Exclusion From School-Inclusion In Prison.

Edinburgh University has carried out research that suggests that excluded pupils are more likely to go to prison as adults. I'm pretty certain that many of its readers will have reacted with mock (Oh really!!!) shock: did we need another report to tell us this? Well, yes and here's why. Looking through the TES summary http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6318854 there are some success stories and maybe we should be focussing on what appears to work.

I was brought up in Birmingham and we are blessed with the "Number 11 Outer Circle 'Bus Route. 

The route takes you around 26 miles of Birmingham and when we were kids....yes you get it, this is how we spent our sad gaming platform free existences. It prepared me well for my work in Education generally and working with challenging young people particularly: mainly because if you wait long enough, the Number 11 will, unfailingly turn up again and do the same thing as it did the last time. Only the drivers (and heck the dates me) and  the conductors were different.

The Education Workforce has been driven around the place by a plethora of Drivers and monitored by a head scratchingly diverse range of conductors some of which should not have been allowed anywhere near the Education Bus. Others have skipped along a continuum of bus driving techniques

• Break neck and destabilising-inducing panic and vomiting amongst the passengers
• Ponderous to the point that everyone thinks we've stopped
• Indifferent to the needs and understanding of the passengers-about their journey requirements, arrival times and so on.

Amongst all of this uncertainty, one fact remained the Number 11 would always be there.

And here we have it. Schools, academies and other providers are subject to regular changes in the manner in which they are expected to deal with challenging young people. The report "Vexed Questions over Exclusion" raises an interesting success story: that Schools with behavioural values based tend to do better in addressing challenges and that punitive approaches work less well.

Teaching values is tough: particularly when we consider how we (the adults) manage the gap between our Espoused (what we stand for) Values and our Lived (What we really do) Values. Kids can spot the gap from miles away and the bigger the gap is, the less credibility we have, proving to them that Monkey Say and Monkey Do are two very different monkeys that pretend to be the same one.

We can take a punitive approach-a "Short, Sharp Shock" that has more to do with organisational revenge than moving processes and people forward in a meaningful manner. It will gain populist applause and eventually serve no one as thresholds slip, consistency vanishes and appropriate responses to challenge converge into a Number 11 Bus route of sanctions.

Where we have have strong values, where what and who we are is informed by what we do and say and vice-versa, we stand at least a chance to deliver a strong message based on how we deliver the values we espouse. And yes, there need to be sanctions, sanctions that go hand-in-hand with well measured support and access to a range of options that engage with the person, not just the behaviour. This might give us a better chance of keeping the important link between the provider and the child.

I'm off to relive my childhood on the Number 11!

Self Esteem-The Four Rooms

Introduction

Our work with people takes us to some interesting places and over the last couple of days I've been checking out some ideas and observations in the context of Transactional Analysis. As is often the case, some tangential work sprang to mind and here it is-an easily digestible metaphor for how we stay in touch with (or otherwise) those feelings and beliefs that nurture or attack our self-esteem.

Self Esteem might be described as “the way we think about ourselves” and there can be a number of pulls on our self-esteem, sometimes in opposing directions. The human capacity for listening to negative messages is truly alarming and too often these are the ones we hear, think about and use as evidence to justify a low self opinion. They also give “permission” for others to adapt a negative view of us, thereby reinforcing our poor self-appraisal.  It may be useful to use the idea of The Four Rooms as a way of understanding the power of poor self-esteem. We can think of what we would accept other people knowing about us as a special house with four rooms. It's also worth considering what it is we are prepared to know about ourselves rather than what we are content to believe about ourselves.

Room One

Conditions of Entry:

We are happy to allow anyone into this room, there’s nothing here we would want to hide from public view there are no items or photographs on display that might embarrass us or lead to difficult questions being asked.

Room 2

Conditions of Entry

Some of our closer friends and family members are welcome here but there are things in this room that are private and by entering we agree to an understanding that nothing on display or discussed here will be talked about with others outside of our close circle. In this room we can be joyous or unhappy: it gives us permission to express our emotions and receive those of others

Room 3

Conditions of Entry

This is a very private room, one that only a few people have had any access to. There are things on display and lying around here that give us sometimes painful, complicated and difficult to understand messages abut ourselves, who we are, what we believe in, what we care about, what gives us joy and what hurts us. Most people are unaware that our house has a room like this.

