Case Studies

Argos
The Requirements: Leadership Programme

We were asked, to facilitate a Leadership & Personal Effectiveness Programme for managers of all levels.

The Solution:

The programme included development of skills in the areas of:
- Leadership & Management
- Personal awareness
- Team leadership & team membership
- Communication
The feedback:

Business Benefits:
- All resources were utilised most effectively
- Decisions were made at the most appropriate level and issues were identified before they became problems
- Those attendees became aware of their strengths and weaknesses and put development plans in place to improve themselves still further.
- Barriers between functions were eroded
- Knowledge of other functions was shared and differences appreciated
- Everyone became more aware of the importance of becoming more Customer Focused
- Everyone would be aware of the benefits of living the Company values
Over 300 managers passed through the programme. Course feedback was exceptional; comments have included

“So good I would have paid for it myself”…...“I am going away actually believing I will be able to change”…..“Life changing”….. “The best course I have ever been on”…. “Amazing combination of theory and practice”……..”One of my best experiences ever”……”Superb experience”
CML

The Requirements – Management Skills Programme

CML provides a complete supply chain warehousing and distribution service to internet and high street retail names including Marks & Spencer, BHS, Blacks Leisure, Millets, LK Bennett etc.

They had experienced a significant period of sustained growth through to their year end March 2008. With growth came a lot of internal promotions and to some extent the business had neglected the need for internal training to support the growth.

Training became a significant part of their strategy for the year commencing April 2008 and we were engaged to improve the business efficiency and the management of staff.

The Solution

We designed and facilitated a four-day Management Development Programme addressing the essential aspects of Leading and Managing Teams for 40 managers and team leaders.

The feedback from the Managing Director

"Overall the feedback from the training was extremely positive and it has had a tangible and direct impact on the confidence, ability and effectiveness of all the managerial team. They now work better in teams, communication has improved and their overall ability to focus on the real issues to drive profit has helped to deliver a record breaking year for CML in 2009”

Brian helped provide the “shot in the arm” CML needed to regain focus on cost and the value of people in a year when new sales were unlikely and economic outlook was bleak"
P.D.Hook
The Requirements - "Management Training Programme"

PD Hook's mission is to become a major supplier of agricultural solutions to the UK Poultry Industry and the retail sector, providing their customers with best cost, quality solutions that add value to their business while fulfilling the expectations of their shareholders.

Their 40 operational managers had undergone very little formal management training previously.

The Solution

We designed and delivered a bespoke four-day Management Training Programme that provided them with a toolset of management and leadership skills so that they could: be more proactive in their management style, understand what “excellence in their role” looks like, to build effective teams, to practice different approaches and to focus on the “soft skills” required to take their game to the next level.

The four days were then followed up with a one-to-one follow-up and coaching session

The Feedback

"The results have been outstanding in terms of improving our managers competence, personal development and most important of all, a considerable improvement in our efficiency and productivity. Brian Perry’s personal, professional and inspiring approach in designing and delivering a programme to meet our specific needs has enabled our managers to begin to fulfil their potential and leaves the company in a strong position for the future.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Brian Perry to any organisation planning on developing their managers"…. Jackie Newman, HR Manager

"Best course I have ever been on".... Kevin Sparrow, PD Hook

"I have gained confidence in my own abilities and have learrnt new ideas that I can effectively apply to my job"..... Patrick Hook, PD Hook

"Given me lots of ideas to take away and integrate them into the way I handle myself at work"... Dan Waterworth, PD Hook
Clipper

The Requirements - Management Skills

Clipper are pioneers and leaders of the organic and fair-trade tea market providing consistently high quality and other great tasting products. Their first line management team had never experienced management and leadership training

The Solution

We designed and facilitated a three day workshop covering the essential skills associated with being a competent and effective manager. We covered Change, Teamwork, Communication, Time Management, Problem Solving, Leadership and Assertiveness and Giving & Receiving Feedback. What worked particularly well was to use a number of the problem solving techniques to resolve real business issues.

