Network Learning Event 20th October 2011 The Network Learning Event took place at the award-winning Conference Centre at LACE, which is situated on the edge of Sefton Park in Liverpool. The theme of the event was Enhancing Leadership & Performance at Work and was attended by over 50 members of the scheme. Delegates consisted of both mentors and mentees, representing both NHS and local government organisations within the North West of England. As delegates arrived, they were asked to sign in at the reception area and received their name badge and the infamous “Icebreaker Activity”. Some great stories arose from that activity including finding out that someone had saved the life of a dolphin and that someone owns their own lake! Following lunch, the Scheme Manager, Rob Booth, welcomed everyone in attendance and gave a short update on the scheme. Rob announced plans to run an ILM accredited mentoring program and talked about the success of recent Resilience for Managers training. Rob also shared the news that the scheme has successfully run NLP Diploma programs in conjunction with Bridge Associates. Rob introduced the key speaker for the event, Vicki Espin, MA, Corporate and Executive Coach and Co-founder and Director of The Corporate and Executive Coaching Organisation. Vicki is a highly skilled, professional corporate and executive coach with more than 20 years’ experience of working with UK and multi-national organisations representing a wide spectrum of business sectors. Acclaimed as one the UK s top executive coaches, her work includes 1:1 coaching and team coaching with business leaders, the training of new coaches within organisations and of professional coaches. Vicki engaged delegates immediately by opening with questions about what each person would be taking away with them from the day. Following a brief introduction, Vicki covered the characteristics of leaders, their environment and detailing various behaviours. Vicki went on to explore how different styles of leading people can directly impact on performance, and used interactive cards and Fink Cards in group activities. Vicki then closed with an interesting study question: “Reflect on some of the major forces that have influenced your organisation’s environment over the past 3 years: • Economic • Environmental • Emerging Technologies • People’s Expectations How do your answers impact your thinking and actions as business leaders?” We would love to hear what you came up with and if you would like to share please email us at the scheme at nwmentoring@gmw.nhs.uk.
Rob came back to thank Vicki for her enigmatic and engaging presentation and delegates were given an opportunity to provide feedback and enter a prize draw from both the networking activity and feedback cards. The networking activity prize was a pack of Fink Cards; coaching questions on cards which have been used successfully in mentoring sessions. The feedback card winner was very fortunate to receive a signed copy of Vicki’s book,:”Your Life Your Choice Building a Great Coaching Business77 habits of Highly Successful Coaches”, which she had kindly donated to support the event. All in all the day was a huge success and the team would like to thank everyone who attended and especially Vicki for sharing her enthusiasm, expertise and valuable time with us. The team would like to extend our gratitude to the members and stakeholders who have helped The North West Mentoring Scheme to grow from strength to strength through your participation and support. We look forward to seeing you at the next network learning event!
Evaluation Summary We received excellent feedback from this event and 32 evaluation forms were collected. These provided the Scheme with extremely valuable feedback/comments which can be found below and will be posted to the website and used to enhance our future events.
Event Overall
“A genuinely useful session with lots of useful references that I will read up on.”
Good 3%
Very Good 41%
Excellent 56%
“It is an excellent event.” “Really good speaker, made me think and inspired me.” “Really liked the enhancing performance model”
Speaker
“Vicki has given ‘food for thought’. Presentation very good.”
Good 6%
Very Good 31% Excellent 63%
“Very informative, lively” “After 30 minutes at my first event, great advice and some great contacts.” “Got support from the group at my table” “I have learnt more in this afternoon session than many others on leadership/performance.”
Q &A Session Good 21%
Excellent 32%
“Excellent session, thought provoking”
Very Good 47%
“Good reflective skills, new tools, new network.” “Enjoyed it, thank you!”
Venue (inc catering) Good 3%
“A great event.” “My first networking event and I found it very informative and well organised.”
Very Good 38% Excellent 59%
“Keep doing what you’re doing!” “All sessions were very well presented.”
Feedback Cards: How has mentoring impacted on your career? Winner: (won a signed copy of Vicki’s book: Your Life Your Choice Building a Great Coaching Business77 habits of Highly Successful Coaches) “Home Life Balance - Stresses of being a full time working single mother are left behind the line when entering the door to work. So the impact of my stressors does not relay onto the team.” Melanie Traynor, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Other comments from the feedback cards include:
Given a focus to my role of developing others and clarity to my own direction both professionally and personally. Sandra Edwards, St. Helen’s & Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust It’s allowed me time to reflect on possibilities and career direction in a very unthreatening way. Developed my aspirations and promoted confidence in my ability resulting in promotion. Cathy McGin, NHS Warrington Given me insight into other people’s view of the NHS. Improved my feedback skills to my team. Nick Hayes, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust It has provided me with reference guides and tools to enable me to develop and reflect on my skills and development, and focus on my career.
Comments from Evaluation Forms: What, in your opinion, worked well today? Setup and balance of interaction vs powerpoint Excellent content – things I can utilise at a later date References to research Single speaker with theme Speaker used some great coaching questions throughout the session What are you taking away from the day? More awareness about benefits of mentoring All factors that influence performance and how I can change to accommodate A different perspective on improving performance Fink cards idea & creative questioning What could be improved next time? Nothing, really good! More time, maybe full day Put ‘networking’ time on the break rather than at the end All worked well – keep doing same
What would you like to see happen next? I would like to attend more similar sessions More of the same – high quality practising coaches/mentors Looking forward to new website to see if there is good tools to access Equally good speakers