Raising Risk Awareness in People Management

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

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

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?

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