Level Seven

Relationship Building: Influencing Stakeholders

2012-02-09T14:09:00.000Z

Relationship Building – Influencing Stakeholders

The building and sustaining of relationships is important for business success. Our 7 steps to successful relationship building highlight the importance of stakeholder analysis and understanding. We combine this with the application of appropriate influencing styles to suit specific stakeholder values and needs to support improved and sustainable business performance.

1. Identify stakeholders – Who are the people and groups affected by your business and what you do? By engaging with the right people and groups in the right way you can make a big difference to the achievement of goals and outcomes.

2. Analyse relative power - Which people/groups are important to your value creation process[1]? Conduct a power- interest[2] analysis in order to understand the degree of their power over your organisation and their interest in your business.

3. Identify appropriate influencing styles –Use of the push/pull framework[3] offers a range of alternative influencing styles to suit different stakeholders.

4. Tailor strategies – By combining the power/interest and push/pull analyses, strategies can be tailored to suit each stakeholder or stakeholder group.

5. Prioritise actions to achieve quick wins and develop a forward strategy to ensure stakeholder satisfaction and achievement of organisational goals on a short, medium and long term basis.

6. Implement – importance of designated responsibilities for implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Constant review is needed to take account of the changing status of stakeholders and groups over time as the busines environment changes.

7. Gather feedback and refine strategies to support continuous improvement in stakeholder relations.

[1] R Edward Freeman on value creation: http://bit.ly/yvyNLF

[2] Mendelow’s (81) Power Interest Matrix adapted by Johnson and Scholes (99): http://bit.ly/yK0xww

[3] Ashridge Business school on Influencing Skills: http://bit.ly/wpx4pf

The Human Factor

2012-02-01T12:11:00.000Z

We recently had the opportunity of presenting to a group of fellow IOD members on the topic of communication styles and influencing strategies. Our starting point was to explain why we felt the need to remind ourselves why it is important to remember that in any interpersonal communication there are two or more human beings involved and the complexities that this brings to any interaction. Our business model is built on People in terms of how we do business and what we do.

This was all set against a backdrop of the digital world and the social media environment in which we all inhabit to a greater or lesser extent. This too brings a range of personal and business challenges to the themes of personal and mass communication.

Our final point was to advocate a balance of use and appropriateness towards the personal and digital worlds of communication. They can co-exist perfectly and can provide effective and efficient ways of reaching out to our target audience but in the words of one academic:

“It’s so rewarding to connect with human beings. It’s so good for our bodies to do this. Everything we know as psychologists tells us it’s the most wonderful thing. So if we’re losing that, I think that is distressing.”

Sara Konrath, Research Assistant Professor, University of Michigan

Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, 2010.

In a recent article by McKinsey, business people are called to think about the effect of the human factor on the subject of service design and delivery.

https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/Sales_Distribution/The_human_factor_in_service_design_2922

What’s your view? What impact will the digitial world ultimately have on the human factor?

Innovation Challenge Week 7 - Curiosity

2012-01-09T17:06:00.001Z

What is curiosity? For me, the essence of it is being able to open up my mind to possibilities and what might be ....

Spending time with family and friends over the festive holidays has meant that I have spent time in the company of young children and it has been fascinating to observe their inquisitiveness.

Present opening, I am sure like in many other households, was enjoyable and frantic. Very small children seem to prefer playing with the wrapping paper or the box in which the toys came and sometimes disregarded the actual item itself. It started me thinking about the value we assign to items once we are in a position to understand what the word value means. With very little experience of the world, babies tend to place equal value on items until through learning and reinforcement they come to realise that some items have more or less value to them than other items. Next year will be interesting to see whether they are still more excited by the wrapping paper or by the actual gift itself?

So what have I reflected on in terms of my own curiosity over the last couple of weeks? It has been difficult to assign equal value to objects or aspects of situations because my experience and knowledge which I cannot un-know causes me to apply my own set of personal filters to those objects and situations causing me to come to a biased conclusion.

When working with business people to help develop their creative thinking skills, I often encourage people to: try and see something through the eyes of a child (i.e. be non-judgemental, place equal value on aspects of the object / situation, experience the object or the situation as if for the first time) but this week has reminded me that this is sometimes easier said than done. But following one of my principles which is start making a change by taking small actions, I have been trying out new experiences such as:

· Reading a section of the newspaper that I would normally discard

· Watching a film or a TV programme that I would normally find myself saying “I’m not interested in ......”

