Would you like to hear more about these leadership behaviours? Just give Craig a shout as he loves a good old chat on the success of our partnership work with Malvern Hills and Wychavon District Councils.
Malvern Hills and Wychavon District Councils recognised they had two cultures and they wanted to develop ‘one culture’ across the Councils, by fully embedding their joint values at all levels.
They spoke to us at Rambutan and as this is definitely our bag, we got to work!
We spent time listening to a multitude of people in numerous roles across both Councils. We identified what the different cultures were like right now and what the joint culture needed to be in the future, with the embedded joint values. We analysed our outputs, and developed a bespoke solution; creating a straightforward leadership behavioural framework, based around the Councils’ joint values.
We worked with leaders and managers to design and test these leadership behaviours and then gained feedback and tweaked the behaviours. The final version was shared with leaders and managers in interactive, highly participative and engaging workshops, where we helped them develop their skills, and identify how they could live, breathe and role-model the leadership behaviours moving forward.
Since the work, leaders and managers have been living and breathing these values and behaviours. Some are now mentors to participants on the Aspiring Talent Programme, which has also been built around the 21st Century Public Servant (a publication detailing the skills and behaviours needed for Public Servants in the future) and the new leadership behavioural framework.
The feedback and impact across the Councils has been fantastic, but you expect us to say that right? Here’s what Investors in People said: “A significant new initiative, and a clear indication of the importance placed on good leadership skills, has been the introduction and adoption of the leadership behavioural framework. Feedback against it has already been introduced as part of the annual performance review process; its effectiveness is assessed through the staff surveys and it has been incorporated into the recruitment and selection process. The autonomy and trust allied to the strongly embedded values have been real factors in enabling the Councils to respond, change and adapt so quickly and effectively to all the external challenges posed recently. The response has been for everyone to step up a gear, willingly, and produce some outstanding outcomes that are clearly above and beyond expectations.”
From our initial research and listening sessions, which engaged a cross-section of staff from the two Councils, we identified the behaviours and the content for the leadership behavioural framework, which would help define the new ‘one culture’.
Once we’d developed the leadership behavioural framework, we shared it with the Senior Management Team (SMT). This enabled them to consider how they could role-model it individually and as an SMT, and how they would work to align the cultures across both Councils.
We ran development workshops for the SMT, leaders and managers to focus on their strengths and development areas around the new leadership behavioural framework.
In addition, we ran workshops and one-to-one coaching sessions for Heads of Service, to help them consider how to bring the leadership behavioural framework to life. These sessions focused on how to have honest and challenging conversations with their teams and build relationships.
Using a train-the-trainer approach, we developed the Heads of Service on how to facilitate a session to their teams around the leadership behavioural framework, feedback techniques and what this means for them in their roles.
Following the workshops, we supported Heads of Service and team leaders in how they continue the development of their colleagues.
This focused on how they could bring the ‘one culture’ leadership behavioural framework values and behaviours to life everyday, in their roles. This was supported by managers adopting a coaching approach in the leadership of their teams.
We also designed a bespoke 360° feedback approach for leaders and managers, and built this around the Councils’ values and new leadership behavioural framework. Our 360° approach was followed with one-to-one feedback and further group and individual development.
“Rambutan partnered with us on the development of our leadership behavioural framework. They genuinely listened to what we needed and delivered beyond expectations! Their approach in involving people across the Councils at all levels to bring the framework to life, was innovative, engaging and inspiring. Embedding the behaviours to drive forward the ‘one culture’ across the two councils was immensely successful. Thank you Rambutan and specifically, Craig our account lead. I’m thrilled to be working with you on our next project, all focused on maximising performance across our councils.”
Allison Neal, Head of HR and Organisational Development