Introduction to CoachingOurselves by Henry Mintzberg

Equipping AAT leaders with sustainable management capabilities

The following is a wonderful case study describing published by our Australian partner and friend, Monica Redden. It describes her use of the CoachingOurselves tools to equipping the leaders and managers of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Australia with sustainable management and leadership capabilities

Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Australia

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has seven offices operating across Australia and provides independent review on the merits of a wide range of administrative decisions made by the Australian Government and some non-government bodies.  In each District Registry, a Deputy President or Senior Member is appointed Executive Deputy President. The Executive Deputy President and the District Registrar are responsible for local registry management.

The role of the District Registrar is typical of a senior manager’s position with responsibility of staff management; retaining good communication and cooperation between administration and judicial systems; responsibility for overall management of the state office; engagement of internal and external stakeholders as well as contributing to the national body of policy and operations.

In more recent years the AAT has focused on a long-term training and development strategy in-line with the Australian Public Sector leadership and management development strategy.  AAT is increasingly interested in organisational development and equipping its leaders and managers with sustainable management and leadership capabilities.   

The District Registrars (group of 7) have been using CoachingOurselves as a management development tool since 2011.  They first met face to face with Monica Redden, Australian Partner, CoachingOurselves International, who provided an overview and assisted with facilitating the first topic.  Since then the District Registrars have met monthly on teleconference and more recently videoconference with two face to face sessions when they have met at national seminars.  The following includes comments from Ms Athena Harris Ingall, Learning and Development Manager and some of the participant District Registrars.

Before CoachingOurselves ....

It is not that we wouldn’t ever get together before, we use to have hook-ups and things, but CoachingOurselves has given us a way to have guided discussion.  It focuses our thinking and the sharing of our experiences on a particular topic so that we can get some easy input from the topics but more importantly some fabulous experienced-based input from each other.  District Registrar.

Those of us who were friendly with each other relied on each other, CoachingOurselves has pulled everyone into the group and because of the way it is structured people participate.  District Registrar.

We were pretty much operating in a silo, there was some interaction between District Registrars depending on your personal relationships that you had developed over a period of time, but other than that it was fairly limited contact.  District Registrar.

I was looking for a tool that was sophisticated, but easy to use and would challenge these managers who are working in a legal environment to expand their knowledge on organisational management practices.  I wanted a more sustainable strategy for organisational development to equip leaders and managers with requisite skills to manage and cope with their increasingly demanding jobs.  Athena Harris Ingall, L&D Manager.

CoachingOurselves Sessions ....

Those in the group that are more reluctant are encouraged to participate and share their strengths and skills.  The structure of the topic means that everyone has to be engaged. 

The group reflects at the start of each session on how they have put things into practice since the last session; some are better at doing this than others.  District Registrar.

I like the fact that a group of managers who are regionally located around the country can come together once a month and talk about a relevant management issue and share each other’s ideas and get input from each other, it is just fantastic. District Registrar.

It is very difficult to keep connected when everyone is so far apart, we meet face to face very rarely, CoachingOurselves gives us an opportunity, with the video conferencing, to talk with each other and see each other.  District Registrar.

People are accessing and learning information for their own immediate use.  Athena Harris Ingall, L&D Manager.

Topics that have been particularly useful...

Introducing Culture in Organisations (by Sharon Turnbull) was really good, particularly as we are about to implement the new jurisdiction and we need to look really carefully at change and the impact culture has on change.  District Registrar.

Reflection (by Jonathan Gosling) was a great topic and really interesting, it made us all pause and think.  The Rewards of Recognition (by John Oliver) was good; I think that does not happen enough in workplaces both for us and for our staff-upwards and downwards and inwards and outwards-it was very good.  District Registrar.

The recent topic on Beyond Bullying (by Marilyn Aitkenhead) was very good; you would think as a manager that would be something you would already have in your kitbag of knowledge-but it was really good to review and reflect and made me act differently to a situation I had, it was very useful. District Registrar.

The subject matter is fairly open.  It has given us a forum more than anything. The subjects that we are choosing are things that we all struggle with or need assistance with from time to time. It gives us the ability to openly air our thoughts and listen to other people’s thoughts; you get some good ideas through those discussions.  District Registrar.