· Finding an alternative walking route to the station / shops

· Researching a subject but from an alternative / unusual perspective

This has reminded me that there are new things for me to experience that are within my immediate reach, no matter how inconsequential that experience may seem and which will help to retain my child-like curiosity!

On the other hand, we can take a leap of faith and immerse ourselves in some of the bigger questions life throws at us. http://curiosity.discovery.com/

Innovation Challenge Week 6

2011-12-23T20:36:00.000Z

Find patterns and create combinations

This week has been one of tidying up things before the festive season takes hold. However, I have kept to my word and combined last week’s habit (writing things down) with looking for patterns and creating combinations. I decided to revisit a creative thinking technique called Morphological analysis whereby you analyse an element of your problem into discrete components and then combine these different components to see if anything interesting jumps out at you. You can find more creative thinking techniques from this website.

http://www.mycoted.com/Category:Creativity_Techniques

The focus of my analysis was to see if there were any new and interesting ways of engaging with our clients and potential clients that were not part of our existing strategy. Whilst there isn’t anything novel that appears out of this analysis, it has provided me with some useful insights that may have other uses. So a worthwhile exercise.

As with many creative thinking techniques, I find it is important to practice using them in ways that are helpful and not to just slavishly follow the instructions. In fact something novel may occur just because you are not exactly following the instructions!

Next week which is the last challenge looks at the role of curiosity. I look forward to reporting on how my curiosity has been tapped during the festive week.

Signing off from Level Seven and wishing all our readers Happy Holidays.

Innovation Challenge Weeks 3, 4 and 5

2011-12-16T17:37:00.000Z

Risk Taking / Escape / Write things down

Some interesting reflections about these habits and my lack of action. First of all I’ll deal with risk taking; at the end of week 3, I left the UK for a long weekend to travel to sunnier surroundings with some friends. During the week I reflected on the notion of risk taking and found it difficult to find something about which I could take a risk that was relevant, appropriate and timely and could write about before I left. (Clearly my enthusiasm for the Innovation Challenge was waning!) I pride myself on being open to risk as throughout my life I’ve taken all sorts of personal and career risks and have always managed the consequences to my advantage. So, on the basis of keeping things simple, I decided to risk not writing a blog entry for the 3^rd week. My rationale was the belief that no one was actually reading our blogs, so I felt the risk would have little, if any, consequence.

Imagine my surprise when I heard that at least one person was following the blog and was looking forward to each instalment! I have spent the day thinking about the consequences of my actions and how to manage them. Of course, the easiest thing to do is to sit down and write a blog entry, which I am doing now. The hardest thing to do is to deal with my feelings, which are a mixture of guilt (for not following through with the commitment I made at the start of this challenge) and the feeling of letting someone down (even 1 reader is worth continuing with the challenge).

My reflections have reminded me about the following:

1. Every risk has consequences.

2. Consequential actions are easier to manage than consequential feelings.

3. Don’t make assumptions.

4. Escape is not an option

This last point leads me to the previous week’s habit – Escape. Using the definition within the Seven Habits of Innovation (my basis for the challenge); this is about escaping out of your usual environment to help with the creative flow. Over the years I have learned that I am at my most thoughtful, creatively, when I am travelling in a car or by train. Both the physical and metaphorical journeys of getting from point A to point B help me to think differently about things. Whilst the previous week took me to a different environment, I did not have any specific problems to ponder on. I am, however, confident that when I need to tap into some creative time, I can manoeuvre myself into an appropriate setting to help set the mood.

(Problem + Different environment = Potential Solution)

This week’s habit focused on writing things down. A good habit to get into for all sorts of reasons, so in the context of this challenge I searched out my Creativity & Innovation journal which I write in periodically. I use this to capture ideas and thoughts about creativity and innovation that will be useful in Level Seven's work and research. Again, just like ‘Escape’ I do use my journal effectively but perhaps I could widen it out to include other topics. There is benefit to be gained in cross-fertilisation of ideas, so next week I will attempt to be more proactive about this habit. This could well help with next week’s challenge which is ‘Find Patterns and Create Combinations’.

I will report back next Friday.

Thank you to our readers!

