Insights

We can’t control the challenges in life. However, we can control the way we respond to them. When tackling these challenges from a positive mindset, you will experience more effectiveness and happiness, says the ‘positive intelligence’ (PI) method. PI creator Shirzad Chamine says PI is all about thinking and acting from your strengths, instead of your weaknesses. Relevance’s own Anke Baak is a PI enthusiast and a certified PI coach. She shares her thoughts on what we can gain with the positive intelligence method.

“We achieve more by focusing on the positive, especially as a leader.”

Many people get in their own way, according to Chamine, founder of PI. He analyzed this behavior. Based on his research, he developed various ‘saboteurs’. Baak explains: “Those saboteurs resemble the critical voice inside your head. It tells you that you can’t do something or focuses on what goes wrong. In short, these are negative thoughts only, which can express themselves in different ways: avoidance, controlling, restlessness and victimization.”

Hand on the stove

Your saboteurs are here for a reason. They are aimed at survival and theoretically very useful. Unfortunately, it appears that many people’s saboteurs are too prevalent. Chamine illustrates this with an example: your hand is on a hot stove. Upon doing this by accident, a shock reaction occurs. This is a good thing, of course. It makes sure you take your hand of the stove. The consequential pain will be minimized.  Saboteurs are also forms of shock reactions. They are useful when taking immediate action, but can be harmful when you are lingering in the negative thought. In that case, the initial shock reaction will be ignored. Your hand will remain on the hot stove, which comes with painful consequences.

On the other side of the saboteurs are your sages. These are feelings such as curiosity, empathy, gratefulness and calmness. They can be found in a different part of the brain. This is helpful, says Baak: “It is an art to force your brain to shift to the other side. This way you can exchange your negative perspective for empathy and creativity.” Your thinking becomes positive!

Small, physical exercises can help you practice this. “For example, you can rub your fingers together. By really feeling the sensations, you get out of your head,” Baak explains. “It is similar to shifting the gears of your car to neutral. Afterwards, you can start accelerating again.” It all comes down to self-awareness, Baak noticed: “You need to know yourself very well. Now, I know I should not follow my head when I’m tired. If I don’t feel well, my thoughts are unproductive, which relate to my exhaustion. That is not the best moment or mindset to solve complex problems.”

Training a muscle

Recognizing certain patterns and, more importantly, acting accordingly is like training a muscle. Your brain follows certain neuronal pathways. Baak compares them to the tracks used for glass playing marbles. “The more you take a certain pathway, the more ingrained it gets. Changing these pathways takes time. That is normal and completely fine: when you just start going to the gym, you can’t bench press 100 kilograms.” So, in order to create a positive mindset, behavioral change is crucial. This is no magic trick, but comes down to discipline and practice, Baak stresses: “Behavioral change consists of merely 20 percent of knowing how it works and 80 percent is practice, practice, and practice some more.”

The same goes for Baak herself. She noticed this especially when she started a leadership position, while being educated as an engineer. “I think in systems. Because of this, I notice where things go wrong. Then I immediately want to improve this, but when working with other people, this cannot always be done in such a manner. More importantly: this way, the focus lies on what is not going right. Therefore, I now try to focus on the positive as a manager.” This is working: Baak says they achieve more, because there is more positive energy. She mentions that while she already knew this was the correct way of working, it never really worked out before. This is because it was not her natural way of thinking. 

Improve your personal strength

Do you want to gain more control on your thinking and exchange negativity for positivity? With our Incompany training Positive intelligence you get a grip on your saboteurs and learn various techniques to apply your mental strength in an effective way.

Would you like to learn more about positive intelligence? Listen to the PI podcast by our book publishing house Thema!

Tuesday 8 March 2022: International Women's Day. This year's theme is solidarity. Because gender emancipation is not one-sided, and men benefit from equality, too. To discuss that idea, Nathalie van der Poel (Leadership development & organizational transformation consultant and executive coach), Camiel Gielkens (CEO Schouten & Nelissen Company) and Marieke Schouten (Chief DNA Officer) sit around the digital table.

They talk about female leadership, or rather what it isn't, and discuss where the problems of gender inequality are expressed. Besides identifying the resulting problems, we also need to celebrate the added value of diversity, all three agree. Because differences mean several perspectives in an organization. That generates great value, so long as it is correctly enforced and applied in the organizational culture. The question that remains is: how do we do that?

