| Over the last couple of years, we have been asked by senior management in a variety of organisations to help them deal with a problem that at times can feel almost insurmountable to them. One of the biggest challenges that progressive senior managers face is how to drive change down through their organisations. They have the ideas, the strategies and the vision – but how do they get everyone on board, fired up and aligned?
In our experience, one of the hardest parts of that challenge is to get middle managers to take ownership and responsibility and to run with the ball. What often happens is that the ball gets thrown back up the line which leads to understandable frustration for the people at the top. Extra responsibilities land back in the lap of those who should be giving their attention to guiding the organisation to the future. We have introduced a powerful methodology which is producing outstanding results quickly for management teams. It’s called FASTIMPROVE™. |
The underperformance of middle managers is an issue – for senior management
If senior managers are going to be able to drive change down through the organisation and make the right, strategic decisions for its future direction, they need to be free from the pressures of day-to-day implementation. Implementing policy should be fairly and squarely the role of middle managers. In so many cases, however, that responsibility is passed back up the line to sit on the shoulders of senior management.
The effort that they need to exert getting alignment to the organisation’s aims and maintaining a consistent approach not only results in high stress levels for senior managers, but impedes their ability to manage strategically. They are forced to get involved in the nitty-gritty of policy implementation and in doing so, are prone to take their eye off the ball in terms of future planning – the effects on the organisation can be disastrous.
Middle managers in a squeeze
We often find that middle managers in an organisation see themselves as victims. They can be squeezed between the demands of their bosses and the demands of their team who work for them. So often they end up behaving as “messenger boys (or girls)” having to deliver to their teams unpopular instructions received from on high, absolving themselves of any personal responsibility in a vain attempt to gain “brownie” points with them. They are also prone to deliver messages up the line in which they absolve themselves of all responsibility for not achieving targets and pass the buck to their teams similarly in a vain attempt to gain “brownie” points with their bosses.
Middle managers’ strategy of avoiding responsibility, while being perfectly understandable, does not in fact garner much respect with their bosses. Similarly, passing the buck up the line for difficult decisions does not generate much credibility in the eyes of their team members. On the contrary, it tends to dilute their power and authority.
Senior managers need middle managers to be leaders
Senior managers need their middle managers to become true leaders. This entails their taking responsibility for organisational performance both UP and DOWN the line. Middle managers need to identify and align with the organisation’s goals and objectives and take ownership of them. And it is their responsibility to get everyone on board to achieve them.
Solutions that may not work particularly well
Senior management and HR and Training departments often think the solution is to send their middle managers on a course, or perhaps run a training programme in-house. While training can often be of value, we believe that learning skills out of context or in a vacuum is not the most effective course of action.
We believe an effective solution needs to meet these criteria:
- The whole team be involved
- Changing attitudes should be regarded as just as important as imparting new skills
- The team needs to take responsibility for the design of the solution.
- Senior management need to be involved
- The focus needs to be on the real issues facing the team
- Individual needs need to be addressed
- The solution needs to more than produce abstract learning – it needs to produce actual, quantifiable results for the organisation quickly
What is FASTIMPROVE™?
FASTIMPROVE™ is a targeted development programme that produces impressive results quickly. The programme typically runs at our your premises over a five months period. It offers a carefully-structured combination of the following:
- Intensive Group Training Sessions
- One-to-one Coaching
- Support and Challenge Groups
- Meeting facilitation, job observation and diagnostics
Organisational Outcomes
Organisational Outcomes agreed with our clients include the following:
People dimension
More proactive approach to working More taking personal responsibility More and better decision-making More motivated workforce Greater sense of ownership Higher energy levels Reduced staff turnover Staff challenging each other constructively More open communication with consistency and clarity of messages Less personal stress at work More striving for improved performance Improved cooperation between departments More flexible management and workforce Less risk averse attitudes Less workplace stress Increased job satisfaction Fewer destructive conflict situations Closer, more satisfying relationships within the organisation
External dimension
Enhanced relationships with stakeholders and contractors Expanded horizons and ability to meet competitive pressures Improved customer-focus Better understanding of the environment in which the organisation operates
Performance and Quality dimension
Improved project quality More creative solutions More effective working More efficient use of resources Fewer errors and problems identified earlier Reduced costs and higher profitability Financial objectives met
Future dimension
Greater clarity on goals and objectives Greater sense of organisational direction Enhanced long range organisational performance Greater understanding and acceptance of the need for change
The Nuts and Bolts
1. Intensive Group Training Sessions
We conduct short, intensive group training sessions – five ½ day sessions with a gap of about 4 weeks between each session. During the first session, we work with the team to decide the priority areas to address in the programme. We involve senior management in this process. Training inputs are tailored directly to the team’s needs and may include combinations of the following:
leadership, motivation, team building, change management interpersonal skills, counselling and assertiveness problem-solving, creative thinking, strategic planning and project management training, coaching and mentoring skills communication, facilitation, presentation, interviewing, influencing and negotiation skills
The training sessions are practical, highly-interactive, fast-moving and challenging. Each session involves experiential learning in which participants literally learn by doing. All discussion is focused on participants’ experiences at work. Dealing with their real problems and issues, they are encouraged to think about insights they are gaining, and how they can apply them at work.
