March 2010
Going to prison - for the day!
Recently members of our Learning Value Network, which is a group of HR and OD professionals from leading organisations, had a meeting with a difference - behind high security fences! We meet quarterly to look at topics related to OD, and Learning and Development and we decided to change our venue from the usual boardroom environment to help us see the world differently and the Director of Talent Management at G4S offered us the chance to go to one of their high security prisons as guests of the Prison Director.
What was the impact of being there?
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"Walking through the high walled security gates gave an uncanny sense of a totally different environment and really made us realise the challenges of engagement in practice"
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"This visit reframed my expectation of what it's like running a serious high category prison and I was impressed by the impact from leading from principle based on respect and integrity"
Our theme was engagement and the director welcomed us and explained her views on leading her staff and the prison to increase engagement. As a successful female leader she demonstrated the company values of integrity, collaboration and teamwork, care and respect in her down to earth approach to leadership and staff we met certainly echoed this, as we toured the prison.
Engagement needs to be based on respect and she commented that the punishment is to take away liberty (reminding us what it's like to be locked in with no handle on the door, which we had the chance to experience briefly!) .Prisoners need to be engaged as this allows the organisation to function. In prison there are sanctions which can be taken away or used as rewards, so here engagement and discipline go hand in hand.
Views from the network on engagement included:
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Importance of respect and integrity especially when getting difficult messages across
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Links between engagement and productivity
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Dangers of losing engagement through cost reduction measures
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Importance of how leaders act in creating engagement
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Seeing the world from another viewpoint helped refresh our thinking
The Learning Value Network is open only to those with senior internal roles in OD, HR and L&D - to find out more please contact Fiona Ellis on 01225520866.
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