Insight from nature applied to Supplier Management

I love my job - but you know that right?

I particularly love it when I am able to bring everything I do together into one workshop.

Last week I facilitated a 'supplier relationship management' workshop. Although we decided it should really just be entitled 'relationship management' as we acknowledged our own contribution to the relationship and outcomes we get (50:50).

I say facilitated, but perhaps the better word for it was coached, because whilst we did cover some theory and models there was also lots of discussion to help attendees to explore a subject they're already doing on a day to day basis.

Discussion that touched on coaching improved performance, rapport, influencing, developing trust, managing meetings, conflict, and rewarding great performance. 

The aim of coaching is to help people to learn something for themselves - not to be told what to think. Coaching leads to long term changes in thinking and behaving - teaching not so much - unless its supported by coaching once back in the office.

We did touch on the GROW model for coaching performance of suppliers but we also tried a number of unconventional tools (see an advent series of posts from the archives introducing many of these).

Using nature as our coach and metaphor for supplier management was one of the tools that we used on the workshop that I was very pleased with the outcome about.

Imagine the following location:

"Idyllic rural location, ideal for hiking and climbing enthusiasts. Very sociable atmosphere with guests hanging out in the evenings, live music most nights. Unobstructed and breathtaking mountain views. Ideal for single travellers" 

What landscape do you imagine as you read these words?

For IP reasons I can't share with you the image used in the workshop but if you imagine the image at the top of this post with a series of hammocks hanging across from one cliff to another you'll get the idea.

The description above, that one delegate read out to us before showing us the image, had us all imagining something very different. It was used as a reminder to ensure we have the same interpretation as our suppliers about the specification and 'spirit' of the contract.

Of course, we know this insight logically and intellectually. By using nature we're tapping into our unconscious and creative mind. Tapping in more deeply to our inner wisdom might just ensure the insight is not forgotten when we jump to blaming a supplier for not meeting our expectations. Or when we're drafting an action plan and believe the words we're using are obvious and could never get misunderstood - could they? 

Other images and insights chosen in this exercise are shown below, although again I've had to use different images. You may want to view the pictures first and consider your own insights:

What action have these images inspired you to take?

Here's what we got on the day:

All the elements coming together and getting the balance right.

Penguins take it in turns to be on the outside of a huddle and take the brunt of the wind and cold. That is, they understand that can't do it alone and need the support of the whole colony to survive.

All parts of the garden need to be nurtured - watering, feeding, weeding, pruning etc. Other wise we'll just end up with an over grown garden. Which links to many post I've written about the link between supplier and plant management.

Rather than get too distracted with the trees we need to look beyond to the bigger picture to focus on the sky and what's at the other side of the current situation. To remember where we're headed rather than get side tracked or too despondent with the current landscape.

We should be this proud of the relationship we have with our suppliers. Relationships should look calm and serene from the outside even if there's plenty going on under the water.

Back to basics - we can only squeeze so much.

And one image that reflects another insight from the session was - that too much noise can dilute the message you're trying to make and you can lose the clarity both parties need in order to work effectively together. Which is why it's important to not over use the word "urgent" (but that's another post for another day!).

What did you notice as you read this post - what thoughts came to mind that might provide a different perspective on a situation you're facing at the moment?

I'd love to discuss how I may coach your team on any aspect of category management, or supplier management adding in or focusing exclusively on the very important aspects of emotional intelligence and creativity.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
+44 (0)7770 538159 
alison@alisonsmith.eu

For a wider use of nature as your coach see my Landscaping Your Life blog and also my book Can't see the wood for the trees aimed at helping you get back on track when you're stuck in a rut, up a creek without a paddle, going round in circles, are out on a limb, feel like a fish out of water or can't see the wood for the trees.

Improving team relations

"Wow - team communication is noticeably much better since the session" said one CPO after a workshop I'd facilitated.

Yesterday I shared the outcome of a workshop where a procurement team were invited to consider how they were setback by arrogance. Use of some unconventional tools allowed the team members to give themselves advice about how their language and behaviours might be getting in the way of them positively influencing their stakeholders (follow the link to find out more).

One of the other agenda items was on communication preferences - on face value something that's fairly straight forward:

• We all have different preferences on how we take information in, process it and make decisions. 

Not so easy to adapt our style though when we often think other people just need the same information as we do. It's simply too easy to think our stakeholders will need the same perspective of the info that we find interesting or enlightening, or will understand the information to the same level of detail that excites us, in the same format that pushes our buttons, etc.

