THE BRIEF
Allianz Insurance is one of the largest general insurers in the UK and part of the Allianz SE Group, one of the leading integrated financial services providers worldwide and the largest property and casualty insurer in the world.
They recognised that there was a need for development of their new managers, who had been brought on-board after a large expansion drive.
Allianz wanted to identify their management potential and build the skills of their entire management team, many of whom were new to the company, along with others who had many years’ experience in the industry.
They wanted to develop their ‘softer’ skills, as the technical side of the job was taken care of by training and development inside the company. Any training carried out was to be aimed at evolving their management, coaching, delegating and overall leadership skills.
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THE SOLUTION
After analysing the overall outcomes required by Allianz, MTD developed a bespoke twelve-month programme that covered all aspects of leadership within the insurance industry. It was aimed at new and existing managers who had varied exposure to training and development.
Following a 360 review, a Myers-Briggs analysis and a Belbin report, material was developed that helped all participants to partake in line with their own particular learning styles.
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THE FEEDBACK
The programme was very successful. The feedback was excellent and there was an increase of 21% in the scores obtained from a pre and post-programme 360 degree exercise that was carried out. Allianz have continued to use MTD each year for different cohorts of their managers. Over 100 managers have now been involved in the development programme.
THE BRIEF
You will most likely recognise BBFC from the opening credits of a movie at the cinema – they are the people who classify the film as a PG, U, 12 etc.
They were looking at providing a ‘soft skills’ in-house training event for intermediate and line managers.
They wanted the training to focus upon managerial ‘soft skills’ such as communication – encompassing, amongst other topics, listening, asking and problem-solving; the course would also need to deal with team briefing, coaching and guidance, managing performance issues, creating an open culture, participation in decision making, and the development of good working relationships. BBFC also wanted the training to allow managers to understand their role, exploring the concepts of nurturing ability and skill, motivation and incentive, and the opportunity to participate.
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THE SOLUTION
A series of 2 day “Management Skills” courses were designed and delivered that covered all of the topics listed above and used training techniques such as accelerated learning, management development questionaires, role plays, team games and NLP.
The main focus was on learning practical skills that the managers could actually use in the workplace rather than lots of theory.
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THE BRIEF
The First Group are the largest bus operator in the UK running more than 1 in 5 of all local bus services and carrying 2.8 million passengers every day. They also operate freight services through GB Railfreight. First operates the Croydon Tramlink network carrying approximately 20 million passengers a year on behalf of Transport for London.
After a restructure they had 5 brand new managers who had never had any formal management or leadership training before so the requirement was to provide an in-house course that covered all of the main management disciplines so that they could be thoroughly prepared for their new roles.
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THE SOLUTION
A 3 day “Management & Leadership Skills” course was designed and delivered. This covered all of the main management activities – leadership skills, management styles, learning styles, coaching, appraisals, running one to ones, running team meetings, dealing with under performers, how to motivate your staff and team, time management, delegation, how to deal with difficult people and communication and assertiveness skills.
Their 5 managers went away with a toolbox of management skills ready and prepared for their new roles.
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THE BRIEF
Mirus is a non profit making organisation. Their aim is to empower people with learning disabilities to lead valued lives as participating members of local communities and to enjoy full citizens rights. The challenge that Mirus were facing was that it had managers of different ages and with different levels of experience.
Mirus wanted some management courses delivered to ensure that every manager and team leader had a set of tools that they could use to stop the spanish customs that had spread throughout the company when it came to managing their staff.
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THE SOLUTION
AA 2 day “Essential Management Skills” course was developed and delivered. The course covered all of the main disciplines associated with management and leadership excellence.
This included: Leadership for success, time management, effective delegation, coaching and providing feedback, performance management, effective communications skills, dealing with conflict and building high performance teams.
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THE BRIEF
The programme was first launched to the UK management population. It has since been rolled out to France, Poland and Spain. Over 200 managers have attended the programme, a great reflection in not only how successful it has been, but on the trust this global company places in MTD to assist in their overall management development.
Xerox had a need for developing their European management teams and turned to MTD to come up with the answers. The company required detailed cultural differences in the programmes, which were to be run in the UK, France, Spain and Poland.
Emphasis was to be placed on how their management team could strategise future working relationships with their European teams and how to keep up with the ever increasing demands of their customer base.
The programme needed to cover leadership skills and all the softer skills that would encourage good leadership practice to be rolled out throughout the teams that the managers were responsible for.
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THE SOLUTION
MTD devised a year-long programme for each country, run in the native language, highlighting the key components of leadership for each level of the organisation.
A series of five modules (10 days) was developed that covered the main essential components that make Xerox the company of choice for employees and clients alike.
Soft skills like leadership behaviours and styles were measured and applied after each module. Each manager had direct contact with their programme leader to discuss new elements of leadership that can be applied in their real world.
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THE FEEDBACK
The programme was first launched back in 2009 to groups in the UK, France, Poland and Spain. Since then, over 200 managers have attended the programme, a great reflection in not only how successful it has been, but on the trust this global company places in MTD to assist in their overall management development.
