Most organisations we speak to can readily identify with the vision for a Company where the managers and leaders are having effective 'Courageous Conversations' when needed.
One particular Public Sector organisation knew that it wanted to transform itself into an operation that was:
Working with this organisation, we helped them to identify the 'Courageous Conversations' which managers were either avoiding or were not handling well and considered the impact this was having'. We then designed a development programme that included a Workshop, and follow on activities to embed the learning, that would really make a difference and build the skills and confidence that the managers needed.
The aim
We agreed some specific outcomes for the workshop as follows:
The workshop
After some initial work which ensured that the delegates could clearly see the benefits of having these difficult conversations and doing it well, we used actors to show a typical scenario to which the delegates would relate and in 3 stages demonstrated :
The delegates were encouraged to reflect on what they'd observed and to recognise their own patterns of behaviour before having the opportunity to prepare for, and try out, a courageous conversation of their own.
Follow up
The delegates went away buzzing with good intentions and feeling confident that they could now address some issues which they had previously felt uncomfortable about. We provided additional one-to-one coaching support for those delegates with particularly challenging issues to address, and in a follow up session in which the group shared and learned from each other's experiences.