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Issue: Tailoring Global Leadership Program
The Brief: Our client wanted to roll out its 3 major global leadership programs to its Australian leadership team (3,000 staff), well established in America, Britain, France and other countries around the world. Leadership training in Australia consisted of a variety of programs that were not linked to measurable outcomes and did not build on each other. Our client realised the Global program needed tailoring to cater to the unique Australian industrial landscape and its cultural nuances.
The Solution: Our Director, Kristyn Haywood, undertook an extensive needs analysis which involved surveying the opinions of leaders, extensive interviewing of leaders and directors and spending time with the Human Resources and Industrial Relations teams to tailor the Global Leadership Programs to the local requirements.
The Outcome: The three leadership programs covering basic leadership and management principles, team leadership and transversal leadership were rolled out in 2007 and continue to be a major contributor to the leadership development and commercial success of this large defence supplier and technology provider. Our Director has trained hundreds of managers over five years and in 2012 continues to nurture the development of leaders. The leadership programs were thought to have contributed to a significant increase in positive ratings for the company's annual engagement survey.
Issue: Developing Stakeholder Relationships
The Brief: Our client manages a large project management team and wished to improve how the team worked internally and with key stakeholders for the purpose of achieving very tight project KPI's; KPI's they had consistently failed to meet in the past due to the pursuit of personal agendas instead of persuing team goals.
The Solution: After lengthy discussions with the management team we embarked upon a rich leadership development program around improving the 'emotional intelligence' of the team. The program included four key stages. The first stage involved each leader assessing their emotional intelligence using the world renown EQI 2.0 http://ei.mhs.com/EQi20TheScience.aspx. Each person had a one-on-one feedback/coaching session with an accredited facilitator of the tool. The second stage of the program involved participants attending Day One of the two day program on Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers. Leaders were required to conduct three work assignments in between Day One and Day Two and report their progress on the morning of Day Two (stage 3 of the program). The break in the program allowed the participants to undertake rigorous self-work before developing their stakeholder management skills, in the second half of the program. The final stage of the program was a half-day follow up session, one month after the program, where participants present to senior management their individual journeys and how the program has impacted on the achievement of team KPI's.
The Outcome: The manager who initiated the training is delighted with the outcome of the program which includes a noticeable increase in the achievement of his team's KPI's, in particular a substantial reduction in stakeholder complaints and an increase in achievement of on-time delivery. A delightful side effect of the program, which is difficult to measure but easy to feel, is a happier team which is working better together.
Issue: Working 'On' your business
The Brief:
Our client had provided it's sales and operations managers with a number of quality tools and training to improve their leadership skills and develop their people into high performing individuals that are focused on personal, team, regional and company goals.
The training delivered included mentoring, coaching and training. Our client was frustrated the managers were not utilising most of their tools and were instead spending their time caught up in less important activities whilst foregoing innovation, strategic thinking, and most importantly developing team members to allow them time to work ‘on’ their business.
The Solution:
After extensive analysis of the training and tools provided and listening to various parties we developed a one day workshop ‘Working on your business’ as opposed to in your business. The workshop included discussions around the ‘leadership mindset’, the different values, skills and time application required to be a leader. We focused on the difference between working on your business as opposed to ‘in’ the business and the long term benefits of working on important but not urgent activities that develop people, reduce crises activities and allow more time for strategic and innovative thinking.
The Outcome:
The workshop was exceptionally well received by the management team. Although they had been given training and tools on how to coach and develop their team, they had not understood the ‘leadership mindset’ and the transition that they needed to make from managing themselves to managing other people. In addition the leaders did not previously understand the time they would save working on these activities as opposed to micro managing their team member’s activities. We have a follow up session in a few months which also shows an ongoing commitment from our client to integrate this session into the business.
Issue: Prepare Product Team for National Roadshow
The Brief:
Our client was organising an important road show, showcasing the new version of their most popular products. and were not confident their product team could professionally present their products. We were asked to develop a presentation skills program specifically for their product showcase.
The Solution:
We spoke with individual members of the product team to gather information about their level of skills in presenting, product information and what their clients were expecting from the roadshow.
The Outcome:
We designed a two day presentation skills program where the product team were videotaped on the morning of day one with their current product presentations. They then learned how to analyse the audience, deliver with presence, structure their presentation and calm their nerves. Every product presentation was personally critiqued by the facilitator and the participants redesigned their presentations on the evening of day one of the program. By day two, the tranformation was impressive. Death by powerpoint was nowhere to be seen; replaced with humour, inspirational stories and compelling product benefits.
We attended the first roadshow and provided on-the-spot feedback to ensure the next 5 roadshows were even better.
Issue: Not Delivering product on time
The Brief:
Our client was six months behind in delivering their product to their customer. This was causing a great deal of stress. Our client was bound by a Service Level Agreement and was losing money with each late delivery. The product is highly technical and our client was having a variety of problems with their suppliers. They had not managed to deliver on time for years and it was accepted within the team that there was no solution to the problem because of their reliance on highly speicalised suppliers.
The Solution:
We discussed the issue of late delivery at length and met and listened to all stakeholders. We visited the manufacturing site and listened to everyone’s viewpoints. The team members on the manufacturing site were highly sceptical that a workshop would make any difference. Other team members stated that in front of senior management no one from the manufacturing floor would talk about their issues for fear of being reprimanded.