Categorizing is a skill you can (un)learn

A term we often come across nowadays is 'female leadership'. But is this an adequate description? Nathalie doesn't think so: 'There's no such thing as female leadership. Yes, women may take a different approach or demonstrate different behavior, but I feel that this term excludes people. We are talking here about diversity and inclusion, so we need to stop using this term.' Camiel wonders why we use that term then, and where it comes from. After all, we don't talk about typical male leadership. Why do we specify leadership by a woman by her gender?

Marieke explains this by the functioning of our brain: 'We are programmed to categorize. We link certain characteristics to gender, which is how stereotypes arise. Thatcher, for example, was seen as the Iron Lady.' Nathalie agrees and explains that we quickly conform to those stereotypical roles. 'Using these terms doesn't help anyone. We need to focus on what an organization and its employees need. Do we want a warm, innovating, harmonious or result-driven culture? We can use these terms without categorizing them as male or female.'

Inclusive leadership starts with the system

So we need to approach leaders differently. Marieke talks about a previous manager who she considered her role model. He led his team by empowering people and inspiring them. That was real inclusive leadership: everyone had a voice. Besides looking at the leaders, Marieke feels that the phase an organization is in also determines the type of leadership. Then it's important to explore the extent to which the leader and organization are a match. Camiel: 'Exactly. What type of organization do you want to be? When you know that, you can adapt and focus on that.' Based on that thought, it is easier to work towards inclusion.

Because according to Nathalie, inclusive leadership is about closing the gap between the cultural norm and a minority. 'If there's a minority in an organization somewhere, based on for instance ethnicity, religion or gender, and all the attention is then focused on that group, you can naturally strengthen that category, but only to a certain point. When this point is reached, but there is still a gap between that strengthened, well-functioning minority and the cultural norm of the organization, we need to look at the system. How do we become inclusive enough?'

The blueprint of the management

Camiel talks about a recent conversation he had with a top woman manager who was wondering about her next step. This wasn't about her own ability, but rather whether she wanted it: 'She was wondering whether she wanted to fit into the mold we talked about earlier. Do I want to work those long hours? Do I feel at home there? Can I do myself justice there?' Marieke agrees: 'There seems to be a blueprint of what the top looks like, what we feel we need to be.' Marieke studied the promotion opportunities for women, which revealed that they think differently than the average male manager. But instead of adapting, top women also started rethinking how they could work in that top role. 'I'm a mother, I can do that job, but I'm going to do it differently and do the work in four days instead of five. They set their own conditions to filling that top role, in consultation with their partner,' she says. Ultimately, it's about making choices with respect to wishes - do I want this, but also about setting conditions - that's how I'm going to do it. 'It's important here to remember: is it about the position or the organization? Sometimes, the company simply doesn't suit you,' Marieke adds.

What's interesting is the difference in the way in which men and women make a career. Camiel: 'I see men often being quite competitive in organizations. They start competing, something women don't seem to do so much. Perhaps this is due to different dynamics and another perspective. Do you recognize that?' Nathalie nods: 'Yes, recent studies show that in some organizations, rivalry and competition are important skills for moving up the ladder. That doesn't suit many women. They can move up in other ways, for example in a different organization.' However, this obviously doesn't apply to all women and men. These dynamics often occur, but not all women reject competition, and not all men want to compete. Because that's when men also encounter stigmas. Nathalie gives an example: 'If men work a day less, they are sometimes overlooked as a potential candidate for the executive board.' This is where the importance of mutual solidarity emerges.

That's exactly the reason why Nathalie emphasizes inclusive leadership. Because while we are (or hope to be) very aware of the problems, both men and women conform to a certain mold. That mold needs to become more flexible to be sufficiently inclusive for women and men. In other words: the organizational culture must change. How do we ensure that we change the mold, or the culture, instead of ourselves?

Awareness outside your bubble

Camiel mentions the importance of diversity. Marieke agrees: 'It's logical that all boards are the same. You surround yourself with likeminded people, your bias.' Many organizations are already trying to improve this. For example, some companies use anonymous, external assessments for filling executive roles. The management then soon has more women. Awareness is therefore the first step, and we can then build on that. '‘We need to engage in dialogue and give each other space,’ says Nathalie. 'Diversity can be very rewarding, particularly because men and women are biologically different. I believe that this can provide great value for organizations, so long as it is well integrated in the organizational culture.' Because she knows from experience that those unconscious prejudices can be stubborn: 'Differentiation and ordering remain. As an organization, you therefore need to create psychological safety by setting boundaries and standardizing behavior.'

