Situation

​

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the UK’s largest public service department. Faced with implementing a transformation and restructuring programme across the organisation, Amy Dawson, Senior HR Business Partner at the DWP, approached People Vision (PV) to design and deliver a training course for her team of HR Business Partners, to provide them with support at this challenging time and to develop their skills and resilience.

​

Alyson Pellowe, Managing Consultant of PV, proposed using the Insights Discovery methodology as the basis for the course, and engaged People Vision associate Julia Wallis to lead on the project. Julia is a licensed Insights practitioner, accredited in 2003; she specialises in applying the Insights material to a wide variety of learning activities, from change management programmes to team building events, sales training and leadership coaching.

Challenge

​

Each of the HR Business Partners supported a different directorate within the department. It was therefore decided to run the course twice: once for the HR team and once for the members of the SLT they each worked so closely with.

​

Julia therefore needed to position the material carefully to suit the different needs and perspectives of each group of delegates, and to support them with the variety of challenges they would be facing during this period of wide-ranging organisational change.

Action

​

Julia first drew up a questionnaire and distributed it to all the delegates, to gather the data which would help them determine their unique profiles.

​

She then designed and ran two one-day training courses, one for the HR Business Partner team and one for the SLT. With each group she covered the following key topics:

​

• Overview of the Insights Discovery methodology.

• Analysis of the questionnaire results to determine each delegate’s profile.

• Detailed study of each profile.

• Exploration of how to apply the tool, in particular:

  • ​Understanding the potential strengths of each profile and the challenges they may present.

  • Practising how the delegates might adapt their communication style to suit the preferences of others.

  • Examining how each delegate’s profile related to their role in the team'

  • Investigating how the balance of profiles within a team can impact on its dynamics and performance.

• ​Action planning to consider how to use the material back in the workplace. 

Results

​

Feedback from the delegates indicated that they found the event enjoyable, stimulating and challenging:

​

• The HR Business Partner team focused on how they could use the material to promote their engagement with stakeholders across the business, to raise their self-awareness and to re-examine how they communicate – especially with the SLT.

​

• The SLT focused on the strategic possibilities of the material, with a number of directors committing to put their own teams through the training to support them through the organisation’s ongoing transformation programme.