Organizational Change

Lockdown, Plantar Fasciitis & Known Unknowns: Managing Change in Uncertain Times

21/7/2020

This month I am focusing more on personal than organisational change simply because personal development and fitness seem to be on the mind of most of the people I know, including neighbours. I am not sure how the Government have achieved this, but they have managed to get many of us committed to daily exercise.

Continuous Personal Improvement & Joe Wicks

I am not sure if this trend will continue, but record numbers of people are tuning into Joe Wicks and his daily workout. Many other Gurus are available – but some are just too intense. I prefer my exercise being LSD – long, slow distance on a bike. I am not suggesting we go back to the Mr Motivator and the Green Goddess from the 90s TV era of fitness – but that we adopt a more holistic approach which fits with our lifestyle and our business commitments.

Personal Confession

I mean, I do see the point of all this, but I have not prepared for the exercise as much as I should. I have been riding my new racing bike (in Edinburgh) around Arthur’s Seat, and a lovely area called the Meadows on at least four times a week for six weeks x 90 minutes. Still, I am not looking any more like Bradley Wiggins than I would if I just continued reading Cycling Weekly, channelling his energies and forgo the actual hard bit – the riding.

Piling on the Pressure

So I committed to doing a little jogging to complement my biking – but it seems to have had the wrong outcome. It did not help that I threw myself into serious gardening cutting back grossly overgrown trees by taking a small saw to the sturdier branches. Now the neighbours are getting sunlight in the morning – but the physical work has created a problem for me – namely my lower legs.

Injury Prone Professionals and MAMIL (Middle Aged Men in Lycra)

I have met a few pals over the weekend, and we have shared our most exciting stories – about personal injuries. Not all TV personalities that put you through ‘hell and back’ are like Joe Wicks. Many are too gung-ho.

I have watched and quickly turned off a TV channel where guys are pushing it too far. Many occupy the ground of over-muscled ‘meat-heads’ – committing to 100’s of stomach crunches, press-ups, too many burpees (what even are they?) explosive star jumps and the plank position for more than 20 seconds!!

Too painful – come back Joe, Mr Motivator and even the Green Goddess!

Injuries aplenty

Up to know I have counted 14 non-serious (self-inflicted) injuries within my extended group of colleagues and friends – mostly amongst males - ranging from ingrown toenails to my own much more serious Plantar Fasciitis.

One Hour of Preparation prevents 10 hours of Pain

However, the GP has told me it could take 2-3 weeks to heal fully – so I best keep off the bike. Being somewhat impatient, I have argued that I could recover from my physical ailments much faster perhaps with physiotherapy (I forget that hands-on treatment does not meet with Social Distancing - Oops).

She made the point that I need to develop a mindset of Prevention through preparation, stretching, warming up and taking it easy, rather than treating every exercise session as a competition. Of course, she is right and proves the point of an article I wrote last month for organisations that need to review their mission and the role post-Convid 2020+.

Unknown – Unknowns: Managing Change in Uncertain Times

The article aptly entitled ‘Unknown-Unknowns’ we had published in the Journal of Management Services. It focuses on how organisations can objectively and accurately assess their: current functioning; the value they offer to their clients, customer and users; and the action they have to take to review current performance objectively.

Some organisations will have to reassess their purpose and role and how it fits with their current strategies
Many may have to consider restructuring their finances and how they transact business.
Others may have to consider achieving more with less and reconsider what options are open to them

Things have changed radically. How far their purpose is still valid, and whether they have to restructure their thinking, their way forward, their goals and strategies depend on the level of thinking they bring to uncertain times. We are very much operating in the world of ‘Unknown, Unknowns’.

Ready, Fire, Aim

If this article sounds of interest to you will find a PDF link at the end of the Blog. We argue that we need to focus more time on a Ready, Aim, Fire methodology or approach, rather than the one, many of us, adopted with our fitness regime, which basically amounts to Fire, Ready, Aim.

Email Philip for further information.

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Unknown Unknowns: Managing Change Post Pandemic

9/5/2020

Donald Rumsfeld, (former US Secretary of Defence) introduced us to what we term the Knowledge Matrix at a Defence Department Briefing in February 2002. Here we offer that methodology for you to use that may give us back a semblance of control in the organisations of today which will, through ‘self-renewal, reinvention and resilience,’ become robust organisations for tomorrow.

