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'It's like having sky plus! I love that I can rewind the conversation and stop it whenever I feel like it'
'It's like having sky plus! I love that I can rewind the conversation and stop it whenever I feel like it'
Performance Matters at Network Rail
When Network Rail took over Railtrack in 2002 it heralded a new beginning, a new vision and a brand new way of delivery.
However Network Rail inherited a tired system, starved of investment and in urgent need of renewal. And every single week that system supports three million users. That's a lot of stations, track, bridges and signals to maintain - and a major cultural change to make it happen under the glare of the political and media spotlight.
In order to achieve its vision of becoming truly world class, Network Rail knew that its attention had to be on investment - both infrastructure and people – the real engine behind success. So the organisation engaged a world class partner. The Centre for High Performance Development (CHPD) is a specialist leadership development consultancy offering one of the foremost leadership benchmarking tools available today. Together, Network Rail and CHPD defined a clear talent and leadership strategy. They knew the type of leaders the business needed to create and succeeded in raising employee engagement levels. So far, so good.
The next phase? To develop a true ‘performance culture’.
Network Rail wanted to develop line managers' ability to manage performance and develop potential. Critically, it wanted to create a culture of open communication where managers felt confident in handling performance issues bravely and efficiently. At the same time, new performance ratings needed to be communicated. This was a huge task: 2,500 managers needed to be trained. And they were a very wide ranging audience. A new dawn. A new challenge.
Never one to be complacent, CHPD decided to team up with Bi-Jingo to ensure an innovative, high-impact approach to the training. As senior client partner, Rachel Woolf, said: “We came to Bi-Jingo because we knew we had to take the learning experience to the next level and really challenge the population of Network Rail with a ‘hands on’ experience.”
Without doubt, it's an unbeatable combination: CHPD has more than 30 years of research conducted with business and academic partners; Bi-jingo has the skills and experience to bring the theories to life.
Woolf knew that aligning stakeholders early in the process was vital. Bi-jingo director, David Lever, explains, “Bi-Jingo were involved right from the pitching stage, through the diagnostic phase in which we met people from different functions, to drafting scripts and performing them to senior managers for their feedback”
CHPD worked with Network Rail to identify the four ‘Pillars of Performance Management’ which became the structure of the event:
As one of the CHPD trainers commented: “A common reaction to coaching as a management style is ‘That's all very well and good but you don't know what it's like here. We just don't have time’. It's very powerful to be able to show them a workplace conversation which they recognise absolutely as something they’ve experienced. It rings true and they get to see the difference a different approach gets.”
The Bi-Jingo team were trained in CHPD's leadership behaviours and the Network Rail coaching model so they could support the trainers and maximise delegate's learning. The training deliverers were trained in facilitating the dramatic scenarios. It was a genuinely joined up approach.
The partnership element has been key to the success of the training roll-out. CHPD and Bi-Jingo both have the same goals and values, as Rachel Woolf explains, “CHPD and Bi-Jingo are aligned in wanting to make a difference. We have a similar focus on quality. We want to be the best in what we do and that helps create a successful partnership.”
One of the key challenges when delivering 125 events is maintaining a core consistency whilst allowing creativity to flourish. David describes his approach
“It was important for us not to become passive in a service capacity with CHPD. We've had regular reviews throughout and have looked for ways to incorporate current news and any changes in the scenarios. Where we wanted to re-direct things to use our team more effectively or to raise the levels of interaction we have said so. And they have been very responsive to new ideas. In that sense we have role-modelled what the course is about.”
Throughout the roll out delegate satisfaction rates have consistently remained at over 90%. Plus Network Rail has seen real evidence of changed behaviour among participating managers.
For more information on our work on Performance Management please contact: David Lever.
When Network Rail took over Railtrack in 2002 it heralded a new beginning, a new vision and a brand new way of delivery.
However Network Rail inherited a tired system, starved of investment and in urgent need of renewal. And every single week that system supports three million users. That's a lot of stations, track, bridges and signals to maintain - and a major cultural change to make it happen under the glare of the political and media spotlight.
In order to achieve its vision of becoming truly world class, Network Rail knew that its attention had to be on investment - both infrastructure and people – the real engine behind success. So the organisation engaged a world class partner. The Centre for High Performance Development (CHPD) is a specialist leadership development consultancy offering one of the foremost leadership benchmarking tools available today. Together, Network Rail and CHPD defined a clear talent and leadership strategy. They knew the type of leaders the business needed to create and succeeded in raising employee engagement levels. So far, so good.
The next phase? To develop a true ‘performance culture’.
Network Rail wanted to develop line managers' ability to manage performance and develop potential. Critically, it wanted to create a culture of open communication where managers felt confident in handling performance issues bravely and efficiently. At the same time, new performance ratings needed to be communicated. This was a huge task: 2,500 managers needed to be trained. And they were a very wide ranging audience. A new dawn. A new challenge.
Never one to be complacent, CHPD decided to team up with Bi-Jingo to ensure an innovative, high-impact approach to the training. As senior client partner, Rachel Woolf, said: “We came to Bi-Jingo because we knew we had to take the learning experience to the next level and really challenge the population of Network Rail with a ‘hands on’ experience.”
Without doubt, it's an unbeatable combination: CHPD has more than 30 years of research conducted with business and academic partners; Bi-jingo has the skills and experience to bring the theories to life.
Woolf knew that aligning stakeholders early in the process was vital. Bi-jingo director, David Lever, explains, “Bi-Jingo were involved right from the pitching stage, through the diagnostic phase in which we met people from different functions, to drafting scripts and performing them to senior managers for their feedback”
CHPD worked with Network Rail to identify the four ‘Pillars of Performance Management’ which became the structure of the event:
- Performance reviews and pay links
- Regular informal performance chats
- Managing performance improvement
- Higher performance through development discussions
As one of the CHPD trainers commented: “A common reaction to coaching as a management style is ‘That's all very well and good but you don't know what it's like here. We just don't have time’. It's very powerful to be able to show them a workplace conversation which they recognise absolutely as something they’ve experienced. It rings true and they get to see the difference a different approach gets.”
The Bi-Jingo team were trained in CHPD's leadership behaviours and the Network Rail coaching model so they could support the trainers and maximise delegate's learning. The training deliverers were trained in facilitating the dramatic scenarios. It was a genuinely joined up approach.
The partnership element has been key to the success of the training roll-out. CHPD and Bi-Jingo both have the same goals and values, as Rachel Woolf explains, “CHPD and Bi-Jingo are aligned in wanting to make a difference. We have a similar focus on quality. We want to be the best in what we do and that helps create a successful partnership.”
One of the key challenges when delivering 125 events is maintaining a core consistency whilst allowing creativity to flourish. David describes his approach
“It was important for us not to become passive in a service capacity with CHPD. We've had regular reviews throughout and have looked for ways to incorporate current news and any changes in the scenarios. Where we wanted to re-direct things to use our team more effectively or to raise the levels of interaction we have said so. And they have been very responsive to new ideas. In that sense we have role-modelled what the course is about.”
Throughout the roll out delegate satisfaction rates have consistently remained at over 90%. Plus Network Rail has seen real evidence of changed behaviour among participating managers.
For more information on our work on Performance Management please contact: David Lever.