What people
say
Wolverhampton Homes
"Fierce Conversations has made an amazing difference"
Lesley Roberts, CEO
"I very rarely make recommendations, but I used Fierce Conversations as part of an intensive leadership programme at Wolverhampton Homes and it has made an amazing difference. All my mangers are much more confident in dealing with issues of inappropriate conduct or capability; indeed these issues are less likely to arise because of greater staff involvement and improved all round staff management skills.
As managers, we now have a shared language and style of behaviour which gets the best out of our terrific workforce. I am proud to say that learning how to have Fierce Conversations has definately helped us to attain 3 Stars with Excellent Prospects from the Audit Commission who recognised our strong leadership and massive cultural change."
Cheshire Peaks & Plains Housing Trust
"Rarely have I seen this group so energised, so engaged with their development"
Tim Pinder, Chief Executive
"People Development Associates delivered the Fierce Communication Programme to a group of our senior managers. Rarely have I seen this group so energised, so engaged with their development, and to so instantly recognise the value and possible application of what they were learning. This owed much to the course content, but even more to Sarah’s delivery style; which was warm and engaging, conversational, full of interesting illustrative anecdotes and brought the material alive in an easily accessible manner. Our teams don’t respond well to an academic or theoretical approach and that’s not what we got. Testament to the event’s success is that like no other, many of the terms and labels used in the course content have passed into everyday usage."
Nationwide Building Society
"facilitators with real credibility, presence and impact"
Andrea Tully, Talent Development Manager
"Nationwide were rolling out a leadership programme for 52 area and regional managers. We were looking for a mix of products and suppliers and PDA was recommended to us by a colleague who worked with them when employed by Centrica. We were particularly looking for something new, something that would change the mindset of the delegates. We also wanted real experts and this is what attracted us to PDA.
We employed PDA to deliver the “Raise the Bar” module of our Leadership Programme, aimed at inspiring the leaders to raise their performance and improve their skills in coaching and team meetings. The Fierce products were an obvious choice and a bespoke package was created including the “Beach Ball” team conversations model, the “Mineral Rights” coaching conversation model and the decision tree framework for decision making and accountability.
The delegates responded really well and the feedback from the courses was excellent – 100% agreed that they would recommend this course to others.
The reaction to Mineral rights was very positive. Many of the delegates had received a large amount of coaching training and usually these had been heavy procedural based models. They really took to Mineral Rights because it connected emotionally and promoted real engagement with colleagues. There was lots of roll out among the internal networks to branch managers and other team leaders.
Beach Ball also went down really well. This model could be immediately tried out in meetings by managers was also much promoted among the networks.
Fundamentally Mineral Rights and Beach Ball are simple models that are not heavy and process driven. Since the workshops the training and models have stuck. I am hearing stories from the regional directors that the models are being used and are popular. They really struck a chord because they were different; they promote engagement and were less complex than other established models.
The Beach Ball approach is an easy way to involve whole teams, and make the most of ideas and shared experience: the key is engagement and shared ownership. For example, our branches can own their part of the whole and their ideas are listened to, rather than all decisions being implemented from the top down.
PDA has a different approach, a different way of tackling things. We find it tremendously difficult to find facilitators with real credibility, presence and impact who we trust to work with our senior executives. Sarah has those and is really strong. She can be tough and challenging and works really well with senior people."
Solihull College
Solihull College has 1050 staff, and 3500 fulltime and 15000 part time students. What’s convinced it to use PDA? “The calibre of the people, they are very skilled,” says Cliff Hall, deputy principal.
“They can tailor their training to the needs of the organisation. Strategies they offer work very well. They give staff the tools to manage difficult challenges in a complex organisation. And they receive very high evaluations.”
Solihull College has used a range of PDA services from voice and body workshops for teaching staff, 2-day Fierce Conversation workshops for management and teaching & learning coaches, and one-to-one coaching.
Facilitating
One of the successful workshops that PDA has run for the college was a Listening to Learners day for up to thirty students, governors and staff. “As a further education college, it’s a very high priority to involve all stakeholders, especially students,” explains Cliff. “We wanted to do something significant to see what students were thinking about the college.”
