5 April, 2011 — 9.00am - 12.30pm

Developing a dialogue - driving toolkit for front-line managers

The cascade has been part of internal communication for decades; sending information from top to bottom of any organisation. But as communicators seek more strategic partnership with the business, we must support performance goals by helping employees to understand, and play their part in, corporate strategy. To achieve that, we need our front-line managers to engage employees in dialogue. But what support can, and should, internal communication provide for those managers?

Workshop attendees will:

Rebecca Richmond
Research and Content Director,
Melcrum

• Understand and communicate the business case for dialogue in a "manager friendly" way
• Assess barriers to manager-led dialogue within their own organisations, and work with other practitioners to identify solutions to the identified challenges
• Explore and develop "dialogue starter" toolkits (question formats, meeting structure to help line managers facilitate team dialogue to shape decisions, solve problems or drive adoption in their businesses

5 April, 2011 — 1.30pm - 5.30pm

Strategic engagement - what the best do

We've studied the leadership teams from thousands of organisations over 10 years, and listened to the views of over 1.5 million employees in over 20 countries. We've found that there seem to be a few traits that separate the best organisations out there from the rest. We already know about the "when, who and how" as it's about the capability and capacity of leaders to engage and communicate. But this workshop will focus on the 'why' and the 'what'. It will focus on the four defining traits that seem to exist in the best organisations, it will focus on creating sustainable performance through dialogue. We'll also be investigating the heart of the organisation; the reason for its very existence. Using real life case studies, personal experiences and compelling research data, Wayne Clarke, Managing Partner of the Best Companies Partnership, will share these four "cornerstones" of strategic engagement. He will also share a current journey that one of the large prestigious European automotive companies are on with respect to how they're implementing this approach.

The workshop aims to:

Wayne Clarke
Managing Partner
Best Companies™ Partnership

• Explain the B2 approach and its relevance to driving strategic engagement
• Share best practice to understand what works for other organisations
• Reassess the role of the communicator with respect to what we know about leadership behaviour
• Create a structured plan for how we evolve our respective organisations
• Find out how your organisation shapes up using a unique strategic engagement measurement tool