Developing management skills - an investment NOT a cost
A small, private company with a long history of making fine furniture
asked us to help in a new venture.
Background information
The Company, owned and managed by the founder's son, already had an
excellent reputation for technical training, design, and
manufacturing to the highest quality; and its retail network was
loyal and skilled. But this was the first time it had considered
management skills as an investment in its employees.
The Company was clear about its needs:
-
It was production-led, so no one could be off - site for more than
one day at a time.
- Their middle managers needed practical skills they could use at
once, not academic theory.
- Fourteen plants, all on the same industrial estate, were being
moved into a new, purpose-built single facility. The management
development programme was part of the plan to integrate not just the
production, but also the business processes and personnel practices
throughout the Company.
On the other hand, they were not at all clear about the actual
management skills needed.
Solution
Thornbury developed a six-module programme run over ten weeks. Each
module lasted a single day, and Action Learning was the core of the programme.
We let the cohort of a dozen managers design their own skills
programme. On module 1, the managers developed a model of "what
excellent managers do in this Company". This reflected the
practical nature of the programme, and the particular needs of the
people in their Company environment. They then used this model to
define the skills which would best contribute to the excellent
management behaviour, and we thus set the themes of the following modules.
The managers worked in two Action Learning Sets throughout the
programme, choosing their projects to help them develop their skills.
Each module started with an Action Learning review, and ended with
each team re-setting its project objectives to incorporate the skills
we had explored during the day. The Programme was a great success.
The Company recognised that the programme had made a significant
contribution to the integration of the 14 sites, in terms of process,
culture and successful completion of significant projects.
Improving teamwork & enhancing profitability
A multi-national food processing group with operations as far apart
as UK, South America and the Far East, had recently acquired a new
subsidiary based in Ireland.
Following an initial Training Needs Analysis carried out by Head
Office, Thornbury was asked to deliver some immediate training in the
areas of Train the Trainer, Influencing Skills, Creative Thinking
& Problem Solving, and Managing for Success. These were all aimed
at the middle and senior management team, and were conducted with
short, intensive, facilitator-led workshops, and using Action
Learning sets.
Later, we were invited to carry out a more in-depth Development Needs
Analysis, based on structured interviews with a diagonal
cross-section of the organisation. This resulted in the tailored
design, development and delivery of a modular programme focused on
Teamworking, Coaching for Managers, Values Vision and Strategic
Thinking, Problem Solving & Decision Making, and Presentation Skills.
At the same time there was a specific need to introduce a Mentoring
Programme to one location in UK. The first step in this programme was
to clarify the overall aims and aspirations with both the potential
mentors and those to be mentored and this was accomplished in a
single session, after which the programme was successfully introduced
over a period of 3 months in a series of 1-day workshops.
For all of these interventions, an integral part of the process was
the absolute commitment to ensure the appropriate transfer of
skills/behaviours, and this was tested and confirmed by 1:1 contact
between tutors and every participant approximately six weeks after
the completion of each module. One business objective set by the
participants in Ireland, was to reduce waste from the plant by 50%
within a 3-month timeframe. Using a combination of their new found
skills (Problem Solving, Creative Thinking, Teamworking,
Influencing), they actually achieved a 65% reduction, thereby
significantly improving both profitability and productivity.
Leadership & business acumen - with a profit motive
An international services organisation, (a household name in more
than 80 countries), needed a fresh approach to its well established
and highly valued High Potential Managers Development Programme. The
existing programme consisted of a number of discrete modules spanning
a two-year timeframe. The requirement was for two additional modules
addressing Leadership and Business Acumen.
Each module had to be free-standing to provide flexibility of
sequence to cater for the needs and work schedules of individual
participants and to allow them to attend modules in any order.
Another part of the design criteria was the need to make all
materials applicable to a culturally diverse multi-national audience.
Close consultation with the client at every stage ensured that the
programme was seen as highly successful by both the attendees and the
senior management team.
This initial project led directly to a further assignment focusing on
the Management Development needs of one part of the group, and over a
16 month period, all of the senior and middle management teams
attended a variety of workshops, covering Self Management, Managing
People, Finance, Negotiating Skills, Presentation Skills, and Problem
Solving & Decision Making. In total a team of 8 consultants was involved.
Outcomes from these programmes for the client included securing major
new contracts for their services spanning several years of delivery,
and greater productivity as a result of improved prioritisation and delegation.
Developing potential partners in law
A
Top-100 law firm needed a specialised development programme for its
Associates, in part to prepare them for potential partnership, but
also to sustain the firm's considerable success and planned future
growth.
We
were initially asked to consult on the overall strategy for the
programme, its structure, duration and overall design.
Later we were
invited to design, develop and deliver programme modules, covering
the key topics of Commercial Awareness, Leadership and The Management
of Change.
|
