Team & Group Case Studies
Group Coaching
Issue: The Evaluation Task Force (ETF) is a joint Cabinet Office-HM Treasury unit providing specialist support to ensure evidence and evaluation sits at the heart of government spending decisions. The head of the ETF was looking to enhance the leadership effectiveness and personal impact of senior members of the Government Social Research (GSR) profession.
What we did: I worked with heads of GSR in 6 government departments across a series of two-hour group workshops and one-to-one coaching sessions to: identify the key barriers and challenges to improving personal effectiveness and impact; develop peer-to-peer mentoring relationships; and use those new relationships to help address challenges and build confidence, both in the group workshops and on an ongoing basis.
Outcome: The group quickly cohered, generating energy, ideas and mutual support. The group agreed to continue to meet on a regular basis, to act as a safe place to share and discuss experiences, challenges and opportunities; act as a forum for generating ideas/suggestions for what the wider GSR profession needs to do; and too own and deliver specific GSR improvement projects, such as a series of leadership masterclasses.
Feedback from the commisioner, head of the ETF, Catherine Hutchinson: “Michael did a great piece of bespoke work, helping social research senior leaders create an effective action learning set. This enabled not just progression for individuals, but also the profession. Everyone who took part got something from it, and the groupn has carried on after his input ended.”
Feedback from other participants:
“I really saw the value of coming together with peers, rather than to try to do/solve everything alone”
“It provided a safe testing ground for ideas about the development of my role and the GSR profession”
“The coaching sessions provided time to think through my career path options and identify real motivations; was particularly helpful that we could flex in that session between coach and mentor approaches”
Faciltation
Issue: The Independent Evaluation Department (IEvD) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is externally reviewed every 5 years. To prepare for that, IEvD’s management decided to conduct a self-assessment of the Department’s performance, quality, independence, credibility and usefulness.
What we did: Using the assessment framework developed by IEvD, I conducted a series focus groups with IEvD staff, and one-to-one interviews with IEvD management, to gather views on what was working well and what could be improved. This evidence informed the structure and content of a half day workshop for the all 25 members of IEvD.
Outcome: The focus groups and workshop were seen by IEvD staff as open and collaborative, and surfaced some important aspects of the team culture which could be addressed. The evidence from the focus groups, interviews and workshop was pulled into a report which IEvD management can use as input to the external review, the Department’s next 5 year strategy and to identify any near-term priority changes to introduce.
Feedback from the commisioner, Managing Director and Chief Evaluator, Veronique Salze-Lozac’h: “Michael excelled at organizing focus group discussions and interviews, demonstrating strong listening skills. At the team retreat, he effectively facilitated a session with clear objectives and deliverables, employing a participatory process that allowed each staff member to express themselves. This approach led to valuable input for the self-assessment. Overall, Michael's work was of high quality and greatly contributed to the project's success.”
Team mentoring
Issue: The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the International Monetary Fund wanted me to help a new team leader and her relatively inexperienced team get up to speed with the most effective ways of designing and implementing a major IEO evaluation.
What we did: Over the course of tw months, I worked with the team to explain what I had learned to be best practice in designing, planning and starting up an evaluation report. This involved a combination of: interactive learning sessions, where I would share my thoughts on a couple of key aspects of the process (such as stakeholder interviewing, document requests and developing a stakeholder survey) with the team, and answer questions, during and after the sessions; comments and suggestions on key output documents, such as the evaluation Issues Paper which was sent to the IMF Board for discussion; and providing materials to help onboard external consultants for the evalaution.
Outcome: The IEO team felt better equipped to tackle the design and planning of the evaluation, and produced a very well-received Issues Paper.