To reinforce learning, participants are given relevant handouts to take away with them at the end of each session. They are also directed to online learning resources and materials.
During each session participants were encouraged to think about improvements to the way they work, both individually and as a team.
Towards the end of each session delegates produce team and individual action plans.
What really makes a difference in the Group Training Sessions is that the participants are working on a one-to-one basis with the trainer/coach. This means that he/she already has in-depth knowledge of their needs and the team issues and can structure the input appropriately.
2. One-to-one Coaching sessions
Each participant receives five 2 hour sessions with a gap of about 4 weeks between each session. The focus is on particular areas where the person needs to improve performance. Objectives are agreed and coaching is focused on achieving results. At the end of each session, the coachee agrees specific actions to undertake before the next session.
Following each session, the coach sends the person a confidential written summary of what happened in the session, progress on objectives agreed previously and new actions the coachee had agreed to undertake.
Participants are invited to contact the coach between sessions to discuss any particular problems or share successes should they wish.
Outline feedback of coachees’ progress is provided to senior management.
3. Support and Challenge Groups
To enable participants to operate as part of a learning community, we help participants establish Support and Challenge Groups (often known as Action Learning Sets) of about four participants. We do this at the beginning of the programme. Participants are advised to work with others who will support them, while providing challenge, ideas and coaching. We encourage them to select a mix of people from different functions and parts of the organisation.
Throughout the programme, and subsequently, participants are expected to continue to work as part of their learning community and take responsibility for people in their group who are ‘stuck’ or failing to confront important issues.
The groups meet regularly throughout the programme to carry out various development assignments and learning reviews. Between each group training session, they meet at least once face-to-face and then keep in touch by phone and email.
Participants work on team-based projects and assignments whose purpose is to provide them with:
a safe forum for supporting each other in developing their skills and knowledge individually, in their department and in the organisation as a whole; support and reinforcement in implementing organisational improvements and personal changes in behaviour opportunities to practice what they have learned in the Group Training Sessions; a sense of organisational unity and commitment of purpose opportunities to get to know and work with fellow managers from different functions and parts of the organisation
We help clients appoint internal Support and Challenge Group coordinators and provided guidance and support throughout the process. During the first hour of each Group Training Session (i.e. after the initial one), participants in each Action Learning Set have the opportunity to make a brief presentation on progress they have made, difficulties encountered, successes and lessons learned.
4. Meeting facilitation, job observation and diagnostics
We find that these are invaluable in helping the team produce results quickly and we make them available to the team. For example, team members often find it useful for a facilitator to sit in on one or two team meetings and advise. Participants can request that the coach observe him/her at work and provide useful feedback. A range of team and individual diagnostics is offered – including Belbin, Myers-Briggs and Firo-B.
Reporting
Participants complete course evaluation forms at the end of each Group Training Session which are copied to senior management. We provided continuous feedback to senior management during the programme and produced a final report with recommendations at the end.
In addition, we provide longer-term results evaluations after 3 months, 6 months and a year.
Why FASTIMPROVE™?
We named the programme FASTIMPROVE™ because it does what is described on the tin. In fact this way of working has produced such dramatic results that we are now working with a number of organisations, tailoring similar programmes for them.
Questions and Answers about the FASTIMPROVE™ Programme
Q: How many managers can attend?
To allow the maximum of attention and interactivity, we find we get the best results with smaller groups – 10 managers or possibly up to 12 at a push. We are able to cater for larger groups using extra trainer/facilitators. We train and coach larger groups of managers but split them into cohorts of up to 12.
Q: Why do we need to use you when we have internal trainers and coaches?
We applaud organisations who have internal trainers and coaches and indeed work with them to improve their skills. In our experience, however, there are often strategic reasons for supplementing the work of internal staff with highly skilled external trainer/coaches to work in a targeted way to deliver a result quickly. The advantages are as follows:
- People often tend to open up quicker about the real issues that concern them with an external coach/trainer.
- An qualified external coach/trainer is more likely to have the depth of experience to produce a result quickly in more challenging situations.
