To quickly access an area of this page please select from the links below.

Background: Enterprise Inns is one of the largest leased and tenanted pub companies in the UK. I was contacted by one on the Divisional Directors (Richard) who had recently joined the organisation. Richard had a concern that, even though his division was performing well against other divisions in the company, there was a sense of complacency and lack of awareness of the potential impact of the current business climate.

The Challenge: To establish clarity around the divisional purpose and key business challenges; to agree business goals and actions; to create an environment where the people are capable of making 'wise' decisions in the moment.
Richard had very clear ideas on what was needed to improve the performance of the division, he was also clear that it was his leadership team that needed to deliver. 

The Consultancy Process: I invested time in having conversations with every member of the leadership team, listening to, and exploring their views and ideas of how the organisation was, and could, perform. I had conversations with Richard creating clarity around his ideas. We brought all this together in an 'off-site' meeting with the purpose of breaking down barriers and personal agendas; creating a 'shared purpose' and way of working; identifying the key business challenges and agreeing activity to improve the team performance and business performance. I believe the message is in the method. The off-site meeting was designed to create an environment where individuals could start to be honest with each other; could dare to do things differently; and could work on 'real' business challenges.

The Outcome: It requires more than one event for any change of behaviour, or activity, to stick. It requires a change in 'how' the leadership team operate as a team, and as leaders within the organisation. 
 
"Following the work Ruth and I did with the team, the industry entered one of the most challenging and traumatic periods on record. So the timing was excellent, as the work we did laid the foundation to guide the team through. A behavioural change from all of the team was vital; and since the session with Ruth, the team has realised that complacency was setting in and that repeating the same things year in year out was not going to bring sustainable results. Once this had been established the acceptance of the new goals became far easier and that, with the empowerment they were being given, came accountability. This led directly to more risk taking/innovative ideas being put forward and the division began to react with more pace and energy. This delivered two key results, firstly the ability to react quickly in a changing market and secondly people were enjoying their jobs more.   By having an understanding of the 'brutal facts', having clear goals and creating an environment where people are empowered, the Division is delivering the best like for like performance at the end of the year amongst the other sixteen divisions, and delivering a performance which was approximately 6% ahead of the industry average." Richard Ullman, Divisional Director. 

Sue Newton, People Director Protocol Skills tells her story...
When I joined Protocol Skills I employed Ruth Smith as a consultant to carry out a review of organisation effectiveness
 
At the time of the review the organisation was struggling financially and morale & motivation was very low. Colleague turnover was running at 44%.
 
Ruth Smith carried out a very thorough fact finding exercise across the business and identified key areas that needed to be developed within the areas of culture, organisation structure, training & system support.
 
With her support we were able to develop a 30. 60 and 90 day plan to put the business on a firm footing. This plan was delivered and immediately and made a noticeable difference. Particularly pleasing was that Ruth's recommendations enabled us to build on the talent in the organisation which had previously been unrecognised. This meant it has been sustainable from within the organisation.
 
Ruth has also helped on an ongoing basis with some executive coaching for newly promoted colleagues and this has been highly beneficial to the individuals & their performance.
 
The organisation has now delivered budgeted profit 2 years running and colleague turnover has reduced to 22% and there is no doubt that Ruth has contributed to that success.

Background: A Director of a facilities management organisation contacted me to help with how to 'implement' his business strategy. He was aware that he had worked up the strategy in isolation, and needed his team to commit to it so as they could then champion it throghout the organisation.

The Challenge: I was reminded by David MacLeod's quote in The Extra Mile, 'There is alignment – knowing what to do; and there is engagement – namely wanting to do it.' It seemed like we had both areas to look at here. After many conversations with the Director, (whereby he came to the realisation that a strategy is an intention, and can not guarntee the outcome; and that his team may be able to add some great value to his paper) we agreed that the immediate challenge was to create an understanding, within his immediate team, of the key business imperitives for the organisation and gain agreement on how these would be delivered. There would be further work with his immediate team on how to 'cascade' this throughout the organisation in an 'engaging' way.

