Five-sided approach to change
Change can be difficult to deliver. You might have encountered difficulty analysing situations from multiple perspectives, getting creative but realistic designs for improvements, or gaining buy-in to the need for change and commitment to its delivery.
Well-laid plans can stumble at the hurdle of implementation.
We think that it is imperative to take an holistic and balanced approach to change. We find that, in doing this, we may remove, or at least consider possible pit-falls before they become stiflers of change.
We take a five-sided approach to change, marrying:
1. Consultancy, where we review the organisation’s culture and strategy, systems and structure, to make sure that any plans for change and development are in keeping with aims and can be supported by the infrastructure
2. Training, where key themes around the required change are presented and debated as a group
3. Coaching, where individuals are able to discuss their thoughts and feelings, and develop perspective and ideas for moving forward, in a safe, uncritical environment
4. Mentoring, where each person has a named, mature colleague or friend with whom they can discuss the process and themselves, and
5. Therapy as a back-up for anyone feeling particularly challenged or anxious.
The approach uses theory from Boyatzis’ Theory of Self-Directed Learning and Kolb’s learning styles. [1] [2]
1: Consultancy
Change that is considered in isolation can be ill-conceived and fail to successfully deliver improvements. In our experience, strategy, structure, systems and culture all need to be considered when significant change is contemplated for an organisation. Change has to be in keeping with the planned direction for an organisation for it to be valuable and stand a good chance of reaching meaningful fruition.
All of our work is aligned with strategic objectives. We can help leaders to reconsider strategies and goals, or help formulate minor tweaks to the direction of an organisation.
We can help devise plans for the review and development of systems for key functions in an organisation, or help with the implementation of system development plans.
Similarly, we can help devise plans for the adaptation of the structure of an organisation to meet strategic developmental goals, or help with the implementation of these plans.
We can work with you to adapt the culture of your organisation, to help modify habitual ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.
2: Coaching
The role of leadership, or any key function in an organisation, can seem like a lonely place to be.
Might you benefit from someone who can dedicate time, energy and skill to understanding your predicament without becoming invasive in your role; who is there to support your capabilities and enable your strengths to be used more fully, without allowing blind-spots to become dominant; who will ask smart questions to support and help you guide yourself and your team to a better place?
Our coaches are highly trained and experienced in providing support for key individuals in organisations. We will not provide advice nor inform decisions, but will help leaders to develop their own thoughts and insights, and navigate their own way forward with increased clarity and confidence.
Coaching with leaders and key teams can help enhance capability for:
Analytical thinking, the ability for gathering and accurately, rationally processing data, particularly in high-pressure environments,
Developing understanding of complex, inter-dependent systems, especially those involving people,
Communicating and sharing perceptions and understanding.
We have a number of different types of coaching experiences available for our clients, depending on their needs and wishes. The right coaching model will depend on whether you are looking to build insight into yourself, the way you are thinking and behaving, or into your role or the tasks facing you, or an output such as reduced stress or overcoming obstacles to the progress of a project.
Styles of coaching:
Simple goal-based coaching, to help increase awareness and responsibility for action. (Most coaching will be of this type.)
Cognitive behavioural coaching, focussing on behavioural outcomes. This can be useful to provide support with workplace stress or anxiety, for example.
Role function coaching, where an individual can be supported through a change with regard to the demands of their role. This might necessitate the development of awareness of the relatedness of the person with the work system around them, how they interact with others, taking into account the organisational context of the role.
Gestalt, person-centred or psychodynamic models that focus on the personal development of an individual.
It is important that you are able to feel the development of a rapport with your coach, and feel safe with your coach. To this end, our coaches are selected for their ability to provide a safe, supportive and encouraging environment, maintain confidentiality as expected, and be likeable, we hope.
Our coaching process normally involves a ‘contracting’ period at the outset, where objectives are defined, the process is discussed, and timeframe and levels of transparency are agreed (with whom would you like to share insights?). From this point on, our coach will be there to support you throughout the agreed programme.
3: Training
Training, where theories of good practice may be presented and discussed as a team, can extremely useful in supporting significant change in organisations.
Our training has two key functions:
Present, discuss and debate the value and relevance of key themes of good practice in whatever subject is being considered. In this way, an attempt is made to develop the knowledge, understanding, attitudes, skills and habits necessary for the change to be implemented. The subject matter might include the management of people or performance, or more nuanced themes around patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, for example.