We know the saying 'change starts with you'. Clearly, the organizational culture benefits from change. Organizations need to offer psychological safety and space to talk to each other. What can we do ourselves to respond to that? Marieke says that she has benefitted a great deal from the role models in her life. Precisely the people who aren't like you can teach you a lot and inspire you. It starts with looking for what you need, what you want to learn and what is important to you. On Women's Day, many female role models are celebrated. With the 2022 theme, likeminded men also have a say. Because we can only achieve gender emancipation together. So, engage in the dialogue and look beyond the bubble of your bias. Today is a good day to start your search. Because Marieke knows: ‘For every area in which you want to grow, you can find a role model.'

Would you like to work on Diversity & Inclusion in your organization?
We are happy to discuss this topic with you and create a strategy that fits your organization. Please don't hesitate to contact us for a first conversation.

In the Dutch BNR Podcast ‘Werkverkenners’, which roughly translates to ‘Work Explorers’, host Rens de Jong finds answers to his and your work-related questions. He invited our VP Customized Anke Baak to discuss what is called the ‘blind spot’ our subconscious creates upon a first impression of someone or something. Oftentimes, this extremely fast information processing is helpful: it saves us a lot of time. However, the habit of generalizing can also keep us from seeing someone’s full potential. Hence, working on your blind spot, or biases, is crucial in effective leadership.

Rens wonders how reliable our first impressions are, since these are produced in seconds. Anke mentions the importance of such processes in prehistory: to survive, we needed to make assumptions and think fast. But today, jumping to conclusions can work against you. Especially as a manager, it’s important to remain open to information –preferably facts – which might cause you to reject your initial assumptions, Anke says.

Where does our blind spot come from?

Unfortunately, changing your biases is easier said than done. Anke: “If you’ve got a brain, you’ve got a bias.” She describes three processes in our brain which contribute to the formation of biases.

• Generalizing: we draw general conclusions from particular situations or people.
• Selective perception: we tend to only register information which matches our existing frame of reference. Herein we can distinct two opposite effects. The ‘halo effect’ occurs when our previous positive evaluation of someone or something influences our opinion in other areas. The opposite effect, the ‘horn effect’, negatively influences our opinions based on an unfavorable bias.
• Warmth and competence model: we have a tendency to attribute competence to people we feel more connected to, who resemble ourselves.

As an expert on the subconscious brain, Genieke Hertoghs explains that our subconscious works a thousand times faster than our conscious brain. This hands the subconscious a great deal of conviction. Genieke elaborates: “The goal of our subconscious is to keep our ego intact, to protect it. When someone says certain things which go against your point of view, this person receives a negative point in our subconscious brain. And when this ‘minus one’ is registered, it’s hard to change. After all, the subconscious makes sure our existing opinions remain.” This is a shame, since we might miss interesting perspectives, stories and information from people who have different ideas than we do, Rens responds. Anke agrees: “In today’s tight labor market, organizations can’t afford to lose valuable employees because of the consequences of insufficient leadership. This causes employees to not feel seen or heard. Moreover, they can’t miss out on the talent and eye-opening potential which would be available in diverse teams. Inclusive leadership is crucial to reach an organization’s full potential.”

“Be curious about facts which might change your bias.”

“But how do we get rid of these processes and biases?”, Rens asks. Anke stresses the importance of determination: if there’s a necessity, it’s possible to reduce such generalizing thinking. It’s crucial to be curious, Anke says. “We need to be interested in the facts which might change our bias. Because if we’re not curious about and open to such information, we will simply dismiss information that is not congruent with our bias as a stroke of luck or coincidence.”

Put your bias to the test

It’s quite clear that diversity is important, but raises challenges because of the familiar blind spot. How can we work on putting our default mode of bias on stand-by? Genieke advices to stay on top of your thoughts. Step one is to acknowledge you’re not understanding someone, as soon as you realize this. More importantly, aim to recognize their potential. “Put this person on a pedestal for once, ask questions and discover more about his or her perspective. Find the point where this person is right and you are wrong,” she elaborates. Digging through what you might feel is “garbage” information at first, is called ‘pulling’.

This is related to the concept of the ‘pyramid of perception’. This implies that once the other feels heard and seen, you will climb the ladder of their perception. The higher you climb, the higher the other’s willingness to change their perception of you. Once this is achieved, you can cooperate in achieving your goals together, as a manager and an employee. The other side of the coin would be achieved by ‘pushing’, which would be to blindly follow your subconscious into protecting your ego. In this case, you feel the need to convince the other and by doing so, you attract resistance and get awarded with a low position on the perspective pyramid. This needs to be avoided. Therefore, Genieke stresses the importance of digging towards the underlying food for thought: “Eventually, you will run into something valuable, something that makes you think: ‘you’re right, you have a point’. That’s where you gain profit.”