Room 4

Conditions of Entry

No-one is allowed in here-often we deny ourselves permission to enter because we know that beyond the doors there are powerfully felt examples and memories of those events and feelings that have made us the person we think we are

Which do we keep open?

Which can't we close?

Which do we not dare enter?

Where do we become stuck?

131496 Hours ago And The Future

We've been engaged by a valued client to support a complicated change process that involves relocation, reorganisation and realignment, Apart from that, it's pretty straight forward.

When we looked for an approach that was developmental and sustainable we agreed that the processes and philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry would be a strong candidate to engage the management team and to enable them to deliver the process to their teams. I wouldn't want to add to the volumes, production numbers, quotes and conferences that have been conceived, born and flourished around the concept of change: I'd just like to state the obvious, that no matter how we wrap it up-you know "challenging," "exciting opportunities,"-and so on, change is for a number of people both threatening and tough. It's also inevitable as a number of organisations are required to make sense of and adapt to a rapidly shifting context in which one of the certainties is that there is likely to be more uncertainty.

An important component of Appreciative Inquiry is the capacity to understand and celebrate who we were, what we did and what happens on are "best days" and as a coach/facilitator I guess I need to be pretty attentive to conversational pearls that help me to help the client recognises their "best days".

Something turned up in a conversation exploring those occasions where we feel lifted and encouraged by an event or interaction. My client referred to an occasion where his help had been requested by a student (Service User). Unsure of how to approach the challenge my client and the student worked through it together, arrived at the solution and had each learned a lot from the other as they were required to get to grips with the technology and its application from two  very different perspectives.

My client talked about this with real pride and stated that it sets out what he values most: to teach and to learn as a transactional rather than an instructional process. Where was this energy accessed from? It was an event that took place

• 15 Years ago
• Or 180 months ago
• Or 780 weeks ago
• Or 5479 Days ago
• Or 131496  Hours ago.

And it steers the future.

Six Ways To Destroy Yourself: Regularly and Often

I was going to attend a Business Networking Meeting today and can’t: I have had to re-prioritise a couple of things that have to be in place by next Monday and that’s it. So what to do? Telephone my friend and associate T and tell him that “I can’t make it and here’s why. ” Do I enjoy this kind of call? No, and I wrestle with my sense of letting myself and others down. I do understand though that there is a greater loss if I fail to complete on the other tasks-due next week and running late. So, a call to make and a blog to write.


I thought I’d use today’s example as one of the ways in which we occasionally tear ourselves to bits. Competing priorities are only part of it. A more difficult challenge is “What do our decisions say about us?” Well, here’s the rub: “Is it better to make an early decision and state that this can not be done, or is more desirable to turn up, rushed, distracted and pre-occupied: which is the more damaging message and which will, in the course of time, cause more reputational harm?” So, I’ll work through today and resolve the outstanding priorities and bear in mind as I’m doing so, they are reasons, not excuses.


I picked up a copy of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” -timeless and sure footed in its message-you need to be active and positive in the manner in which you engage with the world and the people in it. He gives-in a nutshell-Six Ways To Make People Like You and I love the simplicity of the message. Here they are:


Principle 1


Become genuinely interested in other people
Principle 2


Smile
Principle 3


Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
Principle 4


Be a good listener, encourage people to talk about themselves
Principle 5


Talk in terms of the other persons interests
Principle 6


Make the other person feel important-and do it sincerely
OR


Self Destruct Principle 1


Others don’t matter, they have little to say that’s of any interest unless you feel you can make a few quid, dollars, euro out of them. Beyond that their lives are 1 dimensional and beneath your contempt.


Self Destruct Principle 2


Smiling is for sycophants who honestly believe that their ingratiating fawning will work. Think yourself as a player in a world-wide poker game in which any betrayal of emotion will lose all you’ve gained, making you vulnerable and beaten, add into the equation an air of mystery and inscrutability-practice these expressions in the mirror (not the one in your car-others will think there’s something the matter with you-and if you’re doing this, there probably is!) Try your new found skills at your next meeting social gathering: bring something to read.


