Conversations with Thought Leaders

MASTERING COMMS FOR YOUR PEOPLE TO RESTART, RECOVER, & REVIVE  

DATE: 9 September 2020 

HOST: David Webley, Founder & MD of Granite Consulting 

GUESTS: 

Rebecca Murch - Head of Internal Comms & Engagement NHS Bristol 

Advita Patel - Founder & Director Comms Rebel   

This conversation explores the Comms strategies required to support your people through the post isolation period.  

INSIGHT 1 The pandemic is causing heightened levels of uncertainty and anxiety, which equally heightens the importance of comms to help people through their journey.  

INSIGHT 2 The days of annual staff survey are past, and regular pulse checks are now critical as a barometer of morale and to craft and nuance comms accordingly.   

INSIGHT 3 Understanding the psychological stages of change and stress and awareness of where your people are on it will help identify the support needed.   

TABLE OF CONTENTS (PODCAST @ Spotify)  

04m20s   Guest Background 

08m00s   Impact of Pandemic on Morale and Ways of Working 

11m30s   The Three Pillars of Post Isolation Communication 

26m50s   The Kubler Roth Change Curve 

33m50s   Elements of Success at the NHS 

39m10s   Measuring Success 

41m10s   The Growing Significance of Video in Comms 

47m50s   Should Feedback be Anonymous? 

49m30s   How To Conduct Pulse Checks   

This conversation was part of an online forum that took place on Wednesday 9th September 2020, with attendees joining and posing questions from all around the world.

CRAFTING YOUR PATH THROUGH UNCERTAINTY

HOST: David Webley, Founder & MD of Granite Consulting

GUEST: David Benger, Advisor, Author, Speaker and Adjunct Professor

DATE: 19 August 2020

This conversation explores David’s international career journey and the lessons it provides to others in these uncertain times.

INSIGHT 1

Mentor relationships can be mutually beneficial, where each person is able to learn and grow from the other's experiences, perspective and insights. This is particularly the case where these relationships have been formed and nurtured organically, rather than being sought out.

INSIGHT 2

Your skills and experience should speak for themselves through a clear view of the value you offer, and how this can be brought to bear to solve the problems of your colleagues, clients, and customers.

INSIGHT 3

To be the best version of you, it's important to be true to yourself, understand the things that are important in your life to provide balance and direction.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

08m00   An overview of David's international career

12m00   Advice for, and the mutual benefits of mentor relationships

14m15   The value of nurturing international relationships and the perspective this brings

16m15   The hands on nature and journey of discovery that crafts a career

26m00   Engaging your network with the value you offer

31m15   Using the Rule of Thirds to bring balance to your life

35m30   The changing ways of working from COVID that are likely to stick

49m15   Staying curious to learn and grow with your clients

This conversation was part of an online forum that took place on Wednesday 19th August 2020, with more than 100 registered attendees posing questions from all around the world.

THE PIVOTAL IMPACT OF ACTIVE SPONSORSHIP

HOST: David Webley, Founder & MD of Granite Consulting

GUEST: Annie Sheehan, Director & Principal Consultant, Member of Silicon Valley Alliances

DATE: 5 August 2020 

This conversation explores the different types of sponsorship, how to identify them, and useful ways for working and engaging with them.

INSIGHT 1    Despite significant uplift in project practices over the past 30 years, there has been little change in sponsorship and executive governance.

INSIGHT 2    Asking a Sponsor what the project means to them will provide insight to their motivation and commitment to it, and provide valuable direction. 

INSIGHT 3    Emerging from the evolution of project practices, some responsibilities traditionally held by Sponsors, are being assumed by other roles, such as the Product Owner.

TABLE OF CONTENT  

06m45s    Inspiration to write the book 

10m15s    Importance of Active Sponsorship 

17m45s    The ‘Peacock’ Sponsor 

19m30s    The ‘Magpie’ Sponsor 

20m15s    The ‘Ostrich’ Sponsor 

21m00s    The ‘Duck’ Sponsor 

22m30s    The ‘Eagle’ Sponsor 

24m15s    The ‘Owl’ Sponsor 

35m15s    Gauging Your Sponsor 

45m30s    Importance of Fun for Creativity 

49m30s    Required Attributes of an Effective Sponsor 

51m30s    Evolving Project Leadership  

This conversation was part of an online forum that took place on Wednesday 5th August 2020, with more than 100 registered attendees posing questions from all around the world.

AMPLIFY THE BEST PARTS OF YOURSELF

HOST: David Webley, Founder & MD of Granite Consulting

This conversation explores the life changing power of masterful Communication ability, and includes practical tips for how to uplift this critical skillset.

INSIGHT 1 – Unless you master the skill of Communication, any Technical skill and the value you offer society, remains hidden and unrealised.  Communication skill can be developed through an understanding of Visual and Vocal Image and practiced via Record and Review techniques. 

INSIGHT 2 – Uplifting the ability to communicate offers companies immense opportunity to uncover a wealth of talent and value which otherwise remains dormant and hidden in their people.

INSIGHT 3 – Adjusting the foundational levers of Visual and Vocal Image will enable you to harmonise Communication for different people and situations, which will lead to greater rapport and influence.

TABLE OF CONTENT 

11m59s   The importance of Communication skill to realise Technical Skill and value

34m10s   The family backstory and how it has inspired Vinh's journey

37m03s   How a pandemic and a garage have led to reframing what's really important

44m49s   Learning to harmonise your communication to establish better rapport

48m58s   The wealth of talent buried in companies that Communication ability can uncover

55m17s   An overview of the online workshops available, who they're for, and what to expect

This conversation was part of an online forum that took place on Wednesday 22nd July 2020, with more than 110 attendees signed in and posing questions from all around the world.

