Case Study: Building a resilient, communicative culture

Problem

Outcomes First Group (OFG) is an organisation that supports children, young people and adults in need. For many people who work there, it is vocational and they give a lot of themselves in challenging roles. As a result, they are inherently at higher risk of mental health issues compared to the general worker population. Therefore, the need to provide a culture and support systems to help them stay healthy, resilient and well was of critical importance to OFG.  

 

Solution

NFP People and Talent proposed a leadership development programme to drive a culture change that focused on three key areas: Building trust, Mental health and wellbeing, and Open and effective communication. VoicePrint was deployed under the third theme of the programme. 

 

The end-to-end, OFG-tailored ‘Outstanding Leaders’ programme for 160 managers and leaders was delivered over a 2 year period and across 5 divisions including education, fostering, residential care and central services. The programme was designed over 2 tiers. Leaders participated in an 11-module programme, making use of the VoicePrint 360 reflection and feedback tool. Managers participated in a 9-module programme, making use of the VoicePrint Self Perception report. The content included Mindset, skill and behaviour topics included strategic leadership, influence and impact, effective communication, leading through change, mental health & wellbeing, and emotional intelligence delivered virtually over a 5-month period. 

 

Given the scale and ambition of the programme, and to enable VoicePrint to become a key tool more broadly in the organisation, OFG invested in their own Learning and Development team becoming VoicePrint practitioners to support the continuing use of the tool for the ongoing benefit of their people.

 

Impact

50 measurable outcomes were identified for this programme and OFG saw a positive shift in all 50. Items relating to the benefits obtained from VoicePrint included greater understanding of the barriers to effective communication, improved awareness of how people were communicating and the impact they were having, and increased skill in communicating to good effect. An average improvement of 32% was reported across all these measures.

 

Takeaway

Personally relevant insights and practical actions that individuals can identify through exploring their VoicePrint lend themselves not only to more effective management and leadership behaviours, but to improving team wellbeing and organisational culture. 

 

Contributed by Jo Bristow, NFP People and Talent