If other people in our lives are like a door - then understanding between us and them can only be achieved if we can open the door.

You only have to think therefore about all the doors you've opened since leaving home this morning to realise how making an assumption that one size key fits all is ludicrous - with respect to opening doors and therefore, by implication, when communicating with others.

• Pull back the bolt
• Turn the key(s)
• Push up the gate lock
• Car door released when the key was in proximity of the car
• Or pressing the 'door open' button on the key fob (not as I can do when tired and press the door lock button!)
• Or if you went by bus - you had to put your hand out to stop the bus to get on, or press the bell for the driver to stop and open the door for you
• Or if on a train press the top button

• or is it the bottom button

• Hover the electronic pass over a sensor for the car park
• Push the revolving door 
• Press the lift button for it to open, then push the floor level button to get the lift door to open/close
• Push or pull the office door - with handle or not
• Or use an entry 4 digit code, or thumb print or retinal scan (I may be going a little far with that)
• and so on

There will be as many ways to open a door as communication preferences those you're wishing to influence will have such as:

• Detailed & specific/global & big picture
• Visual/Words/diagrams
• Benefits you'll be getting (toward /the carrot)/ things you'll be leaving behind (away/the stick)
• Motivators of achievement/affiliation/influence
• Options/ procedures
• Sameness/ difference
• Primary interest: people/place/thing/activity/information  
• Matching/mismatching
• Proactive/reactive

Other strategies we need to consider might include someone's

• Frame of reference - do they need others to tell them what to do - or do they only listen to what they want to do
• Decision making: looks right, sounds right, feels right or makes sense
• Relationship to time: in time/ through time
• Learning styles: activist/reflector/theorist/pragmatist
• Convincer strategy: the type of information needed to do this (see it/hear it/do it with them/read about it) + the process we adopt to be convinced: automatic/x times/y period of time/ consistency   
• Response to stress: feeling/choice/thinking
• and so on and so on

If you're familiar with Bolton & Bolton, DISC, Insights, Myers Briggs and other personality profiling tools, these each in their own way try to pull the above individual preferences into some common stereotypes offering a continuum of preferences which might include:

• Judging/perceiving
• Sensing/intuiting 
• Thinking/Feeling
• Introverted/extroverted
• Assertive/unassertive
• People/Task 
• Cooperativeness/Assertiveness

It was one such preference the CPO had that made the biggest difference to team communication after the workshop.

• Time required to make a decision

The CPO was unable to make a decision unless they had time to weigh up the information - so sending the information ahead of a meeting, preferably allowing it to sink in over night, resulted in more positive outcomes of meetings.

I remember one person asking "Are you telling me if I give you 24 hours to read my report first I'm more likely to get a positive response"

"Yes" was his reply.

The team all looked at each other and shared their frustration that sometimes it felt like they were not
trusted, that the CPO just didn't like their idea, or was just being awkward.

None of these were true for the CPO. The way their mind was hardwired just meant they couldn't say yes or no without giving the info time to settle, to weigh it up, and perhaps even view it from all angles.

Such a great example that we judge others based on our own preferences rather than take time to understand what will best facilitate increased understanding and therefore improve influencing.

I wonder might this be the underlying reason for your 'resistant' 'awkward' or 'difficult' stakeholders, suppliers or colleagues - you're just pushing and you should be pulling!

As with any door when you've got the right key and use it correctly the door opens easily and effortlessly.  

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Unlocking personal, procurement and organisational potential using unconventional tools

This is the 9th in a series of blogs applying unconventional tools or thinking to procurement challenges. On a scale of unconventionalness this post only comes in at a 1/10 - there are others in the series that are much higher, and require an open mind in order to obtain maximum insight from them.

Judgement is one of the postcards included in the Purchasing Coach Soft Skills Toolkit that brings together a series of postcards from your Soft Skills - it's entitled Dear Procurement, with love from your soft skills. More here.

Are procurement setback by Arrogance?

"Are procurement setback by arrogance" was a question I asked a procurement team a few years ago.

Their initial response was "who us? ....never", and slowly as the day progressed moved to "Oh - I can certainly see why some of our stakeholders might consider our language and behaviour to be arrogant." Which then allowed them to develop a different strategy for stakeholder engagement than the one they'd been adopting.

As part of discussions around the Procurement challenges series of blogs I've mentioned the outcome of a session I facilitated with a procurement team a lot so thought I'd share the highlights here.

