Experiential Clarity on Learning Styles

I gained some really instructive experiential clarity on learning styles recently. I was at a leadership conference which spanned several days. There were two main presenters, one of whom was new and one who had been around a while

To be continued.....

Being present to the group and getting to the core need

I am a reasonably experienced facilitator and trainer and am acutely aware of how important it is to be well briefed on what the participants are expecting from the session. Occasionally the workshop requested isn't what is actually needed and there is a juggle between the planned content, fulfilling the client agreement and meeting the participant needs. Every facilitator or trainer gets caught in this from time to time. Skilled facilitators generally manage it well, pleasing some and appeasing others. There are other times when no matter how good the briefing is, you cant really tell what will be needed until you get there. You've just got to handle it the best way you can with grace and integrity. Here is one such experience I had a while back.


A friend once asked me if I would run an assertiveness session for her client group... some blind people (she said)... of course I was happy to (I said).... well actually they are quite elderly too (she said).... Ok that's no problem (I said) ..... that's great but some of them are deaf as well (she said)..... O h k a y then I guess I can do that (I said).... don't worry we have someone to sign for you(she said)....(Now how you sign to a blind person I wasn’t quite sure but ....I am sure we can work something out(I said).....Great, now one last thing, quite a few of them have Alzheimer’s(she said)......Right, well it will be interesting then. (I said)

Well as it happened it was one of the more delightful sessions I have run and the group renamed the session, 'Querulous Training.' They had wanted the Assertiveness Training primarily because when they went to the Doctor, they felt that the Doctors generally treated them as stupid, didn’t bother to explain things and prescribed medication without providing information. So as a group they ended up coaching each other on shaking or stamping their white cane at the ‘Quack’....if they were going to be treated as stupid, then they decided they may as well ham it up and get fractious and querulous and insist that the young whippersnapper give them their due. The session was a great success and a fabulous learning experience for yours truly.

LESSONS FROM A TELCO COLLABORATION

I was at a meeting recently with a funding provider for sustainability projects and we were discussing how to make the best of the funding, the opportunities for collaboration and the need for a clear path of action unimpeded by the red tape of outmoded regulations, threat of litigation and myopic thinking. I was reminded of a work experience I had in 2005 working on a project as a consultant to multinational Telco (name of company deleted) when they were bringing in the first 3G networks. At the time competition between major (and minor) Telco’s was pretty fierce and certainly there was a race against time to get to the market first. Whilst this was a commercially driven exercise, the Telco (name of company deleted) who was the driver of the initiative, had been going through some deep level values based organisational change.

They had recognised they needed to get beyond having the pretty vision and values posters on the walls and had committed to bringing them to life. They really struggled with this at all levels as they realised they had to measure their success against different criteria in addition to making a profit. Further, they needed processes, tools, measures, support, rigorous honesty and courage for this to succeed. It was a massive cultural change and no small undertaking. Some parts of the business were really embracing the change and some were yet to be convinced. I had been working with a cross section of the leadership team training internal facilitators, champions and coaches to support the process. It was well underway when the 3G project began. This was one such venture which I believe was an outstanding example of a values driven collaboration.

The joint venture was to install 450 sites around Australia to facilitate the implementation of the 3G network. It involved two major mobile networks, a mobile phone manufacturer, a multi national land acquisition company, a technical company which manufactured transmission towers and one which installed them. This was a big budget project.

The mission involved groups that had not worked collaboratively with each other before. Despite their different corporate cultures, every group agreed to act in accordance with the Telco’s (name of company deleted) values model. They defined the JV values in their first project meeting, identified the common meaning of them, extrapolated behaviours – and stuck to them. Their entire strategic rollout was filtered by these values. The project came in ahead of time, within budget and was such a success that it was written up in the British financial papers as a world first. The collaborative effort in the commercial Telco environment was unparalleled.

As I observed the unfolding of the project, some of the stories I heard were remarkable, heart warming and funny. To paraphrase some of the land acquisition and installation guys, I heard them make comments like these: “It was unbelievable, our community complaints have decreased to practically zero. It really does work when you talk to people about what you are doing and why. We even had some good suggestions from them. We were easily able to change some things to accommodate community needs.” These very practical and highly technical specialists were able to use their values to communicate with each other and the broader stakeholders to keep the project moving forward. Another paraphrase I heard was about an internal decision on one aspect of the work, “Well mate, if you’re talking about giving a ‘fair go’ (one of the values) how is that giving (the other party) a fair go?” A simple question but I realised that it gave them common language and a process to deal with situations as they arose. I am not suggesting there were no problems or arguments, there were, but the project team were amazed themselves how well they got on and how quickly issues were resolved.

Although there were the standard legal, policy and procedural aspects to the JV, the entire team from executive to field were free to just get on with it. They had the benefit of all being situated in the same space for the project duration, so they could confer with each other very easily. They could make fast decisions; they had the principles they had agreed to as a reference point; and a common language and processes to make things happen. There was a lot of camaraderie and good will. Decisions were made and executed and completed on a daily basis without the need to involve legal. This is not to diminish the relevance or importance of legal, policy and agreements within the industry, but simply to say they stayed out of they way while this group voluntarily aligned and self organised to get the job done. They did get to market first.

From someone who has worked in both the community and the corporate sector it was very interesting to me how this rolled out. True, they were in it primarily for market advantage, but what they learnt about working together and using a principled approach was nothing short of awe inspiring. They simply cut through a lot of unnecessary, outdated or irrelevant processes to enable this project to be achieved expediently. It really showed me something about the power of alignment and intention, and having clear line of sight along the path of action when something needs to happen in a short time line.

I think the elements in this example are instructive in how we address the impacts of environmental degradation, peak oil, climate change and the some of the misinformed and myopic thinking that accompanies these critical issues. The stakes couldn’t be much higher, and how well we proceed has huge ramifications for how we live our lives into the future. We do need to organise and resource ourselves differently. We do need to create new models to communicate, collaborate and act on our own behalf. We do need to generate aligned action without losing the autonomy and particularity of individual communities.

We don’t have time to impeded by misinformation, red tape, short term thinking, politically motivated agendas and single (usually economic) viewpoints. Communities need to increase their level of resilience, have the authority to act on their own behalf, the latitude to experiment and innovate without fear of litigation and have access to accurate information, education and resources. It is imperative that all levels of government and local communities work together to achieve this.

Psychology of Sustainability finally gets a Guernsey A Workshop for Sustainability Advocates Feb 9

Sustainability has become the hot topic of the new decade now that it is finally in mainstream consciousness. Not without good reason, given that we are exponentially consuming more natural resources than the earth can possibly replenish. I am both relieved and excited to be working with Tim Cotter next month who is conducting a workshop for sustainability advocates in the Hepburn Region. Relieved - because Tim gets that it not just about the technical stuff but about the need to change the way we think about sustainability; Excited because I have worked with him and know the quality of his work.

Tim is an organisational and environmental psychologist who specialises in behaviour change. The workshop will help advocates understand psychological drivers of sustainability and will focus on providing practical tools and skills to influence others towards sustainability.

Tim has 12 years experience consulting in values-based cultural change. His vision is to inspire sustainable action through increasing awareness and connection. He is an accomplished facilitator, coach and writer who is passionate about applying the lessons from psychology to real world challenges.

If you would like to know more about Tim's workshop or to book please email me for a brochure.