When this pandemic is over, things will change for business and organisations, but no one can be sure how things will evolve. What we have to be sure of is developing the mindset and strategies to cope with the changes that are taking place in the economy and how business is transacted. Many are asking what to do.

The Knowledge Matrix

This Matrix is useful for Senior Leadership Teams to apply to strategic and critical operational decisions. Problems or challenges can easily be placed within this Matrix and shared with the Leadership Team. We have used a similar methodology to develop strategic direction for a variety of large organisations where service and operational delivery became a considerable challenge.

Domain of Knowledge

Known Knowns: Facts and requirements. No risk here – these can be managed

Unknown Knowns: Hidden facts. Untapped knowledge not available to you but accessible via others

Known Unknowns: Known risks. Classic risks are predominant. You can access the knowledge and assess the probability of occurrence

Unknown Unknowns: Unknown risks. You and others don't know about it, so you must research it

So as a business organisation:

What are your Unknown Unknowns that could impact your relevance and survival in the future?
Would the areas you are focusing individually be on other people's radar?
How much strategic thinking time are you giving to those three core quadrants that could provide significant opportunities and threats for the future?

This tool is useful for scenario planning and helps you plan a Vision in your future organisation .

For more information email Philip

CoVid-19: Four Steps to taking Control of ‘what you can Control’

5/4/2020

Most of us are now under some sort of "stay at home" order and there is not a lot we can do about it. We just have to keep to the common-sense rules. However, we still have some control of the situation – in terms of how of how we deal with the challenge, how we plan for what we control, and use our time to best effect.

Uncertainty and Negative Emotion

Social interaction being much diminished, I have only had a few short conversations (at a distance) with neighbours, telephone conversations with clients and in ‘on-line’ facetime calls with friends and family. In some cases, I have not been heartened by their general tone. I do not expect radical optimism reflected in these short chats but was surprised to find so much personal uncertainty, ambiguity in terms of personal choice and options, moderate tension and anxiety.

Although boredom seems an issue for some it appears that fear and uncertainty are the major themes with boredom or knowing what to do being a close runner-up.

Banish the Catastrophising Mindset

And the one thing we can control is to hope that we use our time now and develop a mindset that will help us control our thoughts, banish negativity, and get on with shaping the rest of our lives rather than catastrophising the future. The one thing you do have right now is thinking time for shaping what you can shape for the future.

How to shape the new normal for you?

Understandably, we will worry about how things will turn out, but the crisis will end and a new normal will emerge. It is easy to flippantly state this in this blog post, but there is no clear value in believing and talking ourselves in to ‘the sky is falling’ syndrome. It is best all round if we can develop a measured approach and try to make the best use of the free-thinking time we have on our hands, and use that to support us in using our time productively.

How best to shape our future?

Of course, personally, I am very concerned and not sure what will happen. It seems that the world has pressed ‘pause’ and we don’t know when its will be time to press ‘play’ and get on with life.

Bearing that in mind, I have a few ideas in sequence to see how best we can take back some control of how our future will evolve. And that’s why I have sketched out a tentative four-stage process for looking at how we can all gain some semblance of control over those things ‘we can control’, in terms of our attitudes and our behaviours.
It might also be a good time to start ditching some bad habits and start practising some positive and productive ones.

The four Stage Process

It’s all based on:

Attitude – Develop both our Physical and Psychological Health
Defining Core Outcomes for Our Future
Committing to taking Massive Action
Listening to Feedback and having the Flexibility to Change what we do

Let’s look at what is on offer? I am not suggesting this will work for everyone 100%, but is is sound and may help you, and others, to release the tension and anxiety associated with the current uncertainty.

1. Attitude – Develop both Physical and Psychological Health

If you look through the structure you will note the second point ‘Define Core Outcomes’ is all about setting direction, deciding on goals and planning how best to achieve them.

Normally, this would occupy pride of place as number one in any personal or business development process. I don’t think it does in the Co-Vid context in which we find ourselves.

