fe3 have designed and delivered three new innovative and impactful learning interventions for the JusticeAcademy, the learning function within the Ministry of Justice.
Centred around individuals facing leadership, performance or stakeholder challenges, these events involved people writing an account, or story, detailing a difficult relationship they are facing, from which Karen developed practice sessions involving video work, group feedback and skills input (known as 'skillsbites') - designed specifically for the individuals involved.
These events were quite high-risk for a mainly traditional organisation such as MoJ, but were unique in that they offered delegates a chance to get individualised attention and input, rather than a 'one-size fits all' generic training event.
These have been a great success, with delegates reporting real shifts in their thinking and post-event behaviour back in their 'day jobs'. For example, “the story board was wonderful, with the support and feedback from the facilitator, the experience was so much better because it was real” and “the role play and video playback was like a road to Damascus”.
Building confidence has been a major outcome– “prior to the event I thought my confidence [in managing this individual's performance] was about 8/10, however once I had attended the event I realised that I wasn’t actually that good and should have only given myself a 6.
I now rate my confidence at a 9”. As well as the positive results for delegates and the organisation, working with Karen has been a real pleasure -she's creative, yet grounded, highly committed and conscientious and not afraid to challenge. She also brings a wealth of knowledge and skill. Thanks Karen.
We wanted a programme that treated people as adults with individual needs and caused them to think for themselves as opposed to just giving them a set of tools.
The outcome exceeded our expectations. Just look at a selection of comments provided by the delegates below.“Group dynamic was fantastic. Video and the challenge to bring own issues made it completely different to anything else I'd done. Would recommend it; really worthwhile and practical.”
“Really useful. Never been on anything like this before and think it's probably the best event of its kind that I've ever attended. There are a couple of managers in my office who want to go on it now too. It was well planned, presentation was excellent and the contribution made by everyone was very good”
“Just a short e-mail to thank you for the incredible training this week. I fear that the feedback session at the end yesterday did not reflect adequately the quality and usefulness of the course. I think I was most impressed by the way that you both had clearly spent quite some time engaging with the scenarios that your delegates presented, creating what became effectively a bespoke course for each of us.”
And this was a challenging course - little opportunity for sitting back; lots of activity, continuous feedback and learning from each other. Various techniques including storytelling, video-work and coaching were blended together into a powerful mix. The style of the facilitators worked well too - engaging, caring and intelligent. So what would I change? Not a lot!
"We work with Gary mainly as an external trainer/coach to our training department. He brings a wealth of training and consulting experience to this role and has quickly built up a strong rapport and credibility with the team. He combines a deep understanding of the issues with warmth and a sense of humour to help the team challenge and develop themselves: they feel engaged and encouraged rather than simply taught. On a personal level, Gary is very easy to work with, being both expert and flexible in his approach. I would strongly recommend him and fe3 as a partner."
"I am writing to thank you for the inspiring and very effective session you led at the Mental Health Foundation’s all-staff away-day in May 2009. We had been struggling to identify an exercise that was inclusive, confidence and morale-building, that would also have a positive impact on people’s ability to do their day-to-day work using new or sharpened skills.
Your story-telling workshop really fit the bill. While it was a highly practical exercise it gave the day a lift, and helped staff engage on a very personal level with the mission and life of the organisation. Staff said they enjoyed and valued the session and it set the tone for an excellent away-day.
Thank you so much for kindly donating your time and expertise to the Mental Health Foundation. We know how lucky we are! With thanks and best wishes ."
"As a Recruitment Strategy Manager (RSM) for the City of Bristol Local Education Authority (LEA), funded by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), I attended a series of training days conceived, organised and conducted by Fiona Eldridge when she worked for the TTA.
These sessions were always assessed by the participants to have been worthwhile, relevant to our needs, intelligently conceived and delivered in such a way as to maximise the utility of the essential concepts to our work as RSMs.
Fiona was always able to review progress during these sessions and to adapt the course to fit the emerging needs of the participants, as all of us had needs that varied with the individual character of the 50 or more LEAs attending.
I have no hesitation in recommending her training work to you. It is the product of a penetrating intelligence, thorough planning, an awareness of a variety of learning styles and an ability to draw out the best from the people participating."
