Staff Engagement
The task of influencing individuals and groups to come along on a journey of change is essentially a task of internalisation. Today’s organisational challenges often demand employees give up long held practices and habits that once provided a sense of identity and competence, in favour of new and untried methods and ways of relating. To achieve this, people must feel personally connected with those around them, working together towards a meaningful goal with which they personally identify. Inhere consults with leaders – and those charged with the responsibility for adaptive change – on how to connect with their staff on issues that matter; how to create an environment for people to show up differently, take risks and share all important data; to work productively with voices of difference, politics and the inevitable defensive routines.
In addition to offering consultation on improving engagement outcomes for specific in-house client projects or changes, Inhere intrinsically builds-in engagement methodologies in the design for all of its services.
The context for staff engagement:
- results from culture survey results are less than desired
- organisation downsizing, closures or sell offs requiring ongoing performance and additional effort from employees
- organisational changes involving people needing to change practices, ways of thinking and relating
- introduction of new service delivery models
- client survey feedback results are less than desired
Facilitation
With specialist expertise in participatory processes, diverse facilitation techniques and group relations, the Inhere team designs and facilitates large scale forums through to smaller more intimate meetings for groups to address important matters productively.
Why facilitation?
Making decisions about strategic direction and planning, holding team discussions on contentious or difficult topics, making changes to organisation structure, solving service problems systematically are all examples of possible goals for bespoke design and facilitation. Recent examples range from:
- strategic planning conference for 120 senior academics in a Victorian university
- executive retreat for C-Suite personnel to address team identity, relationships and goal alignment
- collaboration project for team leaders in a remotely located human services organisation
In line with our practice of enabling systems capability, Kate and her team work with their clients to assess whether external or internal facilitation is most appropriate given their specific context and resources. Where relevant, Inhere co-designs and coaches leaders to facilitate their own workshops and group meetings.