Align-Equip-Sustain

Forum takes a systematic approach to developing programs that drive behavior change and is guided by our client’s business strategy and the key objectives they wish to achieve.

We use a proven three-phase approach to integrate learning and ensure transfer of skills, knowledge, and new behaviors back on the job.

The Importance of Sustainment Activities
Forum’s point of view is that sustainment is the phase in which the learning translates into new, improved behaviors and performance. Organizations need to put the focus on reinforcement and sustainment activities that
•    get behaviors to stick
•    drive performance improvements, and
•    yield individual and organizational returns on learning.

Sustainment activities can close the “knowing/doing” gap that exists between knowing the value of skills and behaviors and doing something real to apply them on the job.

Example: The Value of Sustainment in a Mid-level Leaders Solution
Recently, an international pharmaceuticals company contracted with Forum to provide a Mid-level leaders program to:
•    serve as a foundational leadership curriculum
•    create a venue to share best practices and embed leadership capabilities, and
•    ultimately bring performance of mid-level leaders to a new level.

Forum collaborated with the company to apply its signature Align-Equip-Sustain approach to the project.  The diagram below shows the learning components for the Mid-level Leaders solution, including a robust sustainment plan.

The “Aha”s

The program participants made results presentations at a final mini-cohort capstone meeting; they each gave a “results” presentation, and nearly all participants expressed profound personal and professional changes in their roles as leaders with their teams. These are some examples of the results they shared with their mini-cohorts.

• I am now more of a leader than a manager, but I know when to be a manager.
• We challenged each other to get out of our comfort zones.
• I’m seen by my team as a leader; before I was seen as a manager.
• I am more confident.
• I now set up project teams differently since I understand what motivates individuals on my team. It’s made a significant difference.

This final comment by a participant reinforces the importance of the sustainment activities in the learning solution.

“For most courses, you have the intention to go make changes but once back at your desk, that is quickly overtaken by the next crisis. I am committed to making the changes I have identified.”

Team talks can have a significant impact on team morale, energy levels and performance on the pitch and it’s often the dressing room where matches are won. Once the team is out in the field, it’s down to trust between the managers and players that they have been equipped with all the skills and tools they need  and have the winning mind-set to drive individual and team success. The role of the managers in keeping their team’s performance at its peak is a challenge often faced by many leaders and requires a variety of leadership skills:

1. COMMUNICATING THE STRATEGY

In order to communicate the strategy to the team, information and progress should be shared regularly. In the dressing room, team talks are short and concise as by then the game plans have been communicated during the week. Often when trying to get across a long list of points, by the end of it the team has probably forgotten the first few which were likely to be the most important. The pre-match talk should be about boosting the player’s confidence and it’s not only about what is being said, but more importantly how is it being said. Behaviour and body language are highly influential and can reinforce how authentic a credible the leader is. Misalignment between the message and the delivery will result in getting limited or even zero buy-in from listeners.

2. PROVIDING FEEDBACK

It’s easy to provide good feedback when teams are performing well – and objective, positive feedback should be shared as often and as publicly as possible. However when players need to be communicated a more firm or negative message, it’s best to take the one to one approach. Singling individuals in front of the team in a negative way can destroy the team climate and demote players. Criticism shouldn’t be personal and the team needs to understand that all feedback has one objective in mind – to help the team and all players need to take ownership.

3. ADAPTING TO CHANGE

Business strategies and game plans change – meaning that the communication style before the game can quickly change at half time based on the quality of the game performed on the pitch.  The ability to adapt to changing circumstances and adjusting the game plans accordingly is a critical leadership skill that impacts the entire team. Research shows that 70% business change initiatives fail, due to leaders being unable to adapt and what makes a positive impact is knowing how to drive and understand the human face of change.

4. BUILDING OWNERSHIP

Ownership results in individuals feeling fully engaged and responsible for their performance and how it links to the team’s success. It requires the individuals to demonstrate both independence (responsibility for strong personal performance) and interdependence (responsibility for contributing to the strong team performance overall). Those who feel and demonstrate ownership are more likely to exceed expectation, proactively help other team members to succeed and continuously develop new skills and tactics.

