Your programme: Case Studies

Learn how three associations benefited from their own Changing Conversations Programme

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A selection of case studies of programmes that have been delivered:

  • Volunteer Excellence Programme - View
  • Step In and Up - View
  • Work Engagement Programme - View

Volunteer Excellence Programme

A bespoke programme of training and coaching supporting volunteers to contribute more and get more out of their experience.

Background

The Association has approximately 30 to 40 volunteers comprised of Regional Representatives and Council Members.  They wanted to invest in their volunteers by providing a programme to support them to grow in 8 communication contexts.

Aims

The aims were:

  • Create an excellent programme of training and coaching for volunteers
  • Invest in volunteers to enable them to contribute more to the Association
  • Support volunteers develop new skills that will enhance their career

Solution

A programme of training and coaching was developed, designed and delivered, tailored to the needs of the organisation and participants.

The themes of the training focussed on developing communication skills across a range of contexts from meetings and presentations to mentoring, influence and impact to public speaking.

The coaching addressed the themes of Time Management and Leadership Development.

Impact

Training workshops:

  • Take Up: 47 delegates across 10 workshop sessions.
  • Feedback: 75% rated training content as Excellent with 25% rating it Good. Likewise for the Speaker.

“Well balanced.”

“The sessions were full of useful and practical content”

“Worked well despite being virtual”

“Learnt a lot about me”

“Format is good with regular pauses to discuss points”

“Lots of practical tips”

“Reminded me of things I’d forgotten”.

Coaching:

  • Take Up: Nine volunteers took part in the coaching programmes.
  • Feedback: Verbal feedback:

“I have a better understanding of what I need to be productive in my work and volunteer role”

“The coaching sessions were transformative, a truly remarkable experience for me.”

“I feel more confident and more focused on the job at hand.”

“I am looking forward to using what I have learnt moving forward in my career.”

Better conversations make progress possible. And even when the going gets rough, better conversations can make it more bearable. Better conversations will support your organisation to get to where you want it to be and travel in style.

Step In and Up Programme

A bespoke coaching programme designed to support members of staff at this Association making a step up in their career.

Background

The Association was experiencing changes, their response to which necessitated some changes to the roles of key team members. Some were promoted, some were seeing their existing job expanding and some were asked to change roles within the organisation. The Association recognised that explaining the changes and issuing new job descriptions was one thing. Bringing them about in the real world was another matter.

Whilst a person’s role or responsibilities can change overnight, their response to that change, how they step into and up to it, is not the work of a moment. It requires effort and guts. How they respond is the ‘real’ work. And the Association decided to support their people with coaching to enable them to do this work.

Aims

The overall aims of the coaching were to support the individuals to:

  • Create a clear idea of what their new contribution can be
  • Explore and discover how they can go about making it
  • Determine what support they need from others in order to do so
  • Deliver a confident and capable performance in their new role

Solution

A programme of six coaching sessions was devised. Each programme was co-created with the coachee and the organisation, to meet the needs of both by supporting the coachee to step into their new role or take on their new responsibilities.

A six-step roadmap was devised that could be flexed to reflect what was needed that included the following phases:

  • Getting set
  • Looking ahead
  • Stepping back
  • Exploring possibilities
  • Creating the way forward
  • Reflecting

Impact

Verbal feedback from participants

“I’m now making the most of my new role which began during the coaching process. I would highly recommend this coaching plan to anyone who needs that little extra push.”

“I’m now planning and preparing more effectively, reflecting, and reviewing my performance, to better understand if I’ve achieved my objectives, all of which are essential in my new role.”

The WE Programme

A webinar series designed to support members to have better conversations with each other while working remotely.

Background

The new ways of working brought about by the pandemic, required some fresh ideas on how to approach communication. This Association decided to respond to the challenges their members were facing by offering support to them around how to make the most of their communication with each other over video.

Aims

The goals for the work were to

•   Expand members capabilities for understanding others

•   Enable members capabilities to be better understood themselves

•   Support them to be more comfortable and capable when using this understanding over video

Solution

“The WE (Work Engagement) programme”: Engaging better, one conversation at a time. The programme consisted of two 90-minute webinars designed to get the members thinking and developing their approach to communication in the new world.

Part 1: Better Conversations: Shared the fundamentals of conversations. This provided new ideas and tools to expand their options and increase flexibility when communicating with each other.

Part 2: Video Stars: shared the tools to put these fundamentals into action over video.

The Link: The sessions were linked by self-designed experiments for delegates to undertake in the space between part 1 and part 2.

Impact

  • Take Up: 53 attendees for the first webinar and 40 for the second.
  • Feedback: 80% rated training content as Excellent or Good

Feedback from the Association:

“John’s experience in successfully delivering support training in areas such as public speaking, professional coaching or these bespoke online programs, meant he was able to adapt and reflect on the fast-changing world around us, taking the essence of an issue - resulting from the wholesale change in working practices - and incorporate solutions in a range of newly developed support packages.

“Everything John does, whether leading larger training programs or facilitating difficult coaching conversations, he does with the utmost professionalism, delivered in a personalised way that is sensitive, appropriate and proportionate.”


Share the journey you’re trying to make and take a step towards changing your conversations. 
To arrange an informal 45-minute conversation with John to explore the conversations in your organisation, drop him an email to john@johnscarrott.com