People Skills Training Why Bother?

A View From Impact Factory

Robin Chandler & Jo Ellen Grzyb
Impact Factory Copyright 2000
1
More than just training
2001 The New Yorker Collection from cartoonbank.com. All rights reserved.
Please hold my calls and disregard any cries for help.
Why do we need People Skills Training?
The extraordinary pressure that people work under these days means that training, and especially
people skills training, is not uppermost in peoples minds. There have been changes in every sector
- not only banking and finance: people are being asked to do more and take on more responsibility,
often with less support than ever before. As a direct result of these kind of pressures, dealing with
difficult people or situations can be more problematic. Time constraints, deadline constraints and
fewer people to do more work, means that communication may suffer, conflicts stay unresolved,
dissatisfaction fester, tempers get frayed and inefficiency become more prevalent.
On top of that, there is an insidious assumption that if you are good at what you do -
professionally - then you will be, ipso facto, a good manager, communicator, delegator, etc. That
simply isnt true. We see this across all business sectors: people who are highly capable in their
jobs and are far less adept at dealing with other people. Conflict arises because not only does
the organisation assume that if youre good in one aspect of the job youll be good in all, but you
yourself may feel you already ought - by dint of your position - to be able to handle difficult
situations and therefore, wont ask for the support and training you need.
Some organisations have such issues well in hand and have the kind of company culture in place
that supports peoples development. More often than not, however, organisations ignore or side-
line these issues with the outcome that communication suffers and morale gets worse.
Yet if employees are motivated, confident, communicating well and resolving differences; if they are
being acknowledged and appreciated, then stress is reduced, people are more efficient and effective
and work means more than a place to earn a paycheque. In our experience within organisations
where these skills are encouraged and developed, there is a profound affect on employees
performance and their overall well-being, and a corresponding increase in the bottom line.
The economic implications of poor people skills in the workplace are far greater than many
organisations would like to admit. We are often approached by the Occupational Health
Departments of companies who say they are seeing more and more people with stress related
illnesses and absences and are aware that good training could make a significant difference in the
health, morale and therefore efficiency of the staff. The clich time is money exists for a very
good reason. If for nothing else, a better functioning workforce will affect the bottom line. Time
wasted on poor communication, unresolved difficulties or inefficient work practises means time
away from the core business of doing what the company does best.
Many companies know there are issues that need to be addressed; they even know that some
kind of people skills training could help.
What is People Skills Training anyway?
The primary focus of any good people skills training programme has to be effective
communication. Whether the emphasis of the training is presentation, management skills,
leadership, creativity and innovation, change management or personal impact, effective
communication is key.
2
In all the areas above, an understanding of how communication between people or groups works
is required. Individuals need to be skilled in what they can do to positively effect the outcome of
any kind of communication. This is true if the communication is a presentation to 500 people, an
annual review with a staff member, the initiation of new work practices - indeed anything that
requires one person to be in communication with others.
In the simplest terms, being able to communicate effectively means having good interpersonal
skills which is all about relating well to other people. It means being able to listen and really hear
what others are saying. Part of being a good listener is knowing how to respond without
stonewalling or hijacking other peoples ideas. It also means being able to convey information,
feedback and requests clearly and directly, give appropriate levels of praise and advice and take
responsibility for making sure things are understood. This means that people must be able and
willing to deal with conflict and confrontation. Conflict resolution can be effectively achieved by
negotiating what is known as win/win solutions.
There is not one right way to communicate, but there are certainly many wrong ones. Good
people skills training concentrates on whats already working about an individuals interpersonal
skills and developing that. Gaining insight and awareness about the effect they have on others,
coupled with developing specific tools and techniques for managing people, puts people more in
charge of the communication process.
There doesnt have to be a problem.
The need for people skills training does not presuppose a problem. When Impact Factory
provides this kind of training for many companies we arent there to fix something thats wrong.
Given the added pressures in todays workplace, companies are not necessarily asking us to
provide training to alleviate stress or correct a problem. Rather they are interested in gaining a
competitive edge, offering their employees additional skills to develop their current capabilities.
Mercury Asset Management and De La Rue, two of Impact Factorys clients from the financial
sector, are good cases in point. In both situations we were approached by the companies, not to
address problems, but to enhance and develop skills that were already present in their personnel.