Self Destruct Principle 3


Just tell other people this, “I’m bad at names, I meet so many important people in the course of a day I have to prioritise my brain-space, so remind me; who are you again?” This I find is a brilliant way to secure seclusion, tranquillity and ultimately, poverty.


Self Destruct Principle 4


Learn how to feign attention, interrupt and tell people about something you’ve done that is more exciting, has earned more money or has demonstrated how smart you are. Combined with Self Destruct Principle 3 above, this becomes a powerful strategy that ensure that people will never forget you. They might not want to remember you but that’s not the point.


Self Destruct Principle 5


Other people’s interests are just that: they are other people and therefore consigned to the midden of “dull and pointless”. What of course, they are really waiting for is to hear about you.


Self Destruct


It’s much more important that other people understand how important you are: you might forget them abut they must not be allowed to forget you. The above Five Principles, applied singly, in combination or (and why not go for it?) all together will leave an indelible impression on those lucky enough to have met you.


Good Luck!

Premise:

The August riots-a tragedy in their own right-have presented a golden opportunity to an ever-present mob of reactionary voices that all too easily fall into a time-worn, clichéd dialogue containing the following key words and phrases:

• Back to basics
• Respect
• Discipline
• Punishment
• Do gooders
• Trendy Teaching

I’m pretty sure you catch my drift!

Here’s some information gleaned from the Pimlico Academy-a transformed school that did a a few pretty straight forward things.

1. They decided what they were there for and told everybody in six straight forward sentences.
2. They set up a great pastoral system-a house system that worked well because it emphasised the importance of learning and behaviour and did something about it when things started to slip
3. A strong tutorial system and after school support-access to specialist teachers and boosters
4. A strong sense of corporate identity with a uniform-grants for families who were struggling to afford one.
5. A Firm, Fair and Followed disciplinary system
6. A rewards system that acknowledges an celebrates progress in behaviour.

Outcome :

The number of pupils achieving five A*-C grades at GCSE (including maths and English) was 60 per cent in 2010/11, up from 36 per cent in 2007/08.

At the end of the 2010/11 school year, attendance was 94.3 per cent for years 7 to 11, compared to 78.3 per cent in 2009/10.

Staff absenteeism has halved since the introduction of the new measures thanks to reduced stress and pressure on teachers.

In the first year that the rewards system was introduced, there were no permanent exclusions. The following year there was only one.

Prior to the rewards system, 50 to 60 pupils were sent out of lessons each day. Now it is fewer than 10 and they are normally sent out for less serious reasons than was previously the case. Overall there has been a huge change in the atmosphere in the school, maintains Holt: “The staff are happier, the students are happier and the school is basically a much nicer place to be.”

The above takes a little more thinking through the simplistic rantings of “Put the teacher back in charge” and it sits comfortably with my view-if you want respect you need to earn it-power and authority are given and received, not enforced and tolerated and, without consensus we’re nowhere.

This doesn’t mean that we “hand over control to the kids”-it means for me that life is far more subtle and nuanced than  ”Do as I say or else,” and the sooner we establish learning cultures that transmit those values, the better it will be for kids, their families and teachers and wider society.

We have, as part of our professional portfolio a considerable depth of experience working in schools and colleges on behaviour related issues. Our experience would bear out the key elements of the above and we are happy to discuss this here or by contacting us directly at enquiries@coadyconsultants.co.uk

Listen To Your Workforce!

Workforce Voices-The Value and Benefits of Listening

October 5, 2011 by coady1

Premise


Can listening to and engaging with a workforce make a positive contribution-we believe it can as long as it is honest, authentic and can show that a “difference for the better” has emerged. We also believe that this will work in any organisation-large or small-providing the process is well managed.


Here are 3 areas for consideration

1. Principles
2. Benefits
3. Challenges

Principles of Listening to Workforce Voices:


o Mutual respect given and received between and within the workforce 
o All adults have equal worth in the workplace
o Communication is open, honest, valued and provides an exchange of ideas and views between workforce
o Investment in the future – accepting that all members of workforce are entitled to express their views about things which will affect and determine their future
o Meaningful active involvement where any decisions about workforce are made with them
o Working relationships are sustainable, effective and responsive
o Equal opportunities exist for workforce to be involved in a range of activities/development processes
o Workforce participation, involvement and voice are continually evaluated and reviewed.


