BACKGROUND

The client organisation concerned wanted to improve the way their business was managed. A key element of the assignment was not only to gather information but to validate it in order that we could feed back to the managers concerned information that was relevant and had substance.

Objectives

The objective was to provide managers with factual information about how they were seen by the people with whom they worked in order that they could improve the way they led and managed their teams.

Process

The process consisted of five main stages

• Stage One Agreeing the overall process and the communication methods that would be adopted
• Stage Two Developing an appropriate questionnaire, sending it to agreed people, and analysing the results.
• Stage Three Facilitating workshops of people who completed the questionnaires to understand the reasons for their responses, and to discuss examples of specific incidents that supported their views. The purpose of this was to validate the importance, or otherwise, of views expressed and to agree that the feedback we would give to the managers was based on hard evidence but would not be capable of identifying the individual who had expressed a particular view that supported the feedback.
• Stage Four Feedback on a one-to-one basis to the managers concerned.
• Stage Five A report (that included extensive statistics) and recommendations of how the process might be improved.

Outcome and benefits

The outcome is that all managers (c150) have received feedback on how they are viewed by others and have produced specific plans on the steps they would take to address issues that had arisen from the exercise that they felt would improve their performance. These ‘action plans’ have been followed up through telephone calls from an Obsidian consultant with each individual in order to discuss progress and to talk through any difficulties they may have encountered. An evaluation process to assess the value of the exercise, which is ongoing, is also in place.

Geoffrey Bray leads this assignment (which is ongoing) and David Downing, Keith Hall, Terry Heffernan, Sarah Lee and Jeremy Payne are the other five consultants involved.