eManagement Tips - May 2018

A free monthly update for Associates and Members of RiverRhee's Managers' Community

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The fruit tree blossom has been amazing this spring and this aged and magnificent greengage tree features in one of this month's posts!

Welcome to RiverRhee's managers' version of the May 2018 issue of eManagement Tips, our monthly resource for new and experienced managers who have attended or are considering one of our management courses.

The two main topics for this month's eManagement Tips are:

How to deal with conflict at work
And... guidelines for using stories to help you get your message across

Other news:

RiverRhee has started partnering with The Innovation Practice to offer senior management team and whole organisation workshops on strategy, behaviours and working practices. We will be running a free taster of this for the HR Forum at Chesterford Research Park in June. You can read more about this new offering at the end of this issue.

We are also picking up a lot of interest in in-house versions of our various courses, so do get in touch if this is something that might also be of interest to you.

We are still taking bookings for our 19th-21st June Introduction to Management course.

eManagement Tips is circulated to over 200 managers / HR contacts each month.

How to deal with conflict at work

We explain to people during the "Stages of Team Development" module of the Introduction to Management course how valuable conflict is to team development.

Daniel Goleman and colleagues in booklet number 10: Conflict Management, in the “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence” also reinforce the value of conflict for building effective teams and organisations.

They use a wonderful analogy of "putting the fish on the table" - taken from the Sicilian fishermen's practice of getting down to the messy business of preparing their fish for market as a big sociable occasion. This is far better than leaving the fish under the table to rot!

For a group, when conflict is handled effectively, people will have the courage to speak up, take risks and listen to and consider other’s perspectives.

In such a climate, conflict will generate energy, creativity, change, improved performance, innovation and a more strongly bonded team.

You can read more about the authors' insights into the value of conflict and how to address it at work in:

"Conflict is the lifeblood of high performing organisations."

Guidelines for using stories to get your message across

The idea of using stories at work may seem strange, but consider the impact of our analogy of the Sicilian fishermen in our previous article may have had on you. Did it help you to pay attention? Did it conjure up a memorable image? Did it get the message across?

Those would be the objectives of using stories at work, be it in a presentation, in a one-to-one coaching situation, or in a more formal training course. Telling stories can be particularly useful if your usual approach is very direct, or more long-winded, and if you find it difficult to get or keep people's attention.

Find our more about how to use stories at work here.

Facilitated workshops for developing team strategy, behaviours and working practices

RiverRhee has been facilitating team workshops on and off for several years now. We recently facilitated one of these for a team at Red Balloon. The result, as Karen Schmiady (Head of Fundraising and Communications) says, can be "a highly motivating and inspiring day [with] many useful actions that will really make a difference."

RiverRhee is now partnering with The Innovation Practice to offer an enhanced package for senior management teams and members of their organisations. Each workshop is tailored to the organisation and to its requirements, and will typically include one or more of the following elements:

Shaping and articulation of your strategy (purpose, values, key performance indicators etc.)
Agreement on your core behaviours - how you will communicate and work with each other and with others outside your team. (This is supported by analysis of your individual and team strengths.)
Diagnosis and enhancement of your current working practices - through observation, team questionnaires, and discussion.

Workshops can be one day or longer, and will be supplemented by detailed reports on the outcomes and agreed next steps.

If this is something in which you might be interested, contact Elisabeth on elisabeth@riverrhee.com or +44(0)7876 130 817

Do get in touch to enquire about or book a place on one of our upcoming courses:

Introduction to Management - 19th-21st June
Introduction to Management - 25th-27th September
Coaching Skills for Managers - 16th October
Transition to Leadership - 18th October
Introduction to Lean and Six Sigma - 6th November
The First Steps in Selling - 7th November
Introduction to Project Management - 8th November
Presentation Skills - 13th November
Managing Change - 14th November

Other training, workshops and one-to-one coaching can be customised on request.

Contact Elisabeth on 07876 130 817 or elisabeth@riverrhee.com.