Benefits of Listening to Workforce Voices:


o Gives additional information and insight into what the workforce thinks of structures/management etc
o Helps to strengthen partnerships between workforce and management
o Helps workforce members work out what is best for themselves and their colleagues
o Enables the workforce to gain better understanding of the things that really matter to colleagues
o Helps to create a listening environment
o All workforce members feel valued, respected and treated like equals
o Helps to develop reflective thinking 
o Increased confidence, self esteem and aspirations
o Enables the workforce to become more motivated to get involved in their jobs 
o Strengthens the feeling of community
o Develops teamwork
o Promotes more creative thinking
o Increases effective communication between workforce 


Challenges of Listening to Workforce Voices 


o Some of the workforce may be anxious about criticism of their work/leadership/communication skills
o Some of the workforce may be wary of the unpredictability of comments and views
o Some of the workforce may have reservations about voicing their opinions/blame culture
o Some of the workforce may worry about the loss of authority in their department
o Some of the workforce will not be prepared to accept the opinions of others
o Some of the workforce may use the opportunity to “take over” or dominate discussion areas
o Managing the initiative will call for careful planning/time constraints etc

Listening and Acting On Workforce Voices

Premise


Can listening to and engaging with a workforce make a positive contribution-we believe it can as long as it is honest, authentic and can show that a "difference for the better" has emerged. We also believe that this will work in any organisation-large or small-providing the process is well managed.


Here are 3 areas for consideration

1. Principles
2. Benefits
3. Challenges

Principles of Listening to Workforce Voices:


o Mutual respect given and received between and within the workforce 
o All adults have equal worth in the workplace
o Communication is open, honest, valued and provides an exchange of ideas and views between workforce
o Investment in the future – accepting that all members of workforce are entitled to express their views about things which will affect and determine their future
o Meaningful active involvement where any decisions about workforce are made with them
o Working relationships are sustainable, effective and responsive
o Equal opportunities exist for workforce to be involved in a range of activities/development processes
o Workforce participation, involvement and voice are continually evaluated and reviewed.


Benefits of Listening to Workforce Voices:


o Gives additional information and insight into what the workforce thinks of structures/management etc
o Helps to strengthen partnerships between workforce and management
o Helps workforce members work out what is best for themselves and their colleagues
o Enables the workforce to gain better understanding of the things that really matter to colleagues
o Helps to create a listening environment
o All workforce members feel valued, respected and treated like equals
o Helps to develop reflective thinking 
o Increased confidence, self esteem and aspirations
o Enables the workforce to become more motivated to get involved in their jobs 
o Strengthens the feeling of community
o Develops teamwork
o Promotes more creative thinking
o Increases effective communication between workforce 


Challenges of Listening to Workforce Voices 


o Some of the workforce may be anxious about criticism of their work/leadership/communication skills
o Some of the workforce may be wary of the unpredictability of comments and views
o Some of the workforce may have reservations about voicing their opinions/blame culture
o Some of the workforce may worry about the loss of authority in their department
o Some of the workforce will not be prepared to accept the opinions of others
o Some of the workforce may use the opportunity to “take over” or dominate discussion areas
o Managing the initiative will call for careful planning/time constraints etc

A NEW DEVELOPMENT TO MEET OUR PARTNERS’ NEEDS

We now have access to a highly experienced and qualified Children’s Support Worker/Children’s Bereavement Counsellor who brings an extensive background of first-hand experience in supporting Children and Young People traumatic and challenging periods in their lives including:

• Bereavement
• Loss through separation/divorce
• Working with terminally ill Children & Young People
• Working with anger issues

We anticipate that the major benefit to Children, Young People and their Families will be option to access a skilled professional in partnership with their school.
For schools, colleges, academies and training organisations we feel confident that access to this development will enable them to enhance their existing support to young people in distressing circumstances.-we have developed training packages that can be modified to meet your organisation’s needs

