Frances Storr Associates

The big questions in your business

Whatever your role, from time-to-time there will be perplexing questions that, because of their complex nature, never quite seem to go away.

Do you ever wonder, how come we keep getting outcomes we didn’t want?
Are you clear about how to create what you do want?
Do you know how and where to influence to make positive change happen?
What unhelpful actions or behaviours do you see repeatedly enacted? Why do you think they keep happening?
Do you have a clear idea of where the organisation is aiming for?
What is it you wish ‘they’ would do/understand/stop doing?
To what extent do you feel the organisation is equipped to deal with the challenges it will be facing in the foreseeable future?

Frances Storr Associates can help you explore these questions and create effective change. You may know immediately that you need help with something similar or perhaps one of the scenarios that follow feels familiar.

“As a leadership team we have agreed a strategy, we are executing it and it is going OK enough but people are still doing things that hold us back.”

We often get stuck in patterns of behaviour with each other and don’t realise the part we play in keeping things as they are. If this is the case we can help by finding out what behaviours, attitudes or assumptions may be getting in the way, and by supporting the team in taking ownership for their part of the jigsaw. The focus is on getting whatever is stuck to flow again, through respectful, adult dialogue in all directions – not just issuing instructions downwards.

“We have a strong brand in the marketplace but we are not capitalising on it fully – we are not so good at living it within the organisation. I want to see our brand values clearly being enacted by all our staff as that will strengthen it even further from the inside. But there are 2,000 of us!”

Deciding on the values that a brand is to represent often happens behind closed doors in a process that is far-removed from most staff. It can then be a challenge to make these values meaningful and ‘live’ in an everyday sense. We can design processes and actions that will help you to achieve congruence at every level between what you say you stand for and how you actually behave within in the business. More than simply awareness-raising, this is about achieving genuine engagement with what it means to ‘be’ the brand.

“We have just completed a merger and we are trying to fuse two cultures. We need to find a way of working that represents the spirit of the new organisation but no matter how many guidelines we give staff, they just carry on doing what they did before and it’s affecting our performance.”

Expecting staff to automatically embrace a new culture is a tall order. It’s human nature to cling onto what is familiar. The key is to set in motion a series of conversations. The very act of holding these focused conversations starts to subtly shift the culture. Above all, people need to be able to put the changes into their own context. We can help you design and implement a strategy that will reflect all the many realities within your organisation.

“Our business is doing well, turning a profit despite the challenges in the economic context. Yet I worry we are coasting, I just know we could be growing faster and performing even better. I really feel we should be doing more to safeguard our future but I don’t know where to start.”

People at different levels in the organisation always know what can be improved, and we can help you draw on the intelligence that is distributed throughout the business. By removing obstacles and connecting the thinking you can increase performance, shift a gear, and create new solutions. We can support you in getting people engaged with questions about the future and building the momentum for change.

“They lack urgency. We have a big challenge ahead of us due to new legislation and a also a major new competitor. I know the management team are aware of it but nothing seems to be happening.”

In situations like this it is not about having a bigger stick to drive people with, but rather about creating the conditions in which people at all levels can see for themselves how the changes ahead are relevant to them and need their input. We can help you design ways of connecting people with data about what the threats are, develop clarity about what you are going to do about it as an organisation, and get everyone engaged and lined up with the strategy. We will also support you to ensure they have the skills to do what is needed of them.

“We have a problem person in our team. They get the work done but they behave in ways that rub others up the wrong way and it’s affecting team morale and motivation. I have tried talking to them about it but they just don’t get it.”

Hard though it may be to believe, it never is just one person that is the problem. As a team you will be behaving in ways that makes it OK for an individual to carry on doing what they are doing. We can help you open up your conversations to another level of honesty, without falling into the trap of blaming. We can support you in understanding, collectively, what you bring out in each other and what you need of each other. And whatever you agree, we can help you see it through.

If you would like to explore any of these questions further then do please get in touch