Our development planning and delivery comply with BEQUAL best practice. We seek participant and stakeholder feedback and follow-up and apply robust research methodology to our piloting and evaluation. We also have quality management processes in place, including internal and external validation for our qualification programmes.
We are sensitive to cultural differences and embrace the diversity of our participants. Our inclusivity processes – for management and leadership development in particular – are externally validated and we use psychometrics which are validated across cultures.
We also have experience of carrying out Equality Impact Assessments on policies as well as development interventions.
In order to deliver an excellent service to internal and external customers, both managers and staff alike must deliver a consistent service experience that reflects the emotional values of the Organisation at every touch point, whether directly with a manager, through interaction with systems or the wider public. Communicating the right message to clients is the difference between customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, so we encourage managers to understand and experience their own service environment through the Organisation’s values and vision.
Typically, our approach would include:
- All NDC staff would model the Organisation’s values throughout the project and step into the Organisation’s values through a strategic process.
- The Organisation’s values will be reinforced with a Motivation and Values questionnaire (MVPI) to see how closely the current staff matches the values of the council and the psychometric results would be analysed within the framework of the Organisation’s Core Values.
- In feedback sessions, we would discuss the alignment between psychometric results and the Organisation’s Core Values
- Personal development plans would be developed based on embodying the behaviors of the Organisation’s Core Values.
- Participants would be encouraged to set and achieve ambitious outcomes.
- Culture, Vision, Values and the Leadership and Management framework would be further reinforced through coaching interventions.
- Coaching, through its reflective nature and accountability processes, would, in particular, focus on Learning Effectively, while supporting outcomes in the other areas.
- A mentoring programme can be designed to embody the Organisation’s values by encouraging learning from others, building partnerships and personal responsibility.
- All workbooks and materials used during training would be branded with core values running throughout.
- An evaluation process would be designed around an evaluation framework which would also measure the core values of the Organisation and the behavior that those values elicit.
This skills development enables managers to
- Recognise what the behaviours look like in their context
- Be committed to embodying the Organisation’s competencies
- Have the skills to effectively demonstrate the competencies
- Be able to identify, communicate and develop competencies in their staff
During training we highlight where learning outcomes and topics cover competencies. Through group discussion and Interactive TheatreTM, managers experience and develop approaches which demonstrate the competencies.
Within the development events, using dedicated exercises, we also focus on recognizing when competencies are being fulfilled (or not met) in oneself and others. We use case studies and Interactive TheatreTM to practice these crucial skills so as to give high quality behavioural feedback to staff and assist them in planning their own development.
In our preparation we ensure that these exercises are scripted to match the Organisation’s competencies as well as its context, culture and language.