The title of the session was:

Our Journey to world class - making the boat go faster!

And the CPO's stated objective was:

Bringing the team together, and understanding what needs to happen to ensure team behaviours support achieving personal and stretching objectives.

The agenda included a mix of sessions: communication & influencing training, facilitated discussions/breakouts, and some unconventional tools.

The underlying structure of the day followed the process I'd developed for when you're feeling like you're up a creek without a paddle (follow hypertext for more on the use of this saying, which also explains why we used the 'how to make the boat go faster' in the workshop title).

Use of the saying meant agenda items included putting the anchor down and taking time to consider: how to get back into the main flow of the river, what was needed to keep them afloat, what guides and travellers were there to help them, calibrating their compasses, and taking paddles in hand and getting going. (More here on why I use metaphor in much of my work, and why it's such a powerful, and yet under used, change management tool.)

As part of the day I used cards from the Frameworks for Change Coaching Process *, and the following setback cards came out in succession. As setbacks they're inviting us to consider how the behaviour on the card might be setting us back from achieving our stated outcome/goal.

When the two cards were selected by two team members in succession, whilst some team members were open to the suggestion, I was also met with some dismissive statements.

Even when I asked "How could your behaviour be seen as arrogant" some responded with "It can't".

It would have been easy for me to label some of the things I heard as potentially arrogant, but how easy would anyone find receiving that feedback? And would that facilitate the change in behaviour needed?

I then decided to use another unconventional tool and asked them all to all stand up and move to one side of the room. I then talked them through the standing in their shoes exercise.

In this exercise they imagine looking back at themselves, and noticing what it feels like to be their stakeholder, on the receiving end of their own words, tone and behaviour. It was then that the penny started to drop - a realisation emerged that some of them were stuck in a stereotype of what procurement should, ought and must act like, rather than be more flexible in their approach and use the different communication and influencing styles we'd discussed earlier in the day.

As a coach my role is not to tell others what they should think or believe. My role instead is to provide the right environment and stimulus for them to tap into their own inner knowing and potential. Thus facilitating change inside and out for themselves. (It's certainly why I use the unconventional tools that I do - because they're great at helping people to unlock their own potential rather than have someone force the locks for them!)

As you consider standing in the shoes of your stakeholders, suppliers or colleagues would they consider your behaviour to be arrogant, and in what way might that arrogance be setting you back? As a result of that insight what advice could you give yourself to allow changes to be made that engender a more positive relationship with those individuals you wish to be influencing?

Another insight of the day significantly improved team working with their manager, and involved a conversation about the communication preferences of their CPO. I'll share that in tomorrow's post.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Unlocking personal, procurement and organisational potential using unconventional tools

There's an index of posts that I'd adding to as I write post like this - using unconventional tools to unlock procurement potential to resolve challenges faced. The challenges addressed are being provided by responses to a LinkedIn discussion.

* Frameworks for Change Coaching Process (FCCP) copyright Innerlinks www.innerlinks.com I used the FCCP process more fully in a post earlier in the series - more here. 

Index of posts offering different perspectives to a challenge

I asked you for your most challenging procurement issues on LinkedIn, and you shared them enthusiastically. I'd said I'd apply the unconventional tools I use in coaching, facilitation and training to these challenges, and share the outcome in my posts on my blog. I also wrote some guiding principles that would help you to get the most from reading the posts.

Here's the emerging index of the post I've written so far (follow the hypertext links highlighted).

I like to see it as an index of potential insights offering different perspectives to the challenges you're facing.

The score out of 10 provides my assessment of the level of unconventionalness used when applying the tool.

1. An introduction to viewing challenges from a different perspective - insights shared can be applied to any challenge you're facing. 5/10
2. Talent 3/10
3. Getting Procurement teams to expand their thinking 2/10
4. How to release the bad cop image - but it's a 7/10 therefore please approach with an open mind
5. Why do stakeholders think they can do it better and ignore our advice 2/10 (this post would be a good place to start)
6. Procurement's challenge of  how to have a flourishing garden 3/10
7. Looking at a category metaphorically 10/10 (be warned)
8. Are procurement setback by arrogance? 2/10 
9. Finding the right key to open the door to effective communication 1/10
10. Standing in your stakeholders or suppliers shoes 4/10   
11. No one is 100% brick wall 3/10 & 8/10
12. Why all maps are wrong 2/10  

Remember we're using an unconventional tool because the conventional way of solving a problem means the solution is still eluding us, and an alternate perspective may just be the thing we need to jolt us back on track.