"Karen joined us during a very difficult and challenging period in NUS’ history – the first time that serious attempts to restructure the organisation have been carried out.
She was with us to help prepare for the internal and external announcements, manage the communications unit, be part of the senior management team and, after the restructure, to ensure that communication function worked effectively.
Her passion and commitment to the organisation was unmistakable, and as well as dealing with the difficult decisions, Karen began a number of projects that will contribute significantly to our communication strategy, investigating external and membership views of our performance, strengthening relationships with key supporters and developing a national awards event.
In addition, she revised our web contracts to save us around £30,000 and was instrumental in the development of a brief for a new website.
She’s wholehearted and enthusiastic, good to work with and I would hire her again tomorrow."
"Gary is a very experienced, intellectually well-equipped Consultant who gets to grips quickly with new information and situations. He is particularly skilled at devising processes for projects to achieve our objectives and is expert at engaging participants and encouraging them to share information.
Gary is good to work with; we work together to plan our sessions and his help in facilitating and supporting those leading the meetings has been invaluable. He is insightful and often will help us plan how to deal with team members on an individual basis to get the best out of them and make best use of our time at the meetings. I recommend him highly."
"Westminster Children's Society is going through a huge amount of change. We wanted to equip our employees to deal with the personal impact of the change without raising anxiety levels. fe3 ran a day-long event for us which combined personal reflection, fun, creativity and team work.
The feedback has been excellent, with many employees saying that they enjoyed the day, but more importantly, they feel that we went back to our core values and are strengthened because of it.
The process was fun to do, expertly and enthusiastically delivered, and the preparation pack for our team leaders was excellent – clear and pragmatic. I recommend fe3 highly." — Click here to see the case study.
"I got the unique opportunity being coached by Karen on a one-on-one basis.
A one year programme was developed to suit my individual needs for communication techniques and tools.
Quarterly face-to-face meetings were part of it, while I had the reassuring knowledge that she was never further away than a phonecall or eMail.
It was absolutely tailored to my business requirements and I really liked the way we worked together, i.e. Karen was not proof reading or checking any of my communications, but they formed a basis for the next face to face exercise - with good challenges from her side - at the same time providing me with additional tools addressing the areas which needed improvement.
I do realise that the personal coach approach is not Karen's usual business, but I enjoyed my journey and learned so much which I immediately could bring into practice.
She insisted on setting a benchmark at the beginning of my training, surveying a number of stakeholders in my work environment.
The survey was repeated amongst the same audience after our one year programme and the feedback given proved that her coaching paid off. A tribute to her approach, very broad knowledge, and personality is in place here."
"Gary has worked with APS/Berk for more than seven years now, and during that time has been a significant asset to the management team, particularly in his facilitation of meetings on subjects as diverse as strategy, branding, restructuring and customer focus.
He has spent a great deal of time understanding our issues in depth, which has added to the quality of the decision making as he will always challenge us, not allowing us to get away with the easy, and therefore not always the best options.
Having said this, his style is a gentle, coaching style which makes the most difficult sessions more relaxed and more comfortable – putting people at ease is one of his great strengths.
Another of his strengths is his ability to let us make the decisions ourselves, rather than impose some pre-ordained direction, and regardless of his own considerable knowledge he never attempts to give you the answers, but steers us expertly through the process.
He enables us to come up with ideas and then turn these into actions, always doing so with pragmatism and good humour. I recommend him highly."
"When you’re busy running your own business on a day-to-day basis, it’s hard to find the time to sit down and evaluate the company’s current situation, let alone make plans for future growth and development.
But finding that time, and bringing Karen Drury in to facilitate, was one of our best decisions. We’re a small independent production company and entered the television industry via a creative route. We have virtually no business training and have had to learn on the job.
The television industry is a ‘people business’ and tends to operate by some rather bizarre, unwritten rules. However, Karen helped us to see Adastra in normal business terms and we found discussions about our ‘offer’ and where we needed to position ourselves in the market, fascinating.
Karen was so on the button in terms of her analysis of the situation we're currently in and the tasks she gave us were both enlightening and thought-provoking. The report we received as a result has been very useful to us - we now have a more focused and meaningful mission statement, are adapting our logo and completely re-designing our website."
