(previously South London YMCA) provides a range of supported housing services for 545 homeless people Croydon, Bromley, Lambeth and Kensington & Chelsea. Over the last five years, they’ve transformed most of their properties through a £25m redevelopment programme, so that those living in them have a better chance to turn their lives around and live independently. In 2015 they restructured, and changed brand.
In 2012, a major restructure had taken place, following a number of mergers resulting in changes to teams and management. In essence new managers (many of them new to management) were brought in to manage new staff to implement new working practices to better support homeless people in South London. This restructure was also accompanied by a culture change. The organisation wanted consistency in how managers interacted with their staff, teams to work collaboratively and a culture of supportive management. Unfortunately at this point there was no clear learning and development strategy in place for either managers or aspiring managers to achieve any of this.
SLYMCA (as it was still called at that time) urgently needed a development programme that could both support new managers to develop the skills they needed as they made the transition to becoming managers, and to pave the way for excellent leadership in the organisation.
Lee Buss, Director of Housing and Support, asked =mc to design a management development programme that would help to create a proactive and inspiring management team – developing their skills, motivation and confidence – focusing on four key areas:
Working with a core group of staff and managers we began by taking a closer look at the four aims of the programme through a series of design meetings and by reviewing the existing internal processes. From these we identified the key elements needed to underpin the programme, which in turn formed the basis of six modules:
As a result of managers coming together at the training, a manager’s forum was developed and this promoted collaborative working between managers and teams.
Managers were able to support each other as they started to use their new skills and techniques.
The pilot programme ran in 2013 for a first management cohort of 20 people. It was so successful that SLYMCA commissioned another series to run from the end of 2013. This second cohort extended the programme to senior support workers and team leaders – a more junior group who were just starting their management careers. A third series ran in 2015 for a further 15-20 staff. This time the cohort included more senior support workers getting ready to step into management, to prepare them for when promotion opportunities become available. And a new module was added to the programme called Managing Change, to support this cohort with the tools they need to lead and manage their teams through further organisational changes that occurred in 2015.
The impact from the programme to date has been much more collaboration between teams, higher performance levels, and a real change in the culture of management at Evolve. Staff and managers alike are more confident, able to deal with challenges in a positive way, and are empowered to think creatively about how they can improve working practices and better support young homeless people.
As well as learning from the workshops and written materials, participants have formed strong relationships going through the programme and have been sharing ideas and practices. Management forums are now in place where former participants meet on a regular basis to discuss current challenges and offer support to each other.
Perhaps the most positive benefit has been the recognition of the talent and potential in the staff at Evolve. A number of people who have been through the programme have already been promoted.
Finally, Evolve are taking their investment in their staff and their future seriously:
“To be able to invest in our managers and future managers in this systematic way has been a great achievement – and the programme has been really well received. People are now more on board with our values and understand the importance of their role in achieving our goals. People are generally more positive, confident and prepared to play their part in delivering the outstanding service we aim to provide our customers”.
Jackie Elvin, Head of HR, Evolve Housing + Support
And that’s not all. In 2016, we are supporting 21 managers through Action Learning Sets. These have been provided to support the on-going development of managers. Unlike the MDP, the Action Learning Sets are not trainer-lead workshops. Instead, in these sessions an =mc facilitator works with a small group of managers and encourages them to work together on real-work challenges. The purpose of the set is that participants focus on helping each other to resolve their own challenges and take action. Results have been positive, with groups already committing to working together going forwards, after the =mc facilitated sessions have ended.
If you are interested in action learning sets for your organisation, we can provide various options – whether as part of a wider programme of learning or as a stand-alone intervention. Several of the modules =mc delivered for the MDP are available in different formats as in-house training. These include:
If you’d like to speak to us about your specific needs, email Yvette Gyles, Director at y.gyles@managementcentre.co.uk, or call +44(0)20 7978 1516
Yvette specialises in leadership, personal effectiveness, change and innovation. Before joining =mc, she worked in HR for several years in both the private and charity sector as an HR...
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