Category Archive: Blog

  1. Are Companies Utilizing Engagement Analytics for Success?

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    In the fast-paced landscape of today’s workplaces, understanding and nurturing employee engagement is paramount for organisational success. At the heart of this endeavour lies Engagement Analytics, a powerful tool that delves into the intricate dynamics between employees and their work environment.

    Measuring Expectations, Fostering Fulfilment

    Engagement Analytics serves as a compass, guiding organisations through the labyrinth of employee expectations and fulfilment. It meticulously gauges one’s employment expectations and evaluates the extent to which they are met within the organisational framework.

    Imagine having a panoramic view of your workforce’s sentiments, aspirations, and contentment levels. The Organisational View for Engagement encapsulates this essence effectively.

    From frontline employees to C-suite executives, Engagement Analytics paves the way for tailored engagement strategies that resonate with each individual. By leveraging data-driven insights, organizations can craft initiatives that address specific pain points, foster a culture of inclusion, and nurture a sense of belonging among their workforce.

    How many departmental heads and team leaders would like to have the type of employee engagement expectation data shown in the attached graph?   Good staff are expensive to replace – finding ways to keep them is crucial for productivity, keeping  costs down and generally enhancing cultures to  create attractive working environments. Expectations are divided into 8 groups, and participants are invited to score their degree of satisfaction within each group. This gives the team leader the opportunity to have a progressive coaching discussion and has the added impact of showing employees that managers are looking after their interests. The result – open, collaborative cultures with real employee expectations being met as far as humanly possible.

    Visualise your Group Data

    This is a snapshot of the high-level Organisational Analytics data available just across Employee Engagement Expectations. You can also get data for your people and your organisation on:

    • Senior and emerging leadership competency
    • Culture of your organisation
    • Collaboration and Team competencies
    • Team Dynamics
    • Emotional Intelligence competencies
    • Remote Working competencies

     

    How helpful would this data be for informing your people development plans, culture and engagement programmes and succession plans?

    You can find out more about Organisational Analytics here. leaders skills and competencies

    If you would like to discuss how Organisational Analytics can help support your business objectives and people plans please contact Pat Hutchinson: pat@quadrant1.com or on 07768 922244

  2. What on Earth does Harrison Assessment have to do with Personal Values?

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    Let me explain –

    The following model is affectionately referred to as the Alignment model in Leadership Development Circles.  From top to bottom it suggests that at the highest level we have a purpose in everything we do from our existence to our reasons for attending a meeting or having a conversation with a loved one.  In the pursuit of achieving that purpose we adopt an identity – What role am I in playing in the achievement of said purpose?  Am I a learner, a facilitator, an information giver, listener, friend or something else?  What is important to me about this purpose, ie, what values do I hold and what beliefs support these values? As a team leader what do I value most, the achievement of the task by a certain time or the development of the team in the pursuit of achieving the task?  What skills and capabilities have to be in place to achieve the purpose and ultimately effect a change in behaviour which will have a positive impact on our surroundings or environment.

    All too often as human beings we judge the behaviour of a person, team or organisation as it’s the bit we see and are affected by.  Taking a step back to wonder what beliefs and values sit behind the behaviour often presents alternative conclusions.

    So let’s take a look at the Harrison paradox report – a report which derives from the behavioural preferences of the inputter.  For more on this excellent assessment check out my website at www.quadrant1.com.  The following set of paradoxical behavioural traits has been taken from a set of 12 which indicate an overall approach to work based on behavioural preference.

     

    The ability to combine warmth and empathy with enforcing the agreed rules would result in a flexibility of behaviour we call  ‘compassionate enforcing’.  In the example given, however, there is a strong tendency towards warmth and empathy and a low desire to enforce the rules.  Relate this back to the model and you can see that these two axes represent the personal values of the person and the resulting behaviour is one of permissiveness.  The unconscious (or sometimes even conscious) behaviour of others around could be to ‘take advantage’ with all the consequential outcomes that permissiveness brings.  The large red hurricane in the ‘harsh’ quadrant is an indication of what happens when this person is put under pressure – maybe to achieve a deadline or target of some sort.  Behaviour suddenly goes against the value set of warmth and empathy and becomes harsh, taking all by surprise because it is out of character. Depending on how this person manages their stress this may even be perceived as their normal behaviour if it happens often.