It has made a difference ....

It is a really good management tool.  It makes us more strategic.  It gives us ideas and gives us a forum to discuss things; we just seem to develop strategies that we can move forward with.  District Registrar.

There are opportunities in CoachingOurselves to think about ways you can do things differently.  It is up to you and whether you do them or not. For example, there has been some discussion on how people communicate and relate to each other and we have been able to bring different things and processes to our staff meetings and this has really helped.  District Registrar.

There is a greater feeling of camaraderie developed as a result.  District Registrar.

We are much more collegiate.  We realise we all have different problems but the same problems in terms of managing the registries and although the registries are different there are common themes.  District Registrar.

It has helped me as a manager...

It has given me an opportunity to explore topics that I am interested in and given me greater knowledge about those topics, but particularly as it relates to this environment.  It has also given me the opportunity to tap into the wisdom of my colleagues and their strategies for dealing with things which is really relevant to the workplace.  District Registrar.

I feel supported by my colleagues because I can talk about issues. They have issues too, so I feel less alone.  You can target to make it work for you and your workplace.  District Registrar.

Value for Money

It has been very good value in comparison with external training courses.  Where someone in Perth cannot get access to training and has to travel to Sydney, it costs as much for one course as it does for an annual license of CO.  District Registrar.

It is extremely good value for money for the content and the impact it has.  After the very positive feedback and experience of the District Registrars the program was expanded to other groups.  Athena Ingall-Harris, L&D Manager.

Advice to other managers...

It is a really good tool.  It feels from the outside maybe an hour and half is a lot; but really the benefit that you get is well worth the investment that you make.  It is not particularly costly, but it really builds relationships between colleagues and develops skills and provides examples and input.  District Registrar

It is a really good tool.  You can make it apply to your own situation and your own workplace.  It develops a greater sense of collegiality.  Those in the group that are more reluctant are encouraged to participate and share their strengths and skills.  District Registrar

One of the important things to do (lesson for others) was to properly prepare participants about the content that can be found in the CoachingOurselves topics and the role of the facilitators in the group.  We did this through the expertise of a trained facilitator (Monica Redden).

We found it very important to set timeframes and timing of meetings which are conducted on a monthly basis and never more than 90 minutes.

It is also useful to have a champion for implementation of the program, who is a senior manager, who can encourage or support the groups.  Once people engage with the program and start to obtain real advantage of the group and apply it to their own workplace, they are keen to maintain the schedule of meetings, even with their very busy and challenging workload.  Athena Ingall-Harris, L&D Manager.

Summary

This case study is interesting for a number of reasons.  It demonstrates the flexibility of CoachingOurselves such as adapting to teleconference and video conference sessions and also the money that can be saved by not paying costs for travel, accommodation and time lost.  It also highlights the real value of meeting together and strengthening the sense of collegiality and collaboration.  

Some of the examples where direct change has occurred as a result of a specific topic such as Beyond Bullying and Organisational Culture show how participants are selecting topics to meet their specific needs and interests and generating discussion that fits their organisation.  

Participants became more confident as they did more topics; participants are drilling down into issues through the sessions and recognised they have become more strategic and decisive.  An important lesson for CoachingOurselves is the importance of providing good information about topics and to encourage participants to ask for assistance on topics that might be of interest relative to issues the managers are grappling with. 

For more information on CoachingOurselves in Australia contact Monica Redden Consultancy online or at +61 8 8357 1296

For more information on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Australia and the approach to management and leadership development contact Athena Ingall Harris, athena.ingall@aat.gov.au

Leaders teaching leaders at Fujitsu Business Systems

The following story was written by Mr. Kentaro Iijima, the Corporate Senior Vice President of Fujitsu Business Systems Ltd., as a reflection on how they are using CoachingOurselves and how it is working.   

Fujitsu Business Systems has introduced CoachingOurselves in order to: 

• Adopt the essence of management theories from the IMPM,
• Improve management skills of middle-managers, and
• Promote interchange between the organizations within the company. 

A total of 125 participants will have completed the program at the end of 2010, which is equal to 20% of all the managers. In the beginning, we asked J.Feel, the Japanese partner of CoachingOurselves to facilitate the sessions, but now the alumni take the facilitator's role to guide their junior fellows. 