How your mind does that will differ every time you use one of these tools. Just stay open to the possibility of finding something you've not thought about before, that might just be the insight you need.

Other blogs I've shared in the past using an unconventional tool or two, and applied to various challenges discussed in procurement coaching or training sessions are listed below:

• No seat at the table - using sayings/metaphor to uncover different perspectives - 7/10 on level of unconventionalness of the tool
• Why Procurement isn't seen as strategic by the board - 1/10 using Kraljic to give a different perspective - a post written for one of the consultancies I'm an associate for.  
• Is it really a problem - is using 'problem' the problem - using language 2/10
• Are you looking for solutions or answers - because for one person looking for the answers and definitely not the solutions meant she found them! - using language - 3/10
• Dealing with closed bridges with others - using sayings/metaphor - 7/10 
• Doing something different every day - 1/10 such a fabulous tool to get us out of our comfort zones and being more open to saying yes rather than no to new ideas.
• Thinking about how to have even more of the problem - 2/10 
• If misunderstandings have arisen with stakeholders or suppliers are you having a chocolate moment? 1/10 - no actual chocolates involved I'm afraid.
• Do you just need to get into a different environment to get a different perspective - what about a walking meeting? 2/10

More general blogs addressing every day issues that also use these unconventional tools include:

• What's being measured is driving the wrong behaviour
• They're just not listening to us
• They don't understand us 
• We don't understand them
• We aiming for perfection
• We're stuck
• We feel like we're up a creek without a paddle
• It's as if they're talking a different language
• Yep we've given up, and have started to believe "that's just the way business is"
• Some of us are feeling lost
• We keep getting the same outcome despite trying different approaches 
• A few of us have a sense of deja vu, that we're simply going around in circles
• We've been accused of being on auto pilot (and so simple to resolve - see link for more)
• What we're doing isn't working
• We can't see the wood for the trees
• Some of us are getting more and more demotivated, or are even considering leaving the team
• But hey - no pain no gain

I'm not expecting anyone to read them all - just dip in and out (by following the hypertext links for the topic you're interested in).

I'd suggest that on days when a solution is eluding you you might want to come back, be open to the unexpected and unconventional, and pick a post that feels like it might just have the same energy to your issue, and apply the insights to your current situation.

Do get in touch if you'd be interested in coaching, facilitation or training, whether using these unconventional tools applied to challenges you're facing, or more conventional soft/people skills training. I do also provide category management and supplier management training and coaching too, directly or as an associate via other procurement consultancies (I'm always open to being an associate, partner or collaborator with others.) alison@alisonsmith.eu +44 (0)7770 538159

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Unlocking procurement potential often using unconventional tools

Creativity is one of the postcards included in the Purchasing Coach Soft Skills Toolkit that brings together a series of postcards written to Procurement from your soft skills - it's entitled Dear Procurement, with love from your soft skills. More here.

Top 10 Purchasing Coach posts

As I reflect on the top 10 Purchasing Coach posts it comes as no surprise that the majority of them are related to looking at a challenge or situation from a different perspective.

• It's like talking to a brick wall
• Making mountains out of molehills
• How could pipe cleaners have the answer?
• Is your language stopping you from finding the solution?
• Are you going around in circles
• Why metaphors are such good tools for facilitating change 
• We make decisions of how to act towards others based on our own preferences
• The Sky is not the limit
• Are you on automatic pilot
• Will you change the buyer/supplier archetype?

Other index's of blogs cover:

• The enablers for category management
• The enablers for supplier management
• Series using unconventional tools to provide a different perspective to challenges faced by procurement
• My year in blogs - 2016
• Looking forward to 2017 and what services I can offer

Do get in touch if you'd be interested in coaching, facilitation or training, whether using unconventional tools applied to challenges you're facing, or more conventional soft/people skills training. An earlier post described the outcome from a team building day I facilitated some years ago.

I do also provide category management and supplier management training and coaching too, directly or as an associate via other procurement consultancies (and I am always open to discussions about being an associate, partner or collaborator with others too) alison@alisonsmith.eu +44 (0)7770 538159

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach

Unlocking procurement potential using uncoventional tools

An exploration of many of the topics I write about can be found in the Purchasing Coach Soft Skills Toolkit that brings together a series of postcards from your soft skills - it's entitled Dear Procurement, with love from your soft skills. More here.