Creating dialogue for sustainable organizational and personal change

Rens understands the importance of being aware of your blind spot. But how can we achieve this in an entire company culture? He fears that the digging goes wrong, that his bias takes over and conflicts arise. Anke explains the importance when working on a company’s culture of investing in the dialogue: “During Relevance’s companywide learning programs, groups of employees are all part of the same trainings and discussions. Together, we open the dialogue about selective perception and its consequences. This creates safe and open communication. Another helpful aspect is working with case studies to reflect on what goes well and which aspects could use improvement. With multiple sessions and interventions, people really get to practice and put their acquired knowledge to use. That’s when they realize: half of my thinking is based on prejudices.”

That’s an interesting point: what if you’re the blind spot? What can be done when you feel your manager doesn’t see your potential? Anke believes the most important thing is to not start believing this is true. Because once you feel your manager doesn’t believe in you, you become self-conscious, which affects your performance negatively. “It all starts with believing in yourself,” she says. “Keep your back straight and prove your manager wrong with facts. Think of the warmth and competence model: making sure to connect with your manager; If someone likes you, it helps.”

“Discover what drives their perspective.”

Genieke offers another exercise: writing down what you know about your manager. Forgo the facts, but try to focus on how this person views the world, what drives them, which themes and why? Oftentimes, your notebook remains (almost) empty. The conclusion being you actually don’t know that much about your superior. “If you want to climb on their perception ladder, you need to discover what drives their perspective,” she adds. In short: asking questions while letting go of your bias will help you gain the desired plus points in their subconscious. Consequentially, they will view you differently and take your ideas more seriously.

“In conclusion, we all have a bias,” Rens says. Without confronting it, you might be wasting your team’s potential. People who don’t feel heard and seen, are less likely to make the best effort. By climbing on the perception pyramid, manager and employee share a better understanding and therefore better cooperation. Creating an open dialogue is a great way to start this process and create sustainable change in company culture. Good luck!

Are you interested in uncovering your own and your organization’s blind spot? Contact us for more information!

As a leader, our CEO Camiel Gielkens always tries to remind himself why he does everything he does: to create positive change. “I want to facilitate change and give people the push they need. That’s what energizes me.” This is where the importance of future leadership comes into play.

Before he took the helm as CEO, Gielkens was partly responsible for the international expansion of Schouten Global (now Relevance). As general manager of Schouten China, he supervised growth in the pan-Asian region, learning valuable lessons. “When I look back at my time in China, it revolved around two things: agility and scale. Developments are happening so fast in China that agility is a genuine requirement. You need to change gears quickly, act fast, and make decisions on the fly. You need to know what’s going on in your environment and be able to adjust your strategy accordingly. If you’re not agile, you’ll always be playing catch-up.” Leadership effectiveness is thus very important. 

Big international journeys

In China, Gielkens worked on a completely different scale than he had in Europe. “You can add two or three zeros to everything, which requires a different approach from your organization. I’m immensely proud of the fact that we managed to roll out our services throughout the pan-Asian region during that time. All in all, it was a period that taught me very valuable lessons. Those lessons came in handy with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and the bigger international journeys we are taking with our clients today.”

Leadership of the future

To stay relevant as a leader in the future, Gielkens says it’s crucial to know your business well. “You must stay up to date with what’s going on in your business,” he says. He also explains that it’s important that you can operate at a high level and withstand the pressure you may face as a leader. “You need to be both mentally and physically fit. I do that by playing sports: I like to cycle and play tennis. Besides being active, I also schedule rest periods by meditating regularly.”

Moreover, Gielkens believes it’s important for a leader to be connected to their purpose: you need to know why you're doing it. “For me, it’s all about creating positive change. Whether it’s at Relevance or at one of our clients, I want to facilitate change and give people the push they need. That’s what energizes me.”

Constantly pushing boundaries

As a leader, you must keep pushing your boundaries, Gielkens believes. “To me, leadership is not about waiting for things to happen, but about creating your own success. After all, you play to win, not lose.”

But how do you do that? To Gielkens, it’s a matter of connecting and inspiring. “You need to make sure that you not only inspire your people but also include them in your goals and strategy. You do that by constantly thinking ahead and having scenarios ready: if this happens, we’ll do that. That’s how you create a certain agility as an organization, which certainly came in handy during the pandemic.”

"Instead of waiting for things to happen, create your own success: that's leadership."

