5 Conversations: How to Transform Trust, Engagement and Performance at Work PDF
Preview 5 Conversations: How to Transform Trust, Engagement and Performance at Work
5 Conversations First published in 2014 by Panoma Press 48 St Vincent Drive, St Albans, Herts, AL1 5SJ, UK Book layout by Neil Coe Printed on acid-free paper from managed forests. ISBN 978-1-909623-71-2 eISBN 978-1-784520-34-2 The rights of Nick Cowley & Nigel Purse to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the Copyright holders written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publishers. This book is available online and in bookstores. Copyright 2014 Nick Cowley & Nigel Purse Praise for 5 Conversations “The principles behind 5 Conversations are exactly the same as those applied in the British Olympic Rowing Team to help us build strong teams and win Olympic Gold medals.” Steve Williams OBE, double Olympic Gold medallist “This is a crucial and absolutely practical book. It understands the nature of how vital the attachment emotion of trust is in organisations, without which no leader can engage the energies of the best people pulling in the same direction. ” Professor Paul Brown, previously Visiting Professor in Organisational Neuroscience, London South Bank University and in Individual and Organisational Psychology, Nottingham Law School “The saying goes “you come into the world alone, you leave this world alone”, but in between, 5 Conversations can help you build great relationships in work and life.” Rupert Hodges, Director Leadership Development, BP plc “If you are genuinely interested in creating a more engaged workforce, this book is a must-read. 5 conversations is chock-full of pragmatic examples that both inform and instruct.” Benson Smith, Chairman, President & CEO, Teleflex Inc. “For too long we have compartmentalised our work relationships and ignored our basic humanity in the workplace – this book has reminded us of the importance of these relationships and the conversations that develop them.” Richard Flint, Managing Director, Sky Bet “Highly readable, practical and relevant for public and private sectors alike, 5 Conversations draws us back to the origins of communication and teaches us of the simple power of honest and authentic conversations for driving organisational engagement and performance. Read this book, and never fear a sabre-toothed tiger again.” Hugh Elliott, Director of Communication, Foreign and Commonwealth Office “You would struggle to find conversations that are more important than those that are so expertly explored in this book. 5 Conversations offers a powerful and practical set of strategies for getting to the heart of workplace performance.” Robin Ryde, business author “5 Conversations demonstrates not only the power that quality conversations can have in the professional workspace for leaders, peers and employees alike – but also how much personal confidence and satisfaction can be gained from the art of good conversation – something that can be easily lost in our era of mobile, email and internet.” Kirsten Cox, Director EMEA Marketing, VMware “Who said that the art of conversation is dead? This excellent book explains the value of building trusting relationships in order to forge genuine engagement within an organisation. “ Tim Williams, HR Director, Pearson UK “This book is a great idea. It is the first time I’ve seen very simple and so powerful things said about management: talking about “simply being human” or about “courage” and “curiosity about others”, which brings us back to what management really is: interaction between human beings! Something that most managers have a tendency to forget!” Laurent Camus, Directeur de la Formation, MBDA “Much of this book really resonates with how we operate – leadership is THE key enabler for success. This book is a practical guide for leaders in how they can evolve and develop the skills and approaches necessary for personal and organisational success.” John Devall, Water Director, Northumbrian Water “The best is always simple – here are THE 5 conversations we all need to be having at work and probably also at home!” Robert Rigby-Hall, Chief Human Resources Officer, NXP Semiconductors “This book takes the power of conversations to new possibilities and it offers valuable and practical tools, ideas and illuminating examples.” Anushia Reddy, VP Global Talent and Organisation Development, Tate & Lyle “A conversation is an investment in someone’s time so why wouldn’t you take time to learn how to make the most of that investment? The beauty of this book is, it takes an everyday activity and with a few simple tricks suddenly turns that activity into a powerful motivational tool and it has tips that can be applied in writing as well.” Eleanor Tweddell, Head of Internal Communications, Vodafone UK Acknowledgements We would very much like to acknowledge the help and support of all of our colleagues and clients at The Oxford Group who have encouraged us in developing 5 Conversations