutureLearn
- University of Bristol
- SALGA
- Tekano – Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity
- Columba Leadership
From strategic priority to meaningful capability.
Organisations struggle when strategy doesn't translate into what people need to know, do and change.
A new strategy might require different leadership behaviours. A transformation might require new capabilities. But somewhere between the strategy document and organisational reality, things get complicated.
This is where I come in.
I work with organisations to make sense of the challenge, identify the capabilities that matter, and design programmes and experiences that connect learning to the real work of the organisation.
And I particularly love working with mission-driven organisations tackling complex systems challenges – creating learning environments where people don't just talk about the problem, but work on it. Through action learning, participants apply what they're learning to real organisational challenges, generating insight, building capability and, ideally, leaving something useful behind.
Learning is not a department or a set of interventions. It is how an organisation becomes able to do what it needs to do next.
Three levels at which I work
One practice, working at three levels – the individual, the organisation, and the system.
-
For organisations
Build the capability.Not just the programme.
Leadership development, executive education and organisational change designed around the challenge you're actually facing – from understanding the strategic problem, through programme architecture, to delivery and what makes it stick.
From strategy to capability that holds.
-
For leaders
Think differently.Then act on it.
I work with individuals who want to understand themselves more deeply, challenge the stories and patterns that shape their choices, and develop new capacities for what comes next. Coaching is not about providing more advice. It is about creating the space to think differently, act with greater intention, and move towards possibilities that were previously out of reach.
Space to think. Courage to act.
-
For institutions that convene change
The hardest problemscan't be solved alone.
Some organisations exist to bring people together – across sectors, countries, disciplines and perspectives – to tackle challenges that are bigger than any one institution. This is work I love: helping create the platforms, programmes and action-learning experiences that turn different perspectives into shared understanding, and shared understanding into action.
Build the platform. Shift the system.
What I do
They rarely exist in isolation – most engagements draw on three or four at once.
- 01
Leadership Development
Building the capabilities organisations need for what comes next.
Leadership development should respond to the organisation you are actually in – not a generic competency framework. From emerging talent to senior executives, I design experiences that help people develop the mindsets, behaviours and capabilities required to navigate complexity, lead change and turn strategic priorities into action.
- 02
Programme Design
Learning journeys designed around real organisational challenges.
Organisations rarely need another collection of workshops. They need thoughtfully designed experiences that connect learning to the work that matters. I work across the full programme lifecycle – from understanding the strategic challenge and defining the learning architecture, through stakeholder alignment, design, facilitation and delivery.
- 03
Organisational Capability & Change
Turning strategy into the ability to execute.
When organisations transform, grow or pursue new strategic directions, the question is not simply what people need to know – but what they need to be able to do differently. I help identify the capabilities, behaviours, systems and experiences required to support meaningful change.
- 04
Immersive Learning
Creating experiences that shift perspective and expand possibility.
Learning does not only happen in classrooms. International immersions, organisational visits and carefully curated encounters create opportunities for people to challenge assumptions, see systems differently and return with new insights, questions and possibilities.
- 05
Coaching
Helping people move from insight to meaningful action.
Coaching creates space to think more deeply, see new possibilities and navigate moments of change. I work with individuals who are stepping into something new, facing complex decisions, questioning what comes next, or wanting to translate awareness into different choices and behaviours. Development is not about fixing what is wrong. It is about expanding what is possible.
- 06
Digital and Blended Learning Design
Specialist content to scale the learning experience.
I've designed digital learning for Cambridge Judge Business School, FutureLearn and the University of Bristol at Hubble Studios, and built the UCT GSB's first blended programme. Where an organisation is moving learning online, the question is rarely the platform – it's the design.
The numbers that matter
- Years designing learning programmes and developing capabilities
- 10+ Years designing learning programmes and developing capabilities
- African countries reached through CALA, in partnership with AMI and AGRA
- 8 African countries reached through CALA, in partnership with AMI and AGRA
- Programme budgets led at UCT GSB
- R10M+ Programme budgets led at UCT GSB
- Countries and territories coordinated
- 21+ Countries and territories coordinated
Selected work
-
01
Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture
Leadership development · Africa · Multi-country
Designed and led the development of a major leadership initiative with AMI in partnership with AGRA, extending its reach across 8 African countries.
-
02
Executive Education & International Immersions
Programme architecture · Leadership development · Global
Designed and led multi-year, multi-cohort executive education programmes incorporating international immersion experiences, complex stakeholder ecosystems and multiple delivery partners.
-
03
Digital & Blended Learning
Learning innovation · Digital transformation
Designed digital and blended learning experiences for leading educational institutions and organisations, including the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, the African Management Institute, Cambridge Judge Business School, FutureLearn and the University of Bristol.
How I work
From there I bring strategy, learning design and organisational thinking together into something built for that problem, in that organisation.
Before designing a workshop, curriculum or learning journey, I want to understand:
- 1 What is the organisation trying to achieve?
- 2 What needs to be different for that to happen?
- 3 What capabilities are currently missing?
- 4 What will leaders need to think, do or lead differently?
- 5 What will make the change stick?
About
Hi, I'm Carla.
I'm a learning and capability strategist, programme designer and coach. Underneath all of it is one question I have never quite stopped asking: what actually enables people to change?
Before any of this I was an editor at one of South Africa's largest fiction and non-fiction publishers. It was the same job: taking something complex and shaping it into a story people can understand and act on.
I'm particularly interested in the messy middle – where strategy meets people, where capability meets culture, and where an organisation needs to move from knowing what it wants to achieve to actually being able to achieve it.
Let's talk
Bring the problem.
You don't need the brief perfectly worked out before you get in touch. We can figure out what kind of intervention – if any – will actually help.