Each manager also completed a Myers-Briggs assessment and shared with the team the outputs so that everyone had an appreciation of each others styles and preferences. This also helped with persuading and Influencing.

The Feedback

"The workshop taught me a lot of new things about valuing different personalities. It has made me realise that I can be an effective manager by boosting my self-confidence"..

Claire Tuck - Clipper
ISP
The requirement: Team building

Following a restructure ISP needed individual team members from Logistics, Finance and IT to operate as one team across its European operation. The team was made up of 20 people from six different countries and nine different nationalities.

The three major objectives were for the individuals to:
- feel like an integral part of the business
- feel valued, by the boss and by each other
- become one team
The solution:

We designed and facilitated a highly participative one-day workshop in Antwerp which enabled attendees to identify for themselves:
- Why working as a team was important, to the business, to the team, to individual team members.
- How they would like the team to operate in the future
- Their current performance as a team, what they were currently doing well, and what they were not doing so well.
- The barriers preventing them making the team the way they wanted it to be – and how to overcome those barriers
The feedback:

By the end of the session there was a very positive action plan and everyone committed to do things differently. Everyone got to know each other better and began to develop effective working relationships
Argos
The requirement: Team development

Following a reorganisation of the Argos Shared Financial Service, all 50 of its management team members needed to:
- Understand and appreciate what the shared financial service was about
- Establish a stronger personal identification with the function
- Develop effective working relationships
- Take a clear positive message back to their respective teams
With some secondary objectives :
- Reducing and overcoming barriers to change
- Discussing how to share knowledge and experience
- Creating the right image for the function
The solution:

We designed and facilitated a highly participative two-day residential event encompassing:
- Small discussion groups to debate the mission / vision for the function
- Identifying what the vision meant in terms of team and individual behaviours
- Identifying barriers which might impede the team fulfilling its mission, together with ways of overcoming the barriers
- Presentations from senior management about their respective functions
- A number of fun and rewarding team activities including Japanese drumming
The feedback:

"As a relatively new Central Finance function providing services across a number of business units, we needed to align the team behind a common purpose. Brian developed and facilitated a team event which was relevant, memorable and enjoyable with key messages and theories strongly reinforced by dynamic activities".
Julie Wirth - Director of Central Finance - Argos Retail Group
Stellant
The Requirements - "Management Skills & Team Building"

Stellent is a global provider of content management software solutions that drive rapid success for customers by enabling fast implementations and generating quick, broad user adoption.

They wanted an event to help gel a team together and to provide them with some management and leadership skills.

The Solution

We designed a 2 day workshop that got the team to look at how they were working together, what their roles were, relevant strengths and weaknesses of each team member and some management techniques to help them forge better working relationships.

Each manager completed a Myers-Briggs assessment and shared with the team the outputs so that everyone had an appreciation of each others' styles and preferences.

The Feedback

"Brian was extremely confident and was able to bring out ideas from all of the team without making us aware. He made the 2 days fun-fun-fun" .

Clare Cheesman, Manager, Stellent

"The workshop was very beneficial, more effective than I had hoped for".

Peter Bullivant, Director, Stellent
MCCH Society Limited
The Requirements - Team Development

MCCH Society Limited is a voluntary organisation committed to designing and delivering high quality innovative services based on the unique needs of each individual. The people supported may have: a learning or physical disability, sensory impairment, mental illness, or autistic spectrum disorder. Their Senior Management Team needed to appreciate what makes an effective team and learn some new skills to apply to their own teams.

The Solution

We designed and facilitated a two day workshop covering the skills associated with becoming an effective team leader and team member. Also covered were the skills necessary to be able to facilitate a team effectively. Teamwork, Change, Communication Facilitation and Leadership were all covered during this workshop. The team left with a toolbox full of tips and techniques to apply in practice.

Each manager also completed a Myers-Briggs assessment and shared with the team the outputs so that everyone had an appreciation of each others styles and preferences. This also helped with persuading and Influencing.