The Outcome:
We designed a two day workshop with the goal of designing a solution that would see our client delivering their product on time within the following six months. The methodology we used was the Six Thinking Hats. We focused everyone on the solution of ‘delivering on time’ and on the first day trained everyone up on effective use of deBono’s Six Thinking Hats. This ensured that everyone at the workshop contributed equally and all the issues were uncovered.
Although originally our clients thought the supply issue was the only issue, it became clear that it was one of five significant issues that needed addressing: Communication; Planning; Engineering Support; Material Supply and a re-design of the business model. This was a huge breakthrough for this department. We followed up with the client a month later and facilitated a session around developing solutions to each of the issues identified in the first workshop.
Our client now has a comprehensive roadmap to ensure delivery of a quality product to their customer on-time and on budget. They also have the buy-in from their team in order to implement the solutions.
Issue: Difficult Customer
The Brief:
Our clients have a difficult customer and their team were becoming increasingly abrupt, upset, demotivated and generally dissatisfied with their jobs. This division supported the maintenance of heavy machinery. It was the role of the customer service professional to log maintenance requests, order parts and generally manage the high expectations of their customer. The negative mind set of their team members began to have an impact on their ability to deliver within the parameters of their service level agreement. The client, hierarchical in nature, were often abrupt and condescending.
The Solution:
We met with all parties including many of the customer service professionals and listened to their stories. This enabled us to understand their attitudes towards their customers. We tailored our ‘Service with Impact’ training program with the aim of improving customer service and helping staff deal with difficult and upset customers. We worked with our clients to design real-life scenarios for role-plays and to enrich the discussions during training. In addition, we integrated the company vision, mission and values statements and referred to these throughout the training program.
The Outcome:
We delivered our two day “Service with Impact” program fully tailored to our client with our first aim to turn around the negative attitude towards their customer. We re-framed their roles from technical experts to customer service professionals. We gave them to the tools to deal with difficult and upset customers and helped them to see how enriching their role as customer service professionals could be. After the re-framing of attitudes we delivered interactive skills training on how to present professionally, use the telephone, demonstrate empathy and ensure follow-up. The outcome was incredibly positive, with the group’s general manager claiming it a success.
Issue: High Staff Turnover and low morale
The Brief:
Our client's staff turnover was around 30%. This was reducing the performance of the company, decreasing morale and client satisfaction was on the descent. Our clients presented us with their staff attitude survey, the results of which showed a distrust of leadership and a lack of communication throughout the company.
The Solution:
We worked with our clients to uncover the root causes for the staff turnover by listening to management and team members. We were then able to design a leadership training program incorporating the results of the attitude survey. The survey statistics and comments were built into the leadership development program. During the leadership development program, we explored the differences between management and leadership, discussed the benefits of becoming an inspiring leader with an inspiring vision and gave management the tools to drive performance whilst lifting employee and team morale. Managers were asked to develop their own personal ‘leadership legacy’ statement. They presented their legacy statement to their fellow managers at the end of the four day program. All legacy statements were video recorded.
The Outcome:
We returned to do a follow up after three months and replayed each managers legacy statement and asked the leaders how much they’d changed over the last three months and what effect it had on themselves, their people and the organisation. We were amazed with the intensity of effort and learning that had occurred. All managers commented that they had become better leaders as a result of attending the leadership development training. Our clients staff turnover is now down to 15% and continuing to fall as they continue to call on our services to develop their leaders.
Issue: Conversion of local IT support to call centre environment
The Brief:
Our client's IT strategy involved relocating their IT support function from within each business unit to a central IT support division. This was not a popular decision. Our client's goal was to ensure a smooth transition and the delivery of exceptional customer service from IT to ensure there was no disruption to their internal clients. Our clients wanted a customer service training program delivered to 70 IT specialist that incorporated their business vision, mission and values.
The Solution:
The first stage involved listening to our customers. We met with all managers, many team members and canvassed their attitudes. We designed a program incorporating the real issues their IT professionals face everyday such as managing the expectations from their users, dealing with upset and difficult users and delivering on time within the parameters of their service level agreements.
The Outcome:
We delivered five two day programs of an tailored version of our successful “Service with Impact” training program. The real measure of our success in delivering this program was in the immediate results. The IT department received a 32% improvement in their customer service satisfaction results which hedirectly attributed to the success of the training. We followed up with half day workshops three months later to ensure integration of their learning.
Issue: Conflict between the Sales and Operations Team
The Brief:
Our clients, not unlike most organisations, had an issue with conflict between their sales and operations teams. The sales team were complaining that operations were less than helpful when they were tendering and pitching for sales and the operations team found the sales teams' expectations were unreasonable and the deadlines they were expected to work with impossible.
The Solution:
We listened to the perspectives of the General Manager, Human Resources Manager, Sales Manager and Operations Manager. We canvassed the opinions of many team members. With this information in hand we designed a two day team building program in each state for the sales and operations teams. Our purpose was to increase understanding of the challenges of the sales and operations roles, reduce conflict, build team spirit and refocus the team on the company’s vision and mutual goals.
The Outcome:
We warmed up the group with some fun and challenging team building exercises and went on to discuss the cause of conflict in teams and how to have difficult but cruicial conversations to improve relationships. The program included presentations from the sales and operation teams. They presented why the function they perform is important to the organisation, their challenges and how the other team (sales or operations) can help them perform more effectively. Some forty challenges were raised, many of which the Sales and Operations Managers were unaware were effecting the performance of the teams. These challenges were written into a post training report for further consideration. The training was a wonderful success with all teams having a greater sense of the company’s visions and how they the operations and sales teams could unite to make life easier for the other and in turn improving company performance.
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