From language to leadership, we are invited to respond to an enormous range of training needs by clients working internationally. Here are some brief accounts of some of the courses we have delivered recently, both at home and abroad:
Training the trainer with Bob Dignen
York Associates recently completed the third of three train-the-trainer sessions for Zurich Group, the leading global insurance and financial services company. The company has developed a comprehensive internal qualification programme for staff including underwriters and relationship managers. Bob Dignen developed a short two-hour module called Collaborating Internationally for this programme, and then trained approximately 80 nominated internal trainers on how to deliver the materials across Zurich’s worldwide locations. This knowledge transfer initiative could prove to be a future business model with York Associates acting as learning consultant supporting companies looking to develop customised internal training programmes.
Effective business writing with Jackie Black
Jackie doubles as a trainer and as our support course coordinator when Fiona is working in other areas like writing or marketing in Brazil and Germany. She writes:
If your company decided to carry out an email audit looking at volume of traffic, relevance and time spent, what do you think the findings would reveal? With this question in mind, I recently ran a two-day writing course for a group of people with very diverse functions and responsibilities as well as very different communication needs.
Much of the time was dedicated, of course to content, style and language. However, a common thread running through discussions with the participants before the course was the need for clarity. Being able to send out clear, transparent messages reduces the time we spend wiring quite drastically, and also leads to less frequent misunderstandings and more efficient decision-making. The main challenge for most of the group in their writing was to achieve a balance between being too direct (blunt and dictatorial) and too polite (quaint and old-fashioned), especially when making requests or offers.
In addition to this, many of the group admitted to being addicted to emailing, resorting to the written form in an attempt to avoid face-to-face discussion (or conflict) or using the phone. Many of them also felt that having information written down in ‘black and white’ gave them some kind of safety net. The reflection then was: is this the best form of communication to use in this situation?
My aim was for the participants to leave the course not only armed with a comprehensive set of phrases to help them write more accurately and more concisely, but also with a new outlook on writing as a form of communication.
European Works Council communication with John Woollacott
John’s expertise in international trade union communication continues to be in demand as we provide support in the form of training and facilitation not only to the Norwegian Trade Union Confederation (LO) and Norwegian Workers’ Educational Association (AOF) and to the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) but also to an increasing number of European Works Councils of individual companies. John writes here about the last course for European Works Councillors organised through ETUI.
At the end of November, York Associates will welcome another group of European Works Council representatives to York for a one-week course on behalf of the European Trade Union Institute. This follows the success of a similar course last year, when EWC reps from companies based in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Norway and Romania worked on improving their language and communication skills around trade union and EWC issues.
Some highlights of the week included a meeting simulation, where participants had the opportunity to explain and discuss problems they face in their work – including disciplinary action against a shift worker, renegotiating an EWC agreement following a company takeover, a new bonus system, and the lack of consultation with employee representatives in one EWC. Following a talk about trade unions in the UK, participants prepared and gave a short presentation about trade union organisation and membership in their own countries. The emphasis in all activities was on speaking clearly and listening actively, and this formed the basis for the feedback provided by the trainer.
Lionel Fulton, from the Labour Research Department, gave an excellent talk to the group on EWCs in theUK, and answered questions about the challenges facing EWCs in general. There was also a lively meeting with shop stewards at the Nestle factory in York, in which views were exchanged on workplace organisation and some specific achievements of EWCs. The group prepared questions for both these meetings, and the questions were distributed around the group so that all members were fully engaged.
The end-of-course evaluation was very positive. One participant commented that “this course was made-to-measure for EWC members.” We look forward to a repeat performance in November!
Finnish academics visit Whitby with Brenda Gleave
See our last newsletter for Brenda’s profile. She writes about one important aspect of a recent course provided for academic staff from the Metropolia University in Helsinki:
There’s a well-known English proverb which goes ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’. We at York Associates and, it would seem, many of our clients, happily subscribe to this. What better evidence than a recent mini-bus extravaganza, undertaken by a group of Finnish academics from Metropolia University in Helsinkito the quaint coastal town of Whitby. The Finns’ enthusiasm for such an outing was fanned by the popularity in their native country of the British TV series, Heartbeat. Its setting in the North Yorkshire moors, the fictional village of Aidensfield and the reality of the fishing port of Whitby, were temptations too great to pass up on a hot, sunny afternoon in May.
York Associate’s menu of courses caters for all tastes. The Finnish contingent opted for a closed group format which allows not only for intensive English language tuition but an opportunity for colleagues to gel and brainstorm solutions to management challenges within their own organisation. The ten clients were chaperoned by two of YA’s trainers, an enviable task for the latter and a means to a unique exchange of conversation and cultures.
Whitby offers an embarrassment of riches in terms of historical sites, together with shops for the ladies and drinking holes for the men. Arriving at our destination, our band of sightseers divided into two groups and set off in a spirit of fun and adventure. Whitby is famed principally for its abbey – the first monastery founded in AD657 by King Oswy of Northumbria. An Anglo-Saxon style double monastery for men and women, its original ruler was the formidable royal princess Hild. Now in ruins, it nonetheless sits in haunting majesty atop a headland to frame a panoramic view over the town and coastline. Kirsi Massalo, one of the two female lecturers in the group, gamely climbed the hundred steps to the Abbey to gaze on the harbour below. In the spirit of true enquiry, and, inter alia, as a graduate of wood sciences, Kirsi also investigated during her week at York Associates, the origin of the monkey puzzle tree and its fossil legacy of jet. This luminous, black gemstone, made popular by the Victorians, is found in both quantity and quality in Whitby– so an additional source of delight on the trip for Kirsi the researcher.