and provided examples of the true power of conversation in building relationships and improving business performance. We would especially like to acknowledge our colleagues Clive Barrow, Olivier Herold, Maggie Matthews, Sheena Porter, Chris Street, Gill Webb and Lisa Williams for their constant encouragement and help in refining 5 Conversations; Claire Foster for her significant contribution to the development of the 5 Conversations programme; James Marshall, Janine Schindler and Debbie Wilkes for their professionalism and enthusiasm in working with clients on the programme; our consultants worldwide, in particular Tessa Bradon, Jennifer Cramb, Julie Havard, Jenny Howard, Caro Kingsnorth, Robert-Charles Kahn, Judy Knight, Anne Merland, Robin Ryde, David Seow and Nancy Wang for providing advice and feedback on 5 Conversations at various stages in its development and for sharing real stories of how 5 Conversations has made a difference to clients; our colleagues across The Oxford Group for their expertise and patience in setting up support processes for 5 Conversations, in particular Jenny Greenway and Katrina Strathearn; our clients who have been so generous in giving us their time to attend pilot workshops or review various drafts of this book – their feedback has been invaluable: Laurent Camus, Kate Dee, Bruno de Lacroix, John Devall, Alison Dubbins, Hugh Elliott, Chelsea Foxwell, Noel Hadden, Chantal Hicks, Paul Iredale, David Kay, Helen Lancaster, Sally McNab, Iain Lobban, Anna Markovits, Adrian Osbourn, Ruth Owen, Eleanor Tweddell, Steve Williams and Tim Williams; and finally Nina Griffiths for reviewing and editing our various drafts and Lynn Allison for creating the framework for this book. You have helped us bring 5 Conversations to life – thank you! Foreword At the heart of the economic challenge is the uncomfortable truth that – although there is significant variation by country and by organisation – typically only one third of our people are engaged at work, offering most, or all, of their capability and potential. It is self-evident that we need to have many more of our people offering much more of their capability if we are going to compete and to be able to offer the standard of living to which we aspire, and the public services we require. In addition, people’s expectations of how they should be treated at work are changing. We no longer automatically defer to our managers and leaders. People have been educated to expect their voice to be heard. The way employees are treated at work will be central to meeting these expectations and therefore to engaging our people. The ‘Engaging for Success Report’ that Nita Clarke and I wrote in 2009 for the Department of Business Innovation & Skills drew the evidence together that there is a very clear correlation between levels of engagement and organisational performance. This evidence has been built on by a number of organisations including Bath Business School which proved the link between employee engagement and organisation performance in their seminal paper entitled ‘Nailing the Evidence’. In our Report to Government we outlined the four key enablers of higher levels of employee engagement: • Visible empowering leadership providing a strong strategic narrative about the organisation, where it has come from and where it aspires to go. • Engaging managers who focus their people and give them scope, who treat their people as individuals and who coach and stretch their people. • Employee voice throughout the organisation for reinforcing and challenging views between functions and externally; employees seen as central to the solutions. • Organisational integrity where the values on the wall are reflected in day-to- day behaviours and where there is no ‘say - do’ gap. These four enablers offer, at the broadest level, a way of thinking about employee engagement. The challenge for organisations is to determine what practical actions to take in order to put these enablers in place, and increasingly they are recognising the key role of the line manager in engagement through the relationships they build with their teams. What this book does well is to identify the five conversations that engaging managers use in order to build deeper more trusting relationships with members of their teams at work. It makes a compelling case for the importance of having these conversations and harnesses the latest evidence from neuroscience on how effective conversations, held with honesty and openness, contribute to building more trusting relationships and how trust underpins productivity and performance. There are no quick fixes but with time, attention and consistency, leaders can use these conversations to develop habits which will result in productive workplaces, bringing with them higher levels of employee well-being and sustainable economic performance – which benefits us all. David MacLeod OBE Co-chair of Engage for Success Task Force June 2014
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