Employment Law and Authentic Relationships

2011-12-06T10:26:00.000Z

Government plans to overhaul key areas of employment legislation have not surprisingly led to the full spectrum of responses from those who say ‘jolly good, about time’ to others who see it as a charter for unscrupulous employers. The basis for the plans is the view that employment law impedes business growth and therefore changes are proposed to legal provision including dismissal and the employment tribunal system: http://bit.ly/u72lcK

Whether the proposed changes will lead to greater profitability can only be a matter of conjecture. Making it easier to dismiss someone, for example, is much more complicated than just getting rid of a problem person: covering that person’s work, finding a replacement and then training them up bring a raft of costs which need to be balanced against other savings. The law has a clear and crucial place in ensuring fairness, protection for employer and employee and consistency of practice but whether someone can legally be dismissed after one or two years is actually not the point. The point should be that we build good relationships and that those with people management responsibilities work to establish clarity and fairness. There is a danger that we can become so legally driven that the law becomes a distraction from basic good practice and authentic human relationships. An understanding of the legal risks must be part of the management ‘toolkit’ but this knowledge should support and rationalise business driven actions rather than be the sole driver.

Creating an environment in which there is mutual trust and respect supported by clearly articulated standards, processes and sanctions provides the strongest context in which to develop happy, performing employees managed by effective managers and led by authentic leaders.

Have a look at our Level Seven ‘7s’ to see how legal awareness can be created within an open and honest culture http://bit.ly/uRGEiG.

Innovation Challenge - Week 2

2011-11-25T18:00:00.000Z

Developing the habits of highly innovative people

Remove Self Limiting Inhibitions

This week has presented a number of opportunities for me to reflect and do something about this habit. I am sure I am not alone when I say that the idea of picking up the phone to make sales calls fills me with dread. I find it much easier and safer to rely on email communication. Of course, this is a self-limiting inhibition and it’s all to do with rejection.

I decided this week I would grasp the nettle and instead of my usual approach to send emails, I actually picked up the phone and attempted to make contact with a few people by way of follow-up communications. I enjoyed about 50% success rate in that I did actually get through to the person and had a productive conversation.

So, why am I not able to feel comfortable about doing this every day and just do more of the same? What I seemed able to do before making each call was to turn off my negative inner dialogue which was saying things like “they won’t want to talk to you”, “you’ll be interrupting them when they are busy and then they will be annoyed ....” I replaced this negative inner dialogue with some positive dialogue along the lines, “you’ve met these people and they will want to talk to you even if it is not necessarily what you want to hear right now” and “if they answer their phone they will not be annoyed as they have a choice to answer or not”

By removing this self-limiting inhibition about rejection helped me to feel courageous and pick up the phone and this action actually paid off. I spoke to a few people and have a better understanding of their situation and am able to amend my follow-up campaign with them more effectively.

http://change-effect.com/2011/11/21/the-courage-to-believe/

Of course, I could have received the same information via email but the opportunity to actually have a conversation with someone is much more pleasant and fulfilling.

As with the previous habit of persistence, employing a more positive mindset can be very helpful.

Next week’s focus is Habit No 3: ‘Take risks and make mistakes’.

Level Seven’s Innovation Challenge – Week 1

2011-11-18T18:36:00.001Z

Developing the Habits of Highly Innovative People

To quickly recap, I decided at the beginning of this week to conduct some Action Research focusing on how to develop some personal skills of innovation and adopted as my framework, the 7 Habits of Highly Innovative People. I thought I would focus on one habit each week and report back.

http://thinksimplenow.com/creativity/7-habits-of-highly-innovative-people/

The theme of this first week has been Persistence. At the start of the week I felt a structured approach would be helpful and decided to apply the idea of persistence to some goals in the short, medium and long term.

My short term goal was to be more persistent towards drinking more water (I thought this could only be a good thing and good for my health too). How could I develop a more persistent approach to my water-drinking behaviour? I’ve tried to do this in the past but failed, I just seem to forget to drink. Even having bottles of water on my desk or in my bag do not seem to have worked, so I thought this time I would resort to a slightly Pavlov approach. I set my iphone alarm during the day to remind me to drink water. It has worked in that I have drunk more water than I usually would in a week. Only time will tell if this behaviour has become habitual and whether I can disassociate the sound of my alarm with the need to drink water!