- An external person can often offer greater perspective, value and short cuts from insights gained from working with other organisations.
- Reporting (confidential summaries for the coachee and reports for line management), is an important part of the process. We find that the quality of reporting is likely to be higher using a professional external coach.
- There is an enormous benefit in the coach, who has built up a relationship with a whole team, being able to offer other services such as group training sessions, on-the-job observation and meeting facilitation.
Q: Our management have or are studying for professional qualifications including MBAs. Shouldn’t they be enough?
Professional qualifications are useful in equipping management with theoretical frameworks in which to operate. We find, however, that targeted training and coaching interventions can be far more effective in producing positive changes in both individual and team performance.
Q: Couldn’t we just hire an external trainer for a few days?
Yes, you could. But you may find they don’t have the depth of experience and maturity and knowledge of the team to produce real change. And we find that training on its own isn’t enough. It needs to be backed up by other elements such as coaching, working on real projects, meeting facilitation and job observation.
Q: What if our managers are too busy to let them take time off for training?
Yes – taking managers away from their job can have an impact on performance. That is why we have designed a programme that provides short chunks of training delivered in-house at times that fit in with the team’s work requirements. In those sessions, managers get the opportunity to work on the real issues they face at work.
Q: Why should senior management be involved?
If middle managers are performing well, the senior management team will be major beneficiaries of this programme. To ensure that the programme runs in the optimum way, it is important to involve senior management at every stage of the programme – from training needs analysis to evaluation.
Q: How can we be sure that your coach/trainers will fit in with our organisation and understand the problems that our people face?
Our coach/trainers are mature, highly-experienced professionals with a track record of success in a wide variety of organisations.
Q: Isn’t this type of training a luxury?
On the contrary, we don’t know of any organisations who can afford the luxury of not having middle managers who can perform effectively. Any organisation whose senior management team have to spend a lot of their time “down in the engine room” rather than “up on the bridge” is going to suffer a lack of strategic direction. Senior managers in this situation don’t have enough time and energy to identify and seize opportunities which will help them steer the organisation to success.
Q: Don’t the benefits of this type of intervention take a long time to show?
Even we have been surprised at how quickly the results happen. For example, a recent programme completed for one of our clients showed immediate improvements in ratings of over a third in team performance for:
Inter-team relationships Quality of meetings Innovation Training and development, and Objectives
Team performance improved by between 20 and 27% for:
- Procedures and organisation
- Information
- Leadership
- Communications, and
- Relationship with clients
We will agree success measures with you to demonstrate how the investment you have made in the programme will be recouped many times over in the effect on your bottom line.
Q: We work in the field of international aid. Isn’t this approach more business-oriented?
Many of our team work in international development. We have found that the approaches used in this type of programme are very relevant to development organisations, particularly those who are growing and support a wide range of projects. In addition, we have used this style of intervention successfully in a wide range of cultures and settings.
Q: How much is the investment required in a programme like this?
On a per delegate basis, costs compare very favourably with sending people on external courses – and of course, the organisation benefits much more from the results that this type of programme produces. The benefits to the bottom line usually more than repay the investment in a short period of time. Our clients receive much more than they could ever get through sending their people on external training courses – and for a much smaller investment.
Q: How do we know you’re not exaggerating the benefits of the Programme?
Don’t take our word for it. Here are some comments from recent participants in the programme.
- “There has been a better understanding. We are better connected and more on the same wavelength – the benefit of not being on the back foot.” “The bits I have practiced have really worked.”
- “Coaching previously was dealing with my weaknesses. Now it’s building on my strengths.”
- “Coaching has helped me change old habits which I know are not helpful. It has helped me reflect more and avoid making some mistakes. It has showed me how to change.”
- “Coaching has produced a big change. We’re more customer-focused and teamwork driven. People are talking to each other. They are able to ask for help, from the top down to the bottom.”
- “We understand each others’ way of thinking, actions, goals, jobs and personal characteristics.”
- “This programme has refined what I had and might have forgotten. It has got me out of the box. It has improved communications and introduced clarity.”
- “The effect of this coaching has made us more businesslike.”
- “We want to use the right terminology to get our points across. I say my bit, you say yours and the whole workshop stays focused on the objectives of the day. This benefits the company.”
- “Coaching has helped me realise that developing others helps me. We can now communicate effectively what’s on our mind.”
- “The team as a whole has made a concerted effort to communicate better, reduce the number of emails. Each team member is able to present their needs.”
- “I realise now that being a leader is not just about telling people what to do – it’s more about listening to them and supporting them. I am getting feedback from the guys in how I can help them. I can understand their issues.”
- “I’ve got a heap more than I expected but it’s been hard work.”