The key step to launch this process is to look after the body and mind first. Within this pandemic we do need exceptional physical and mental health. We can hardly commit to challenging goals for our business, our personal life and with our families if we have less than positive health and a positive outlook.

There are three steps we need to take to get ourselves ready to take on the challenge.

Step 1: Stabilise – we have to develop a positive mindset by removing that which hinders progress. We have to eradicate feelings of anxiety, fear, panic and move away from catastrophising. This is the most difficult step because if you do not pass through this, you will never be able to gain the perspective to see things through.

Step 2: Be Grounded – We have to revisit our key behaviourial drivers and build positive emotions and attitudes that will support a growth mindset.

Step 3. Develop Strategies to Grow - to set off on this journey means that we have to move beyond the survival mindset towards shaping the future so that we can come through the tough times and out the other side, sharper and more resilient.

3 Steps to Growth

There are key steps that can be taken, and these are based on addressing our personal beliefs of what we can do. Much of what I am about to talk about can be found in a Video Training Package entitled Best Year Yet: Mastering Potential.

The general approach from the Video package is reflected throughout this blog post. The key here is to operate from a perspective of physical and psychological excellence. There is no way that even the most practiced and perfect goal setting exercise or methodology will work, without emotional grounding and a positive mindset and attitude.

2. Defining Core Outcomes for Our Future

Setting outcomes and defining very specific goals is a much easier process with the issues of excellence of mind and body in place. Without this ‘positivity’ the goal setting exercise has no energy or passion to drive it to completion.

Forget about a 3-5-year plan. It is the next year that is the most important.

Don’t put your world on hold

Key for those who succeed in life is a goal setting process which fundamentally focuses upon precision and specificity. Generalised goal setting fails every time. Those who focus their attention with precision on setting goals in their health, personal, business or career, relationships, community and spiritual self, stand a much higher chance of achieving these much faster than generally ambling towards a well-meaning but ambiguous and unclear future.

Make Goals Big

When setting goals or outcomes specificity is the big issue, but why not also make them big. What’s the point of setting tiny little wimpy goals when you can have the satisfaction of really stretching your abilities? You will be amazed at what you are capable of achieving.

What is you could not fail?

Set goals that question just how far you can go. Adopt the mindset of ‘if knowing you could not fail what would you set out to achieve? Because the world that you know is about to change – change with it and set outstanding outcomes for you, your family and your community whether in your vicinity, neighbourhood or business

The world is about to change

How we operate in the world will change enormously. Will you change with the world or fight against what you do not like? Realistically, you will not be able to fight against the world even if you do not like what you see. You will have to accept the inevitability that things will change. In order to prepare yourself, you might want to start questioning the assumptions you hold currently and base your goal setting around the new world and how that new paradigm is unraveling.

Institutions and business will have to change for the better. New values are evolving, including compassion, care and concern for the disadvantaged. There must be a new role and vision for our health care, education sectors and a general shift to Keynesian thought in welfare economics. You may want to ask where you fit in this new model and what role you play in your life purpose.

Once you are content in yourself and the direction of travel, we move to the action phase.

3. Committing to taking Massive Action

People achieve when they commit 100% to implementing and behaving in ways to achieve their goals. If behaviours required to achieve a goal don’t fit in easily with your mindset or you don’t like doing certain things, there is a very good chance those things will never get done.

Do what needs to be done, and stop doing things you like to do which have no payoff

People do things they like to do, not always the things they should do to achieve their goals. Have the resilience to commit to a course of action, even if personal challenges need to be overcome. We may have to do things we would prefer not to do. Our other big challenge is generally that we also give up far too easily.

Keep on Going – Be Resilient

We have seen too many people start something new, commit to try things two or three times and then give up because it did not seem to work, they got bored, or did not have the willpower to see it through. All I can say is that’s it a good job our parents did not give up on us when we were babies and learning to walk. Imagine watching a toddler get to their feet, stumble and fall over. Then they do it again and fall over six or seven times. At no time does Mum say to Dad – “looks like baby isn’t going to walk then.” Baby will persist until they can walk.

This example could apply to all of us. We sometimes give up way too soon. We can find it too hard or too demanding to continue. It’s easier to give up and blame something or someone else when what is required is faith in goals and determination to put in the effort.