Unlocking the potential of procurement teams

I've written before that my life changed in 2000 after attending a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner workshop. Changed, because I started to take responsibility for the outcomes I was getting in life and at work. I was easier to deal with, and the world felt a lot easier to deal with too.

There was another aspect to the change - and that was the work I was doing.

Prior to the workshop I was a Procurement and Category Manager responsible for procurement activities. In other words, I was involved in getting the most value out of the goods and services being bought by the organisation. Something I'd been doing for 15 years at that time.

After attending the NLP workshop additional activities crept in utilising the tools I was learning - my title also changed to reflect these new responsibilities - Procurement Communication and Personal Development Manager.

If I was to describe what I became then it was a manager responsible for the personal and professional development, well being, and effectiveness of the team, and coach when people were stuck. Stuck - in either their personal or professional lives.

Perhaps put more simply I helped them unlock their potential.

If it's not too soft and fluffy I believe the benefits of unlocking people's potential goes without saying. Just in case it's not so clear to others, what I've observed in the 17 years since that first workshop is that unlocking someones potential can improve or increase their: (in no particular order)

• Confidence - at the very least positively impacting their influencing and negotiation skills with internal stakeholders and suppliers.
• Taking personal responsibility rather than blaming others for outcomes.
• Taking personal responsibility rather than leaving it for others to do. 
• Relationship management - ensuring they have engaged stakeholders and suppliers on their side not playing for the opposition. 
• State management - ie an ability to manage their state of mind and body in the moment to respond appropriately to any situation.
• Awareness of others - and understanding that we're not all the same, and we may all have different meanings for the same words, and different perspectives on what the right strategy will be.
• Giving constructive feedback rather than burying their head in the sand. 
• Trying news ways of working rather than falling back on the all too familiar patterns and ways of working.
• Empathy - to put themselves in the shoes of team members, stakeholders and suppliers. 
• Finding solutions rather than just identifying the problems.
• Responding appropriately to others.
• Management and leadership skills.
• Ability to accept change for themselves, and manage change in others.
• Being happier and more engaged at work. 
• Creativity and innovation - to deliver breakthrough opportunities and to not just always assume tendering is the answer.
• Focus and direction - to get more of the right things done every day.
• Knowing the difference between passivity, assertion and aggression, and when to use them rather than act from the default.
• Resilience - allowing them to bounce back from set backs and resistance from others.
• Communication style - improving understanding and relationships within the procurement team and beyond.
• Flexibility of approach to dealing with others. e.g. not bringing out resistance in others we need to support our actions is always a positive outcome.
• Acceptance and focus on their own development areas. 
• Organisation and planning - I developed this pinterest board on time management after some 1:3 clinics on the subject last year.
• Motivation - ie enthusiasm vs boredom and frustration. It depends on what someone is doing whether just doing the job with little passion is good enough, or whether passion and enthusiasm will bring added benefit to their work and the results they deliver.   
• Understanding of the impact of making judgements of others.
• Well being. 
• and so on.

and a few things they'll be invited to release:

• Fear - of failure, of speaking, of success, of moving on, and so on. 
• Making assumptions - Deep Water Horizon is a great example, if the movie is based on fact, of the disastrous impact of making assumptions. You'll find other horror stories of procurement gone wrong in Pinterest where I'd suggest a large percentage of the reason it even happened is due to 'how' the procurement team did what they did.  
• Cutting corners when it's not safe to do so.
• Going around in circles.
• Taking their head out of the sand on the negative impact they're having on other people, and the other persons performance.
• Paying lip service to 'soft skills' development (forgive a girl for trying :-)).

Understanding the category management or supplier management tools is essential - but 'what' we do is only half the equation. The remainder comes from 'how' we do what we do. It's no use bulldozering stakeholders to accept a recommendation for example, if that then means they do the exact opposite.(Unless of course you're happy with just delivering forecast savings, and not real ones.)

For the last 11 years I've been self employed delivering a mix of category management consultancy, training and coaching - with a whole load of unconventional tools, development of the 'how', and unlocking potential thrown in too. See my year in blogs for a sense of what 2016 entailed.

In 2017 I'm looking to further expand the elements of my role that deal with 'how' procurement teams do what they do, and unlocking their potential.

If you're interested in developing the 'how' they do what they do to further unlock the potential of your team please do get in touch - alison@alisonsmith.eu +44 (0)7770 538159.

I look forward to exploring what unconventional tools (or maybe even conventional ones) would support your team most so they may exceed yours and the board's expectations.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Using unconventional tools to unlock the potential of procurement teams.