Agility

The CEO is proud when he reflects on the past year and a half. “Normally, about 80% of what we do is done face to face, and that suddenly plummeted to zero in March 2020. However, our turnover remained about the same because we made a massive change in a very short time: we offered all our services online and talked directly with our clients about what they needed most at that time. It turned out to be a lot: from supervising and collaborating remotely to organizing online meetings or designing digital onboarding programs. The fact that we could turn our services around like that in a few weeks showed the agility we had already built up as an organization.”

Always continue to learn

Job satisfaction is an important theme at Relevance, so for Gielkens too. “For me, job satisfaction means doing the things that you know will have an impact, that you are good at, and that you enjoy doing. I enjoy empowering people to take control of their own lives. Enabling someone to discover what they are good at, helping them identify that dream for the future: that’s really what drives me.” In the past year, the CEO also saw the importance of social interaction confirmed. “People really need that social connection, and as a company you have to facilitate that.”

Finally, for Gielkens, job satisfaction is about continuing to learn. “As a leader, you must enable your employees to do that. But above all, you must keep doing it yourself; otherwise, you’ll stagnate. I take an intensive course every few years. This year, I’m doing one at the IE Business School in Madrid, covering topics like blended learning and the latest technologies in that field. This introduces me to things I can immediately put into practice. By continuing to learn, you not only help yourself, you also help your organization advance.”

Do you want to know more about leadership? 

Our world is changing rapidly. Sometimes you might feel like you're not keeping up: the knowledge you have today, feels less relevant tomorrow. Know that you can take charge of your personal development at any time! Developing your power skills can start with asking yourself these three questions:

1. What is your view on your personal development?

A problem or challenge can turn into a valuable learning opportunity, if you let it! Are there other ways to look at the situation? What knowledge or skill can help you? Do you want to learn and can you find somebody to help you along? Cultivating a growth mindset will help you feeling less stuck and see opportunities in challenging situations. Critical thinking enables you to move beyond the paved ways!

2. How up-to-date are your skills?

We’re not talking about hard skills only here. Although it's crucial to focus on your technical knowledge, there are many power skills that can help you in numerous situations in your professional life, too. Facing an issue with cooperation? Improve your collaboration skills. Finding your ideas are not being picked up? Optimize your influencing skills. Feeling you’re struggling in managing your working hours?  Review your time management. By consciously taking another look at your power skills, you're able to optimize your performance.

3. How is your vitality at work?

Vital people make vital organizations. When you feel mentally and physically fit, you can perform to your best abilities and feel happy at work. Identifying and managing emotions, work-life balance, resilience, but also inclusivity and psychological safety are factors that impact your wellness. Organizations that facilitate discussion surrounding and improvement of these topics empower their people and stimulate a positive environment. Are you curious to see what vitality at work means? Take a look at our Vitality@work course.

Find out what is relevant for you

We believe everybody can learn, based on your strengths, ambitions and personal values. Whether it’s for yourself, or your organization as a whole: prioritizing learning is an investment that will help everybody to move forward.

After answering these three questions, do you feel more certain of your relevance? Or can we help you get a closer look? We are happy to support you in your personal development!

Training through Teams, Apps and experience platforms. Personalized learning, self-directed learning and life-long learning. These are all developments that were getting there, but came about years earlier due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lead consultant and trainer Amber Lingmont and VP Customized Solutions Anke Baak share five of the newest trends and insights which they identify in the field of learning and development worldwide. How do we learn nowadays? What is different than before? And is, besides the form, the content of our trainings also changing?

1. From event-based to technology-based

Before Covid made its appearance, many people took off to a conference center to follow a training course. Zoom conferences were possible at the time but were not often used. Because of the impediment of not being able to physically gather, technology plays a more central role nowadays. “We experience that not only knowledge can be taught online – long live all apps, platforms and short videos. Training skills and coaching also appears to work well digitally”, says Anke.

“Within many learning organizations and customers, the pandemic has caused a mind shift, and I am convinced that we will not go back to pure face-to-face learning. The hybrid combination of virtual and physical sessions will remain. This comes with all the associated benefits, such as less travel time and international flights. There are also numerous technological possibilities that have yet to (and will) be discovered by many organizations, such as gamification and virtual reality. At Relevance, for example, we work with PQ, which is a learning program in which participants receive a short assignment via the app four times a day. Micro learning is also becoming increasingly important within learning solutions. Watching a short video of a professor is often much more efficient than listening to someone for half a day. A blended learning trajectory? I am all for it. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasize that the customization remains. Some organizations are more ready for this change than others.”

"A blended learning trajectory? I am all for it."

