As someone who has personally experienced and architected various personal development programs, including those designed for McKinsey senior partners, I can attest to the power and uniqueness of this approach. While it can be challenging and even overwhelming, it is exceptionally effective in facilitating deep learning and personal growth.
A testimonial by Neil Janin McKinsey Senior Partner Emeritus & Former Chair and Non-Executive Director of Bank of Georgia
1. Overview
Let me introduce you to COCREA and explain what the program offers.
The Cocrea Basic Seminar is divided into two parts.
The first part focuses on self-awareness—helping you understand yourself and how you interact with others.
The second part builds on this by guiding you to make decisions and commit to them based on these insights. This second stage is a crucial addition that ensures a complete learning experience.
- In the first part of the seminar, you are invited to explore how your past experiences have shaped your thoughts, actions, and relationships. You will uncover both the conscious and unconscious ways the beliefs and behaviors you’ve developed over time.You will see clearly the masks and personas you usually hide behind; as well as the unconscious strategies that you have put in place to promote them. For example, you will understand the profound reasons why you are a perfectionist, or are always a bit late to meetings, or take on too much stuff, or drop names, or procrastinate.
It’s a structured, scientific approach to self-discovery—akin to a psychological MRI, revealing deeper insights each time you revisit the program. By examining your mental framework, its value and its costs, you will be in a position to decide whether you want to break free from old patterns and connect with others more authentically.
Why should you take that risk? Only one reason: so you can show up as your true self —not a hero, not a failure—just a good person with your strengths and your flaws. So that you become someone others can easily connect with, and someone who finds connection with others just as naturally.
I can attest to the power and uniqueness of this process. It’s incredibly effective—It challenges you deeply, but through that discomfort, real learning and growth happen.
- The second part of the program builds directly on the first.
Here, you reflect on what behaviors you want to stop and what decisions you want to take in every aspect of your life—whether at work, in your relationships, as a parent, as a child to ageing parents, or in financial and personal projects. The reflections from the first part inform these decisions.
It’s important to understand that awareness and understanding alone are not enough to bring about real change. True transformation happens only when you act on your insights.
2. Value
What is the value of the basic full COCREA program in a corporate or teamsetting?
Organizations consist of individuals, grouped into teams, which operate within a larger structure shaped by culture—a set of rules and ways of doing things. In more hierarchical and paternalistic organizations, individual teams have less freedom to contribute, limiting their potential.
Conversely, in more fluid organizations, individuals are empowered to take initiative and offer their full potential.
COCREA helps build trust—both in oneself and in others. This trust enables leaders to release their “survival strategies” and embrace collaboration, innovation, and experimentation. It sparks a cycle of innovation, motivation, and continuous learning, making an organization not just adaptive but highly effective. By unlocking human potential, COCREA helps create winning organizations.
An adaptive, entrepreneurial, or agile organization requires a different kind of leadership from the top. For CEOs and leadership teams, this may involve a feeling of losing control, which can be uncomfortable. The CEO must do the program first and recommend it to his team, who will in turn lead their own teams .
A COCREA corporate program must start at the top and cascade down. It cannot be delegated to the training or human resources function to administer.
Surely there must be other leadership programs which can be applied on a large scale to an organization, and don’t require starting at the top and cascading down. Yes, there are.