Getting your team to change the way they work can be difficult, even if they are in broad agreement with what you are suggesting. Often the message loses its impact because you are delivering it and it is just seen as more of the same. Sometimes you don’t have the time to put as much effort into delivering the message as you have put into designing the new approach. Sometimes you really need to deliver messages to different groups in different ways to take account of local variations but need to maintain consistency.

When you find yourself in this situation, it can be useful to bring in an external facilitator whose expertise is in ensuring effective communication and shared understanding.

Fulcrum has helped a range of companies of all sizes in this situation. We have worked with AstraZeneca Engineering on three separate initiatives to:

• Introduce new commercial procedures and encourage improved contract management
• Introduce an integrated approach to risk management in projects
• Harmonise their project development processes across teams handling a wide range of project types

In each case, we worked closely with the client’s team to develop clear outcomes for the process and designed effective communication approaches including workshops.

In the latest assignment we also mentored the task force for the initiative, helping them to develop the skills needed to undertake this type of work with their teams.

Sweet Spot
 
When Cargill plc decided to revamp their Manchester [UK] site to produce Glucose from wheat rather than maize, they called in Fulcrum Management to help them structure the re-development. Having decided not to appoint an main contractor to undertake, this programme of might be seen as half a dozen interlocking projects, they needed to put together a team to complete the task.

Fulcrum were charged with finding a team of local freelance engineers, designers and construction personnel to complement in-house teams and people from partner organisations. The next task was to get this combined team working effectively together. The project team comprised individuals from:
 

• UK
• France
• Netherlands
• Germany
• Russia
• Turkey
• Mexico

Cargill’s overall project manager said, “It took us two years to fill one engineering management role, you’ve got a whole team together in six weeks!”

Fulcrum’s continuing role was to develop a set of effective procedures based on the client’s Project Delivery Process but tailored to suit the particular requirements for the re-development. Fulcrum worked closely with the individual project managers and programme managers to aid communication and develop skills where they were required. This ranged from providing one to one coaching, training teams, facilitating problem solving sessions and integrating suppliers and construction contractors into the process.



Attitude Latitude
 
Many companies run attitude surveys to find out what their employees think about the organization they work for and where they think changes could be made. This can be an excellent method of improving employee effectiveness and staff engagement, however it doesn’t always give you all of the information you need to move forward.

This is precisely the situation faced by one of our clients which surveyed its staff shortly after its merger with a major international group. The results pointed to some issues that needed to be discussed and explored in more detail. The survey did not provide enough evidence to enable the management team to identify the specific problems and plan for improvement.

Fulcrum were able to act as a facilitator to enable progress to be made. We ran a series of focus groups and provided feedback to the management team. The results were presented to both the management team and the workforce and used as the basis for developing an action plan.

Fulcrum recommended appropriate strategies to resolve the key issues, improve morale and foster trust between all concerned. We went on to provide support to one of the action teams where it was felt appropriate that the improvement initiative should be driven by the employees.

The client's confidence in our approach was demonstrated by them inviting us back to repeat the exercise following the subsequent scheduled survey a couple of years later. We are pleased to note that both the survey and our follow up investigation showed considerable improvements in staff engagement.

If you would like to get a more accurate understanding of your workforce's attitudes, concerns and views of your performance, please give us a call or email us.

Jim Yates is now into his 14th year tutoring on various modules of the Open University Business School's MBA Programme. Having tutored successfully on both the foundation and the strategy modules, he is now into his fourth presentation on the final module of the programme B830 Making a Difference. This module requires students to undertake an "Evidence Based Initiative" in their own workplace and reinforces the practice based learning ethos of the programme.

Tutoring the course requires Jim to supervise and coach groups of up to 20 students in organisations ranging from start-ups to multinationalsand across the public, private and third sectors.

He says "This module is a fantastic way of contributing to a wide range of business developments and keeping my own learning up to date. The use of action learning and the focus on practice based life long learning sets the Open University Business School's MBA programme apart from most of its competitors and answers many of the criticisms of the qualification. Having earned my MBA through the programme, I feel privileged to contribute to developing management skills and understanding."

Encouraging Enterprise

Fulcrum has been supporting an ambitious, expanding engineering and professional services company plan for their future. The client have set themselves a series of challenging objectives which will see them transform their business into one of the leading national suppliers in their sector.

Their farsighted MD recognised that they would not be able to hit these targets without finding and developing talent and highlighted the ability to build and maintain relationships with customers as a prime concern. Using a development of our successful "Encouraging Enterprise" Programme, we worked closely with their HR Manager to assess capabilities of their high performance sales team.

This allowed us to identify the key elements of knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for successful performance in this increasingly important role. We were able to differentiate between the competences relevant to those who establish the initial relationships with customers and those who go on to maintain these relationships through successive contracts.

The main output from the process was a comprehensive competence statement that described the knowledge, skill, attitudes and behaviours that are necessary for the various roles. This will provide a framework for recruitment and promotion and will the design of a training and development programme that will ensure that the right people are in place to support the company's growth plans.

Renewable Energy

Fulcrum has worked with Express Energy for several years assisting their development of renewable energy projects. The main contribution has been in support of a proposed 60MW power station on a brown field site in Essex.

This project has been taken from the concept stage through to a point where planning permission has been obtained, and an EPC offer made.

Fulcrum’s roles have included:

• Developing the concept and reviewing options
• Organising technical and engineering support
• Liaison with planning advisors and consultants
• Reviewing technology proposals and liaising with providers
• Discussions to enable a proposal for connection to the national grid
• Finding, Evaluating and Co-ordinating the activities of external consultants
• Preparing FEED [Front End Engineering Definition] Study Reports for three stages of the development process, covering
  • Scope
  • Cost
  • Schedule
  • Risk
• Supporting the preparation of responses to planning queries and conditions
• Liaising with site owners and contractors to enable demolition