]]> http://www.forum.com/blog/leadership-lessons-from-the-dressing-room-2/feed/ 0 http://www.forum.com/blog/using-stories-to-create-a-competitive-advantage/ http://www.forum.com/blog/using-stories-to-create-a-competitive-advantage/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2015 09:44:13 +0000 http://www.forum.com/blog/?p=3937

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Most people have a capability to tell stories, however what makes the difference in terms of outcomes is understanding why a good story works, proactively developing appropriate stories for your audience and personalising them for impact. We know from both our experience and our research that stories can be used to engage, build mindshare and commitment with your customers and stakeholders.

Why are stories important?

Stories use the past, present and future to make a relevant point. They enable you to demonstrate humility and to relate to people in real terms and using their context. Stories also help customers and stakeholders grasp the meaning and importance of ideas, suggestions and opportunities and are powerful in creating memorable impressions and vivid images. Additionally stories create lasting impact where memos, slide presentations and mounds of statistics fall short. They engage others, because listeners can put themselves into the situations the stories describe, create and emotional connection and help to visualise a future state – and most importantly offer a personal approach in a complex connected world.

How do stories work?

Stories present a place where facts meet emotions and they have strong impact on a number of levels. Stories are important, because without stories, our brain cannot process information. Stories provide a reference point. Our brains are hardwired to process thoughts through stories; unless the left side of the brain (facts) and the right side of the brain (creative) connect, we cannot create memory. We need stories to make sense of the world, which is complex and scary. We need to tell stories to give the world familiar shape and form.
Stories teach us the rules of our world and our place in it. Families, religion, communities, corporations—they all have stories that let you know what is acceptable, what isn’t and what your role is. Our lives are really just a series of stories strung together – they are the building blocks of our lives and we use stories to distract and entertain us. Stories take us away from our reality and transport us to a place that we want to be.

How to develop and tell business stories?

Using a business focus ensures that the story is immediately relevant to the listener. It also helps you to plan, prepare and develop a story that really drives the outcomes you want to achieve. Once you are clear on the business focus, you can select the appropriate story content and story type to engage your audience and drive the outcomes:

• Illustrating vision and values to influence and energise your audience

This may involve demonstrating the importance of having a vision to drive action, the impact of having the ‘right’ values on achieving the right outcomes, and how together they provide a picture of the future and outline the behaviours to achieve it. You may wish your audience to be aware of your vision and values and/or adopt them.

• Increasing trust and collaboration

You may wish to illustrate the importance of trust to successful outcomes without being too direct; how trust can be given, lost, and rebuilt; how collaboration is a smarter and more effective way to work; and/or how to establish and sustain collaboration.

• Motivating your audience to take action

This may involve an example where one party takes action and another does not and how this impacts a successful outcome; how acting together makes sense and provides benefits for all; an illustration of why now and why this action and this audience, or the importance of capitalising on opportunities and creating a climate that motivates others to act. Your story may include a call for action.

• Navigating uncertainty and complexity

This may involve sharing stories of successful navigation through complexity or uncertainty and what actions were taken to deliver success, personal examples of strategies for coping with uncertainty and complexity, steps taken to reduce complexity, and the importance of strong leadership in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment.

• Identifying who we are

This may involve stories about yourself, team, function, or organisation and should illustrate what you stand for and what gives you your unique identity. This could also involve stories around products and services and how you work with your customers.

• Knowledge Sharing

You may want to involve the audience in providing feedback and contributing their ideas. You also may want to draw out what was done and what contributed to success.

We all can learn from our mistakes. Russ Becker shares his thoughts on how you bounce back after being fired or let go in this article featured on Fortune.com’s “Fortune Insider” Leadership group.

As long as you learn from your mistakes, you can use the experience as a springboard to further your career even more than you would have had you not been fired.

The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question “How do you bounce back after getting fired?” is by Russ Becker, president of The Forum Corporation.

Getting fired can bring any number of emotions to the table, including embarrassment, anger and fear for the future. The key to getting your life back on track is to keep everything in perspective, step back, reflect on the situation (with honesty), and dig deep to understand what happened so you can positively move forward. Here are three ways to make it happen:

Take some time to yourself

Give yourself the time you need to get over the emotional shock and to process the bitterness, frustrations or anxiety that you may be feeling. Confide in close family, friends or co-workers you respect and be open to feedback. Realize that this is not the end of the world. People who have been fired can easily fall into a negative mindset, assuming very few people have ever been fired, which can lead to an overwhelming feeling of failure. The reality is that it’s far from uncommon.