My medium term goal was to take a persistent approach to engaging more often with our social media strategies for our business development. As part of my plan I attended a workshop in the week at the British Library on the subject of Marketing and Social Media. I must admit at times during the workshop I felt rather over-whelmed by what is required to develop a good, effective strategy. My persistence is driven by the commitment to write these blog entries for the next 7 weeks and now that I’ve made that commitment, I intend to keep them going.

My longer term goal of persistence links to continuing to build a thriving business in these somewhat challenging economic times. ‘Seven Habits’ define persistence as not giving up, undertaking hard work and keep on keeping on, even in the face of adversity, rejection and sometimes feeling of getting nowhere. To me this is about developing a persistent attitude or mindset which I like to think I possess but every now and then it is worth doing a reality check. This week has provided me with some space and time to think about our goals, plans and opportunities. This time has been very useful for getting some projects back on track. So to coin a phrase, persistence is about keeping that glass half full, not half empty (that is if I remember to fill it in the first place!)

http://www.level7live.com/lid.html

So next week the theme is Removing Self Limiting Inhibitions. Now, this could be fun!

Level Seven's Innovation Challenge

2011-11-14T12:12:00.000Z

There is a lot that has been written about developing creativity and innovation skills and whilst it was a while now since undertaking my doctorate research I thought it would be fun to undertake some practical personal research. So I have decided to undertake some ‘Action Research’ and report back my findings.

The following provides me with a simple structure and focus for my research:

http://thinksimplenow.com/creativity/7-habits-of-highly-innovative-people/

My plan is to adopt a new habit each week and report on my reflections and any insights at the end of each week. I will summarise my views in the New Year. So, this is my focus for the next 7 weeks:

Week 1 - Persistence

Week 2 - Remove self limiting inhibitions

Week 3 - Take risks and make mistakes

Week 4 - Escape

Week 5 - Write things down

Week 6 - Find patterns and create combinations

Week 7 – Curiosity

If anyone wants to join me in this challenge and share their outcomes each week, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Gill Stevens

Who's the Talent?

2011-11-01T16:33:00.000Z

It seems as if everyone is talking about talent in the workplace. A multitude of surveys, articles, conferences and workshops expound the importance of recognising, retaining, motivating and developing talent in organisations. We’re not knocking this – after all talent development is Level Seven’s raison d’être. There is a danger, however, that yet another word in the HR lexicon is being dropped randomly into conversations about employees without carefully considering the meaning and appropriateness of the word. In so doing the term and all associated strategies and initiatives could be in danger of becoming devalued.

So what do we mean by the word talent? Should the word be used to describe the entire employee population and all related HR activity? There is something ethically attractive about acknowledging that everyone in an organisation has talent to be nurtured and developed according to their performance objectives. However, does such use dilute the value of the term? Is the term more strategically valuable if it is focused explicitly upon a specific pool of employees who are exceptional in relation to some technical proficiency or competence that supports the achievement of organisational goals? Current challenges of where to invest often limited employee development resources can compound this dilemma and can become a strong determinant of resultant talent development strategy. Whilst it could be argued that an all encompassing definition of talent provides an equitable basis for investing limited L & D budgets, there is also a credible argument that supports differentiation in order to ensure the necessary investment in those high potential groups that are crucial for ensuring ongoing and future delivery of organisational performance objectives. How then do you ensure the continuing engagement and performance of those outside of the differentiated talent pool?

Let us know what you think?

(Have a look at the theories and research gathered by Silzer and Dowell in their book ‘Strategy Driven Talent Management: A Leadership Imperative’ at http://bit.ly/vBh6y2)

What does innovation mean to you?

2011-10-21T12:01:00.000+01:00

In a straw poll among a small, mixed population of our corporate client colleagues, we asked, “what does innovation mean to you in the context of your day-to-day work?” Here’s a summary of the more interesting comments:

Not a lot, it’s down to the marketing department.

Our R&D department look after that sort of thing.

We have a suggestion box we’ve nicknamed the ‘Black Hole’.

It’s one of our corporate values but personally it doesn’t affect what I do daily.

Innovation, just another management fad isn’t it?

Clearly there are different ways of looking at innovation and where responsibility for innovating lies. Level Seven’s approach to innovation is that it is a mindset and attitude. A sentiment echoed by others and the MD of BSkyB in his presentation at last year’s IOD Annual Conference.