Massive Action

Whatever you want in life, if worthwhile, demands massive action and nothing less. So, consider when you screwed up, failed or did not get the result you wanted – was it because you did not fully commit sufficiency to get what you wanted? Were you really determined to get what you wanted and take all your energy and skill to achieve it, or did you just roll over and give up when the going got tough?

4. Listening to Feedback and having the Flexibility to Change what you do

Feedback is the breakfast of champions. Knowing the difference between making progress or failing to do so is an important skill. Know when things are working for you. Know when things are getting in the way.

Use negative feedback to correct your course. Take different actions, develop new strategies, try new things, innovate, work with your role models. Learn new things. Meet new people. Develop new networks with people who can support you. Gravitate towards like-minded people and listen to their story.

You know that your abilities, knowledge and wealth and success reflect the six people with whom you most closely associate. Reconsider the quality of your relationships and network and revise it upwards. Develop partnerships and, most importantly listen.

Summary

This four-step process is critical if you want to shape your future in uncertain times. What has happened to the world and our society in recent months will totally reshape the world in which we live, and the institutions and economy in which we work. It is wise to move with the times and shape the role that you can play, rather than being shaped by events. There are a lot of people out in the world who are waiting for someone to ‘talent spot’ them for the genius that they are or the talents that they display – do not become one of them. They will be ‘waiting in line’ for a long time.

So, consider your future and the role you can take. It takes bravery and courage to go forward. Wake up and realise you have it in you.

Philip Atkinson

Mastering Self Discipline

16/3/2020

At this time of year, we see the good intentions of New Year resolutions flatten out. All good intent and the motivation to overcome our challenges has finally died. Whether your goal was a new career move, further professional development of personal goals, to get fit and healthy or prepare for running that 10K, it seems that the enthusiasm of setting goals and intentions is now no more.

We find that people can be their own worst enemy when they need to make changes either in a business or personal setting. It is very much like we create resistance to taking charge. The key is learning to master ‘self-discipline’ (SD).

Having self-discipline (SD) is the key to being able to access the source of inner power, determination, and commitment to effectively accomplish tasks and goals in the most efficient ways possible.

Self-discipline is more than self-control. It is a process of channelling intentions, values, actions, habits and simple, consistent good behaviours in any area of life.

How to develop Self Discipline:

Focus on a specific area where you need unwavering self-discipline.
Clarify what you are choosing to accomplish.

Assess the benefits that will accrue to you when you achieve this result, and how working toward it contributes towards a variety of your goals

To see how it works go to this page

Until Behaviour Changes, Nothing Changes

24/2/2020

If you are serious about organisational change you have to rely on getting people to act differently. There is little point just talking about change – it needs actually doing something, and that means behaving differently.

Here are some questions you need to consider testing if you are really serious about implementing change. We focus on four key areas:

1. Setting Specific Focus
2. Assessing the responsiveness of your Business
3. Using Best Practise in Culture Change
3. Understanding that Improvement only comes through Behaviour Change

1. Setting Specific Focus

Do you know the specific behaviours that make a difference and create a highly performing organization?
How would you replace 'command and control' oriented management with trust, empowerment and cross-functional working?
How much difference would it make to your business if you knew how to build a high-performance business culture? What would it do for your organization and your future?
How can you use 'speed of response' as your core competitive differentiator, focusing upon doing everything better, faster, more efficiently and effectively than your competition?
When you kick-start and drive this approach so it becomes the dominant culture, what will it do for your results and your staff?

2. Assessing the responsiveness of your Business

How many levels of management do you have in your business? If it is as many as 3 or 4 levels, then there are too many - it slows down response and customer reaction time
If you work in the service or public sector would you like to know how best to organize self and others to produce totally customer or consumer centric ethos and performance?
How much management time is wasted dealing with poor performers, rather than Coaching your 'highflyers' to develop profitable new business, winning new customers and clients?
How many signatures and lines of approval and bureaucracy are needed to have even the most basic requisition agreed?
Would you prefer that managers invested their time in developing others to challenge and improve service delivery, or just keep up with the same tedious transactions that do little to add to performance?