2. From independent practice to integrated learning

Back in the day, trainings were physically separated from practice. The boss had to miss you at work and accept your ‘lack of productivity’. Today, learning is becoming a permanent part of the job and even is integrated into it. The same goes for asking for and receiving feedback. “You used to take a separate, complicated course to improve these skills. Now, we prefer executives who give feedback in the moment and not merely elaborate on what can be improved, but also on what is going well,” explains Amber. “The younger generation is already learning this at school in work groups; real-life practice and direct feedback have become increasingly common. Working is a part of learning and vice versa. It is no longer separated from each other.”

Professions are also changing faster, resulting in reskilling and upskilling. “For example, take one of our large international customers in the automotive industry”, Anke continues. “They have 70,000 employees who are experts in the field of petrol engines, but suddenly need to know everything about hydrogen. How are they going to deal with this? How do they guide the development of their people? These kinds of issues will soon no longer be solved by sending people to school en masse but will be tackled on the job. A mechanic puts on their glasses and uses augmented reality to learn how to handle new engines. Companies that might still had doubts about the importance of learning, are rapidly persuaded.”

3. From one size fits all to personalized

“Admittedly, it was a nice business model for us when all the sales managers of a chain store used to go through the same process to learn skills,” says Anke. “Yet, I greatly applaud the development towards personalized training. As HR, we are increasingly moving away from fixed job descriptions and career paths. Moreover, nowadays individuals are facilitated in their development by organizations. What do they want to learn? What is needed for that? After all, everyone learns differently.”

“This trend means that we, as trainers, have to let go more rather than keeping control, which results in freer sessions,” Amber adds. “No more collective, but personal objectives apply. This, combined with individual coaching and own casuistry, causes that what has been learned is memorized better. Of course, with larger learning trajectories, a certain part remains generic, but the personal section of trainings is getting bigger and bigger. The more you let people discover their own path, the more they learn. Although it is a larger investment, companies increasingly feel that it leads to more happiness at work and additional bonding with the organization.”

"The more you let people discover their own path, the more they learn."

4. From pre-programmed to self-directed learning

“In the past, people were told what and how to learn. Nowadays, we have more freedom and responsibility, so in a way, we determine our own learning process”, says Amber. “But the fact remains that completely letting go doesn't work. After all, we can find all the knowledge in the world on the Internet, yet I am not a mathematician or rocket scientist. Therefore, some guidance is necessary, whether it is a kick in the pants, a joint start-up meeting or personal instruction. After that, we will implement the follow-up exercises ourselves.”

So, Amber does not believe in either-or but in both-and. “So learning remains partially controlled, the residual part depends on your own commitment, in order to take root.” Anke adds. “Just look at the primary schools that have abandoned their entire curriculum. This example shows that it is not effective for a large group of students and thus some structure is essential. It is all about balance.”

5. Today's topics: vitality, diversity, agile working & talent development

Besides the form of the trainings, the topics of training change over time as well. “Nowadays, when we look at our training and leadership programs, we see that trainings in the field of vitality and engagement are the most popular. Questions addressed here are; how mindful am I? How do I stay mentally healthy? How do I stay involved with my team?”

Anke also sees other subjects that are gaining popularity. “Diversity and inclusion, for example. And agile working. We want move from a fixed growth mindset to an agile mindset, in which everyone adapts continuously and becomes sustainably employable. And finally, talent development is hot topic as well. We all strive to be an attractive employer that offers people something in their development that makes them stay.”

New role for the trainer

The above developments in the training field have all changed the role of educators and trainers in the last year and a half. “We are getting the hang of Zoom and Teams, we understand the technology and we have now learned how to keep people involved online”, Amber concludes. “Training becomes facilitating and we are no longer the expert, but the coach instead. For us at Relevance, developing learning trajectories is more important than executing them. Because learning is something people do best with a little help, but in their own way.”

Are you interested in learning more about trends in learning and in what we do?

The Covid-19 pandemic forced many companies to transition towards remote working. Philips did too. In an incredibly short amount of time, almost the entire staff traded their office booth for their home. To accommodate their employees in this challenge, Philips' HR department developed an innovative support system. Philips develop@home helps employees to maintain their personal effectiveness and vitality at work. Relevance is honored to have been a partner on this project of facilitating power skills improvement with Philips. 

As a large international corporation, Philips has certainly felt the challenges this transition causes. Fank Visser, HR cluster manager of Employee & Social Sustainability at Philips, acknowledges this: "Our teams needed to switch from collaborating in the office to working online entirely. This shift required the obvious home office, but also a new work-life balance. New topics arose, think of exercise and energy management. The transition to working remotely changed the way we manage people. However, simultaneously, a lot of projects carried on like they did before. 