"Westminster Children's Society is going through a huge amount of change. We wanted to equip our employees to deal with the personal impact of the change without raising anxiety levels. fe3 ran a day-long event for us which combined personal reflection, fun, creativity and team work.
The feedback has been excellent, with many employees saying that they enjoyed the day, but more importantly, they feel that we went back to our core values and are strengthened because of it.
The process was fun to do, expertly and enthusiastically delivered, and the preparation pack for our team leaders was excellent – clear and pragmatic. I recommend fe3 highly."
— Click here to see the case study.
"I have worked with Karen Drury to initiate two separate communication programmes.
The first was a tiered programme starting with the basic internal communication of a new organisation's rationale and working towards the external communication (customer and media) of the organisation's critical messages, ranging from its customer offer and competitive differentiators to its strategy and vision.
The second was a corporate marketing strategy for a diversified industrial PLC's corporate brand which was focused around those elements of its brand essence which were most appropriate to the PLC's core businesses in added value packaging.
This strategy was targeted as much at “the man on the street” as at the customer and had to encompass themes which the individual divisions would be able to develop in their own communication programmes. Karen has brought to each project the ability to combine an incisive, lateral creativity with a realistic business (as opposed to a kite-flying consultancy) understanding of what is actually achievable.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Karen on almost any communication brief; she may have a particular expertise in internal communications but she would bring considerable value as a team member or manager of any communication project."
"In 2002 as part of the European Marketing Team I was asked to put together a product launch team for a suite of infectious disease assays in a market worth 860m Euros.
The launch team were a diverse group of varying abilities, knowledge and nationality, we also had a disadvantage that the Global Marketing Manager was new in post and did not understand much of Bayer's working practices and European operating procedures.
For these reasons we felt it necessary to appoint an external project manager who could make an immediate impact and drive the project effectively with the minimum number of face to face meetings. Karen Drury from fe3 was recommended to us and duly appointed.
Karen achieved three major objectives for us; she developed a project milestones template which was used to ensure that all members of the Launch Team functioned within the constraints of the EU Launch Plan.
She drove the face to face meetings in a way that ensured that the agenda was adhered to and the meeting objectives were met.
The third and equally important goal that Karen achieved for us was the production of a template for the control of telephone conference calls that ensured that we achieved continuity and more importantly, progress.
My personal experience of working with Karen is that she is an excellent communicator, good listener, highly driven, balanced with a good sense of humour and personality. One of the bonuses of working with her is that she also develops the group as individuals."
"Karen worked as a consultant to the Teacher Training Agency for over 24 months. She acted as a change agent, facilitator and helped to develop new corporate cultures and team development.
Karen showed exemplary skills at developing and managing people. She was able to analyse their needs, quite often having to deal with individuals’ self perceptions that were different from those that they presented to others. She set up personal and group action plans that helped and supported the development of key projects. Her analytical mind and tenacity for the job enabled key Government strategies to develop quicker than was anticipated.
Her ability to be objective and fair proved very useful during meetings. Either as a chairperson or as an agent of change she drove key agendas. Her ability to keep a meeting focussed and on task and thus achieving pre agreed outcomes was stunning. I can recommend Karen very highly in all the capacities that I have listed above."
"The TTA commissioned Karen Drury Consulting to train 100 sub-contractors in the key skills required for them to deliver the TTA's priorities over an eighteen month period.
Specifically, Karen delivered training in project management change management and creative problem solving to school recruitment managers in local education authorities (LEAs).
Karen was responsible for all elements of this training, from designing course content to organising training at suitable locations and delivering the training. Karen won the contract by thoroughly researching the needs of the TTA, LEAs and other stakeholders in education. Her skills include:
"fe3 made a big difference to the work we had been doing on organisational values.
Their wide experience of developing and promoting organisational values helped us to develop our own clarity and focus in what we were trying to achieve.Our working relationship with them was constructive and positive, and gave us a strong sense of momentum."
Karen had provided us with training services on a number of occasions and we have found her programmes to be first class and to have had a significant impact on those that have attended them. I would definitely recommend Karen and do not doubt that we will be using her again the near future.