Some industries take the innovation agenda a lot more seriously as it is often at the core of what they do, for example, IT is an industry continually looking for innovations.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/how-master-innovators-play-by-different-rules/9482

Some principles borrowed from their quest include:

· Keep focused (whatever pressures you may be facing)

· Keep to a plan but build in flexibility

· Do your research and have a deep understanding about your situation

· Look to the future rather than the past (i.e. what do we want to achieve rather than what did we do before)

Arguably, these principles could apply across any sector and any discipline and we attempt to reinforce this message wherever and whenever appropriate.

Our innovation diagnostic, the LID, aims to help leaders get to grips with how they can foster this spirit within themselves, their team and more widely within the organisation.

http://www.level7live.com/lid.html

So, what does innovation mean to you? Let us have your comments.

Gill Stevens

Director

Warming up the Organisation Through Talent Development

2011-08-17T09:49:00.000+01:00

The recent Hay Group ressearch into workplace climate in European countries resonated with us at Level Seven, particularly at this time of the year when the UK weather slips into its cooler autumnal phase. We really like the warm metaphor used by Hay in relation to the impact that a leader can have on their team and ultimately their organisation’s performance. The findings of the research highlight the leadership styles that support a positive and collaborative workplace climate and validate our key foci in developing leadership talent in organisations, i.e. the development of affiliative, democratic and coaching behaviours.

In developing future leaders we bring talented people together from across organisational boundaries: improving interpersonal understanding encourages tolerance and respect which in turn supports an affiliative and democratic culture. Working on strategically focused business projects in multi functional teams helps develop ways of working that break down silos and improve organisational knowledge and relationships. Encouraging and developing the skills of coaching amongst peers and talent sponsors helps embed a developmental environment beyond formal learning into the wider organisational culture thereby supporting high levels of business performance. Supporting organisations in the development of their talent demonstrates clearly to us that focusing on these key leadership behaviours can be very powerful in moving from cool to warmer organisational climates whatever the time of year.

http://www.personneltoday.com/pages/hay-group-job-climate-map/

Creative Leadership

2011-07-11T10:41:00.000+01:00

Linking our two core interests together, creativity and leadership, we came across these thoughts on the role of creativity and the challenges of leaders in organisations.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1764044/ken-robinson-on-the-principles-of-creative-leadership

Evidence from a longitudinal study run over 10 years, found that teams who were run by project leaders with creative characteristics made 13 times more money for their company than those teams run by less creative leaders, a compelling argument that supports the notion that creativity and innovation are indeed areas for personal and organisational development.

We are about to launch the LID™ a new diagnostic tool that allows leaders of teams doing innovation type work to get some structured feedback on where they should focus their energy to help channel the creative energy of their team appropriately. http://www.level7live.com/home

We are interested to hear from organisations who would be interested in contributing to our norm database http://www.level7live.com/contact

Gill Stevens

Director

Key Driver for Talent Development Programme

2011-06-27T11:18:00.000+01:00

How to think and act differently

If you asked us to state the key driver for our talent development programme, Putting Your Talent to Work, we would say it is to encourage leaders to think, feel and act differently about the challenges they face in the workplace.

I recently worked with a group of senior executives who talked about the need for diversity of thought in the workplace and the need to encourage it, however, their actions and behaviour were at odds with what they were saying, not an uncommon challenge for leadership development interventions. There is much research to support the argument that developing the capacity to think in a balanced way, using both intuition and logic appropriately differentiates successful leaders from average leaders.

In a recent study conducted by Kahneman, Lovallo and Sibony they refer to intuitive thinking and rational thinking as System One and System two thinking. Their evidence suggests that when problem-solving and decision-making, particularly when weighing up recommendations that you are being asked to endorse, it is important to be aware of your cognitive biases. http://hbr.org/2011/06/the-big-idea-before-you-make-that-big-decision/ar/3

Below is a summary of 12 questions you can ask yourself when faced with having to approve a recommendation or decision made by others which requires your support or approval. (Kahneman et al, 2011)

1. Is there any reason to suspect motivated errors or errors driven by the self-interest of the team?

2. Have the people making the recommendation fallen in love with it? (Minimising the risks and exaggerating the benefits)

3. Were there dissenting opinions within the recommending team (Avoid groupthink)

4. Could the diagnosis of the situation be overly influenced by salient analogies (Repeating success from past experiences but avoiding whether these experiences are relevant to this instance)

5. Have credible alternatives been considered (Are there more options on the table?)

6. If making the decision in 1 year from now what information would you want and can you get it now?

7. Do you know where the numbers came from (credibility of data)

8. Is there a halo effect? Is the ‘story’ simpler and more coherent than it really is?

9. Are the people making the recommendation overly attached to past decisions?

10. Is the base case overly optimistic?

11. Is the worst case bad enough?

12. Is the recommending team overly cautious?

For more info about Putting Your Talent to Work, contact us at www.level7live.com

How important is environment to creative thinking?