Remote development and support

So how does such a substantial employer like Philips handle these radical and rapid changes? Frank explains: "Philips offers services to promote and improve people's health and well-being. We want to project that towards our own people as well." To achieve this, their HR department created the develop@home initiative: a selection of health and wellness interventions to support Philips' employees, working from home. As an expert in power skills, Relevance collaborated with Philips to provide these through the company's online learning portal. Frank elaborates: "Over 5,000 employees use the existing portal each year. Upon completing the develop@home pogram, we sent a newsletter to inform all employees and managers in the Netherlands. We wanted to reach as many people as possible."

Remote work seminars and online workshops

Some aspects of the develop@home program were already implemented in non-digital form. Other elements were developed from scratch, by Philips as well as by working together with Relevance. "When deciding if we wanted to include a specific material, we wondered: can it be converted into online learning content quickly?" Frank explains. "To achieve this, we requested the help of our existing partners. It was crucial to act quickly, without compromising on quality. We were glad to be able to rely on the expertise of our partners. And with Relevance, this is a given: blended learning is in your DNA."

“The crisis is teaching us to look differently at personal development.”

Before the big switch to online learning, most of the training material Philips had to offer surrounding sustainable fitness for work and vitality consisted of face-to-face and conventional training sessions. Due to the challenges posed by the pandemic, these were rapidly converted to virtual learning. Some workshops were easily switched to an online environment, others raised new questions, such as the timing. How can we effectively convey information without wearing people out? As we all know by now, online communication requires more energy than offline conversations.

Therefore, Philips also developed new resources, next to the existing ones. HR created remote work seminars. With these interactive self-study pages, employees can learn about various topics in their own pace and time. Relevance aided in creating new online courses and workshops about energy management and resilience. Such courses help in maintaining vitality at work and personal effectiveness. To combine these factors, the focuspoint of the develop@home program was launched in April: the work@home scan

The work@home scan

Relevance designed the work@home scan to support all Philips employees in working from home, as smoothly as possible. "Because we expect employees to keep doing their jobs, even during such challenging times, we want to help them transitioning from the old way of working, to the new way. With this scan, employees are able to overlook everything they need to keep in mind for them to stay healthy and effective when working from home. It covers a feedback report, followed by coaching, which helps us to promote personal development, adaptability and vitality." 

Upon requesting the work@home scan through the learning portal, employees fill out the quick scan via a form and then discuss their results with a coach in an online session. The scan takes several aspects of working from home into account. For example the physical work environment, work-life balance, lifestyle and relationships with coworkers and managers. After completing the scan, the employee receives a feedback report. This gives an overview of which elements of working remotely are going well and which aspects could be improved.

Sustainable development through coaching

These results are discussed in an online coaching session. Together, they take a closer look at the findings and discuss the possibilities the employee has to make positive changes for themselves, as well as what their manager can do to facilitate these changes. "This is a crucial component of the scan," Frank states. "It's the coach's job to aid in interpreting the results. Discussing the employees' results directly with said employee, specific follow-up actions can be formulated, resulting in huge improvements." Such follow-up actions can simply be improving the home office space or participating in specific virtual workshops surrounding the topic of the employee's needs. Four weeks later, another feedback session is scheduled. During this follow-up session, the taken actions are evaluated to make sure the scan creates lasting behavioral change and improves well-being of Philips' employees.

Staying healthy and effective while working at home

Frank is optimistic about the future: "I truly believe that the experience we are gaining now will result in remote working going forward. This new world we are living in, with social distancing, new challenges and skills included, stresses the importance of devoting more attention to stay healthy and effective while working from home. Moreover, it's crucial to keep facilitating our employees to continue to develop themselves, even when working remotely."

To make this happen, offering internal services such as the work@home scan is a strong requirement for the effective functioning of HR departments. With develop@home program, Philips is able to offer a new way of teaching and supporting their employees. Frank says: "This program originated because of the pandemic. Now, we see the advantages to online learning we never would have imagined just a few months ago". 

Are you curious about how Relevance can support your organization? 

Feedback: it can be a tricky aspect of our professional relations. On one hand, we like to be critical to achieve the optimal result, together. While on the other hand, having our own work criticized can cause frustration. That’s why becoming a master in giving and receiving feedback is crucial to create an open culture within your organization.

VodafoneZiggo noticed this importance as well. To help their employees give and receive feedback, we developed a tailor-made training course, supporting their change management. Together, we focused on openness, behavioral change and teamwork. Nynke Hagen, Culture & Engagement Manager at VodafoneZiggo, and Marianne van Munster, Senior Trainer at Relevance, discuss this wonderful project.