The picture above is one of 96 jigsaw pieces we had engraved with the objectives of the procurement team for that year. Everyone had one jigsaw piece, and took them to meetings to swap and discuss. As objectives were met an online jigsaw was completed - see below for a real life attempt at completing it at one team meeting! 

This innovative approach, along side other activities, ensured an improvement from bottom quartile in the MORI staff opinion poll in our first year after merger to upper quartile the following year - including the following improvements.

• Feeling motivated in present job: 19% increase 
• Feeling valued: 32% increase
• Satisfaction with communications: 42% increase

Getting the most from attendance of workshops

I've written a blog for Future Purchasing entitled:

"How you can get the most from attending workshops". 

It was written because there are occasions when people invest 2-3 days of their time on a workshop, and have given no thought to how they will get the most from it. There's a blog next week aimed at managers, and what they can do to ensure their teams get the most from the time away from the office.

For some attendees it's as if they turn up and expect the trainer to do all the work. A bit like turning up to the gym with no idea of your goal, hoping the personal trainer will do most of the work for you, and then being disappointed with the outcome.

You have a choice use the time wisely ahead of time, or hope the trainer is a miracle worker and can get you to learn just the thing you most needed to learn.

The trainer can only take it so far to develop a workshop to support your learning and aha's, the post invites you to think about what you can do to help them, and make it a truly inspiring and valuable use of your time. It includes:

• What you can do before attending the workshop 
• What to do during the workshop
• What do afterwards

I've also written a blog entitled:

How managers can ensure their teams get the most from attending workshops. 

And addresses the same points as above but from the perspective of a manager sending their team to attend a workshop, and wanting them to get the most from the investment in time and money.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change - inside and out

Do you want Adaptive or Generative learning

I wrote a post last week on adaptive and generative learning and realise I should share links to blogs I've written for other organisations here too - for more info follow the links provided:

• Adaptive and generative learning.
• Are you settling for sub-optimal performance 
• How to start the day in the right way
• The secret to a great day's work 
• Communicating business requirements differently
• Processes that drive wrong behaviour
• Procurement's Sat Nav
• Business Requirements for suitcases
• Relationship forecasters
• Do procurement find it easy to be creative 
• Channel hoping stakeholders
• What would Paddington and Harry Potter do

There's also a post coming very soon that I wrote for HeadTorch on well being and mental health at work.

The blogs have not been duplicated here to keep the SEO police happy.

Are your KPIs inspiring positive change?

The challenge when developing workshops is to ensure that the sessions and breakouts embed new knowledge and insight for the delegates. Insight that means delegates go back to the office with changed mindsets, behaviours, ways of doings things or knowledge.

We’re all familiar with death by powerpoint, avoiding that therefore isn't that difficult to do! Developing breakouts is a little trickier, and certainly worth experimenting with.

A recent exercise for KPIs was one such example, and wonderfully helped bring the key learning points alive (even if I say so myself).

In order to have an experience of monitoring the KPIs they'd developed I asked the group to develop KPIs for the supplier management workshop that we could measure daily.

They thought they'd developed SMART and unambiguous KPIs that would drive the right behaviour, and certainly not get in the way of them achieving their stated objectives for the workshop. What we learnt however is, that even with the best intentions, KPIs can easily be counter productive or confusing.

Ambiguity of the KPI

One KPI suggested that 80% of delegates needed to get one 'a-ha' a day. 

As the workshop progressed the definition of an 'a-ha' was refined to include: something you'll do differently as a result of the workshop, an insight, something new, something that's made you think and so on. 

We discussed the % at which we'd be worried - ie 80% took the training from green to amber. What % took the assessment to red, and in need of urgent action?

Not linking KPIs to the outcome you want

Of course a-ha's are not necessarily the things that drive a change in behaviour - which is why I always ask "what will you do differently as a result of the workshop". Which could be better measured a week or month after the workshop, as delegates are asked to reflect on what changes they've noticed themselves making. Or even better their manager is asked to identify positive changes they've noticed,

Not applying weights to KPIs

We explored the impact if the above KPI did dip into red on one day - did that mean the workshop was a disaster? 

We felt the survey monkey to be sent after the workshop would hold a bigger weighting of whether the workshop was a success or not. Which meant we questioned whether there was value in monitoring a-ha's every day at all.

Responsibility for achieving the KPI is one way

I often call the a-ha's light bulb moments. 