Mercury Asset Management wanted to hone the already sharp edge that was in evidence among
its fund managers and marketeers. They requested a tailor-made programme that would give
them out-of-the-ordinary presentation skills: the kind of skills that developed their own individual
style of communicating and presenting to a high level. They were looking for excellence not
competence. They were not only looking for these managers to become more accomplished
presenters, but also to help them understand and work more empathetically with their clients
and potential clients.
De La Rue brought us in to create a bespoke communication programme that, again, offered
]their employees additional skills to help them deal effectively with the added pressure and many
changes that De La Rue has been undergoing in recent years. At De La Rue our work is with
]sales representatives, managers, engineers, Research and Development personnel, finance,
secretarial and IT staff. In other words, it is obvious to them that this kind of people skills training
is accessible and important to all levels within an organisation.
Well return to these two examples later on.
3
So, why dont more people do it?
Here are some refrains we have heard more than once:
"We tried people skills training once and it didnt work." - "Its clearly not right for the banking
and financial sector." - "We dont need it." - "Its a waste of time and money." - "If were going to
invest in training, wed rather have technical training."
If you look at the way some people skills training is done its no wonder its got a bad reputation.
A lot of it follows what might be called the sheep-dip approach: large groups; all chalk 'n' talk and
little participation; lots of rigid rules and regulations; a damaging emphasis on what's wrong with
people; and unreal examples and exercises. That kind of training is demotivating and often does
more harm than good.
Lists of how tos, dos and donts and sets of rigid rules treat everyone the same. The individual
becomes less important than the right way to do something. Of course, there needs to be
structure and guidelines in any kind of training, but if the training does not allow for individual
needs and priorities then, ultimately, it will fail to develop the individual.
If people have had inadequate training, they will in turn feel inadequate when confronted with
additional stress. The training will not have given them the real tools and techniques that could
help them manage this pressure more effectively. Some assertiveness training is a good case in
point, where people are told specific things to do in certain difficult situations. Which is all very
well if you are capable of doing them. However, we know that for many people assertiveness
training doesnt work. The solutions they are given are not things they feel able to do.
The following sections look at how these kinds of problems can be avoided and how the benefits
of people skills training can be maximised.
Reverting to type and dealing with the feelings
What is very clear to anyone that works with people is that under pressure, people will 'revert to
type'. In normal circumstances, when theres no pressure, everyone knows how they would like
to deal with tricky situations. However, when decisions need to be made quickly, when staff are
not working to expectations, when management becomes more demanding, most people under
stress will behave as they always have. They will not have the time, nor will they make the time to
weigh and measure their options.
What they will do is react to the current situation and do what they've always done to get a
speedy response. What they have always done may not - often is not - the most appropriate
choice to make; but it seems to be the only one available to them at the time. It is in hind-sight
that other options become clear.
People cannot help reverting to type. It is how the species has survived: when a mastodon came
into view, people didn't take time to ponder their options; they acted immediately. That vital
mechanism is within us all: under threat we will react without conscious thought in order to
survive.
However, without well developed people skills, pressurised communication in the corporate arena
can look like bullying or blaming where its easier to accuse or order someone around rather than
4
encourage. It can mean that people will avoid conflict and back down from useful confrontation
where differences could get resolved. People will make incorrect assumptions and then act on
them. Reverting to type can also mean avoiding delegating because you feel you have to do
everything yourself. It may mean keeping information to yourself, rather than ensuring that other
people are in the picture.
When people revert to type, they are usually driven by their feelings, and it will usually be feelings
that get in the way of being able to change behaviour constructively. Most people know how they
would like to behave, so teaching the how to is not at issue here.
Interpersonal skills training must address the fact that uncomfortable feelings will make it difficult,
if not impossible, to create a better outcome. Otherwise, people are trying to cope with new
information and new techniques without acknowledging that their emotions can, at times, stop
them making any change whatsoever.
Feelings that can get in the way of effectiveness can be anything from nervousness about
presenting, to fear of humiliation for saying something stupid, to being intimidated by a particular
person who seems to wrong-foot you all the time.