3. Using Best Practise in Culture Change

We can work with you to shape the core characteristics of successful organizational change.
We can install the core behaviours with your senior and middle managers.
Would you like to see how strategies can be adapted and applied to your organization so they can be made to work for you?
Do you know that leaders of the organization, who want to improve ROI and results in the short and long-term, can do so quickly by using Rapid Improvement?

4. Understanding that Improvement only comes through Behaviour Change

We can demonstrate how everyone can input their creativity, talent and energy into the process
We can support you to focus on leading change through specially trained Facilitators taking days, not months, to develop
We can work with your Facilitators to practise, rehearse and apply the principles - so that change is seamless and painless
Change can take as long as you want it to take –If you want results in six-eight weeks, let us work with you to design a measurable process to achieve that.
Would it be valuable for you to sustain the drive in cultural change and maintain the momentum and enthusiasm along the way?

For more information contact Philip Atkinson direct or use our contact form

2020 Vision: The Challenge to Build a Culture of Trust

23/1/2020

The December 2019 Blog on Trust being an essential element of organisational culture seems to have been very popular, prompting a continuation of that theme. It is interesting to note in 2020 that whether your organisation is suffering potential existential threat or has the greatest opportunities in its lifetime, the key components to ensure you meet or overcome these are all grounded in the Culture.

Trust is critical

Building a Culture of Trust is essential to drive, deliver and sustain rapid change and improvement. It is a vital element of driving business performance whether serving paying customers, delivering to demanding citizens and the public, delivering essential services to patients, service users, pupils and students or supporting those in the voluntary sector.

Organisations subject to threats to their existence and challenging times ahead in the commercial, public and third sectors, are having to deliver major changes carefully:

Consolidating several operations
Rethinking their role and future strategy as Brexit bites
Reviewing organisational structures
Potential downsizing
Searching for investors, buyers or a rescue package
Agreeing to merge with others

Those whose glass is ‘half full’ rather than ‘half empty’ will experience new challenges including:

Acquiring new businesses or operations
Growing their business organically in new markets
Arising to the challenge of Brexit on new deals and contracts and consolidating current temporary or fledging relationships or agreements
Investing for substantial growth in a variety of new and diverse markets
Consolidating and undertaking post-acquisition integration
New Technology Start-Ups

Whatever the circumstance, the organisation requires consistency and accuracy in designing and building a Culture that can service and support it. This culture has to be grounded in two key elements Customer: Focus and Trust, with all stakeholders, starting with the staff.

Creating Culture Change: Vision to KPIs

Building a strong Culture is not rocket science if you know how it works. It starts with building a Culture that can support the Vision to KPIs formula. If you don’t have a clear and robust Vision and direction of where the organisation is going, how can you possibly formulate core goals reflecting CSFs (critical success factors), Priorities, Strategies to achieve the Goals, Structure to demonstrate how to resource the Strategies, Behaviour and KPIs?

We find these questions help get started

What is the Vision for the Organisation?
What does the organisation want to Be, Do and Have?
What Leadership do we need to take us to this Vision?
Do we currently have that capability and capacity at various levels? How do we manage any gap?
How do we define our Critical Success Factors (CSFs), so they are both prioritised and welcomed and supported by all?
How do we measure performance in achieving our CSFs and the numbers that accompany how we track their progress?
What Behaviours do we have to inculcate to support staff and teams in working across as well as up and down the business?
What core business processes are essential to our operations, and how well are they performing relative to others in our sector?

For more on our approach to building Trust and Culture Change click here.

Articles on Culture Change

Trust a core component of Organisational Culture

19/12/2019

As we move forward into 2020, we need to focus on areas for consolidation and growth, but most importantly, we need to focus on how our the degree of Trust our customers and stakeholders have with us. We should be encouraged to take a good look in the ‘mirror’, reflect on what we see and agree on how we can improve in the Trust stakes as a business and a brand.

I mean, what’s it like to do business with your organisation? Is it a joy or is it a bureaucratic nightmare? Are you customer-focused or more focused on your preferences for how you deliver to customers with your services? Do your customers have a great deal of faith and trust in you as service providers?

We believe it is critical to see how well we deliver to your customer, and one sure way is by undertaking ‘due diligence’ about how much Trust our customers and our employees have in what we do and how we do it.