“We asked PDA to design a workshop that would be engaging and give insights. They used new techniques including a graphic facilitator. He moved around talking to the students and creating a visual record of their thoughts. That picture now hangs up in the college.” Watch the video here.
Coaching
PDA’s coaching has also delivered value to Solihull College, says Cliff, engaging staff to tackle what they feel needs to be done. “It’s been extremely well received; people have felt very strongly empowered.”
Working with the FierceTM
And the Fierce programmes that PDA offers also complement the college’s activities. “Solihull College is working hard to be people focused and have a positive culture; where people’s potential is fully realised. Fierce sits well with that.”
“It’s about asking the right questions, getting people to think creatively, getting people to feel part of the solution”, Cliff says about Fierce.
“All the strategies are designed to engage people. People are thinking about the questions they are asking and the language they are using”.
“It’s a commonsense approach but then often people don’t stop and think about how they are approaching a problem, for example, issues where your organisation may be getting stuck, perhaps problems of performance. Fierce gives you a structure—an approach to deal with those issues”.
The College builds on the Fierce workshops. “PDA encourages us to keep the momentum going. So the management team that has been on Fierce continues to meet to discuss that approach”, notes Cliff.
Working together
In Ofsted’s latest monitoring visit (18th May 2009), Solihull College was seen as making significant progress in eight out of nine areas that were assessed. Ofsted found that: “Students’ satisfaction with teaching and learning is high. Approximately 80% of the students cite the quality of teaching as the key reason for joining Solihull College”.
Ofsted also found a culture that fostered support amongst staff: “Teachers, who have been identified as using good practice in their work, provide regular training sessions to share their skills
McCain Foods
McCain Foods is using PDA’s influencing skills programme to support the work it is doing internally with the ‘It’s all good’ campaign. The campaign covers both the way McCain produces food and the way it does its business. “We want to ensure that everyone who comes into contact with McCain, both internally and externally, has an ‘It’s all good’ experience,” says Helen Hudson, head of learning and development at McCain Foods (GB).
Like many businesses, the family-owned food manufacturer with 1650 employees in Britain has a much flatter business structure than in the past. This means that instead of looking up to hierarchies and authority for direction, employees increasingly have to take responsibilities and influence others themselves.
Helen Hudson says: “We want to get people influencing to build and maintain relationships as many people now work across the business with colleagues in other areas who they don’t have authority over. We want to give people the skills to influence without authority.”
Positive Influence
“What we want is to give people skills to be accountable and responsible for all their activities: to have positive influence,” Helen explains.
Helen says its PDA’s emphasis on positive influence that ties in with McCain’s It’s all good ethos.
“The environment Sarah and David from PDA create helps raise people’s self awareness about how they impact others. People may think that they are influencing in a polite way, but it may in fact be in a negative way. Feedback is encouraged throughout the 2 days from all participants.”
Interactive and relevant
McCain is using PDA’s two-day workshops followed up by PDA’s one-to-one coaching sessions for its staff. Attendees also take part in a 360 degree feedback programme before the programme and six months later so that they can see what results they’ve achieved.
“We’ve had really, really positive feedback,” says Helen about the experience of McCain people who have taken PDA’s influencing programme. “The workshops are very interactive and the tools that people learn can be applied immediately in work.
“Helen also adds that the positive results are seen in the way people change how they approach issues at work. “People are saying that they are doing things differently since they’ve been on the PDA workshop which is helping them get better results.”
Some feedback from the delegates
‘I wouldn’t have made the changes if it hadn’t been for the course’
'It has gone well, I have been Direct and it worked – she was fine with it'
‘I have put the idea from the last group exercise into action and things are going to change as a result’
'It's been working quicker than I thought it would'
‘The metaphor has really helped’
‘I got the most out of [this course]’
'My manager said I am getting better at speaking up in team meetings'
‘[someone who was on the course with me] heard me on the phone and said I was using making requests and it sounded good’
‘I think this coaching session has been useful’
I am amazed how much it helped, instead of it being left on the desk it was dealt with straight away
‘I do think this is the only course I have been on where I have thought yes I can do this’