Action Learning Sets: Working together works

Network News Issue 1

Action Learning Sets are offered to our members who have purchased the Business Problem-Solving module. They have a particular subject focus or can build on topics from the collaborative problem solving workshops. They provide an opportunity for small groups of members to meet regularly and work together over a period of time to progress a particular issue whilst learning from each other, and being supported by IES consultants.

We have two new Action Learning Sets about to start, and one just coming to an end. Find out more from their expert facilitators…

Performance management | Mary Mercer, Wendy Hirsh

This year we have held an Action Learning Set focused on performance management, a topic perennially of interest to our Members. Members were split into two sets, a local government set and a set containing central government and private sector members. Each member organisation was invited to bring two or three representatives into the group and we encouraged representation from line management and employee groups as well as organisations’ HR representatives.

Each learning set has now met five times, on each occasion hosted by a member and facilitated by IES. In preparation for each meeting, the set would agree their theme and were invited to prepare their own thoughts or issues to share with the group with some research or scene setting by IES. Members were keen to share good practice and submitted materials which IES posted onto a Learning Set page of the IES website. The Action Learning Sets were well attended and each retained its members all the way through. Members liked the open-endedness of the meetings – although there was a theme they could explore in real depth and decide which issues to focus on. As expected, the inputs from the set members were much appreciated, especially concrete illustrations of different approaches tied to old problems. The final step for our learning set members is to get together in October as a whole group, to share learning and experiences.

Strategic workforce Planning | Dilys Robinson

The Strategic Workforce Planning Action Learning Set will have its first meeting in October. An important principle for Action Learning Sets is that they set their own agendas. To this end, the IES facilitators (Wendy Hirsh and Dilys Robinson) will be there to guide, draw on their own experiences, and facilitate access to the evidence – not to direct.

We expect the early discussion topics to include issues such as:

• Integrating workforce planning into the real processes of business planning
• What information do you need to hold to have a strategic workforce planning capability and how might business leaders want to see it?
• Getting organisational buy-in
• What is realistic in forecasting terms? The use of scenario planning andworkforce projection models
• Putting demand back on the map: activities and the size/types of the workforce to deliver these, productivity and organisation design
• Planning for capability (eg skills and attitudes) not just numbers
• Workforce planning, succession and talent management – how do they work together?
• Supply decisions and implications: hire or grow your own?
• Looking wider: the external labour market and how to use it strategically
• People reviews and evidence-based HR as new demands for workforce analytics and investigation.

Once under way, participants will define their own workforce planning issues and work on these between meetings.

Outstanding team leadership | Penny Tamkin

We know that great leaders do not exist alone. Previous research has highlighted how outstanding leaders operate through others. The best leave a legacy that outlasts them; building resourceful individuals and great teams that can display leadership for themselves and who can sustain high performance. This Action Learning Set will build on our research into outstanding leadership and new research on team effectiveness, and seek to explore what outstanding team leadership looks like. What are the lessons for organisations and team leaders?

We have examined existing research into outstanding leadership[1] to pick out specific ways in which outstanding leaders create sustained high performing teams and which reveals three core elements:

1. Respectful, meaningful relationships that have the capacity to celebrate individuals’ strengths whilst being part of a unified team
2. A positive environment of support, collaboration and improvement
3. A collective focus on the overall purpose that has the ability to unite everyone in their endeavours regardless of position.

Working with a small number of leaders and their teams from member organisations we will seek to apply our learning of outstanding team leadership to develop the performance and productivity of the team through direct interventions (one-to-one coaching, team coaching, Masterclasses, use of strengths-based instruments etc). We will carefully evaluate the outcomes of our interventions and report the results to all members.

If anyone is interested in being involved please contact Penny Tamkin

Footnote

[1] Tamkin P, Pearson G, Hirsh W, Constable S (2010), Exceeding Expectations; the principles of outstanding leadership, The Work Foundation, London