2011-04-27T12:08:00.000+01:00

Many will agree that it is difficult to turn our creative thinking capacity on and off like a tap and to some extent preparation of certain factors will help or hinder the output of any creative thinking activities. Recently, I have had cause to reflect on the factors that both help and hinder our creative output, in particular how we think and feel about problems that require a creative approach and particularly the role that the environment plays. Indeed the research we have conducted that underpins the development of our ‘Leading Innovation Diagnostic’ (LID) questionnaire suggests that environment plays a key role.

An example of where environment made a positive contribution was when Dorothy and I were recently returning from a client meeting and our journey home proved to be very fruitful in developing some new ideas worth exploring about the future of our business. We reflected on what we had achieved and how we had done this. We concluded that our physical and metaphorical journeys were somehow intrinsically linked. Personally, I have come to know that I have a lot of my best ideas when I am driving in my car. I put this down to the principle of allowing the conscious mind to get on with attending to the routine actions of driving whilst allowing the unconscious mind to get to work on idea development.

An example of where environment proved to be a negative factor in creative output was when we delivered a client workshop that had a creative element to it. The room facilities that had been booked were small for the size of group, cramped, had little natural light and the seats were uncomfortable. It became evident that people had trouble concentrating on the task in hand and were becoming irritable about minor things.

My doctoral research on creative problem-solving highlighted the fact that environment plays a critical role when engaged in creative thinking. Many of the managers who participated in my research reported that they often had their best ideas when engaged in doing something different, such as working out in the gym, going for a swim, skiing down a mountain or just listening to music.

In conclusion then, it would be worth taking some time to identify what types of environment are conducive to your creative thinking activities, personally and for any team that you lead and ensure you make adequate time and resources available. In the following video the presenter is talking about the link between creative thinking and play and of course, environment is a contributory factor in enabling these two notions to work together.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector?blend=1&ob=5#p/search/0/RjwUn-aA0VY

Gill Stevens

Director

Level Seven (UK) Ltd

Raising Risk Awareness in People Management

2011-03-18T14:07:00.000Z

I’ve been doing a lot of work recently with managers and supervisors to raise awareness of some of the legal risks that they face in managing their people. Although people management is a key line management responsibility, the legal complexity and risks involved can lead to a situation in which managers at best lack confidence in tackling people issues or at worst make ill informed decisions that can cost the organisation in a variety of ways. HR professionals have a crucial advisory role but there are also advantages in developing a consistent and up to date level of legal awareness amongst all those whose remit includes managing people. So how can this be achieved?

Make the case for improved practice – Analyse the problems that are being experienced, e.g. numbers of formal grievances or disciplinary cases, high volume of tribunal claims. Produce and share information with managers showing the impact of dealing with conflict situations in terms of indicators such as money, time and reputation in the market.

Run collaborative workshops – Expound the principles of good practice, encourage experience sharing and apply the law to real life scenarios and cases. Bring people together from across the organisation to share examples of bad and good practice and establish a problem solving culture. Choose a facilitator who can combine legal knowledge and management experience. An external facilitator often works best in gaining delegate respect and facilitating open and honest discussion.

Reinforce learning – Keep awareness of good practice alive through embedding it in regular discussions and activities. Team and management meetings provide an opportunity to share experiences and issues. Cross organisational collaboration through mentoring can also ensure the vital clarity and consistency of practice that is crucial to legal compliance and risk management. Regular legal information updates from the HR team are also important in relation to both changes in the law and current organisational practices that are causing concern.

There are many sources of valuable information on employment law and good practice but I still find that one of the most easily accessible and digestible for the widest audience is www.acas.org.uk.