Emotional Intelligence, Football Managers, the Sack and the Press

Not a combination you’d probably expect to find!
Gianfranco Zola was sacked as manager of West Ham United at the beginning of this week, 10th May 2010.
A change of owners at his club would suggest that he was more rather than less likely to exit, given that the club had underperformed. Injuries to key players, others not performing to expectations and financial uncertainty in the background: factors I’m sure we’re either used to or about to become more familiar than we’d like.
“Relieved of duties”, “We thank him and wish him well”. There are no easy platitudes or euphemisms that disguise the brutal fact-sacked.
The press took themselves off to his house in Kent, and as almost always is the case, Zola emerged smiling to meet the press core. He told them that he could say nothing about his sacking –legal proceedings to follow and proceeded to pour some coffee he had made for them. “I can’t talk to you about the sack, but I can offer you some coffee”.
The press are an understandably hard nosed bunch, yet on that day at that moment all present seemed to be disarmed and charmed by a generous man who, though he could not give them what they wanted, was able to show concern and care for, not “the press core” but for other human beings with a job to do.
This investment in the well-being of others will see him in good stead, the lasting reminder of a smiling, polite and open man who, when at the bottom of a pretty deep pit, was still able to engage with others in a manner that further underpins their collective respect towards him.
We all have our bad days, sometimes we can lock ourselves away, sometimes we have to go out and put on the bravest of faces and share what is good and worthwhile whilst acknowledging that right now and at this time, we’re not in the best of places.

Cook Your Way To Social & Emotional Intelligence

Is there a link between the work I do with young people in schools and other company activities? I'd like to think so. We have built high quality working relationships with schools that purchase a service from us, delivering individual mentoring programmes to more generic support to young people, their teachers and mentors. This means that there opportunities to try something different.

I had delivered a piece of work to a group of year 8 & 9 boys. Their profiles were familiar enough-quarrelsome, poor concentration spans and a series of risk/vulnerability factors. We had talked a lot and made efforts to help them prepare to take a higher degree of responsibility for and ownership of the image they project to others.

Talk is fine but it's actions that count and with this in mind I suggested to them that they might consider choosing the ingredients for, preparing, coking and serving a Christmas Meal for some of their teachers and mentors. We had to restrict it to eight. Their invitation list included the Head Teacher, Assistant Head and two members of the Senior Management Team. Learning Mentors and a subject specialist were also invited.

We shopped, they chose and stayed within budget. We met the following day and working to a tight timescale, produced the meal-ably and enthusiastically led by a Senior Support Assistant who clearly enjoys a first class, respect led relationship with the lads.
They did it! They cooked and served a 3 course Christmas Meal. There was, I think, a considerable amount of emotion around the table: what had taken place was much bigger than the sum of its parts and at what still, in spite of financially pressed times, commercialism and cynicism, Christmas remains an important time of year every adult around the table received an unexpected gift when the Head Teacher asked the lads what they would take away from and remember about the occasion. Although all the food had been eaten, several of us swallowed very hard one one of the cooks said "Your faces when we served the meal."

How does this link to our other activities? Well, reputations get tarnished, we are all capable of huge acts of self sabotage and we sometimes need an opportunity to prove to others that there is more to us than the day to day, sometimes highly reactive exposure we have to each other. When this opportunity arises, it needs to be witnessed and affirmed by respected others who need to hear the perceived impact of "doing things better and differently". Whether as a Coach, Mediator, Teacher, Mentor, there are experiences that occur daily that mean as much in one context as they do in another. I drove away that evening with much more in my heart and soul than I had arrived with earlier or dreamed possible. For not the first time, the Coach was coached, the Teacher was taught and the Mediator was not needed when this leap of faith was taken.

Choose To Change

Teams fascinate me! The presence and sometime absence of interaction, where the real power lies and how the team talks about itself add up to an exciting series of questions, the answers to which can be a little disturbing. Like icebergs, the visible bit isn’t what we need to be concerned about, it’s what goes on underneath that sets the real climate.

