GRANT THORNTON USES DRAMA TO CREATE INTERNAL COACHES AND PEOPLE MANAGEMENT 'ROLE MODELS'

Business and financial adviser Grant Thornton has trained 50 managers to become role models and coaches who will spend 20 per cent of their time helping partners and other managers in the firm to further improve their people management skills.

[UKPRwire, Wed May 02 2007] Business and financial adviser Grant Thornton has trained 50 managers to become role models and coaches who will spend 20 per cent of their time helping partners and other managers in the firm to further improve their people management skills.

Grant Thornton’s trainers worked with training specialist Steps Drama to deliver a three-day coaching and influencing skills programme to support this select group of individuals, who are called Staff Development Managers (SDMs).

“The training helps our SDMs to become excellent line managers and role models who can coach others to do their job better,” said Sue Cohen, Senior Training Manager at Grant Thornton. “Since our SDMs are geographically-spread, it also gives them a chance to network and to share experiences.”

The first two days of the programme are delivered by Grant Thornton trainers and cover participant learning styles, personality profiles, coaching models, coaching practice, communication, influencing and giving feedback. Steps run the third day, providing drama-based training to bring the issues to life and to give the participants an opportunity to practise their skills.

“Steps have worked with Grant Thornton for over ten years, providing role players for training programmes covering sales skills, appraisal skills, selection interviewing, influencing skills, partner development, leadership and management skills,” said Sue Cohen. “They’ve developed a very good understanding of our business.”

Steps run four interactive scenarios in which they portray employees in a fictitious accountancy firm. These show a manager trying to convince a cynical colleague of the merits of coaching; a manager coaching a colleague after an ineffective appraisal session; a manager trying to convince a partner of the importance of people management skills and a manager who needs to adapt their style to build rapport with a colleague. In each scenario, the actors portraying the characters turn to the audience for help and advice. The delegates contribute suggestions and then watch as the actors immediately work these back into the scenario.

“With Steps, it is as close to real as you can get,” said Sue Cohen. “Their forum approach engages and challenges the delegates to discuss and debate their role and consider the best way forward in each scenario.”

The delegates are then asked for situations and circumstances in which they have encountered behavioural challenges when they’ve been trying to coach others. Steps recreate these situations in bespoke role plays. The delegates work in small groups and they take turns to role play as a coach, with a Steps actor portraying the coachee, whilst the rest of group observes and offers help and advice.

“Each delegate gets the opportunity to practise their coaching skills by participating in a realistic coaching situation and they also observe and help their peers,” said Sue Cohen. “The Steps actor-facilitators switch between different coachee characters, so that each delegate role plays against the ‘person’ they have described in their brief.”

Sue Cohen says the training has helped to make the delegates more confident and more competent in their role as SDMs.

“When you have 50 busy managers, most of whom are direct fee-earners, spending 20 per cent of their time in an essential role, it is extremely important to develop and support them effectively,” she said. “The feedback from this programme shows we are providing powerful training that results in memorable learning. As well as helping them improve as Staff Development Managers, the training gives them excellent personal development that also makes them more effective as line managers.”

For more information about drama-based training, please call Steps Drama on 020 7403 9000. http://www.stepsdrama.com