To be or not to be a Trainer? You decide…

Trainer: benefits

Being a Trainer can be a varied and exciting role, travelling to UK and International destinations, meeting people of different cultures, with no two days the same. But every job has its up and downs, so what is it really like to be a Trainer?

Delivering courses to large groups of people can be a daunting task. Standing up at the front with all eyes on you could be someone’s nightmare, but then again some people love being the centre of attention! Speaking publicly is something that takes practice and time to build confidence, but this skill is something you’ll never lose once mastered. There’s nothing like the feeling you get from a job well done – receiving great feedback and knowing that you have helped people learn something new or motivated them to develop themselves further. There’s always the odd time when you have to deal with an unruly delegate, but no job can be smooth sailing all the time, and there is a great support network of trainers so we can help and advise each other and learn from each others’ experiences.

People often wonder how trainers remember everything they need to deliver their courses. Although all learning and development professionals spend years developing a base knowledge of a variety of subjects and theories that they can refer to when delivering training, by no means are they required to have all of this information on the tip of their tongues. Preparation is key! Subjects can be revisited and refreshed upon the night before and notes can be made to refer to during the training sessions and in breaks. Of course, some of the learning is so embedded, delivery just comes naturally.

Another big part of the job is the travel involved. Trainers for Capita Learning & Development travel across the UK and also abroad to places like the Middle East, The Gambia and Europe where they can drink in the culture and sights. However, as the travel is for work, trainers find their free time for tourism quite limited as the majority of their time is spent travelling to the venue, preparing and working. But some people are just not made to sit in an office…

So, it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons of any job. And our trainers have all jumped into their roles – imparting their expert knowledge, passion, and support to many people on a daily basis.

As one trainer summarises: “What other job can offer you the experience of working in so many different places, industries, cultures, with new faces and challenges on a daily basis?”

So you decide. To be or not to be a Trainer?

Written by Claire Hopkins, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

Strategic Thinking – but whose job is it anyway?

Thinking strategically, often seen as the accountability of top management, is a skill and a process that are required to grow the organisation both in times of stability and in challenging circumstances.
So, what is strategic thinking and why should there be a cultural acceptance of it being part of everyone’s job and not just the domain of the select few?

Strategic thinking

The Cambridge dictionary defines strategy as:

a detailed plan for achieving success in situations such as war, politics, business, industry or sport, or the skill of planning for such situations

What the definition makes transparent is that strategy is just that - a plan; a plan to reach something. As such strategy can be deemed to be “owned” at various levels and responsibility and awareness ought to be organisationally grown.

It is true to say that long term, far reaching organisational aims, the design of culture and the creation of ethos must be “driven” - but not owned -  by senior management who ensure that operational plans and activities will then take over. In this way strategy is cascaded down throughout all levels of staff.

But balanced with that, organisations are increasingly bottom-up type businesses.  People want, and must see that they have, the opportunity to inform organisational objectives and deliver their part of the business to contribute to a successful organisation. Of course it is far too simplistic to think that organisations operate as democracies or co-operatives; they need to be managed with plans that can be immediately linked to the external environment and for organisations to be successful these links, and therefore these plans, must be recognised at all levels.

This knowledge must be implicit not tacit in the organisation – how operational and operational plans and thinking inform and support strategy and strategic thinking.

In enlightened times and in enlightened organisations individuals want (and seek) amongst other things -

• engagement in the organisation and its successes 
• fulfilment
• sense of being valued

Informed senior management want at the very least -

• People to take responsibility
• Committed individuals
• Success through effort
• To meet (beat) strategic objectives

So what can organisations do to grow the strategic thinking culture and support the above desires? Well it’s back to the ownership of plans at all levels – but plans based on the understanding of how strategy can be informed from the bottom up with a clear line of sight from the individual to the organisation. Steps to achieve this are:

• Establish a raison d’être  – increase the sense of ownership by having people articulate “what business they are in” (make sure it’s aligned to the organisation’s business and coach out any differences) and design a mission around that understanding
• Define the destination - have people agree what the strategic intent is of “their business” – how will they help the organisation beat the competition, differentiate, collaborate or survive?
• “SWOT” the issues – have individuals and teams scan the internal and external environment – what are the requirements for “their business” to succeed? What might get in the way of achieving strategic intent? What resources can be best leveraged and what opportunities are there for growth and improvement?
• Plan the journey – ensure the individuals and teams undertake the design of the objectives that will achieve the strategic intent and state the actions that will get them there.

Naturally these steps can be undertaken at an individual level too and built in to the performance management process.

The bottom line is that it is paramount for organisational success that strategic thinking is considered the property of all and that there is empowerment of individuals at all levels to own and take responsibility.

So whose job is strategic thinking? Everyone’s.

Written by David Mathieson, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

Do you play the Blame Game?

When something goes wrong, a number of organisations and managers need someone to blame and they set about instigating a hunt to put a name to the culprit without ever thinking of the impact that this has on employees.

When this happens employees will try to cover up mistakes and hide problems hoping that no one will find out. Genuine mistakes may go unnoticed and unreported which may lead to even greater problems in the future. The result is that nothing ever gets resolved.

Blaming Culture at Work

However, the impact of harnessing a blame culture is far greater than unresolved issues. Staff will lack initiative and creativity in case they make a mistake and are more concerned with covering their own back rather than engaging in more productive actions. If any staff member receives negative feedback for their actions, then this will soon become common knowledge within the workplace, especially if they have been dealt with harshly. This will result in them losing trust and respect for their leaders.

If you use or hear such language as “who is responsible for this” or “when will they ever learn?” then this is the language of a blame culture. Rather than being focused on learning how to improve the situation or on the solution, this is focusing on finding someone to blame because it is always someone else’s fault.

So how do you move from a blame culture towards a culture where people feel empowered to take responsibility?

• Recognise that everybody makes mistakes
• Thank people for bringing problems to your attention
• Praise what people have achieved
• Take responsibility for your own actions
• Clarify what lessons can be learnt
• Recognise staff for identifying problems early and for suggesting improvements

There is no such thing as failure, only results.  If we all learn from our results, then we can never fail. Just a small shift in mind set and language can make a huge difference.

Yvonne Bleakley
Learning Consultant, Capita Learning & Development

What challenges do Internal Communication professionals face in 2013?

Internal communication is rising high on the management agenda.  The demands being placed on internal communication professionals are also increasing. 

Effective Internal Communication

While internal communication may have been seen historically as ‘nice to have’, senior leaders are increasingly aware of its importance in maintaining a healthy and robust organisation that is fit for the future.

More and more evidence backs up these expectations.  A Towers Watson study comparing communication and financial effectiveness found that organisations that ensure effective internal communications are 1.7 times more likely to outperform their peers financially. The same study found organisations with effective communication and change management processes outperformed peers without this focus by a factor of 2.5.  The ‘Engage for Success’ movement is amassing a significant volume of evidence to show the business value of providing an engaging workplace environment.  Their work also demonstrates how communication and employee voice is a vital strand at the heart of a strategic approach to engagement.

This changing landscape provides a new set of opportunities for the communication professional – but a whole set of fresh challenges too. While developing and managing a communication infrastructure remains important, leaders are increasingly likely to demand support from senior communication professionals with real clout – who can provide guidance on how to communicate in the trickiest situations, and have earned the respect and credibility to be listened to.

So what are some of the challenges facing today’s internal communication professional?