Culture program

VodafoneZiggo starts their journey of opening up their company culture at the first value of three cultural values: ‘Open Up’. This value aims to create a culture of openness and accountability, a place where employees feel free to give feedback and ask each other questions. The other two values are ‘Team Up’ and ‘Step Up’. Nynke says: “Our company culture has been a high priority ever since the joint venture between Vodafone and Ziggo in 2017. From that point, we explored what we stand for as a company in the first year, which was followed by focusing on what we know about our values in the second year.” By taking these important steps, VodafoneZiggo was ready to take off behavior development within the company by the third year.

Meeting the need for change

The company conducts an engagement survey amongst their employees numerous times a year. The results showed a strong desire among employees for improving (cultural) behavior. VodafoneZiggo wanted to respond to this need. This was certainly a good call, since the Covid-19 pandemic hit simultaneously. The result: a stronger need for clear communication and efficient teamwork than ever. “We started out by asking ourselves what kind of behavior we want to reinforce and prioritize in our company culture. That’s where the value of ‘Open Up’ came in,” Nynke explains.

Marianne proposed to visibly embed all three VodafoneZiggo values into the learning modules. She says: “We believe in making a meaningful contribution to support an organization in their strategically development and shaping partnerships instead of just providing a training.” Nynke agrees: “We collaborate in figuring out ways to inspire and improve behavior. Relevance has been a great sparring partner and source of inspiration to us.”

Feedback in teams

“The training set out to make a clear distinction on what feedback is, and more importantly, what is not! Then, we practice the ‘how,’” Marianne says. “The trainings were done from an individual perspective, but we soon learned that we needed to shift our focus towards creating a feedback culture within our teams. Now, more than 150 teams have followed the training. These teams vary from technicians and store staff, to our HR director and his team. By following the feedback training, employees create the basis for stronger teamwork and feel empowered to experiment. Exactly these skills are what the other two values, ‘Team Up’ and ‘Step Up’ focus on.

“If you're good at giving feedback doesn't matter if the other person is unable to receive it. Once you improve the way you receive feedback, how other people give you feedback is no longer important.”

Marianne van Munster

Major success

“The training was tailor-made for us, by Relevance. Each team had different content, placed into their specific context,” Nynke mentions. “The responses we received have been incredibly positive. The other day, someone told me he had reached his learning goals. He explained he went from feeling like a weak cup of coffee to a strong espresso!” Marianne elaborates. “I also saw a manager being visibly moved after our training. She was genuinely touched by seeing her team opening up.” These wonderful examples were also reflected by the date gathered from the conducted evaluations and effect scans. Upon completing the feedback training, people rated themselves two points higher on average than before following the training. Nynke adds: “I hear people are more comfortable and find it easier to give one-on-one feedback than before. Now, they are much more likely to comment on positive aspects instead of focusing on the negative. This wonderful development is entirely in line with our new mindset of continual learning. We look forward to embedding this mindset in other processes and programs too, such as leadership development and performance management.”

Unlimited learning

Now, employees at VodafoneZiggo think of feedback in terms of “supportive” and “developmental” instead of “positive” and “negative.” “This is a wonderful development, which is fully in line with our new mindset of continual learning,” explains Nynke. “To truly create a culture in which everyone feels safe to speak openly, we are also embedding this mindset in other processes and programs, such as performance management and leadership development. In addition to this feedback training, we still have hundreds of training modules and courses on the Archipel platform, a sister company of Relevance. Our employees have unlimited access to these.”

“Are you working on your company culture? Embed your values in everything you do and involve people from all over the company to create a new norm.”

Nynke Hagen

Safeguarding the future

Because as we all know: the learning process never ends. That’s why, in addition to this feedback training, VodafoneZiggo employees have unlimited access to hundreds of training modules on the Archipel platform, a Relevance sister company. Meanwhile, Nynke and Marianne continue to think of ways to expand the feedback training by organizing additional modules or refreshers. “We’re exploring how to give feedback from every possible angle,” Nynke explains. Managers are facilitated by custom developed practical tools, which help them to optimize their leadership skills, inspire their team members and help to give them feedback.”

To any organization that wants to work on its culture, Nynke would like to say: “Embed your values in everything you do. Involve people from all over the company. Choosing some standalone training module and expect for it to have an effect, doesn’t suffice. Make sure to continue the learning process after the training is over, so that new behaviors become the norm.”

Are you interested in creating a more open company culture?