     

    Here’s another example – this time with another layer of detail represented by the trait requirement for a specific role (hence the colours).

    This paradox represents the communication style of the person and, in my opinion, is probably one of the most important of the 12 paradoxes because it is the bit that people hear, see and feel and therefore make instant judgements upon.

    Imagine a normal behaviour which appears totally in the top left, ie blunt.  It would suggest a high value around frankness resulting in blunt behaviour which is generally accompanied by body language.  I have often heard people with this pattern refer to themselves as ‘honest’ which by definition would appear to mean that they believe people with the opposite style are dishonest.  Not true of course!  They may just not want to hurt feelings or get into an argument.  But think of the consequences this extreme behaviour could have – how many great ideas are they missing, or problems they are not being informed about, what impact are their beliefs around frankness having?

    I have discussed just two of the 12 paradoxical graphs here and emphasized the importance of accessing the values and beliefs behind unproductive behaviours if we have any hope of changing them.  The Harrison Assessment system has so much to offer matching people to job roles, assessing potential leaders and job satisfaction for individuals and teams.  I have watched it contribute greatly to culture change and reduce staff attrition rates.  In a world where mental health issues are becoming so prevelant doesn’t it make sense to start with behavioural preference awareness?  I am a great believed in prevention rather than cure.

    If you would like to know more about the Harrison Paradox approach, you can email pat@quadrant1.com or give me a call on 44 (0)7768 922244.

  3. TRUST – the reality of this Company/Personal ‘Value’

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    When was the last time someone betrayed your trust?  I bet you remember it clearly.  You will have experienced a series of emotions – first of all hurt then maybe anger, shock, frustration, annoyance at having trusted in the first place or maybe even pity that the person/organization was put in that position in the first place due to unforeseen circumstances. Whatever the emotional reaction there will have been some change in behaviour, however minute.  As a result you may have decided –

    • Never to trust that person/organization again
    • Seek revenge or retaliate in some way
    • Carry on but tread carefully
    • Tell everyone you know this person/organization can’t be trusted in an attempt to protect your circle of employees, friends etc.

    Outcome vs Value

    So what happened?  In his excellent article of 23rd March 2023 Payton Shand advocates that Trust should be an outcome not a value.  He argues that everything the company/person does should be geared towards building trust.  Trusting without first testing the water would appear to be rather foolish and can catch us out.

    It’s probably true to say that we formulate our approach to trust based on our own perception of it – “I wouldn’t do it so don’t expect anyone else to” which can be open to mis-interpretation and mis-understanding.

    Often trust is broken when a more important value comes into play.  We see this in governments all the time in the form of broken manifestos and in companies when profit is threatened.

    Organisational values

    Companies often pride themselves in including ‘Trust’ or ‘Trustworthiness’ in their company values but what does it actually mean?  The question to ask is ‘if I was to walk round your organization and see everyone behaving in a trustworthy manner, what would that look like?’  Trust me to do what exactly?

    • Get to work on time?
    • Meet deadlines and targets?
    • Not to overspend on budget?
    • Be kind and considerate to my colleagues?
    • Always own up when something goes wrong?
    • Keep my word?
    • Keep the office surroundings tidy?
    • Call out inappropriate behaviour?

    Trustworthiness will very definitely mean different things to different people and will almost certainly be called out when another value takes over.  Define it clearly and make it an outcome not a value!

     

    Pat Hutchinson, Quadrant 1 International Ltd  pat@quadrant1.com

  4. Harrison Assessments wins Silver award

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    The Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Technology Awards

    Harrison Assessments wins Brandon Hall Group Silver award for excellence in the Best Advance in Technology for the Remote Workforce

    Harrison Assessments wins Silver

    Harrison Assessments are proud to have been acknowledged with a coveted Brandon Hall Silver Award for excellence in the Best Advance in Technology for the Remote Workforce category.

    We are honored to be recognized for our Remote Work Behavioral Competencies which reveal key behaviors needed for remote workers and leaders who manage remote workers to be successful. This advanced functionality provides real-time data that enables targeted development on both a group and individual level for a personalized approach to development.

