Inspire Me

Lads With Charm

We were very excited to have the opportunity to work with an IT company specialising in communications, which has been growing very fast indeed for the past two years. The Board intuitively knew that their existing setup would not support their growth, but didn't know what to do about it. I went down and met a bunch of executives who had no problem with my describing them as 'lads', who liked nothing better than to laugh at their own jokes and engage in boyish banter - they had tremendous energy and charm, and were desperate for someone to help them decide what to do with their organisation so they could continue to grow safely. They were especially frightened about morale at all levels and felt victimised by the holding company abroad. In spite of their demands to give them 'the answer' then and there, I managed to settle them down, went away, and had a think, and proposed a six month programme to deliver a change plan to suit them and their organisation. They jumped at it, and we started the following week. To help balance the prevailing macho sales led culture, I used a new model for organisational diagnosis and change based on the 7 energy levels or chakras, as developed by Dr. Paul Tosey at Surrey University. Four of the company's senior execs worked with me to research into the organisation and its inherent need for change, using the model. We all went out and talked to people at all levels, and logged our personal experience of doing this, along with the insights we gained en route. The findings were highly subjective and intuitively based, which was totally different from anything they had done before; they said they felt changed and inspired by the new insight into their organisation, and the new qualitative approach to research. The next step was to involve all of the board and senior management team first by meeting them individually and adding their views to the findings, then holding experiential workshops. The various teams used the workshops to digest the research findings and connect with them on a feelings level, then to work out the current and ideal status for the organisation on each of the 7 energy levels. Beautiful coloured images were generated for each level, then integrated into huge rich pictures covering three flip chart pages. To help make sure this was relevant and integrated, each person explored their own personal vision and situation, and how that linked with the organisation's needs, and each team did the same on a team level. After the workshops we all debriefed and, from a possible 7 options, identified the type of organisational change that would make the most difference. The chosen change strategy was SOCIAL & POLITICAL - because the teams had identified that if political issues were resolved, and relationships and team working were optimised, this would make more difference than any other type of change. Finally, we designed a comprehensive change programme called COMMUNITY STRAND - to fit in with the other two main strands of activity the company had on its plate which were PROCESS and BUSINESS GENERATION. The teams are implementing the plan now, so watch this space...

Size does NOT matter

A small materials testing business is doing very nicely, providing high quality equipment to a small but perfectly formed market. They make machines that hit or stretch bits of metal until they break, which they assure me helps make things safe for you and me. Luckily I didn't have to understand about all that. The MD was one of the generous people who participated in my dissertation research. At the end of the interview he asked me: "you don't do team building do you?". After several "do bears..." type comments I asked him why he thought he needed team building. It turned out that he had a very close Board, with strong bonds of affection and support, yet lacking some of the ingredients they would need when the company turnover doubles, which was targeted to happen in the next few years. So we spent some time talking about how the team works, doing team building exercises, opening up communication, and playing with new ideas. I was almost thrown out for giving them a team building problem involving nails and bits of wood which they thought they could do because they were "chaps", which in fact they couldn't do. Naturally this was the most powerful part of the learning for them - but it was touch and go for a few minutes there! Afterwards he said "this brought to a head a number of issues and bought together the team in terms of daily communications".

Creativity and Happiness

Phenomenologically Speaking

(if you can say it you can do it) ... A huge THANK YOU to the 43 senior execs who participated in my "phenomenological" research for my dissertation to complete the Master of Science in Change Agent Skills and Strategies at Surrey University, which by the way is highly recommended to any Change Agents out there. After umpteen versions the thing came back with a big red PASS on it, and corks popped accordingly. The participants have each received their complementary copy - if you're not one of those and would like to know the answer to the question "What IS the experience senior executives have of using external consultants?" give us a call/e-mail/whatever.

In the Pipeline

...a new SOCIAL & POLITICAL AUDIT, new additions to the COMMUNITY BUILDING PROGRAMME and experiments with bringing more COMPASSION into client:consultant relationships

Thankyou for reading