Cultural Review: focusing on ‘Trust’ as a central feature

Trust is vital in organisations. Above all, if your employees don’t have a high level of trust in the organisation and what you stand for, how do you think external stakeholders such as your customers, end-users, regulators view you?

Once gone Trust is hard to build

Let’s face it; organisations can devote a huge amount of time and resource to build Trust with all stakeholders and customers. It takes years to create but minutes to lose. Internally, Trust is the emotional glue that brings teams and people together to work and interact in a planned and meaningful way of delivering to consumers.

Discomfort, stress and conflict

Organisations that do not have a high degree of Trust can be dangerous places to work. If people cannot experience Trust in their day to day dealing, they will be less than forthright in expressing their concerns about what is not working and their ideas for improving things.

Illegitimate Authority

Control and support in the organisation can be eroded if a less than legitimate culture and bad behaviours start to arise. Many have experienced the ‘runaway’ personal ambitions and the political agenda that typified many financial service providers in the last few years. They were not the only culprits, as lack of Trust in the Charity Sector, the Police, FIFA, the Catholic Church and IAAA and anti-doping agencies was evident.

Useless Distractions

The politics and the resulting ‘turf wars’ detract from the core business. They become toxic places to work. Productivity is low and the best people migrate to better employers. Customer service tends to be appalling and relationships with stakeholders and suppliers are typified by suspicion, and “getting one over” on others occupies too much time.

Where does your organisation fit in the Trust stakes?

You may like to know that we have developed a series of diagnostics to provide accurate and precise feedback on how you are doing along the following lines:

Your Customers, end-users, consumers – (if you are in the non-commercial sector read this as end-users, the public, citizens, user groups, pupils, students and patients, residents and passengers)
Relationships with stakeholders, investors, regulators and suppliers
Trust across the organisation – functional reliability and cross-functional working
Trust in functional and smaller teams
Trust between staff and managers

High Trust & Positive Working

Organisations that portray a high degree of Trust between people, teams and departments are more coherent and cohesive in their actions. Trust is vital for working productively and in unison.

An organisation with a high degree of Trust is typified by:

Creating ‘Honesty’ as a core value
Being customer-focused with a clear strategic direction
Having a shared vision of positive outcomes
Engaging in meaningful and satisfying work
Positively projecting shared values in working together
Developing a positive organisational culture supporting growth and learning

Low Trust, Cultural Conflict, Anxiety and Stress

An organisation with a low Trust index is typified by:

‘Bully boy’ leadership typically displayed by the personal ambitions of a small core of Leaders
Focus on short term goals and resolving ‘my turf’ and my career and my ambitions to get on ‘no matter what.’
Working relationships having only win-lose outcomes with customers taking second place
A climate of suspicion – major communication is through the grapevine and rumour mill
Fear driven culture - with command and control attitudes
A plethora of personal agendas over-riding business aims

Employees have Choice and Exercise it

It is no surprise that most people would always opt for working in the first type of organisation (illustrated above), but may find, for whatever reason, that their current team or organisation is adopting the characteristics of the second organisation (outlined above).

Desirability to Assess trust in Organisations

Trust is an important component of the organisational culture. A culture where ‘Trust’ is dominant will be committed to engaging with staff at all levels. Trust is vital in working relationships and is achieved when functional harmony and exceptional teamwork is the norm.
Organisations that demonstrate high levels of Trust also project that Trust to their stakeholders, end-users, customers and clients. Organisations with a high Trust index deliver much better customer service than their low Trust counterparts.

If you would like further information on how to measure Trust in your culture, email Philip here Philip@philipatkinson.com

If you’d like to read through our published article see below or to access our separate report please email Philip.

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Exceptional Team Performance Critical to Business Success

28/11/2019

Progressive team building as an essential of building a successful organisation is too important to be left to chance. It requires deliberate attention. Many organisations could be benefitting massively from a relatively minor investment in Team building and development.

A large number of companies and organisations invest very positively in Team ‘away-days’ but they could reap huge advantage if they based their ‘away day’ activities on a Team Diagnostic. This is undertaken with the ‘Team’ focused on bringing people closer together, rather than identifying flaws in Team activities or interactions.

What is a Team Diagnostic?

