CASE STUDY

Organisation Medium sized further education institution Timescales Ongoing 2002-2003 Configuration Approximately 500 full time and 300 part time staff Self-governing; 65% of funding from public sources Culture Parochial, departmental structure with teams working in silos. Risk adverse, many staff in post for many years.  A number of recent events had dented substantially morale of staff. Background Institution due a government inspection in 2003. Inspection reviews the quality of all aspects of the management and operations of an education institution. There had been a ‘mock’ inspection early in 2003 by a national firm of consultants, which had de-motivated staff, many felt they had been ‘kicked by outsiders who were not at the chalk face’.  Senior managers wished to restore staff confidence. Brief Senior managers wished to restore confidence in the staff and were considering another mock inspection using another organisation. Whole college teaching staff required a positive approach to provide advice and support to their everyday activities, especially related to the management of their students. Develop a solution that would enable the staff to feel confident as they moved towards inspection and addressed a number of basic student management and learning skills: Staff team-building Improved teaching and learning in students Improved programme management Better communications between team members and between different teams Approach Developed a plan with senior management team to provide team observation (individual and collective) on site and to provide positive advice and guidance on good practice, and areas where practice might be improved.  This was set up as a ‘critical friend’ scheme. Delivery A single point of contact was established to co-ordinate the consultants and co-ordinate with the nominated senior management member. Methodology 12 individual consultants were identified to work with individual teams in the institution. Trainers were chosen for their people skills, understanding of the issues confronted by the staff and familiarity with the inspection process, but also their wide experience of dealing with teams in very variable contexts both in the private and public sectors.  Many of the teams that they were visiting had substantiate number of part time staff, some of whom had other employment in an industry related to their work in college, so there had to be maximum flexibility. The consultants visited at the convenience of the institution and at a time when the staff could demonstrate a range of activities, which they could discuss with the consultants Each had been briefed fully in terms of institution and individual expectations, nature of the observation work and reporting mechanisms required. Outcome Each team started to share their concerns and find common solutions to improve the quality of what they were delivering. Teams and individuals felt re-motivated and did not feel that they were being criticised, but supported. Genuine efforts began to be made to make improvements to the management and operation of teams Problems and concerns For the first visit there was considerable scepticism on the part of the staff.  However, after only a few hours they realised that this was a supportive process and one, which provided genuine advice. Later visits from consultants were very positive in nature from the start. Additional benefits Re-motivation of staff, who even began to look forward to the forthcoming inspection. Team building within and across teams including more sharing of experiences across the organisation Individual teams were encouraged to continue to use the services of the consultants for ongoing support.