We have been invited to work with a number of teams and I want to out together an outline of what we do. Some of this will have been discussed in other blogs-some elements will be new-however that is very much the way of working in an exciting and developmental role. Some time ago, at a particularly intransigent period in my professional life, I was advised that “If the only tool in your box in a hammer, you will treat every problem as if it were a nail!” Since that day I resolved to carry a comprehensive box of tools around with me and to use them!
I like to start with a few questions well in advance of the event-I need participants to understand that this is a great opportunity to move things forward and that they should take their individual roles seriously by committing themselves to some pre-work. This is always feed back in anonymity as a “Team Overview”.

There are some important core areas to work through. No matter whom we are and what we are doing, we would be very unwise to reject the notion that in these challenging and insecure times your job is an asset. I don’t want to frighten people but it is sometimes worth spending a few minutes getting them to think what life would be like without it. I ask participants to accept that, whatever we’re doing it can be done cheaper by someone else and to accept what we all know: most expensive isn’t always best, cheapest isn’t always worst. I want the answers to these questions:

§ Who are we and what are we like?
§ What values and beliefs do we stand for?
§ How do we know?
§ What impression do we give to our customers?
§ Do we know who they are and what they want from us?
§ What are the impacts of our behaviour on others: our co-workers, our managers, our customers, our competitors?
§ Who would miss us if we weren’t there?
§ Why?

It’s a challenging session. I’m deliberately taking participants beyond what a valued colleague described as “nodding dog syndrome” (sorry to all our nodding dog readers!) and into asking some tough questions about their professional identity. I’m saying to them: the way you present yourself, talk about your job, your boss, your colleagues, the language you use and the conversations you have are your very own “designer label”. Let’s be very careful about the association we want others to make because of the labels we wear and present to the outside world. Like a bumper sticker, they’re with us all the time and whereas we may have forgotten that the sticker was still there, everyone else can see it and will assume something about us because it’s there. If that sounds a tad harsh I make no apologies: live with it. We can choose to change our personal labels and stickers sometimes we just have to take a hard look to see if there are any that are visible to others only because we’ve forgotten about them-things have moved on since we first put them there!

There’s a real conflict between our need to change and our need to retain stability. We’re biologically set up to retain “sameness”. When we’re too hot we need to cool down and vice-versa: we want to reach a point of sameness most of the time. We accept inevitable change, the seasons, life, death, joy and grief and in doing so try to hang on to those things that we think should stay the same yet change at an accelerated pace: our jobs, our roles and relationships and the expectations of others.

Some stability is desirable, some change is inevitable-it is we that choose how we deal with change-led challenges. Teams grow, contract and adapt-the way the team is led, the vales transmitted within spread leadership, the type of dialogue developed enable us to better understand what it we need to do to deliver our roles in a shifting context.

Our programmes encourage participants to take an honest audit of what it is they believe in and what they can do at an individual level to contribute to the well being of the whole. We can not wish away the pressure for change in a rapidly changing context-at the end of one of our Team Development Days it is our belief that participants will have a greater understanding of what they need to do, to change and to “be” to deliver their role with a degree of integrity.

It is with more than a nod to Steven Covey’s excellent work that I state that adapting your personality is easy enough, delivering on your character is a different thing altogether our work gives an opportunity (without over-doing the navel gazing!) to help and challenge people to better understand their characters in the context of the work place as an aspect of their day-to day being: we give participants the tools with which to Choose to Change

Implementing Organisational Coaching and Mentoring

Introduction

This is an "active piece of work": we'll update as things develop!

Coady Consultants has delivered a Coaching and Mentoring Skills Based Programme to Middle Managers with the following intended outcomes:

To up-skill Managers
To introduce a range of materials to support the processes
To rehearse and practice skills and approaches
To agree on developing a professional support group
To further develop and extend the skills gained within the context.
Is significantly different in its approach to existing structures:
1:1 Meetings
Key Performance Indicators
Appraisal
To work within the contexts of Ethical Behaviour and Human Dignity

The programme has combined the key elements of coaching and mentoring in order to produce an intervention and support strategy that is specific, flexible accessible and replicable. It enables participants to establish goals that are in kilter with organisational needs and requirements whilst retaining a high degree of personal ownership.

