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Creating Culture Change

23/4/2017

Corporate culture: success leaves behind clues

The relative health of your business culture will either support you in achieving results in difficult times or act as a barrier, a hindrance and an obstacle that denies innovation or change. At the time of writing, it can slow down the implementation of recovery plans in a stagnant economy. It can even hasten the demise of the business. A strong and vibrant culture will enable new initiatives to flourish and grow. It will encourage high flyers to be attracted and retained to work within your business. For more info see the full article below

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Achieving Results through 'Brand You'

4/4/2017

The use of behaviourial techniques can help professional service providers to substantially impact their results with their clients in a positive way. Here’s how Philip Atkinson, a management consultant, used a variety of interpersonal techniques, together with CBT, to bring about change in a number of organizations.

This is a theme that has recurred in many of Philip’s interventions in organizations including Telecoms, Banks, Insurance & Financial Services, Accountancy and Legal Firms, Manufacturing and Contact Centres. Philip has also used the concept of ‘Brand You’ to enable internal change agents such as L&D, Project, IT, Risk & Compliance, Project managers and HR managers to be more effective when driving needed changes within their organizations.

Birth of the Concept

The concept of ‘Brand You’ is not new, but it is not a theme that many UK businesses have endorsed or applied – relying more on large corporate change initiatives to bring about improvement. We were asked to design a series of workshops to improve the ability of Internal Auditors to influence their clients (managers within the business) to implement the recommendations inherent within their audit reports.

Case Evidence: The Driver behind the Change

The driver behind this was evidence that many recommendations made within internal audit reports were ‘accepted’ by the business managers, but often never implemented. Consequently, when further audits were undertaken, it was clear that previous findings and recommendations had been ignored. The success of the internal audit team was in question, because business managers frequently ignored the recommendations of any report and continued working in the same old way.
This IA Unit employed over 200 staff and the unit was tasked with increasing their involvement in the business, thus reducing the unnecessary cost associated with employing external auditors.

‘Brand You’ as a Concept

It was clear the technical capability of staff was high, but what required some thought and effort was their ability to influence their clients. No amount of ‘up-skilling’ in technical expertise would deliver the results required. Discussion focused on the individual making a difference, and hence the term ‘Brand You’ evolved.

We ensure that ‘Brand You’ is authentic and focuses on the individual, rather than ‘one best way’. Each of us leaves behind our own distinct signature, but often we are unaware and unconscious of the impact that we can have on others. Our workshops are designed to focus entirely on identifying the distinctive strengths that make each person important, and examined key strategies that would enable them to be more effective when selling their ideas, concepts and approaches to others.

Essential to this process is to consult various sales models and the components that encapsulated best practice. It comes as no surprise that flexibility and adaptation to the other person’s objections is critical.

Central to any sales or influencing model is anticipating the likely objections that others may have to our proposals, and ensuring that we can counter these in advance of their arising. We use the term ‘inoculation against rejection’. So as well as working through the various personal sales and influencing models, Philip also focused on ‘taking a good look in the mirror’ and exploring what makes for a personal style of influencing.

We use a variant of Robert Dilts Logical Levels to focus on the role of Identity, how one continually shapes this shifting personal Belief System, and how this is in turn reflects in our Personal Values. Rather than working solely on Skills and Behaviours, Philip focuses on Values and Beliefs and used a variety of models including Myers Briggs Type Indicator to get a flavour of the engine that powers ‘Brand You’.

Philip further simplified the MBTI model into a four quadrant model of Regulator, Visionary, Analyst and Facilitator, exploring the behavioural response that people take if they happen to fall within these areas. By understanding the core personality drivers behind the person we are trying to influence, the stronger our repertoire of tools and skills becomes in enabling us to persuade, negotiate and influence others.

Role Plays

The critical component in many Workshops is the use of Role Plays – that is, learning by doing. For instance, in a recent intervention with a major Insurance Company, Philip designed role plays for Risk Managers. Here he took various ‘difficult situations’ when working with very senior staff of the business and ran all managers through a series of role-plays over two days. Further, they had input in the following areas that enabled them to develop their own strategies.

Typical Content of Workshops

Self-disclosure and Rapport Building
Accessing your personal Authenticity, and developing a win-win attitude at all times
Assessing your preferred process of Influence and setting a ‘Yes-Yes’ frame
Shaping Rapport with others in the change team
Understanding how to drive the Acceptance of Change
Utilizing selling Benefits & Features to a win-win advantage for improvement
Using 7 Assertive techniques to make your point
Practicing Listening skills on a variety of levels
Facilitating the soft skills of Power and Influence
Developing a confident Negotiating style
Giving Bad News effectively
Bringing things back from the edge – the de-escalation of conflict
Using solution-based questioning to create win-win solutions
Utilizing Jungian analysis of personality to build rapport and diminish conflict
Handling Personality Objections
Identifying Motivational drivers in others
Using the four quadrant Personality Tool
Analyzing Conscious and Unconscious Behaviour
Developing your self-confidence and self esteem

Rehearsal

One of our key strength is our ability to support managers who lack the confidence to try new approaches, such as being more assertive. We believe firmly in rehearsal. No, not learning a set phrase or rote memorization but, rather, adapting techniques to fit naturally and authentically with one’s own style. Philip says “You should never let your first rehearsal be the actual event”. You must have practiced the approach and strategies a number of times to examine how you can deliver more effectively to create win-win solutions.

Ecology & Change

We always confront the ecological dilemma and his rule is “is it ecological for the other person. and does my ability to influence fulfill the win-win criteria. Anything that falls outside this ruling is, we believe, manipulation and ventures into the ‘dark side of personal development.’

Summary - Brand You Today

We have developed the ‘Brand You’ concept to include Facilitating Large Scale Change, Brand You and Strategic Interviewing, Managing Resistance to Change and we run a series of workshops for Internal Audit Staff, Quality Managers, Risk Consultants, Sales Executives and Account Managers, Accountants, Engineers and Lawyers.

This is an opportunity for professional people to equip themselves with the interpersonal competence to take their personal performance to the next level.

In the last few years Philip has presented on the ‘Brand You’ concept at Conferences and at Branch meetings of the Chartered Institutes of Marketing, Internal Audit, Banking and Personnel Development and other speaking engagements. It is clear that the concept is well accepted and is currently focused on sessions geared for the Public Sector – entitled “Be the Change”.

Author

Philip Atkinson is a strategic OD advisor, trainer, coach and author of books and articles on organizational change and leadership

Creating Culture Change

﻿Achieving Results through 'Brand You'

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