• Developing an ability to ‘think business’:  at Executive and Board level.  Plus an understanding of how senior leaders think – and make decisions.  All important aspects of knowing how best to influence in a positive way. Understanding and navigating the political and power structure helps too
• Having the gravitas to promote communication strategies supporting business objectives – and the knowledge to explain why they make sense.  That means getting an understanding of what makes different people tick – the psychology of communication.  It also means having the listening and research skills to apply that knowledge with the various groups that make up the organisation, developing strategies that acknowledge their different world views. One approach doesn’t fit all.  
• Getting to grips with the culture (or cultures) of the organisation and identifying communication approaches that will work – and those that won’t.  As well as understanding the complexities involved in ‘changing culture’. 
• Responding to the opportunities of a more connected world.  Gone are the days where communication = telling. Digital communication can open up dialogue and sharing across – and beyond – the organisation.  It can also be the latest corporate toy to crash and burn. The internal communication professional can make all the difference here.
• Having the confidence and skill to coach leaders at all levels in their leadership communication style.  The way that leaders – from top to bottom of the organisation – promote dialogue is the foundation for an engaged and healthy organisation.
• Providing opportunities for the organisation to both communicate and to listen while avoiding communication overload.  And ensuring that measurement, evaluation, and continuous improvement  are part of ‘business as usual’.

Of course, the core craft skills of writing and creating compelling communication materials remain as important as ever. But the time is right for internal communication professionals to be raising our game.

What do you see as the core challenges facing communication professionals today?
Share your experiences below:

Liz Cochrane

Course Director, Masters in Internal Communication Management

As a manager, do you know your impact or are you relying on your intentions?

“It is not enough that your designs, nay that your actions, are intrinsically good, you must take care they shall appear so.” (Henry Fielding).

An effective manager is one of the most significant and valuable assets that the team can possess and the very things the manager does and says could increase the effectiveness of the team - the “Hawthorne Effect” (the increase in productivity and effectiveness that occurs due to the impact of the motivational effect on the team as a result of the interest being shown in them) is prevalent.

Effective Management

But there is a danger that the manager can be the single biggest thing that gets in the way of people performing. In their actions and behaviours, managers - who are human after all - may mean well but it is worth considering that it is the impact of what the manager does, not the intention behind actions and behaviours that ultimately matters.

“Impact not intention” – this must be the manager’s mantra.
Consider the manager who:

• always books things in their teams diaries “to save them the effort” 
• filters communications for the team because “they are too busy to do it themselves” 
• takes on the frequent checking of work with an individual “because it shows I am interested” 
• insists on a weekly one to one with each of their team “because it shows I care”
• pays special attention to underperforming individuals and allows the good performers to carry on without managerial input “because they don’t need me” 

Sound familiar?

“But I meant well, it’s just what they want, what they need,” is the cry that goes up. But who decided that? Are these the best thing for the individuals involved to help them perform?  What are these actions really saying to the team?

How do you know whether your actions and behaviours when managing the team are the ones that are most effective for them?
These managers may be misguided but all want the same thing – for the individual to perform. But what do individuals need from their manager in order to perform?  Why not start by asking the individual?

Whilst it is important to remember that managing people is a collaborative approach and the team cannot decide in isolation what they get, in the managerial process of seeking to ensure that people are developed, the team is built and the task is achieved it is valuable to keep in mind that we are talking about the individuals job and their performance so their voice is crucial.

“Seek first to understand. Then to be understood” wrote Steven Covey.
For a manager, getting feedback on own performance is often ignored in favour of giving feedback on others. But reflect on how valuable it would be to know those behaviours and actions that support and reinforce and those that disturb, disrupt or damage.

There are a few things worth considering:

• Developing and establishing a 360 (or 180) degree feedback system
• Building in time at the end of performance meetings to discuss what you do that supports or gets in the way of your people
• Getting other managers to observe your performance and feedback
• Having effective performance discussions with own line manager, ensuring that objectives relating to the management of people are agreed, measured and fed back on  

Samuel Johnson said "Hell is paved with good intentions."
No manager wants to live in hell so create the opportunity and take the time to check your impact matches your intentions.