Set yourself up to move forward as an improved version of yourself

First, allow yourself to assemble an accurate assessment of what happened. Stop and focus on what created the circumstance and the part you played in the situation. This will help you understand how to set yourself up for better results in your next position. Ask yourself serious questions about what happened, whether it was a difficult relationship with a manager that could have been handled differently, job expectations and required skillsets not clearly defined, or the fact that you were simply working in the wrong industry. Understanding what the issues were that weren’t aligning with your strengths will be crucial in order to avoid settling into a similar position in the future.

Hone in on how you will tell your story

How you explain being fired in job interviews will be key in successfully moving on from the experience. Above all else, you have to be honest, own why or how you made a mistake, what you learned from the experience, and stress why it will never happen again or why the circumstance will be different. Practice it enough so that you’re comfortable with delivering it calmly and honestly, and without sounding rehearsed. In today’s world of social media and backdoor reference checks, there are far too many ways people can find out the truth if you’re dishonest.

I have interviewed and hired thousands of job candidates over the years, many of who had once been fired. One interviewee in particular stands out to me for his candor. He had just been let go from his last position and explained to me that he didn’t get along with his boss and made a decision that he later wasn’t proud of. He owned up to it, walked me through the entire situation, and then explained to me why he would never allow it to happen again. I hired him, and he later became one of the top sales managers in the company. To this day, I consider it to be one of the best hiring decisions I’ve ever made.

Some of the most successful people in business were fired from earlier jobs, including Mark Cuban, Lee Iacocca, and even Steve Jobs. They used these experiences as springboards to future success — as ways to recalibrate themselves and change their behaviors. Only you can take the reins and own your future to push forward and pave the path to a successful life.

There is an old story about a man who sees three workers laying stones.  Curious, he approaches the workers to inquire about their labour.  The first worker barely acknowledges the man, only reproaches him:  “Are you blind?  Any fool can see I am laying stones.”  The second worker scarcely pauses, replying curtly, “I’m building a wall.  Don’t get in my way.”  But the third worker puts down his tools and takes a step back.  He proudly surveys his work and announces, “I’m part of the team building a great cathedral.”

Many strategy-makers assume that everyone in the organisation will instantly understand and execute the strategies they define, however research indicates that less than 5 percent of a typical employee group does.   It therefore becomes important to ensure every employee understands and is involved in implementing the organisation’s strategy.  You can only ensure others’ understanding and involvement if you yourself first make sense of the strategy, identify where and how your team’s work links to and supports it, and then communicate it in meaningful and operational terms so that everyone can conduct their daily business in a way that contributes to the overall success.

The key to effectively communicating the big picture is not necessarily being a great orator.  It requires constructing a message that is credible and that engages employees and increases their ability to take action. Constructing such a message may seem a daunting task – it requires generating enthusiasm about and movement toward implementing a strategy that is complex and perhaps only partially understood.

A few guidelines can help to craft a more effective message:

1. Simplify the Communication
   Organisations and our role in them are complex enough.  Provide enough detail in the message to draw a full and accurate picture for listeners, but not so much detail to overwhelm them.  Include the reasons for the change as well as a description of the change.  Where it is possible, describe what is new in relation to what is familiar, being sure to clarify what is the same and what is different.  The goal is to create a sense of meaning and shared understanding.

2. Create a Coherent Picture
   There are a number of ways to ensure your message is coherent and integrated.  Think for example about keeping the theme – in this case, the strategic focus – more prominent than the details.  Begin with the strategic focus, making it an organising framework for the rest of the communication.  Instead of just listing or describing strategic elements, explain how they relate to the strategic focus, and make sure the linkages among the elements are clear.

3. Communicate Relevance
   Information that is too abstract or conceptual often feels disconnected from the day-to-day realities of employees.  To create relevance, use simple, concrete language.  Examples and stories can also be powerful tools for ensuring that abstract or disconnected information is translated into situational information listeners can identify with.