E-Newsletter
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IntroductionWe didn’t see you at our ‘Confident Communication’ seminar in Our delegates told us the issues they face which included:
The seminar also explored how confident communication can help create cultural change. David Aberdeen, HR Manager for Environment Agency Wales (EAW) explained how the organisation took 750 people on a journey to become confident advocates of the organisation. The mission: to become ‘Reasoned, Active, Vibrant and Confident’ communicators.
Prompted by the launch of a new corporate strategy, the work was positioned as a people development programme, rather than an internal communications project. And this is an important aspect that struck a chord with our seminar guests… how, by appealing to emotions and by connecting at a deeper level, it is possible to create a willingness among a group of people to change behaviour and alter they way they communicate.
One of my favourite pieces of rhetoric for communication style is by Martin Luther King. He spoke with energy, passion, and he used appropriate language – yes. But also he took people on a journey by making an emotional connection. One thing this orator didn’t say was, ‘I have a project plan today!’ He did make his vision real for his audience… and this is how EAW approached its people; the communications work was made to relate to the passion and commitment staff feel for the environment, to their sense of worthiness. Each element of the communications programme had to link back to a simple, salient question: ‘This helps the environment because….’
Seminar delegates began to see how they might apply a similar approach to the cultural communications challenges in their own organisations.
Read more about the EAW ‘Confident Communication’ programme below. To receive a DVD of David Aberdeen’s presentation and hear the results of EAW’s investment, please email lizzie.jordan@tsoconsulting.co.uk
I hope you find the output from our event interesting and useful. If you have any thoughts or questions and would like to discuss them, please contact me at lyn.bicker@tsoconsulting.co.uk
With kind regards, Lyn Bicker
'RAVC' communicatorsThe story of how 750 people at Environment Agency Wales (EAW) became Reasoned, Active, Vibrant and Confident communicators is compelling.
The journey brought together people with very different roles across a range of levels in the organisation to learn the skills and self-assurance to become effective advocates for EAW. At the seminar HR Manager David Aberdeen explained EAW’s objectives; that within three years its customers and colleagues will be more aware of the Environment Agency, of EAW’s work in their communities and what the organisation stands for. People will feel a greater sense of trust in EAW’s advice and see it as the authority on environmental protection.
A key driver for the need for cultural change at EAW was the launch of a new corporate strategy, Creating a Better Place. The associated communications challenges for EAW people focussed on:
To achieve all this EAW staff needed to understand why a new approach to communication and behaviour is necessary; and understand how this can benefit the environment, and them - professionally and personally. EAW realised the values-base of most staff meant that the ‘green connection’ to any change proposition had to be explicit if people were to accept it.
EAW wanted its people to be able to talk with passion and confidence about its work and be proactive in relating this to the needs and expectations of its various audiences. Important in achieving these objectives would be good leadership – the top team had to be seen to be credible and demonstrate the requisite skills.
Programme elements
Key components of the development programme were self-assessment questionnaires, 360° feedback and one-to-one coaching for EAW’s top team, ‘Vibrant Voice, Confident Communication' workshops with Central School for Speech and Drama who taught practical communication techniques with skills used by trained actors; a series of one-day conferences with partners – these gave EAW people opportunities to demonstrate their improved partnering and communication skills; and opportunities for development activity at local team level.
Tangible results
The development programme was delivered over 12 months and closed in March 2006. Evaluation to date reveals: EAW has higher ratings than all other EA regions in an annual staff survey that includes 12 measures on communications, change and culture:
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