Written by David Mathieson, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

Employment Law Changes Spring 2013

This Spring coincides with various changes in employment law that are likely to affect the day-to-day working practices of many organisations. If you would like expert advice on the current legislation and ensure you have the correct employment law procedures in place, why not join The PEEL Club, an exclusive club for HR professionals?

The PEEL Club is a group of HR professionals who regularly meet up to discuss Employment Law changes, challenges and best practice. In this video we meet, Prof Patricia Leighton, an employment law specialist and the PEEL Club leader, who tells us more about the benefits of attending the PEEL Club...

How To Change Your Company Culture

Barclay’s recent job cuts announcement includes a vow to ‘change the corporate culture’ of the organisation.  How realistic is that as an aim?

Organisational Change

New CEO Anthony Jenkins is wise to say that it will take ‘five to 10 years’ to embed genuine change. Culture is the very essence of an organisation.  There is a debate about whether culture is something an organisation “has” – a characteristic which can be changed in the same way as new equipment can be bought or processes introduced, or whether it is something an organisation “is” – so fundamental to the DNA of the organisation that it permeates all elements of organisational life.

Cultural models reflect this complexity. The well-known cultural web developed by Johnson and Scholes provides one illustration. The web is made up of a number of elements:

• The events and stories that people talk about
• The rituals and routines that show what is important and what‘sanctioned’ behaviour is
• The symbols, from the organisation’s brand and buildings to the language that people use
• Who has real power – to keep the status quo or make improvements
• What controls are in place – both measurement and reward systems
• The formal organisational structure – showing both who and what is important

At the centre of these six elements is what Johnson and Scholes call the ‘paradigm’: those deep unstated assumptions about the organisation that are so taken for granted, people don’t even know they have them.
To make it worse, few organisations have a single culture.   Subcultures proliferate – forming for reasons as varied as the requirement for an R&D division to work in a particular way to make its contribution, to the different basic assumptions that contribute to the world view of people from varying national cultures in a multi-national organisation.

So is change possible?  Yes, but it is important to recognise the limitations and risks.  As well as multifaceted, culture is multi-layered.  Ed Schein, father of organisational cultural theory, paints a picture of the levels of culture: Artifacts– things that can be seen, heard and touched as soon as you walk through an organisation’s doors.  Espoused values and beliefs - what people say is important. And finally – the basic, underlying assumptions that form the beating heart of the organisation. These assumptions build up over an organisation’s lifetime as a result of people finding a way of being that ‘works’ and works repeatedly when tackling challenges. That level of ‘taken for grantedness’ is tough to permeate – which helps explain the anxiety and resistance that can scupper the most well-meaning change efforts.  Though it also means that there are times where it is obvious that ‘the world is shifting’ when cultural change is the most likely – as it becomes increasingly clear that the old ways of being simply just won’t cut it for the future.

Changing culture means being in it for the long haul, taking a holistic approach – and recognising that intended changes often end up having unexpected consequences. No blog post could do justice to the complexity of what is required. A few pointers, in particular from a communication perspective include:

• Clarity. Populate the cultural web to understand where your culture is now, and where you need it to be
• Help people to ‘unlearn’:  use communication to help show why the current way of being just won’t work for the future. Better still, find ways people can find this out for themselves (e.g.: ask groups to conduct their own market research) 
• Support leaders in being tangible and explicit about what is changing (and what isn’t).  Highlight role models to help people ‘reframe’ their thinking.   Engage – providing structured opportunities for people to make their own informed decisions about solutions.
• Provide a safe environment.  Fear of failure or looking stupid is a big stumbling block.  Listen to understand concerns, then communicate the support that is being put in place.
• Recognise the power of the peer group – especially in the digital age.  Nurture and support ‘informal’ leaders
• Publicise and reinforce successes – and encourage people to do the same through internal social media platforms.

Liz Cochrane

Course Director, Masters in Internal Communication Management