We discussed whether it's only the content, and the trainer who has the ability to impact the achievement of these light bulb moments: Lack of clear personal goals for the workshop, distractions, resistance to change, false understanding of current competency level, and even not eating the right things, or drinking enough water can all have an impact on the attention of the delegate. As I touched on yesterday the heating in the room can also impact attention.

Which points to ensuring that the KPI's are seen as the responsibility of all parties involved not just the supplier. After all, if as a trainer I'm just chasing the big a-ha's, my sole focus on this may impact other areas of the training, and the delegates may not take responsibility for their attention and interest to ensure opportunities for a-ha moments are not missed.

KPIs that motivate wrong action

One KPI suggested time keeping needed to be 9-5 +/- 10 minutes. 

This resulted in a conversation about my ability to start before 9, and how many of the delegates would need to missing for me to not start on time, and was that fair to monitor me on something that was being impacted by their actions?  

It was interesting however to observe my behaviour. 

As we came to the end of day 1 I noticed the time was 1647 and said I'd keep in talking until 1650 in order to meet my KPI! A silly example I know, and yet such a great example that if we're not careful our KPIs can drive counter productive behaviours. 

KPI's that don't flex to suit the day to day agreements being made between both parties 

Due to flights on the final day meaning we wanted to leave a little earlier than stated, we extended day 2 by 30 minutes. We realised therefore that the wording of the above KPI needed to state 'agreed time' not to state the precise time. Otherwise we failed to meet the KPI for no reason than it was assumed that every day started at 9 and finished at 5.

The conversation about KPIs then touched on procurement KPIs that also provided examples of the above points:

• Budget reduction targets when procurement don't own the budgets
• Savings targets against first quote which mean suppliers could be asked to ensure they don't put in a good first quote, or are asked for quotes earlier in the process than we should
• Savings KPIs that only monitor forecast saving, and don't go on to measure actual benefit delivered
• Lack of any balanced scorecard with focus purely on savings   

Once you've developed your KPIs how will you ensure they drive positive not negative change in your suppliers or procurement team?

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach

Inspiring change inside and out

When did you last have a walking meeting?

As part of the recent Category Management training in Warsaw we were discussing different tools, techniques and ways to get into a more creative frame of mind.

The assumption is that if we do what we've always done, and sit in a room in a big office block around a table we're not necessarily going to be that creative.

During the workshop we discussed use of metaphor, collage, creative tools such as the Creative Whack pack, and other ways we might achieve a more creative mind set.

Someone suggested 'walking meetings', and I asked the question "has anyone been on a walking meeting?" and everyone said "No". This was closely followed by me asking "would you like to try one?" To which they replied "Yes".

Knowing we were coming up to a session on e-auctions, where I ask them to share their knowledge about the subject, I said we'd do that whilst walking at the same time.

The above video was taken at the start of that walk :-).

For the next 20 minutes we walked towards our mid morning break - this time at a famous Warsaw chocolate house instead of in the hotel.

Each person sharing what they knew about eauctions, and asking questions for clarification.

Passing famous landmarks as we went.

and certainly in the chill of early November enjoying the hot drink as we discussed the insight and learning we'd obtained as a result of our walk. 

Once we returned to the training room I asked it it was something they would repeat, and they all gave a very enthusiastic "Yes". I've even been asked by the client to ensure it's retained in this workshop in the future, and for a forthcoming supplier management workshop.

The benefits we observed included:

• Better focus because we had to concentrate to listen against the background noise of the city.
• Excitement about getting out that transferred onto the subject being discussed (certainly a benefit for eauctions)
• The duration of the walk meant we could explore the topic from different angles and perhaps have it explained from different view points. 
• It seemed easier to ask questions when walking side by side with others

For next time we would recommend that we:

• Have smaller groups - we're thinking a maximum of 4 and possible even 3 would be better
• Know how long it will take to get to our destination - 'not far away' was a little further than that!
• Have clarity about the subject to be discussed on the way back - I think we all discussed different topics - some category management related and others not.
• Ensure we're sufficiently dressed for the occasion - we were mainly lucky but a few returned to the training room a little colder than they would have liked.

I've used walks for looking at issues from a different perspective before. Use of a walk as simply a means of talking about a subject however, is new to me, and one I'd like to explore further if anyone is interested.

Follow the link for more on Keeping on track: Stakeholder engagement half or full day sessions for up to 3 people per session walking in Fife, Scotland in December or January (so yes it would be a case of wrap up warm even if the train will be our main means of transport and shelter if needed).

