Case
Learning Experience Design, Culture Design, Facilitation
Individual Convers(Actions)
To provide the Zurich Portugal Human Resources team with conversation skills to leverage and to develop talent.
Conversation is where we learn
How do you align a team in order to know how to promote the development of others through conversation?
Based on global guidelines, Zurich Portugal decided to implement locally a program that viewed conversation as the preferred means of people development.
For this to be possible, it was important to align the people on the HR team on which characteristics and conversation skills provide the best learning context. Furthermore, it was important that all these people, while refining and respecting their individual style, would show coherence and consistency in the conversations they would promote and conduct with their colleagues.
All this with the aim of developing the talented people already identified at Zurich.
An inclusive mix: Structure with Flexibility + Theoretical models with Improvisational capacity
One of the goals was for these conversations to go beyond the technique and the models already identified. The conversations should truly be about people and for people. There were 3 moments that we designed for this partnership, which took place over 8 months.
#1 Reflecting and Knowing
In the first instance, we leveraged work already done by Zurich, which compiled a"Career Discussion Toolkit". From this document and model, we created a form that would allow each person, in their own time, to critically reflect on the development points necessary to feel comfortable conducting these conversations internally. In addition to this objective, the answers to the questionnaire allowed us to know what room for evolution there was, in the individual and group contexts, educating and influencing the design of the second moment.
#2 To Talk in order To Align
In the second moment, we were together for 4 hours. We created a conversation workshop in which we aligned concepts and talked about the technique and the practice. Most of all, we talked about how people wanted to talk at Zurich.
But it was not "just talking"! Each person had to find, define, and make public his or her chosen area of improvement when it came to conducting these special conversations.
In closing, the team talked to align themselves on what to do about preparing for each conversation, what aspects they would pay attention to and develop during the conversation, and how they would"measure" the effectiveness of their conversations.
#3 To Continue Learning, as a Group
The third moment was the one that lasted the longest. Inspired by the Balint Groups, we created a group consisting of people from the Zurich's Human Resources team who were responsible for facilitating one-on-one conversations, so that they could share their achievements and difficulties, particularly in terms of being able to support each other, in order to maintain and strengthen the alignment. In short, to learn together.
We facilitated 3 sessions of this group. The initial idea was that this group would progressively become autonomous and self-sufficient and so it happened.
What the Human Resources team said:
"What I appreciated most was the connection between the methodologies used at Zurich (GROW, Zurich Oxygen, PDI...) and the techniques learned in the training context."
"I liked the fact that the program was completely aligned with our reality and largely met our expectations, meeting our real needs."
"Overall, the program was of great use to me. I would highlight the fact that we created a guideline script for the development talks. Because I haven't had any one-on-one conversations with an employee, I feel a little insecure. The program helped me gain that confidence and demystify some of the more practical issues."
“Considero muito rica a possibilidade de se trabalhar um conceito e uma metodologia, com o intuito de a introduzirmos e aplicarmos na realidade organizacional em que nos encontramos. Pessoalmente, foi importante no sentido de trabalhar conceitos adquiridos e de aumentar a minha auto-consciência relativamente à forma como os consigo aplicar. Enquanto responsável pela Equipa, sinto que foi importante potenciar esta experiência em conjunto, quer do ponto de vista relacional, quer em termos de competências individuais.”
What the talented people of Zurich said
“O que mais me surpreendeu na conversação de carreira realizada foi o momento de introspectiva em si. Normalmente, no dia-a-dia, não são muitos os momentos em que nos permitimos reflectir sobre o nosso desenvolvimento e carreira e este momento teve esse propósito. Outro aspecto que me surpreendeu pela positiva foi a quantidade e qualidade de acções que tenho vindo a realizar ao longo dos anos na Zurich: senti-me muito satisfeita pelo facto de reflectir sobre as mesmas e concluir que tenho vindo a usufruir de muito conhecimento.”
No meu ponto de vista faz sentido todos os Colaboradores terem esta oportunidade para que todos possam usufruir das potencialidades que esta conversa possa ter. O colaborador pode mudar pequenos detalhes do seu quotidiano e essas mudanças podem trazer alterações significativas à sua vida.”
“A Conversação de Carreira que tive com a Unidade de Recursos ajudou-me na medida em que foi muito orientadora e me ajudou a manter o foco nos meus objectivos.
Considero que é importante todos os colaboradores terem um acompanhamento no caminho que podem dar às suas carreiras. Os RH, com o conhecimento que têm, conseguem ajudar os colaboradores a olhar para a frente e fazer planos a médio e longo prazo.”
“Foi uma sessão de reflexão conjunta. Tive oportunidade de falar sobre o meu percurso profissional e sobre as dificuldades que tenho vindo a sentir. Não posso dizer que cheguei a uma conclusão com base nesta conversa, mas reconheço que foi importante ponderar sobre diversos temas e, passado algum tempo, alguns dos tópicos que foram falados ficaram resolvidos.
Não sei se todos os colaboradores têm maturidade suficiente (disponibilidade por parte da pessoa para perceber a sua relação com os outros e saber lidar com isso, perante a sua esfera de acção, em contexto empresarial) para retirar o potencial destas conversações. É preciso que as pessoas estejam predispostas a realizar estas sessões com uma cultura de transparência.”
Beyond theory and practice: the art of conversation
The result of this partnership met what both Zurich and Way Beyond had envisioned. A mix of concepts and experiences, which were translated into a specialized practice with a visible expression in the organization's reality.