Dorothy

18 March 2011

Supporting Talent Development

2011-02-10T17:02:00.000Z

Last week Level Seven attended the HR Directors’ Business Summit at the ICC, Birmingham both as exhibitors and speakers www.wtgevents.com As speakers we ran a masterclass on talent development which we co-delivered with our client, Tata Consultancy Services, part of the Tata Group.

The format of the workshop was to share the elements of our talent development programme, putting your talent to work™ which we have recently facilitated for TCS and some of the individual and organisation benefits achieved. In addition, we also delivered a short session on creative thinking that was an integral part of the TCS programme. As is common practice, at the end of the formal presentation, we asked the audience for questions and a theme that emerged was how do you engage senior management as part of any talent development programme? We shared our approach which is to ensure that we gain buy-in from senior managers particularly around the issue of supporting the project work which participants undertake as part of the programme.

Recently, I came across an article written by McKinsey Consulting which summarised some research they conducted. The research looked at how important it is for senior managers to engage or even set the agenda for any talent development programme. Where senior management support was apparent, business improvement exceeded that of those companies who did not have the support or engagement of senior managers in their programme. If you would like a copy of this article, please contact me at info@level7live.com also if you have any ideas, comments or observations on this thorny issue we would be delighted to hear from you so that we may share them with our Level Seven network of professionals and practitioners.

One last question that comes to mind is that if senior managers are responsible for supporting participants on any talent development programme – who supports the supporters? We assume that senior managers are self motivated and self directed. It is an assumption that is easy to make but is it a fair one? So if there are any senior managers reading this who may want to comment, please get in touch, again we would like to share your experiences with our wider community.

Thank you

Dr Gill Stevens

Director

How to help people to have good ideas

2010-12-10T18:33:00.003Z

According to Albert Einstein, “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them”. So, it seems that we need to think about solving problems in different ways. Most people would agree that one of the key factors in successful problem-solving is the ability to generate good ideas. Without a supply of good ideas organisations will stagnate or worse still, cease to exist. So how can managers help people to have good ideas?

I recently had the privilege of facilitating a workshop for a group of professionals who had taken time-out from their day to day work activities to think about ways their service offering could be improved.

The scene was set, everyone had been briefed and the day got off to an enterprising start. Part of the day was given over to trying out some creative thinking exercises as a way of generating new ideas. It soon became apparent that a number of factors were getting in the way. These factors were similar to ones which I had discovered when conducting my doctoral research into creative problem-solving. The outcomes from my research found among the main inhibitors to creative thinking were physical environment, personal attitude to creativity and organisational culture.

Physical environment plays a key role in helping the mood, comfort and creative spark. This is why some more forward thinking organisations set up ‘play’ areas where relaxed discussions can take place without the pressures of everyday work activities impacting. For those who don’t have this type of luxury, it may just mean organising these discussions to happen away from the workplace; a trip to a coffee shop, a picnic in a park, a walk around a gallery or museum or somewhere inspiring. The focus here is to make people feel relaxed and enjoy the novelty of a different environment. You don’t need to sit around in an office with a flip chart and pen to brainstorm ideas.

Personal attitude towards creativity is a barrier that unless overcome will just mean people will perpetuate the same old ways of thinking about problems. Mostly people’s first reaction is to say they are not creative and think it is the reserve of those who engage in artistic acts such as painting, writing poetry or composing music. What people fail to acknowledge is that we are all capable of having good ideas which is a key component of the creative process. http://www.slideshare.net/betsystreeter/let-out-the-creative-beast Managers, however, first need to put their own house in order, that is believe in their own creative talents and then nurture the talents of others. This can be achieved by delegating interesting and challenging tasks. The outcome of any delegated task needs to be clearly agreed but how that outcome is achieved is where creative opportunities present themselves.

Lastly, organisational culture is in my opinion the biggest blocker to creative thinking. At the macro level, organisations will espouse the values of creativity and innovation but in practice they discourage their very existence. http://www.meettheboss.tv//articles/default.aspx?articleId=338 Risk and learning go hand-in-hand with creativity but for some organisations, particularly in the current climate, these very words are considered acts of treason. At the micro level, managers have some responsibility for developing and contributing to their team’s culture. So, how can managers ensure creativity is at the heart of their team’s culture? The good news is they don’t have to do this alone. They can start by talking to their team members. Involve them in agreeing what needs to happen and how. Make time and space for creative thinking to happen. Manage the parameters of risk-taking and most importantly if things don’t go the way they were intended, don’t blame, discourage or crush peoples’ self-confidence just make sure you all learn from any mistakes. And lastly, relax, don’t try too hard, the creative spark cannot be turned on or off like a tap, if you think of it within the analogy of a theatre, creativity is one of the actors in a play who at times could be waiting in the wings, dancing in the chorus line or could be performing centre stage. The manager’s role is that of theatre director, to encourage, inspire, support and be prepared to be amazed at what emerges.

