Making the transition from company to community

Citation

(1999), "Making the transition from company to community", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948gaf.004

Making the transition from company to community

Intangible factors, particularly "effective communications", are what really motivate employees, says new research from leading performance development specialists, Motivforce. Yet, effective internal communications are limited by increasingly diffuse working relationships. To open new channels of communication and improve dialogue between senior and middle management; consultants and their administrative staff; a mobile sales force and its headquarters, Motivforce has launched Village Days.

The Village Days concept takes groups of colleagues, within a company or across a project, away from their normal working environment to complete a community-based project - reclaiming land for Battersea Dogs' Home to planning and organising a sports day for children with special needs. The project enables each participant, or "villager", to experience true team working, where each individual's contribution is recognised and valued. The day's activities are subsequently reinforced with an evening event which lets participants share their new learning before returning to work.

The concept, based on the structure of an idealised, inclusive village, fundamentally alters the way in which co-workers communicate through project involvement. The day:

• •

  encourages colleagues to see themselves a part of a community, where success depends on true team work and a mix of talents and abilities;

• •

  creates a sense of harmony based on mutual understanding and appreciation of mutual reliance;

• •

  consolidates new learning, to enable "villagers" to translate their Village Day experience to their day-to-day working relationships;

• •

  brings people together to make a difference, to leave behind something of lasting value for those less fortunate.

"Village Days create an environment in which respect, understanding and pride for individual strengths are built within a group working to a common objective", commented Randle Stonier, group managing director, Motivforce Group plc. "The idea is to take participants beyond their corporate roles enabling them to see their colleagues as people and dismantle superficial barriers to communication. The impact of this is particularly strong when villagers work on community projects, as the vested interest then becomes shared commitment."

Highly flexible, the Village Days concept would be tailored to meet an organisation's specific needs. In scale, a Village Day could consist of four projects undertaken on the same day with 50 employees involved in each project, or just one with a team of ten. In project terms, they can range from the re-designing of a community garden to managing of a community garden, to managing the staging of a children's ward nativity play.

"I see the evening event as the oven that bakes the cake! Having worked alongside colleagues during the day people come together to socialise and discuss their experiences. In the relaxed, open environment, the new patterns of behaviour are cemented between individuals and across the whole group. It plays an important part in ensuring that the learning outlasts the day itself," comments Stonier.

Leading management consultant, McKinsey & Co Inc., has worked with Motivforce for a number of years and employed the Village Days concept to improve communication between its highly motivated and pressurised consultants and their administrative support staff. Reflecting on the success of the project, Magnus Tyreman, a partner at McKinsey, commented: ""The sense of team spirit engendered by our Village Day was exceptional. People who previously recognised their colleagues as 'the guy at the end of the hall' had other, more 'real' points of reference to their colleagues following their Village Day experience".

Villages ideally evoke feelings of harmony and internal efficiency which are based on the implicit understanding that each individual makes a unique and valuable contribution to its smooth running. The Motivforce model rebuilds the foundation of working relationships within organisations that reflect healthy village communities.

The Incentive Travel and Meetings Association recognised the McKinsey programme in February 1999, with the award of two gold awards - in the Best UK Event and Best Business and Technology categories.

The community orientation of the Village Day projects delivers optimal results in terms of enhanced internal communications between groups, and dovetails effectively with many companies' social welfare policy and pre-determined charitable commitments, whether to the environment or a local community. Bob Haughton, chief executive of the St Piers School for children with severe epilepsy, with whom Motivforce planned a Village Day, commented: "The Village Day project at St Piers School was a fine example of what can be done through voluntary/private sector partnerships. I certainly hope Motiveforce's client gained as much from this activity as the St Piers community has".

Stonier continues: "The concept builds new dialogues across hierarchical structures, between colleagues and within organisations. It reflects Motivforce's extensive research and understanding of the current communications climate within organisations, the dynamics that create these relationships and an understanding of clients' objectives and motivation to change them".