The Consultancy Process: My view was, any activity needed to start with the leadership team to ensure a shared understanding across the whole of the division. The leadership team need to be 'talking the same language' and delivering the same message. I worked with the client and his team though four phases:

Stage 1: Leadership team meeting – off-site: The purpose being; to bring the key leaders of the business together to share their sense of the priorities for change. The off-site was designed to create the following outcomes; laying the foundations to create a 'high performing' team; the mobilisation of energy and commitment; a shared understanding of the business imperitives; the creation of a business plan identifying priority issues; exploration of the change required to deliver the business plan/strategy; agreement of how to communicate to the rest of the organisation.

Stage 2: Extended leadership team meeting: The purpose of this phase was to create a growing sense of ownership from the 'extended leadership team' to the changes required within the organisation. It was critical that the leadership team was seen to drive this process. This event produced the following outcomes; shared meaning of the strategic intention across this group of people; mobilisation of energy and an expressed commitment from the team; clear plans to initiate change activity to deliver the business plan.

Stage 3: Divisional team event: The purpose of this phase was to engage the majority of people in change activity creating ownership and commitment to the change process. During this phase we set up cross-functional working groups to work on different aspects of the business plan.

Stage 4: Managing the momentum: The purpose of this phase was to integrate identified development needs in to the process of delivering the agreed strategy. All development activity was designed and delivered (within the existing processes) as part of the progress towards the business aims.

The background: Mill House Inns was a privately owned Hotel/pub/restaurant organisation (which has since been bought by the Spirit Group). They had 52 businesses with sites across a wide geographic area throughout England. Each business was seen as a separate entity offering a service appropriate to the neighbourhood
customer base.
The company was in a dire financial situation and was underperforming in all areas of the business: falling sales and profit; increasing numbers of customer complaints; low employee morale.

The challenge: was to create a people plan to support the business turnaround in the areas of sales, profit, quality and people. The delivery of the company's purpose and vision could not be achieved without the full commitment of all 'colleagues' who were able and motivated to deliver their role within the organisation. With every colleague delivering their role willingly and well the organisation would see an improved performance in guest care, teamwork and productivity leading to the improvement of sales and profit.

I worked in partnership with the HR Director to design, develop and implement the 'people plan', which had three strands:
Recruit - Quality people in all positions with a focus on internal promotions
Train - All people trained to be effective in their current roles with accreditation where possible
Retain - All people appraised, developed, rewarded & recognised appropriately

For the purposes of this case study I want to focus on the 'train and retain' strand'. I worked with members of the operations team from all levels, ensuring the programme would be an integral part of the way Mill House Inns operates, changing behaviour in the work place.

The programme: We designed and implemented a learning programme for all levels of the organisation. I feel the following aspects of the programme helped ensure effective results: 

• It was owned by the whole company not just HRtype here
• The programme was strategy rather than ad hoc pieces of training deliverytype here
• It is very pragmatic so busy Managers see the benefits of using it and do not view it as "pie in the sky" and unrealisticype here
• The gaining of funding for accredited programmes meant that all colleagues of every age have been given the chance to get qualifications, something that was very important to them
• The programme covered all stages of development; attract and recruit; induct and train; retention and development; performance managementtype here
  Simple, easy to use tools were developed to help the line manager and the organisation validate and measure the improved performance.
  

The outcome: Although the programme cannot take full responsibility for the increase in the business financial state, it is accepted by the organisation that the training and development of all employees had a considerable part to play in the business survival. The benefits to the organisation are as follows; The employee survey showed increases across morale and capability measures; Majority of employees achieved the Food Safety Certificate and Health & Safety Certificate and were progressing on nationally recognised qualifications; Increased internal promotions; Increased Sales, profit and productivity: Improved experience for all customers: Achievement of a National Training Award.