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LEADING THROUGH A PERIOD OF EXPONENTIAL CHANGE

HOST: David Webley, Founder & MD of Granite Consulting

This conversation explores the impacts of the pandemic on project delivery, governance and practices, and the role of values to unite and drive change.

INSIGHT 1 Values are what unite and transcend complex and disparate work environments, which makes a values assessment so important when considering a new job opportunity.

INSIGHT 2 Agile projects can't realise their full potential without broader organisational change, such as investment governance, to unshackle the constraints that traditional approaches typically impose.

INSIGHT 3 Quality communication and stakeholder engagement are key to overcoming the fear that is often the basis of resistance to change.

This conversation was part of an online forum that took place on Thursday 9th July 2020, with more than 110 attendees signed in and posing questions from all around the world.

TOPICS

09:10 Impacts of the pandemic on the project  pipeline, governance & practices

BEING BOLD & AMBITIOUS - THE AUSTRALIAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH THE UK

HOST: David Webley, Founder & MD of Granite Consulting

This episode of 'Conversations with Thought Leaders' is with the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian British Chamber of Commerce, David McCredie.  This conversation explores the new trade deal between Australia and the UK, the progress of Brexit, and the impact on both that the pandemic may have.

INSIGHT 1 - The combined size of the Australian and UK economies should not be underestimated and is comparable, and competitive, with other large global economies.

INSIGHT 2 - Despite the pandemic taking headlines over recent months, there has still been good progress in the background with Brexit as it moves toward full implementation.

INSIGHT 3 - Making it easier to move and do business between Australia and the UK will underpin the benefits that can be drawn from the free trade agreement.  

This conversation was part of an online forum that took place on Wednesday 24th June 2020, with more than 60 attendees signed in and posing questions from all around the world.

This episode of 'Conversations with Thought Leaders' is with best selling author, keynote speaker, and entrepreneur, Barry O'Reilly.  In this conversation Barry and David discuss how the Unlearn approach can help organisations and individuals to navigate and thrive in these uncertain times.

INSIGHT 1   Organisations need to look at the pandemic different, not a disruption, but as an accelerant of change and business improvement.  This is something that digitally enabled companies are best equipped to exploit and can now been seen to be responding to the new challenges and opportunities that the pandemic presents far more rapidly than their digitally inept competitors.

INSIGHT 2   The Unlearn process is the conscious approach of letting go of outdated information, and digesting new information to better inform decision making moving forward.  It is predicated on a think big, start small, and learn fast mantra.

INSIGHT 3   In the face of uncertainty, the natural reaction is to freeze and stop, to assess the situation.  This will only result in falling behind.  The way to navigate uncertainty is to learn your way through it, taking small steps, accepting that there will be small failures and successes, and using these constructively as a means to learn, and continually adjust the course.

This interview was part of an online forum that took place on Wednesday 10th June 2020, with more than 90 attendees signed in and posing questions from all around the world.

This episode of 'Conversations with Thought Leaders' is with one of Australia's leading thought leaders in Project and Portfolio management, Rob Loader (Consultant, Keynote Speaker, and Director on the Board of the Australian Institute of Project Management). 

At a time when project delivery is prominent in the world's response to a global pandemic, this in depth interview covers the following key topics:

- The interruption of COVID provides opportunity for corporates to reflect on their core business and fundamental purpose.  This helps them to identify what’s critical, what’s not, and to provide the required focus and direction to drive their organisations into the new world;

- In addition to potentially reducing their office space footprint, organisations are also seeing productivity gains for some roles and functions as further impetus to continue at least some of the new ways of working, particular telecommuting, beyond the current social distancing restrictions; and

- The core skills that project professionals have always needed to survive and thrive have not changed on account of COVID.  Now more than ever, skills such as effective communication and forward planning are critical to the success or failure of projects as the new normal begins to take root. 

This interview was part of an online forum that took place on Tuesday 26th May 2020, with more than 70 attendees signed in and posing questions from all around Australia.

This episode of 'Conversations with Thought Leaders' is with internationally renowned Keynote Speaker and Cultural Change Specialist, Colin Ellis.  

At a time when most of the world is in lockdown at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Colin shares his insights on the impacts this has had on corporate culture, the current outlook, and his tips for leading people through these uncertain times.

This conversation was recorded as part of an online forum held on Wednesday 29th April 2020, and attended by over 100 participants from all around the world.  An audio recording of the full 1 hour conversation will also shortly be made available as a separate Podcast.

This episode of 'Conversations with Thought Leaders' is with one of Australia's leading experts on the cloud and digital business, Andrew Boyd, Head of Digital Natives Business, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

At a time when there world is going through such rapid change and exponential growth in the dependence on digital ways of working and living, this in depth interview covers the following key topics:

- Amazon really live their corporate Leadership Principles, some of which are seemingly diametrical, but in so being, bring balance to everything they do; 

- COVID-19 has accelerated digitalisation globally, placing AWS at the forefront as both an enabler and adopter, of new ways of working, and new ways of living; and 

- The rapid evolution of technology is causing a shift in the skills and capabilities required to transcend an equally rapidly changing job landscape.  

This interview was part of an online forum that took place on Tuesday 11th May 2020, with more than 70 attendees signed in and posing questions from all around Australia.