Effective people skills training addresses this problem by recreating - during the training - the
feelings that cause the difficulty, and then working on what the individual can do. For instance, at
Mercury Asset Management we do not concentrate on what the fund managers 'should' do to
'improve' their presentation. Instead, we recreate the kind of situations where they will
experience nervousness under pressure. It is then that we can work on their individual style,
raise their capacity to communicate and create more fluid presentations.
Changing yourself to change others.
We hear over and over again and at every level within organisations that things would be much
better if only someone else would change the way they do things. Id get on much better if only
my line manager would give me more time to get things done. My job would be easier if only
my secretary was more efficient. This company could improve if the men at the top gave us the
kind of budget we need.
In these and many other examples, the solution rests with someone else. Therefore, the
responsibility for moving things forward rests with others as well. At Impact Factory we have a
different view. For instance, part of the De La Rue programme looks at how to take responsibility
for all parts of the Communication Cycle: Spoken, Heard, Understood, Agreed To, Acted On,
Implemented.
There will always be situations where life would be far better if someone else would just shape up
and do things the way we think they ought to be done! However, that attitude puts all the power
and influence into someone elses hands and leaves us feeling impotent and often inadequate. You
can have a good moan, but nothing changes.
Changing what you do, changing the way you speak to others, changing your attitude towards
recurring difficulties will change the normally predictable outcome.
5
The work we do at De La Rue is designed to help people take charge of the communication
arena, so that misunderstanding is pre-empted and clarity becomes paramount.
When we talk about change, we are looking for simple changes; tweaks, adjustments, small
alterations, rather than looking to change everything about a person. At Impact Factory we talk
about the least amount of change for the greatest impact. Striving for small but effective changes
rather than complete transformation.
It is also important that any people skills training programme be easy and enjoyable and filled with
variety, so that there is something for everyone. What works for one person, wont necessarily
work for others. We believe that the way forward is to find a few things that you know youll be
able to do, to have fun doing them and to experience enough small wins as you practise them.
These are the things youll be able to remember in the heat of a difficult situation. You will revert
to a new type!
The feedback we receive from both De La Rue and Mercury Asset Management, as well as
from our other clients, is that this approach to interpersonal skills training gives them more
confidence. They are spending less time worrying about what could go wrong and more time
making things right.
Real life, not make believe.
One way we do this is by using the real-life, everyday situations that people encounter on the job,
rather than giving people made up, text-book scenarios they then have to act out. Working with
real issues helps people recognise and understand their feelings rather than ignoring them or
wishing they would go away.
A simple example is one we have encountered at De La Rue with newly appointed managers.
These people are often highly capable in their jobs, but for the first time, may have to give annual
assessments. They may now feel uncertain because they are encountering something for which
they have no previous experience. During our training we help them play out the meeting they
feel most anxious about and look at what's creating the anxiety.
We know that if you spend time learning and developing new skills on a training there needs to
be a realistic bridge between the workshop room and real life.
We always ask people to bring in their own experiences - a challenging presenting situation, a
recurring difficult person or problem, an upcoming meeting, etc. Within those real-life scenarios,
we use some of the tools and techniques that the individual has practised in the training and has
already found works for them.
As in the De La Rue example, by letting people work on their specific issues and then
incorporating their favourite techniques into the re-enactments, they make the behavioural
choices that they know they will be able to do, rather than ones they ought to do.
6
People Skills Training adds benefits.
Here are some of the reasons why people skills training is a good investment:
Gives people more confidence in dealing with challenging or new situations.
Offers people a range of behaviour choices to try.
Creates a solid basis for all other kinds of training.
Gives people the tools to manage pressure more effectively.
Is motivating.
What to look for.
Here are some of the more important aspects of people skills training to look for:
Programme content that fits your requirements as opposed to off-the-peg workshops.
Flexible formats that take both the organisations and the individuals needs into account.
Emphasis on what whats already working rather than pointing out whats wrong and needs fixing.
Small groups to maximise individual participation and attention.
Programmes that develop the whole person.
No pressure to do things the right way.
Enjoyable, easy, doable exercises that give people practise and experience in trying out new ways
of doing things.
Accessible to all levels in an organisation.
If you are interested in talking to us further about our work on people skills,
please phone: 020 7226 1877 or e-mail: enquiries@impactfactory.com
7