“We strongly recommend MTD as a training and coaching provider. For their professionalism and for the successful results we have achieved.” Maria Gomez – HR Manager – Xerox
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THE BRIEF
Great Western Railway (GWR) was looking for a transformational and enduring leadership development programme which focused on behavioural change and using best-practice benchmarks from within and outside the railway industry.
There were a number of game changing internal and external projects that were on the horizon so all of the middle and senior management layers within GWR needed to be equipped with the skills and techniques to be able to drive GWR through the change and on to the next level.
Traditionally there was a transactional culture within the organisation and many managers on the programme had little exposure to modern management techniques and the large geographical range and complexity of the rail network had led to some silo working.
The objective of the leadership development programme was to get their managers engaged with the inherent and future change of the organisation and to provide them with a toolbox of skills to be able to lead, motivate and develop their people.
THE SOLUTION
MTD designed and delivered an 18-month Leadership Development Programme (LDP) involving 75 senior and 280 middle managers within the organisation.
The programme included a mixture of workshops, DISC profiling, 360 degree feedback, eLearning, action learning sets and creating an online management academy.
A total of 5 trainers were used and workshops were delivered across 4 different locations. MTD’s administration department was responsible for all of the programme management.
THE FEEDBACK
The programme was accompanied by a rigorous evaluation piece that measured all 4 levels of the Kirkpatrick model. Here are some key highlights that were gathered just 4 months after the end of the programme:
- Internal training courses had a historic attendance rate of 75%. The LDP achieved 90%.
- Quality of the design of the programme achieved 4.9 out of 6
- Quality of the delivery of the programme achieved 5.3 out of 6
- 360 degree feedback scores – 11% improvement pre vs post programme
- Cost Savings – Managers saved GWR £494.7k due to actions taken from the programme
- Revenue Increases – GWR have had increases in revenues of £750.2k directly linked to actions taken from the programme
- Time Savings – Managers have experienced increases in time savings of 19% linked to actions taken from the programme
- Team Performance & Confidence – GWR’s middle and senior manager’s confidence increased by 37%
- A 33% increase in team performance due to the behaviours and skills learnt from the training.
Crucial development areas for GWR were a complete change in behaviour and culture with regards to Safety Leadership, and the programme achieved the following results:
- 30% reduction in accidents and incidents
- 22% increase near miss reports linked to safety behaviours
- 38% reduction of LTIs relating to unsafe behaviours
As a direct by product of the training, due to the improvements in business KPIs and crucial development areas, there was also a 33% increase in customer satisfaction.
THE BRIEF
Malvern Hills District Council identified that the quality of their leadership would be a vital factor in becoming one of the best performing District Councils in the country.
To that end, they wanted to develop their 50 managers to lead and drive the council forward and to bring some “commercial awareness” to how the district was being run. We were selected to design, implement and deliver their management development programme.
THE SOLUTION
After gathering and determining the requirements we designed and delivered a modular 6 month Management Training Development Programme and following on from that a Team Effectiveness and Organisational Learning strategy to be implemented throughout the council.
Within this particular solution, we wanted to ensure that:
- The managers were not taken away from the workplace for long periods of time.
- The MDP should be a mixture of training based modules and other learning activities that can be completed “at the office”
- A support structure is put in place that supports and aids the learning after a training event has taken place.
- Steps will be taken to measure the success of the MDP and to ensure that Malvern District Council has received “Value for money”
- The MDP should support the competency framework that has been developed and use this as a baseline to build skills and behaviours.
The Contents
The Management Development Programme Consisted Of:
- 6 Training Modules – each of 2-days in duration spread across the 6 months
- Each manager to receive 2 formal coaching sessions with a qualified coach
- 2 Work Based assignments to be completed throughout the programme
- Ongoing mentoring, support and guidance from each trainer
- Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the success of the programme – 360 degree feedback, interviews, assessments, behavioural and performance changes in the delegates
The Team Effectiveness & Organisational Learning Programme Consisted Of:
- Team planning and implementation away days
- Team building activities and events across areas of the council to break down barriers and promote high performance working
- Cross departmental working analysis on how work is constructed and how it all fits together across multiple areas
- Best practise sharing and performance improvement workshops to develop organisational learning capacity across the council
- Mentoring programme implemented throughout the council to foster and promote learning and development
THE FEEDBACK
“An excellent programme. I loved the inclusive approach. I am now going to be able to work much more closely with support staff so they understand my needs and I understand theirs”
Colin Davis – Strategic Director Operational Services
“The various assessments and questionnaires gave a great insight into my “comfort zones” in terms of styles and behaviours. I can now reflect on this and be aware that I may need to step back and modify my approach to certain situations”
Siobhan Moss – Accountancy Services Manager
“The programme completely met my needs. I really liked the way that leadership was applied to real life situations. I now know how to “lead” rather than “manage”. Thank you! It was a great opportunity for development”
Peter Gillett – Head Of Financial Services & IT
“It was a very enjoyable programme. A great team effort. I will now be able to look at the “bigger picture” rather than just my little piece of the council! Mark was an excellent tutor throughout the modules – thank you”
Hilary Law – Careline Services Officer