In order to facilitate by themselves, the alumni facilitators prepare the sessions in advance and facilitate their fellows with their actual experience in the company. Through the sessions they can hand down their skills and experiences to the fellows. 

By facilitating by themselves, the alumni can learn the contents of the sessions much more deeply. As a result, among the alumni facilitators and the fellows, atmosphere of community-ship is being created. We are confident that alumni facilitation is very effective and efficient. 

Written by FUJITSU BUSINESS SYSTEMS LTD. Corporate Senior Vice President, Mr. Kentaro Iijima   --  

Change and transformative learning at Nissan Motor Company

The following story was written by Ms. Chieko Kamiyama, a manager in the Global Marketing and Sales Planning Department, to express her experience with CoachingOurselves and those of her colleagues.   

Nissan Motors has introduced CoachingOurselves to its Planning and Design Department in the aim of improving the quality of management, especially the people management ability throughout the manager layers. Approximately 100 managers have participated in CO sessions for three years since 2008.  

Some managers commented, "It has been the best training program I've experienced over the 30 years since I joined the company." 

This is only one of many positive feedback statements that are given by the participants; the future participants also have high hopes for CO.


 “Through CoachingOurselves, I realized that it's very important for managers to have time for reviewing their team members & themselves regularly.  As I discussed various issues with my colleagues, I could find out many things about myself.  The findings are most proper, not novelties. The facts were that I couldn't execute some things well even though I understood their theories.  I believe that we can improve whenever, if we are aware of our failings, accept them and be eager to improve.  But actually it's very difficult to accept oneself as not being able to do things well.  This training made me realize that other people are also distressed but make an effort. It also gave me the opportunity to accept my failings.”   
Chieko KAMIYAMA Manager Global Marketing and Sales Planning Department Global Marketing Division

Reflection: a tool to create transformative leaders

"Thoughtful reflection on natural experience, in the light of conceptual ideas, is the most powerful tool we have for management learning."
Henry Mintzberg in Managers not MBAs

The idea of reflective learning is coming into focus as individuals, teams, and organizations begin to realize its benefits.  In Consider: Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking in Your Organization Daniel Patrick Forrester explained that reflection is "where meaning is created, behaviors are regulated, values are refined, assumptions are challenged, intuition is accessed, and where we learn about who we are." It sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

In Taking Another Look: Leading Minds on Reflection Part 1  John Kotter speaks about the need to develop a reflective habit. The reality of it is that most of us don't. But how can we move forward and learn from our experiences if we don't reflect? Simple daily reflection expediates our learning, expertise, and ultimately our growth as an individual that is part of something larger.

In Taking Another Look: Leading Minds on Reflection Part 4, Marshall Goldsmith, author of the CoachingOurselves topic FeedFORWARD instead of FeedBACK, argues that reflection is more important today than in the past. He says it is also more challenging in a world of constant stimulus where information is coming at us from all ends. We must find the time to stop and think, even though our lifestyles force us to focus on our ability to act.

When we stop and think, we learn something about ourselves along the way. But what do we do with this new-found information? Jeremy Hunter, also in Taking Another Look: Leading Minds on Reflection Part 4, reminds us that just because we know something about ourselves doesn't mean this new-found knowledge will suddenly change our behaviour. We may know the resulting action, but not necessarily the trigger, or how to control the way we act once we've been pushed over the threshold. The answer is that it's all about reflection in the moment, in our daily lives.

So we've mastered the art of relfection, or at least our understanding of it, but how do we go about doing it? Our intuition often tells us that reflection is something to be done alone, by oneself. But reflection is something that can be done with others. It is not just about an individual, but it is also about other people we interact with and how our actions affect them, their work, and so on. Therefore, it is not only possible but also essential that we are taking the time to reflect on our weekly happenings with our management team, our family, and our friends.

Daniel Patrick Forrester's research, author of Consider, says that we can't afford not to take the time to think and reflect.

CoachingOurselves: Reflective Learning

With the CoachingOurselves tools, enterprise learning professional design leadership programs that leverage reflective learning and the power of peer group learning. The process of having managers gather in small groups for 90 minutes of reflection and discussion ensures learning from experience, and from one another. It helps create a reflective habit, which is crucial for leaders in today`s complex business environment.