This is a brief review of specific teams whether they are functionally based or in a more diverse virtual setting. Focus is on positive interaction and bridge-building on people and team strengths and reinforcing the behaviours that will bring people together.
Surprisingly, there is no causal relationship between ‘team cohesion’ and ‘team performance’. There can be a positive link, but cohesion may stop the Team moving beyond their collective comfort zone.

A ‘cohesive’ team may unknowingly be working on goals which are not their prime purpose. It may be time to reset, adjust and refocus on Team strategy, especially if the Team has been exposed to a great deal of pressure to change, and not been involved in choosing how to change and grow.

Team Cohesion & Resistance to Change

We have even witnessed many positive and forward-thinking management teams who are very cohesive, but who could be more effective if they were supported in managing those things that block their own progression to implement change.

Not all of us welcome change. Sometimes we need to be mentored to overcome self-imposed barriers to make needed changes in how the Team works. It is not team cohesion, which is important, it is also a higher calling of ‘team purpose’. And that’s the reason you may want to consider undertaking a sensitive and uplifting ‘Team Diagnostic’.

Undertaking a Team Diagnostic

Most Teams could improve their performance and productivity, but the problem is that many Team leaders do not know where to start. There are several tiers of team maturity to work through if you want to avoid unnecessary Team conflict and get people working together across boundaries.

Symptoms of poor Team Performance and Cohesion include:

Unfocused Team leadership or sub Team leadership
Frequent none completion of tasks as per schedule
Poor morale and trust amongst Team members
Lack of momentum and Team spirit
Failing to commit to Team development
Distrust and conflict within the Team, and between team members
Personality clashes and disputing roles and responsibilities

Two Key Themes of an Effective Team Diagnosis

The first is to consider the relative degree of maturity of Team cohesion and development.

The second is to consider the composition of the team in terms of Team personalities and how to develop a working climate of win-win between different personality types.

Here are some of the questions to address.

How mature are your key Teams in terms of Communication, Interaction and Working across Boundaries with other teams?
Do you see the benefits of undertaking a Team Dynamics audit to improve Team performance?
Do you find that you need to work on building Team cohesion and productivity?
Would you like to know how to get the best out of your people?
What do you need to know and do, to refresh a failing or toxic group of individuals to build a strong, high-performance Team?
Do you understand the simplicity and enormous benefits of using Team Psychometrics and developing a Team Action Plan for improvement?
How would you like to improve and build Trust in and between your key Teams?

If you want to experience the benefits of undertaking a ‘soft due diligence’ Team Diagnostic and want to build a strong team performance culture, please contact us - philip@philipatkinson.com

How to develop a Strategic Model: Vision to KPI's

18/10/2019

We have developed a great model that helps translate your organisational Vision into Key Performance Indicators. We will share some of the ideas here that we are progressing with several organisations. It is really simple.

Here are some questions you might want to consider.

Vision & Leadership

Where are we going?
What are our strategic goals?
What are our organisational goals in your key area?

Values & Culture

What should our culture become?
What values bind us together
What do we stand for and what do we value in how we treat partners and stakeholders?

Priorities, Goals, CSF’s and Strategies

What are our key priorities and how do they fit with the larger organisation?
What are our key goals in the year ahead?
What are your CSF’s that reflect goal achievement?

Behaviours & Actions

What behaviours should we start?
What behaviours should we stop?
What behaviours should we continue?

Structures, Relationships, Role, Responsibilities & Processes

Identify our key roles and responsibilities
What are the core processes which we should master to support our responsibilities?

KPI’s

What are the KPI’s that reflect whether you can measure how well you are doing in your CSF’s

philip@philipatkinson.com

Strategic Thinking for Not for Profit Organisations

24/9/2019

Most organisations in the commercial sector commit to developing a robust strategy for their organisations – otherwise they would not have a business, but we find this impetus to work through this strategic process is not widely shared amongst organisations in the ‘Not for Profit’ Sector.

You might find this newly published article from the Chartered Institute of Management Services (Autumn 2019) of interest if you are currently developing a business strategy for your NFP.

phil_atkinson_daniel_burger_not_for_profit_excellence_autumn_2019_ims.pdf
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Strategic Thinking for Not for Profit Organisations

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