The Feedback

"All of the workshop was relevant, pulling together all aspects of leadership and clarifying for me my future steps within the team"..

Ann Francis - Manager - MCCH

"The workshop was very enjoyable and engaging throughout"..

Janine Osgood - Manager - MCCH
Argos - Creating a Customer Focussed Culture
The Requirements: To Create a Customer Focussed Culture

The Solution:

One of the instruments we are accredited to use is Human Synergistics Organisational Culture Inventory which clearly describes culture in a way everyone can understand In the case study below, the Directors wanted their business to ideally have a culture described pictorially in the following diagram

This gave the board a firm benchmark to work from

However, when 391 members of staff were surveyed and asked how they perceived the current culture, they said they felt it looked like this

The Feedback:

By comparing these two outcomes, a strategy was put in place to move the culture from where it is now to where they would like it to be.

The strategy encompassed:
- New and revised business processes to support the new culture
- Defined acceptable and unacceptable behaviour
- Appropriate Leadership styles and management competencies
- How to role model the desired culture
- Training and Development
King Edward VI College
The Requirements: Leadership & Managing Change

The challenge within this Sixth-Form College was how to ensure that all staff could adequately cope with this period of extensive change within Education and increased demands on the college’s Leaders.

The Solution

We developed a programme of learning for the Senior Management Team, all Heads of Department, including support staff, and also for those members of staff who had aspirations of becoming managers.

A series of workshops was developed and facilitated covering:
- Leadership Styles
- Delegation
- Objective Setting
- Giving and Receiving Feedback
- Teamworking, Team Leadership
- Planning & Managing Change
- Personal Development Planning
The feedback

The feedback from the workshops was very positive from all those who attended and the theory is now being applied very practically to beneficial effect.

Following the training the college has was reviewed in respect of maintaining its 'Investors in People' status.

The following are extracts from the IIP assessment.

“A number of people had clearly witnessed a change in their line manager’s approach since the Leadership and Management programme and talked about greater efforts being made to be consistent and fair, to address their perceived weaknesses, to ask the opinion of their staff when planning and be open in their dealings with people”

“There was now greater clarity in what was expected of team leaders, with the result that the management function was being carried out more consistently and effectively than previously”.

“Managers were making very conscious efforts to listen to staff, encourage the sharing of expertise and to notice good practice and take time out to praise and thank individuals”

“ Line Managers reported greater levels of confidence in dealing with specific issues and having been able to utilise certain techniques and tools to achieve better outcomes”

“The Leadership and Management course has had an effect at all levels—to some people giving positive feedback isn’t their natural personality but having been told its important, it is happening”

“Individual managers now seem so much better at dealing with their own staff development issues”

“Clear objectives and targets are set within teams”

“In a number of managers there has been real growth as managers and a ‘sea change’ in the way that they operate with their team and with other colleagues. They are developing a great sense of responsibility for delivering the College’s vision rather than seeing it as someone else’s problem”……
Pam Ashton - Vice Principal—King Edward VI College
East Midlands Development Agency
The Requirements - "Change Management"

East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) is one of nine Regional Development Agencies in England set up in 1999 to bring a regional focus to economic development.

EMDA wanted to be able to provide its staff with change management skills to enable the smooth implementation of several challenging initiatives.

The Solution

We developed a 1-day Change Management workshop that would cover all of the essentials of change management, paying particular attention to managing the impacts of change and effective change management communication strategies.
InterHealth Canada Limited
The Requirements - "Establishing an Exceptional Patient / Customer Experience"

InterHealth Canada Limited was awarded a five year contract with the UK government to provide elective orthopaedic surgery services to NHS patients in Worcestershire, Cheshire and Merseyside.

Interhealth have built and staffed The Cheshire & Merseyside NHS Treatment Centre. As part of the Induction Programme for all new Doctors, Nurses and staff it was imperative that they fully appreciated their role in providing patients and customers with an exceptional experience.