    Dr Dan Harrison, CEO.

    Proud to be associated

    As Managing Partner for Harrison Assessments UK, I am again proud to be associated with the winning of this prestigious award.  Harrison Assessment Talent Solutions offers a one stop, highly accurate approach to talent solutions based on what makes people successful in the workplace and this recognition is so valuable.

    Previous accolades

    In 2022 Brandon Hall Group, the leader in Empowering, Recognizing, and Certifying Excellence in HCM, announced that Harrison Assessments was certified as a Smartchoice® Preferred Solution Provider, confirming that Harrison Assessments delivers the most accurate and effective assessment tools in the industry.

    In 2014, Harrison Assessments achieved the Silver Award in the category for Best Advance in Succession Management Technology and Tools in the Future of Work Awards for it’s work on Assessment Based Recruiting Campaign Management.

    Know more

    You can read the full recent Silver Award press release here and you can read our previous post on Remote Working Analytics here.

    If you would like to know more about how this unique approach to talent solutions can support your organisation do get in touch.

     

    Pat Hutchinson, Quadrant 1 International Ltd  pat@quadrant1.com

  5. Is that meeting really necessary?

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    Making Your Meetings Matter - CareerPlug

    Several years ago I worked with an organisation who called their UK sales reps into a meeting every Monday morning to report on the previous week.  There were at least 30 and each one had to contribute.  They were allowed to take their laptops into the meeting so the practice was for each rep to continue working whilst waiting for their turn to speak.  Effectively no-one except the Sales Director was actually listening to each presentation.  Add up the cost of all these salaries, the travel costs and the cost of lost time potentially speaking with customers and this was an extremely expensive exercise.

    Of course, things have changed now – the pandemic has probably been responsible for the explosion in on-line meetings which of course are less time consuming and require less travel.  Commendable for all sorts of reasons.  So why is it I still hear of people switching off the camera, carrying on with emails, eating their breakfast and, in one case, going to take a bath while the meeting is in progress?

    Regular meetings usually lose their flavour after a while and become a chore.  I’ve even heard people say ‘Crikey we’ve got XYZ meeting coming up – what are we going to talk about?’  What a complete waste of everyone’s time!

    Making Meetings Valuable

    The best way to evaluate your proposed meeting is to use the Alignment model as follows –

    Purpose

    What is this meeting for? What do you want people to DO as a result?  If it is just information dumping then send them a report, a spec, product release notes or something else – don’t waste their time in a meeting with all the associated costs.

    Identity/Role

    Who needs to be there and what role are they playing – facilitator, action taker, expert, learner, explorer.  If people don’t have a role to play don’t invite them – they will thank you for it!  Equally if you get invited to a meeting where you have no perceived role then have the courage to ask if its necessary for you to be there and what role you will be expected to play.

    Values/Beliefs

    Is this meeting important and, if so, what is important about it and to whom?  What do you believe about the outcomes?  Are they positive beliefs or negative?  If negative can you reframe them into something positive and look for the possibilities so that you don’t arrive at the meeting as a ‘naysayer’?

    Capability

    If the stated outcomes for the meeting are agreed upon do you and the organisation have the capability to carry them through?  If not what’s missing and how are you going to fill the gap?  Do you have the resources to do so?

    Behaviour

    If you achieve this outcome what behavioural changes would you expect to see in the organisation or team?  Are these acceptable and do they add value to the organisation?

    Environment

    How would achieving this outcome impacted not only your immediate environment,  but that of the team, the organisation and even possibly the community?

    Taking these few simple steps before setting up a meeting will help you to –

    • Stay focused
    • Maintain employee engagement
    • Cut costs
    • Achieve outcomes
    • Free up time

    Happy meeting!

    > > DOWNLOAD A FREE PDF OF THE Q1 MEETINGS ALIGNMENT MODEL < <

    Pat Hutchinson, Quadrant 1 International Ltd  pat@quadrant1.com

    PS – When you try this approach, please do write to me and let me know of your successes!  I look forward to hearing from you.

Quadrant 1 International