Joanna Maneckji is the founder of Sunny Acres and a pioneering learning design specialist who has developed an innovative coaching approach called "Creative Contemplation" - a collage-based process that helps individuals and teams solve problems and visualise their future by marrying expertise in learning design, people development, and art.

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Professional and Leadership Experience​

Beginning her career as an English teacher, Joanna transitioned into corporate Learning & Development where she has spent nearly 25 years across diverse industries including airlines, banking, and health tech manufacturing. Her expertise in adult learning design has been recognised through groundbreaking achievements that established her as a champion of digital and virtual learning, "the modern learner," and "learning in the flow of work."

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At Standard Chartered Bank in 2014-2015, she co-created the first fully digital blended learning journey for new managers and pioneered the use of workplace collaboration platforms to extend learning application and networking opportunities in leadership programmes. In 2016, working with the Organisation Development team at Philips, she designed a digital manager toolkit for expanding team effectiveness capacity throughout the company - a solution that remains in use seven years later due to its accessibility and ease of maintenance.

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Anticipating the growing demand for digital learning, she successfully advocated for virtual training readiness at Philips in 2017-2018, implementing the technology, processes, and facilitation skills that enabled the function to seamlessly meet the remote learning challenges presented by Covid in 2020. Her commitment to impact measurement led her to establish learning measurement strategies for both Standard Chartered Bank's leadership development operations and all global training at Philips University.

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In her final corporate role, she spent four years leading and transforming a global, multi-generational, remote team of learning consultants at Philips, demonstrating her greatest strength: her care for individuals and teams and her ability to manage people through change in a compassionate, transparent, and evidence-based way.

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Education and Professional Training

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology from Smith College and a Master's degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the School for International Training. Currently pursuing ROI Certification to build capability and expertise with ROI implementation across private, public, and social sector organisations, she is also a certified coach from the NeuroLeadership Institute and holds certifications in Facet 5 personality assessments.

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Coaching Expertise, Experience & Enthusiasms

As a freelance consultant and trainer, Joanna works with clients in new manager training, leadership and individual effectiveness, team effectiveness, employee well-being, Learning & Development career skills coaching, and L&D functional consulting. Her core expertise lies in adult learning design, and she believes learning can be a transformative experience leading to extraordinary changes in skills, self-awareness, and performance.

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Her unique strength lies in her personal qualities of responsibility, empathy, and seeing each person as a unique individual with their own challenges and gifts. These strengths make her an exceptional listener who provides structure and creates a safe space for her coachees' journeys to unfold. Through her Creative Contemplation process, she helps individuals and groups express not just concrete aspirations but also the emotions they wish to experience in their future, then gently guides them to discuss steps for transformation or transition.

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Personal Details

Coming from a multi-cultural and multi-national background, she holds the values of being a global citizen close to her heart. Having grown up in India and studied in the US, she has lived as a working adult in the US, Italy, India, and Singapore, where she has resided permanently since 2000. Outside her professional interests, she loves spending time outdoors, runs an art practice, and teaches the craft of collage to people of all ages. She shares her life with a college-aged son, partner, and two cats. In 2023, collaborating with Switow Media, she published an illustrated children's book, "Letters to My Grandfather." For the past eight years, she has volunteered as an art teacher at the National Library Board in Singapore, reflecting her commitment to community engagement and creative education.