A young, enthusiastic MBA was finally given the opportunity to apply his learning....

“A young, enthusiastic MBA was finally given the opportunity to apply his learning. He was asked to carry out a survey of a group with which he was not normally familiar and submit recommendations as to how its efficiency could be increased. 

He selected as his target a symphony orchestra. Having read up on the tools of the trade, he attended his first concert and submitted the following analysis:

a.         For considerable periods, the four oboe players had nothing to do. The number of oboes should therefore be reduced, and the work spread more evenly over the whole concert program, thus eliminating the peaks and valleys of activity.

b.         All twenty violins were playing identical notes. This would seem to be an unnecessary duplication, so the staff of this section should be cut drastically.

c.         Obsolescence of equipment is another matter warranting further investigation. The program noted that the leading violinist’s instrument was several hundred years old. Now, if normal depreciation schedules had been applied, the value of this instrument would have been reduced to zero and the purchase of more modern equipment recommended long ago.

d.         Much effort was absorbed in the playing of demisemiquavers, which seems to be an unnecessary refinement. It is recommended that all notes be rounded up to the nearest semiquaver. If this were done, it would be possible to use trainees and lower-grade operatives more extensively.

e.          In many cases, the operators were using one hand to hold their instruments. The introduction of a fixture would free that hand for other work. Also, it was noted that excessive effort being used by the players of wind instruments whereas, one compressor could supply enough air for all the instruments – and under more accurately controlled conditions.

f.          Finally, there seemed to be too much repetition of some of the musical passages. Therefore, scores should be pruned to a considerable extent. No useful purpose is served by repeating on the horns something which has already been handled by the strings. It is estimated that, if all redundant passages were eliminated, the whole concert time of two hours could be reduced to twenty minutes and there would be no need for an intermission.”  

(Published more or less as above in the mid 1950s in an American professor’s bulletin, a Canadian military journal, and Harper’s Magazine, based on an anonymous memorandum circulating in London and probably published originally in Her Majesty’s Treasury of the Courts) 

Thanks to Henry Mintzberg for referring me to this article!

Leadership Development: It's the process...

Following every Fad?

Some people seem to always be looking for the things that could make them a better leader; the 7 habits of effective people, the 21 laws of leadership, the 12.5 strengths of leaders, top ten leadership tips, and so on. But reading a book that boils it all down to 7 habits, or 21 laws and then trying to follow them on a daily basis never really worked for me. My world doesn't work like that.

I find the process of personal change is, well, a process. It takes time. It's hard to change who you are and what you do. You have to think hard about yourself. You have to take the time to fight yourself sometimes. You regress, you get back on track. It is a lot of work.

Many years back, I started my own path to change and it took years of constant effort. The Tony Robbins type thing where you visualize yourself being a "good" leader and then you will be a good leader never worked for me.

I came to the conclusion the only way to change is to take the time to make it happen. It could be an hour to go to the gym every second day, or a 30 minute reflective walk with a close colleague during lunch once a week. But it takes time and constant effort.

In my case, it was an hour a week with my management team during which we used a process McGill’s Henry Mintzberg taught me through his book Managers Not MBAs. This was a process of weekly reflection in light of conceptual ideas with the management team.

CoachingOurselves session in 2003

So I began a process of weekly learning meetings. I did not commit myself to a specific outcome. I let the reflections take use where ever they want to go, so long as we focused on becoming better leaders.

Much to my surprise, it turned out that being a better leader simply meant carving out the time to think and work on becoming a better leader. In the end there is no short term to this journey. You simply need to focus on the process not the end result. And the result will be more than you can imagine when you first start.

I, personally, took control of my management and leadership style. I maneuvered my career into a space where I can be the kind of manager that makes me happy and has the impact that makes me proud.

So please enjoy yourself, read your books and inspiring articles. But nothing is going to happen until you take the time, on a regular basis, and work on it. It is the process of good hard work that makes things change, and that takes time!

Click here for CoachingOurselves themed discussion topics for individual management teams. 

A fun, short 90 second animated video on how I learned about leadership with Mintzberg, you can watch it at: http://youtu.be/ZFmJhD2F4mE