August 2019

Over my extensive career I have observed the global business environment to be a constantly evolving landscape. New technologies, competitors, trends and sentiment mean business leaders are continually needing to adapt to change. Unfortunately, humans are not very adept at managing that change…  

As we move into a future of artificial intelligence and more automation, business leaders need to be increasingly ‘more human’ in their interactions with their teams, if they are to be serious about building trust and establishing high-performing habits to lead their organisations into the future. As a strategic Twalk Partner and the co-founder of leadership development organisation Courageous Leaders, I believe the simple, and yet not-so-simple, answer lies with having better conversations…

BETTER CONVERSATIONS

I have worked with leaders across a multitude of industries, and over that time I have come to understand that the biggest barrier to optimal team performance is the absence of regular communication. Organisations make substantial investments in training and developing their people, but come the end of the training session, I have seen employees and managers simply get back to the hustle of daily activities and fall back into old habits and behaviours. If there isn’t an ‘actionable’ link made between the ‘learning’ and the ‘implementation’ of new workplace behaviours, you’re simply wasting time and money.

THE HABIT BUILDER TOOL

Over the past 18 months, we, at Courageous Leaders, have overseen the hugely successful implementation of the Conversations Methodology and Habit Builder Tool with our clients. Called Actionable Conversations, it begins with a workshop, program module, coaching session or a conference event designed to help individuals and teams identify the changes in habits and behaviour they need to address, to better align with their organisational objectives.

After the learning event, the Habit Builder Tool expertly combines technology and behavioural science to support the change individuals and organisations need to implement. The Habit Builder invites participants to make a commitment to developing one habit over the 30 days following the initial learning event. Daily online check-ins follow, allowing them to rate themselves and journal to capture the data point for the rating, as to how they are progressing on implementing new behaviours into their daily activity. This conscious focus on a regular basis contributes to creating the habit and lasting behavioural change.

EMBEDDING CULTURAL CHANGE

This combination of a learning event with the Habit Builder Tool has been used to achieve a multitude of objectives including:

• the creation of a coaching culture.
• the improvement of delegation skills and accountability.
• the active ignition of conflict, as divergent thinking is encouraged and then followed up with constructive resolution of this conflict.
• the giving and receiving feedback constructively.
• the building of highly trusted internal and external relationships.

This approach has, to date, helped over 20 organisations that I have worked with, transforming the way they lead and the resultant cultural impact that is consequently embedded.

LEARNING IS STICKING

79% of participants have rated their ‘habit adoption’ at greater than 70%, and 86% say working on their commitment to a new habit has made a positive impact on their working relationships, contributing to improved team and organisational performance.

With real-time reporting available, leaders gain visibility into what is happening within their teams and can monitor progress, helping to make decisions about any required next steps.