The Solution

We designed and delivered a one-day workshop to help all staff appreciate their role in helping to provide patients and customers with an exceptional experience. The key objectives were to: Develop a good team spirit, agree ways of working together, establish appropriate behaviours towards patients, customers and each other, and to learn some new skills. By mixing the delegates on each of the workshops it enabled all staff to begin to develop well as a team and begin to help each other on this new venture.

The Feedback

"Brian proposed a workshop that would incorporate our needs of emphasizing the importance of Customer Service internally and externally. By ensuring that the programme was designed to encourage the interaction between delegates resulted in the individuals being able to realize how their actions impact on the overall business objectives.The feedback from the first to the most recent workshop has been of a consistently high standard. We would highly recommend him to anyone considering the introduction of learning and development programmes into the workplace"

Annie Lewis. HR Manager, Interhealth Care Services
Croydon Primary Care Trust
The Requirements - "Establishing Customer Care “Champions”

Croydon pct had a number people across the trust who would be delivering some in-house Customer Service training of others. They needed to gain a clear understanding of best practice in this area and needed to model the required behaviours

The Solution

A one-day workshop was designed and delivered to help delegates to appreciate Why Customer Care is so important, to appreciate patients needs and expectations, why establishing a rapport is critical. Delegates learned how to deal with difficult people, how to communicate effectively, how to establish a rapport and what to say and how to say it

The Feedback

Here are some typical post-workshop comments

“I have improved my individual skills and awareness and able to provide training for others”. Suzanne Howes, Croydon pct

“I found the workshop beneficial because it made me focus on what is classed as good Customer Service. It’s a good starting point in order to achieve the pct’s vision”. Dawn Richardson, Croydon pct

“I am now able to identify what we need to do as an organisation to improve customer service. I am more aware of changes/modifications I can make to my behaviour to improve the service I provide to customers and colleagues”. Jill Dyer, Croydon pct
Storm Aviation
The Requirements - "Improving Customer Service"

Storm Aviation Limited is a leading international provider of Engineering and Pilot outsource services to the aviation industry.

Their team of Senior Engineering Managers were highly qualified, but not so in respect of how to effectively develop relationships with their customers.

The Solution

We designed and delivered a one day workshop to help the senior engineering team determine what providing excellent Customer Service actually meant, what abilities and skills were now required, and what sort of behaviours they needed to demonstrate. Skills associated with establishing rapport, assertive behaviour, how to question and how to listen were incorporated into the day. The managers were able to appreciate what was now required from them and their respective teams in order to provide an exceptional customer service.

The Feedback

"Brian was confident in his delivery, he blended well with the team to enable a good understanding. He was able to direct / steer the day to meet my needs"..

Phil Bevan, Director, Storm Aviation

"I will be able to empathise with my staff more effectively and maintain a higher level of personal regard for my customers needs".

Mike Chesterton, Manager, Storm Aviation
Levitronix
The Requirements - Establishing and Developing Personal Relationships with Customers

Levitronix is the worldwide leader in magnetically levitated bearingless motor technology, specializing in supplying medical blood pumps to the medical community and ultra-pure fluid handling devices for both semiconductor and industrial applications.

Based in Zurich, their engineers were regularly asked to accompany Sales and Marketing staff to discuss the technical side of their products with potential customers.

The Solution

We designed and facilitated a two-day workshop to help them improve their skills in Establishing a Good Rapport, identifying the behaviours associated with good customer service, Listening & Questioning Skills and Assertiveness and Improving their Self-Awareness.

Each manager also completed a Myers-Briggs assessment and shared with the team the outputs so that everyone had an appreciation of each others styles and preferences. This also helped with persuading and Influencing skills.

The Feedback

"I now understand myself better and will try now to understand other people better"..

Giampiero Foira -Levitronix

"I now understand the needs of co-workers and have ideas about how to deal with them .

Martin Dorigatti -Levitronix