Participants have explored the ethical context of the intervention; have acquired an overview of the importance of clarity, rapport and feedback. An established coaching model (The GROW model) has been deployed within the context of the programme. Feedback was positive: participants established support networks (4 above) prior to leaving the event with the intention of engaging with each other on specific areas of work. Whereas it was felt important to allow a period of time for participants to engage with each other and to practice the approaches discussed during the Development Day, it is noted that participants felt that they would need a period of ongoing support as they implemented the processes and incorporated them into their practice.

Securing the Development

We are in a position to offer participants access to further support from the programme facilitator using the following model.
Our client purchases an initial allocation of on-going support from the facilitator. Participants are then able to contact Coady Consultants to “book” a specific telephone support, enabling both parties to:

Set aside a specific amount of time
Reduce the likelihood of interruptions
Be focussed on the issues for discussion

Telephone calls can be further underpinned by access to e-mail support from Coady Consultants on matters related either to emergent issues from the development day or those which are related to practice. It is envisaged that this would be delivered on a “purchased entitlement” basis.

Spreading Good Practice

The initial cohort of 10 has been asked to engage with other Managers to model and deliver the Coach/Mentor processes. It is clear from individual and collective responses to the programme that the group will deploy the techniques used with their own teams.

Coaching led approaches within organisations can make a significant impact on morale, motivation and matching personal and organisational goals. Whereas the programme delivered combines specific elements of Coaching and Mentoring, it emphasises that a coaching relationship should be a consensual one. Furthermore, our development programme acknowledges that there will (hopefully infrequently) be occasions when the relationship between the Coach/Mentor and their “Client” is no longer sustainable and an alternative Coach/Mentor may be better suited to the process.

We would therefore seek to increase the number of the Company’s Workforce who have had access to the development in order to:

Increase the workforces’ awareness of coaching/mentoring processes
Increase the workforces’ capacity to deliver coaching/mentoring processes
Increase the workforces’ capacity to receive coaching/mentoring processes

We are therefore proposing that consideration is given to extending the Coach/Mentor delivery programme to a wider cohort of the Workforce over a phased and agreed period and that the Telephone/e-mail support strategy discussed earlier be incorporated as part of the process.

Team Development. A Dignified Approach

“External consultants are free loaders on the make who have loyalty to no-one other than themselves. “ Now there’s a long sentence to communicate with just a glimpse or a reluctant handshake: I’m pretty certain I’ve heard it or something like it though.

• Fact, teams fall out.
• Fact, sometimes it gets better by itself.
• Fact, sometimes managers intervene and the situation may improve-there are others when their intervention may exacerbate an already difficult situation.

Having an insight into the nature of the conflict will help, there can be movement from Hot (overt) conflict to Cold (covert) conflict. In our experience, Hot Conflicts are easier to recognise, approach and are open to intervention. The overt nature of the Hot Conflict either isolates key players or causes them to join up with groups who share a similar view of what has happened and therefore what needs (in their view) to be done. Cold conflict presents us with a range of far more subtle and toxic organisational pathogens.

We have recently worked with a team to bring to an end a Cold Conflict that had begun with a typical (and as I write, sadly topical) re-organisation. Several experienced team members had left, their posts having been made redundant. A re-organisation and re-structuring meant that it was possible to replace them numerically with less experienced people in re-defined roles. Clusters and sub groups rapidly evolved accompanied by increasingly declining levels of cooperation and increased levels of mistrust generally and mistrust of managers specifically, From the outset, it seemed reasonable to conclude that the team had become absorbed in a purpose other than work and that, as a general view, management had lost its ethical right to manage. There were other rumblings as cliques grew more defined and felt free to comment on the performance of other team members, querying both their competence and their commitment.

We were commissioned to deliver a Team Building Programme. Our role was to enable the team to reach a point from which it could secure a better future in the context of a highly competitive internal and external environment.

We used the following approaches:

• A questionnaire that enabled us to communicate with the team (collectively and individually) about perceptions and beliefs with the aim of recognising “Where we are now”.
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  A questionnaire that enabled us to talk about the situation in Hot and Cold terms within a framework that supported discussion and openness.
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  A process of identifying the Team’s internal and external audiences and to take ownership of and responsibility for delivering “healthy and productive” messages.

