I first started working for Harvester in 1984. Kevin Flanagan, was my first "dotted line" boss in HR, and he taught me a tremendous amount that has been influential right through my career.

The first was to make sure I was not the worst sort of HR person who is someone who knows everything about HR theory & process and nothing about people. Another was to have a clear PURPOSE for everything you do. HR people love process but it is vital to always be clear on the purpose - and if you haven't got a clear purpose, that adds value to the business you shouldn't be doing it. This applies to everything you do. 

I also learnt a tremendous amount about teambuilding from Kevin. Before meeting him I thought teambuilding was about outdoor activities, climbing hills or abseiling etc. Whilst these have a role to play they often do not get to the bottom of the real issues in the workplace so when people get back to work nothing really has changed. Kevin taught me how to diagnose the isuues in a team and devise a process for the team to work out the solutions themselves. This is a classroom based approach but learning on this type of activity is much more likely to be applied back at work & make a real difference. It is no coincidence that the Harvester team was one of the strongest teams I have worked with and that Kevin facilitated the teambuilding process.

Finally, it was Kevin first told me about Tom Peters and opened my mind to learning from management gurus.

It's impossible to talk about Kevin without thinking of Keith Henesey. Keith & I learnt from Kevin at the same time but I also learnt a lot from Keith as well. However, I had two main doinks from Keith that have influenced me greatly. The first was about working in a values based organisation. Keith was the first person I worked with who really understood that values are far more important in guiding behaviour than any manuals & policies. The second  doink was on teamwork. Keith truly lived the principle of playing to individual's strengths rather than job titles. An example of this is when using Belbin team types - whoever was the highest on "co-ordinator" chaired the meetings - whether he or she was the leader or not. This really worked but not all leaders could cope with the preceived loss of status whereas Keith knew that in tru teams status is irrelevant. Keith also introduced me to "Think Strawberries" which is featured in the "Sales" section of this site.

When I joined Harvester there were two Area Managers. Keith was one and Dan Wright was the other. As with Keith I learned a tremendous amount from Dan but the two main doinks were on presentations & making a point in a fun way. Dan is a presenter par excellence. By just watching Dan you can pick up ideas to put into practice - not easy though. Secondly Dan was expert at getting a message over in a fun way. I defy any of his Harvester Managers who were there at the time not to remember his lesson on stock security. Dan "stole" stock from his Managers as they were adamant their security was perfect. He then presented the "stolen" stock back to them in front of their peers at an area meeting. The point was proven! My doink was to think of different ways of getting a boring message over and it might just stick!

I first started working with Ruth Smith at Harvester. People who give you really honest feedback are rare and Ruth does this. I have learnt a great deal from Ruth & she is a great sounding board. One of the many concepts that I got from Ruth is "Swallowing without Chewing". With so many books, courses, seminars, films, TV programmes around these days Managers can be tempted to take the latest theory, idea, trend, fad or suggestion from a colleague and use it. This ends up in lots of activity and no achievement. Good Managers do not just apply the latest "big idea" - they take them, understand them and apply them as appropriate. In other words they chew before swallowing. Managers who swallow without chewing get in a mess. However, just as bad is to reject ideas - i.e. spitting them out - without chewing on them at all. This results in closed minds.

As I started to apply my learning on teambuilding to other teams I also learnt that it is vital to be strong as a facilitator. Managers go on teambuilding events or courses and do an exercise and then immediately want to repeat it with their teams. Just because it worked for the group that they were with does not mean its right for another group. Andrew Bailey helped me to realise this. Andrew went on a teambuilding event where they did the exercise "Prisoner's Dilemma". This is a process for discussing trust issues and it had worked well. He wanted to repeat this with his team, but trust wasn't an issue in his team, so the process would not have been relevant against the purpose and would have been a waste of time. He made me realise how important it is to diagnose the issues with the line manager & agree purpose. However, control of process to deliver that purpose must remain with the facilitator.