Phased leadership in the Sahara – a mirage or a fertile oasis?

2010-10-19T15:04:00.000+01:00

Here at L7 we focus on helping organisations to develop their leadership talent. We believe that leadership is relevant at all levels in organisations and the growing body of writing on shared and distributed leadership fits with our experiences and value systems.

Reflecting upon a recent trip to Morocco my thinking about shared leadership has been evolving based on observations and perceptions of how the leadership role was not just shared but phased in order to best meet needs at different stages of the trip. To an extent, this phased leadership reflected the planning process and the structures put in place by the organisers. However, it also drew upon less formal aspects of context and personal/team characteristics and needs.

I travelled to Morocco in order to undertake a sponsored Sahara desert trek in aid of CLIC Sargent. Those of us taking part came from the local business community and whilst some had more intrepid backgrounds than others, none of us had walked for three days across a desert before. In this respect we were totally dependent on the organisers and facilitators to ensure our success in achieving our goal and also in ensuring our well being throughout. We needed to be led and were willing (and excited!) followers at every stage of the project.

There were three key phases to our trip: 1. The pre trek period that involved fund raising, getting fit and liaising with fellow trekkers for support: 2. The journey to and from the Sahara involving the logistics of getting to the right rendezvous points at the right times and observing safety rules and protocols; 3. The trek itself which involved daily planning of our route according to weather and terrain conditions, knowledge of the local geography and culture, the local languages, advising on local set up and support.

At each of these phases, the leadership role was undertaken by a different person. Whilst there was an element of dovetailing of leadership input, the roles were phased in terms of predominance according to the requirements of the situation. In the phase one pre trek period, our leader drew upon skills and experience of organising, communication and motivation. During the phase two journey to the desert, a designated trip manager joined us and brought her experience of the trekking process and the organising company rules and regulations. On our phase three arrival in Morocco, our local guide became our leader. Whilst the phase two leader maintained control over timings and overall scheduling, our phase three leader became responsible for the trekking arrangements and all of the logistics that supported our living arrangements during the trek. Our phase one leader became ‘one of the trekkers’ although there were some periods in which she became a spokesperson when there were questions to be asked or issues to be addressed.

So at each phase of our journey, a different leader took prominence. This was based on a number of factors including personal experience, knowledge and expertise. None of the leadership roles faded away entirely in any phase and it was mainly in perceived crisis situations when some signs of contested leadership roles emerged. These were minor skirmishes and resolution was driven by the need to retain motivation and team spirit in order to complete the task.

In a recent video clip (http://video.ft.com/v/62699257001/MIT-Sloan-Distributed-leadership) Professor Ancona of the MIT Sloan School of Management highlights many pertinent points in relation to distributed leadership including the value of collaboration and the need for multi- directional communication and alignment. These were evident in the Sahara in terms of the integration of leadership roles and the need for collaboration, regardless of phase, in order to achieve our goals. These are also central pillars of our Level 7 leadership development approach which is based upon both inter and intra organisational collaboration and communication.

Ulrich and Smallwood’s recent work on ‘Personal Leadership Brand’ is also worth looking at in this context (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtjWXzajQXw). They identify the importance of distributed leadership advocating that leaders at all levels should focus upon building on strengths that deliver value. In the desert context, each leader in their own phase of the project did just that, applying specific skill sets to meet the need s of the team during that particular phase. At points in the trek when they were not the dominant leader, they were still able to contribute in situations where their own strengths could contribute to a successful outcome.

I would love to hear your thoughts about distributed leadership and the contribution that the concept of phased leadership could make to enhancing understanding.

My Saharan experience has given me so much food for thought not just in relation to my personal development but also in identifying parallels with issues of organisational development. As these thoughts unravel and evolve, I will be sharing more of them with you over the next few weeks and months.

Dorothy Foote
Director Level Seven (UK) Limited