Team members were required to complete a challenging exercise in developing a dialogue that defined their expectations towards and from each other and their managers-in short they have a right to be managed, management has a duty to manage.

We looked at “soft skills” in the context of emotional intelligence” and their impact on the dignity and regard with which they wanted to be treated as individuals and the reciprocal need to treat others in a similar manner. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

The process was spread over two sessions, each under “Chatham House Rules”. The first event was challenging participants were understandably defensive. They were nonetheless receptive to the pre-event feedback and provided some insightful, if occasionally reluctant contributions that enabled us to broaden the scope of discussions throughout the day. Our approach required us to ensure that quieter team-members had significant opportunity to register their views and observations. This would require more vociferous participants to accept the premise that they would sometime need to “take a step back” from their usual (preferred?) style of behaviours in meetings.

IT WORKED. The opportunity to reflect of the relationship between the team and its internal and external audiences provided sufficient focus to give a common purpose without too much introspective navel gazing, increasing a sense of helplessness or re-affirming dysfunctional positions.

We left a two week gap between sessions in order to create some space in which team members and managers could reflect on the issues raised. This “gave permission” for team members to talk to each other, consider their positions on long held beliefs and to consider their individual readiness to “shift their positions”.

There’s a risk: those with deeply entrenched views who are likely to witness a reduction in their power and influence have an opportunity in which to secure their power-base. We took a judgement call, my view being that we had in our first session, exposed and secured agreement regarding the need for change. Actions that may undermine this position may therefore be seen as contrary to the good of the team. Day 1 had given me an opportunity to sow the seeds that enabled team-members to consider the “ESSENCE OF HUMAN DIGNITY” as a significant contributory factor to team performance. The “gap” provided a space in which the seeds could germinate and grow.

There was a WOW FACTOR at the beginning of Day 2! It was apparent as we were setting up, that the conversations people were having over their “coffee on arrival” were energised, there was a lot of laughter and a tangible sense of purpose. The optimism experienced at the start of the day was an accurate indicator of what was to follow and remained present throughout.
Our “job” was to reflect to the team, the reality they had described on the pre-event questionnaires and during the first session. Our “challenge” was to enable the team to describe a new reality and acknowledge the changes required and individual and group stages in order to produce sustainable growth. Our role was to guide the team in its discussions, so that the risks and challenges associated with change were articulated and understood in the context of the perceived and actual benefits to the individual, the team and the organisation.

We were required to be bold and to engage participants in a process that required them to describe in precise terms how they should work together, address challenging issues, achieve consensus, deal with disagreement and accept that this takes within a context in which they have a right to be heard and management has a duty to manage,
Here are some of the benefits/outcomes participants shared with us:

Talk needs to be followed by an Action Plan – who/when/by given date/deadline

Be prepared to revisit the Action Plan to achieve consensus

Increasing levels of communication needed

Decisions not currently made by consensus

We have lost the ability as a team to achieve the targets set as there are not enough regular divisional meetings to make the team effective

Individuals need to be accountable

The sessions were very helpful

We need to remind others of the protocols of making a complaint; this teaches them professionalism for life

We need to take ownership of issues, not undermine when someone else takes ownership

We need to make time to talk to each other away from the work-place

This has raised our awareness of roles/responsibilities/pressures etc at every level – BUT this needs to be incorporated into the Induction process for new staff so that unnecessary/unrealistic expectations are not fostered.

“Open door” policy needed – to get to know each other

Mentor system in place, but not everyone aware of it

There is a physical divide to the team as they operate on 2 floors – previously a concourse system

On reflection – do not put all new staff in one office, they need to work alongside experienced staff

Admin sits apart from the rest of the team and as such feels apart from any team spirit which may be engendered.

We are now aware of the problems and are in a position to do something to improve it.

Perhaps the most satisfying recognition of what had been achieved came a few months later. The team had been required to produce a piece of challenging work for accreditation which if gained would mean increased job security and some growth.
The team was successful-it is the manager’s view that the outcome would not have been achieved without the increased sense of collaborative working, focus and purpose secured over the development programme and delivered in the context of the relationship between desired outcomes and human dignity.