Or perhaps a Getting on track for the year ahead session would make more sense. Let me know your thoughts, and I'm sure we can develop an inspiring and transformational session together.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring Change Inside and Out.

An index of other blogs on topics covered during the 3 day workshop can be found here.

Summary: Soft Skills

This week's summary blogs continue today with soft skills. I know it's an emotive phrase and I joined that debate with my blog rant last week entitled "but I don't do soft fluffy stuff" and went on to explain that we all do soft fluffy stuff every minute of every day - ie we're not the android above but human. I also wrote the case for soft skills too.

I first dipped my toe into understanding more about these skills over 15 years ago when I attended a 4 day NLP workshop. I was so enthused about the subject I went on to attend the remaining 16 days of the practitioner, a further 20 days for the master practitioner, another 20 days for the trainer trainer and numerous assistant roles to repeat all of the above. Which in class room time alone must amount to over 200 days on the subject. So yes I was hooked and books on the subject continue to arrive weekly as I explore the subject more fully.

Further certification in other coaching tools have just added to the melting pot of all things fluffy!  (More on these tomorrow).

I suppose that's why I blog so often about the subject - my enthusiasm for the subject - but also the ability as I blog to explore the models more fully. Recent blogging on the subject certainly helped when I included a lot of this content in Future Purchasing's Category and Supplier Management workshops before Christmas.

The challenge is how to summarise the blogs on this subject because they represent over half of the blogs I write. That said if I write on communication over a number of days I'll link to the other blogs from the final one. So that's what you'll have here - a set of favourite subjects with links to the main blog with the ability when you get there to explore that subject further. Although be warned its still a long list!


Change
Personal change management is at the heart of much of soft skills.

• Why do I have to change - the answer to which is you don't if what you're doing is working
• Change Management - with links to resistance to change and strategies for change

 

Values
Values are the key to much stuckness in our lives because they motivate our every action or not, and are the basis for how we judge others.

• Values that are too big for their boots - what to do to identify and then realign your values
• Values don't inherently drive right behaviour
• Does empathy ensure we do the right thing - yes but we don't have it for everyone!
• What does respect look like?
• How are values getting in the way
• What do you put your heart and soul into - because that's meeting your values

Influencing (Also see NLP with links to load of blogs)

• The subtleties and politics of influencing with links to numerous other blogs on the subject
• Communication - links to numerous blogs on the subject
• Set aside the pedestal
• Communicate, communicate, communicate

Goals

• Well Formed Outcome - a fab process - as per graphic above
• What stops you achieving your goals
• The things that help you keep on track to achieving your goals
• Anything is possible

Personal development

• Creativity
• State Management - ie state of mind and body
• Judgements are simply assumptions
• Trust is in the eye of the beholder
• Expanding comfort zones
• Speaking with confidence
• Are you always or never late - and how do you judge others who are the opposite to you?
• Dream, believe, achieve - anything is possible
• What's winning in your world - the good the bad or the indifferent - look to your language to find out
• Looking for the worst in other people - no wonder you live in a hostile world
• Who am I - again a look at the language we use
• Have you reached a choice point in life?

Wellbeing

• My prescription for positivity and wellbeing
• How do you start the day
• We love the love the challenge but is it good for us?
• Are we on auto pilot for bad habits or good habits?
• Sleep
• In need of more bounce
• It's not about the toast - on mental well being and stress
• Don't go cold Turkey - but do let go of some of those addictions to emails, social media
• 5:1 positive to negative interactions
• Stop, Look, Listen
• The conspiracies we support - to keep doing the wrong the things
• 6 out of 7 of Disney's dwarfs are not happy
• Don't stay around miserable Mackerels
• Oh no it's Sunday - don't wish your life away
• Disconnect to reconnect
• Nameste - honour the spirit in others

My favourite quotes

• Our deepest fear - just the quote
• Can you by faithless and therefore trustworthy - exploration of its meaning 

Short stories I've written with wellbeing in mind

• The tortoise and the hare
• Forgiveness
• I phone I phone in my hand - about comparison
• There's a couple more short stories read by me on my Youtube channel 

The summary blog tomorrow will share more about what I do and how I do it.

Yesterday I provided a summary list of blogs on procurement, and the day before a summary of rants on the loss of our humanity. A useful reference for those who enjoy my blogs and more easily want to read those from the archive - ok also easier for me to find them too :-).

Alison Smith
Inspiring Change Inside and out - when what you're doing isn't working