The opportunity to draw out commitment from the group to the best route forward for the organisation, and how this may best be delivered. Or the opportunity to highlight barriers to change. Training sessions can be a valuable forum to develop commitment to a programme for the growth and development of the organisation.
We have a wide variety of workshops, from which our programmes may be designed, but they can be seen to fit into a number of key themes:
Basic workshops that can be used at any level in any organisation. These workshops present some best practice themes in management. They are used to debate and gain consensus and commitment to approaches that we hope will lead to improved performance and fulfilment in the workplace.
Stress management workshops. These can be presented either at a basic level, where broad coping mechanisms are presented and discussed, or more advanced levels, where deeper, more sophisticated themes are discussed.
Reflective practice. How reflecting on elements of ourselves or our environment, on events and circumstances, on patterns of thinking and feeling, may be used to develop perspective.
Who am I, why do I think, feel and behave as I do?
a. Is there a mature and immature position for thinking and behaving, how do these come about, where might these be useful, and how do we move between the two?
b. Feelings as data. We discuss cognitive function as well as non-cognitive or subconscious function and their influence over our performance. We look at how managers that are well attuned to their emotions, and those of the people around them, will be able to use intuition or gut-feeling to help guide their decision-making. We will discuss benefits of this approach, and possible dangers of being unaware of emotions.Group function, patterns for connecting and networking, and how it can all go wrong. How habitual attitudes steer the way that we operate within and direct teams and groups.
Change and how it happens. A discussion of key themes in soft-system management with regard to change processes.
Creativity and uncertainty. How the best creative work occurs when we feel okay to be uncertain, to live with uncertainty or chaos, and how to navigate towards this space.
In each case, we aim to develop self-awareness in conjunction with coaching and mentoring, and all of our work is backed up by the availability of highly-qualified and skilled therapy.
We discuss cognitive function as well as non-cognitive or subconscious function and their influence over our performance.
We introduce many of our workshops using accepted elements of neuroscience. We do this to help place the themes about to be discussed in terms of their function and the scientific reasoning behind them.
4: Mentoring
Change in organisations can be an emotionally taxing business. We like to provide formal and informal platforms for our clients to discuss the change programme amongst themselves. Our mentoring programmes normally, but not always, pair individuals with more senior or mature individuals, with whom they may honestly discuss their feelings about the change, their fears or anxieties around what the change means to them and their role, maybe their extended team or department.
Mentorees may also seek to discuss broader themes with regard to themselves, their team, their role, the organisation and the parallel growth and development of each of these.
We find that this acceptance of the emotional toll of change and the internal listening and hand-holding process is very helpful in supporting change.
5: Therapy
Change is sometimes troublesome. Sometimes, steady state management can be troublesome. We all go through difficult periods in our lives. These periods, when adequately supported, can help to define us and make us resilient and resourceful in our attitudes to both surviving and thriving in our roles.
All of our consultants have undertaken significant psychotherapy or studied their psychological functioning in order to understand themselves well and get a good picture of how they function by themselves and as part of a team. You can talk to any one of us about how psychotherapy might help support you or a colleague.
Our resident psychotherapist has, along with prodigious qualifications and experience in his professional role, experience of operating at board level in a multi-million euro national organisation, so probably has a good handle on how you might be feeling.
We can also refer to other psychotherapists, for example female therapists or coaches, should clients feel more comfortable with this.
Please feel completely free to ask about this service if you feel it might be of value to you. This service can, of course, be provided completely confidentially.
Stand-alone services in consultancy, training, coaching or therapy
Our central services are also available as stand-alone pieces of work. They can be employed singly, without the use of other services.
Should you wish to speak with us about how any of our services might help you or your organisation, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be willing to listen to you talk about your situation and reflect on what might be done to improve things.
Note: If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal, please contact Samaritans, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: samaritans.org. If you need a response immediately, it’s best to call on the phone. This number is FREE to call: ☎ 116 123 (UK) 116 123 (ROI)
MIND, the mental health charity: mind.org.uk ☎ 0300 123 3393
Rethink Mental Illness: rethink.org ☎ 0300 5000 927