As Adelaide recuperates from yet another stunning and successful Fringe, the festival’s newly appointed CEO, Heather Croall steps into the role to build upon its popularity and reputation.   

J Squared Advisory was selected to undertake a national and international search to recruit a new CEO for the Adelaide Fringe as the highly successful and respected Greg Clarke is leaving after 5 years at the helm. The search was international because the reputation and popularity of the festival means that it is held in high esteem not only in Australia but throughout the UK and Europe as well.  We worked closely with the Adelaide Fringe board and used our strong networks and personalised approach to find someone who had the standing, creativity and business savvy to build upon Greg’s achievements. The role attracted a large and highly competitive field from as far afield as Europe, the UK, Canada and South Africa and after a rigorous selection process, Heather Croall was chosen to take over the reins from Greg.

Feedback on this recruitment has included “I’m delighted – it was a terrific process that the board and Janet ran – one of the most thoughtful and thorough searches I’ve seen in the arts”. The Fringe appointment is one of several CEO recruitments J Squared Advisory has undertaken recently. We believe our insider knowledge means that we can drive the process and provide our clients with sound and thorough assessments of candidates that enable them to feel comfortable with their final decision.

At J Squared Advisory we accomplish great recruitment outcomes because the principal focus of our work is organisational development. This means we have extensive experience reviewing and understanding organisational processes, people, systems, and culture. We work to implement change that strengthens organisational performance, therefore we can offer insight into what is required to get the right “fit” that will ultimately underpin future success.

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In essence, this often results in managers opting for quick solutions that result in damaged relationships and people’s well-being in addition to less than optimal performance.

It is not only timely but also a wake-up call for businesses to put training for line managers higher up their agendas. This not only means formal training in leadership and people management skills, but also clarifying roles and expectations and identifying performance incentives awarded through thorough assessment processes.

Lack of consistent messaging about what is expected of managers is often an underlying cause of poor manager performance and this ambiguity and lack of feedback is a major also a contributing source of low morale and motivation.

Organisational leadership has been a hot topic for decades now and yet we still hear companies and senior executives lamenting the lack and quality of good leaders. Additionally there is still a focus on and belief that good leadership is based on strength of personality and resolute decision making. Whilst decisiveness is important, McKinsey & Company, in their January 2015 McKinsey Quarterly, defined the 4 most critical leadership elements as:

• Being supportive;
• Having a strong results orientation;
• Seeking different perspectives; and
• Solving problems effectively

Nevertheless there is little evidence to suggest that business believes that a strong commitment to driving good leadership and management practices is a priority, and it appears that poor leadership is tolerated because it isn’t considered to be as important or damaging. Customer service and planning for tangible things like capital equipment are still put ahead of developing strategies to produce good management when, in reality, poor leadership can lead to catastrophic consequences for business.

Commitment to ongoing and relevant leadership development and making it a pivotal part of all business development strategies is the only way to ensure that businesses get the type of leaders they want.

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For many years, classroom based learning, revision and testing was the standard. However, in response to tightening budgets and schedules and development in learning technologies, training and development methods are now changing

Some of the changes include: a shift to on-the-job training and coaching; face-to-face training becoming interchangeable with a focus on self-directed learning, mainly through online learning systems that include action learning activities as well as more theoretical approaches.

As such the concept of blended learning has become more popular (a mix of learning and development methodologies often incorporating of online and face-to-face delivery). Blended learning can offer many advantages for both the learner and the organisation. As blended learning evolves, models can include other non-traditional methods of training delivery, such as peer learning teams, development journals and shadowing (a form of targeted coaching) which focus on embedding new behaviours. Blended learning programmes also enable facilitators to extend learning over time, and engage and re-engage with people to maximise behaviour change.

So given organisational pressures,  how do we design a blended learning programme that offers flexibility, engagement, behavioural change, builds long term business capability and meets both individual and organisational need?

The first steps in this process are to understand what and the why? 

By this we mean what needs development (or what needs to change). Is it communication, teamwork, customer relationship management, performance or effectiveness? Time taken here to really define the change in behaviour absolutely underpins the success of any initiative. It can be directly incorporated into the assessment approach to evaluate learning.

Why? Is it high turnover, poor business results, lack of talent? What is the impact that is required in real terms? Why is important to the business that investment is made in this learning initiative?

How? Is the next step, a successful blended learning relies on facilitators having the flexibility to build a program that:

• Considers the needs of both the organisation and the individuals;
• Embraces adult learning by offering peer led and experiential learning activities that support ongoing development; and
• Reinforces new behaviours and embeds learning and maximises the training budget by offering face to face, online and e-coaching options
• Engages all learners by developing content that provides opportunities for all learners to achieve the required outcomes

This type of training combines self-reflection, face to face workshops, and reinforcement via self-paced or facilitated online activities. The training not only enables individuals to understand their strengths in the workplace and what drives their behaviour, but also offers the opportunity to extend the learning well beyond the formal classroom and supports long term development as well as improved business outcomes.

Evaluation

Evaluation can be tricky and day to day pressures often means that much less time is spent on this element. However there are two questions that should support how much time and effort should be invested in this process.

1. What is the risk if learning fails?

And

2. How much time and resources have been invested?

The blended learning approach provides opportunities to facilitate learning using technology and integrated work related projects with measurable outcomes. This enables the learning to be thoroughly assessed using qualitative and quantitative approaches.

At J Squared Advisory, our training facilitators are all expert in all aspects of blended learning so that we can provide you with comprehensive advice and services tailored to your needs. In addition each one has extensive experience working within the management framework of a broad range of industries and organisations and can bring their expertise to ensure the learning is relevant, professional, targeted and evaluated

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Burnout is one particular area for many organisations and employers are well aware of the problems that this causes including stress cases, a decrease in productivity and hence decreased profits.  Employee well-being is becoming increasingly important in a world where people are more and more socially connected by technology.  Additionally people are being held more accountable for their actions at work.  Stories of bullying, and narcissism are being reported across all media platforms as well as public forums.

So what can you do about it – by promoting positive behavioural practices at work, improving workplace cultures, developing new leadership standards, establishing new behaviour norms and investing in employee strengths?

Organisations often overlook the fact their most prized and expensive resources are people; and only people can effect change. Managers cannot force people to be happy and motivated in their job and by encouraging positive leadership as a norm through healthy communication practices and acknowledgment of their interdependence with others, organisations have proved that they add value to business and community.  However to succeed, positive leadership behaviour must be modelled, and reinforced daily by employees across all levels.

So what does positive organisational leadership look like? In many cases the words chosen to describe effective leadership such as strong, decisive, visionary can cut across the points discussed above and close down aspirational thinking because they conjure up pictures of one person at the vanguard of progress and success. The approaches we are talking about are soft skills that focus on relationships, communication and developing others; because the very notion of leadership is that it relies on group achievement.

Great leaders:

•  Create a positive environment through understanding and appreciation
•  Establish positive relationships by focusing on employee strengths and building teams on more than just skills or competences
•  Use positive communication by reducing negative exchanges and focusing on enquiry and advocacy
•  Identify others’ strengths and give them opportunities to use them
•  Support people who make a mistake
•  Ensure that their level of self-interest does not exceed that of their concern for others

References:
(Quick & Macik-Frey, 2007).  Healthy, productive work: Positive strength through communication competence and interpersonal interdependence
Cameron, K., Dutton, J., & Quinn, R. (2003). Foundations of positive organizational scholarship.

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