Spotlight on Paul Belcher of ABL World

Paul’s first 14 years of corporate life were characterised by leading collaborations and troubleshooting roles. His ability to bring about successful and sustainable change at all levels in organisations has led him to work extensively with companies such as Intel, Samsung, Hitachi, IBM and many others.

Paul now runs ABL World with his business partner Judy Apps. ABL specialises in experiential training in both open courses and in-house training and have teamed up with Simesco to develop the very first Strategic Professional open programme, launching in September 2007.

SP - Why is developing people so prone to failure?

PB - It’s a reality that much of what we might call ‘people development’ activity is a waste of time and money. I think there are many reasons why this is so. Speaking from my own experience, I’ve been sent on many courses that simply weren’t thought through so they didn’t fit the development need. I’ve also been in working environments which were simply unable to support bringing learning back in to the workplace.

Too often training is seen as a ‘solution’ to a development ‘problem’ – in reality it’s often a mechanism for blame transference. For example, someone has a perceived development need, say running meetings more effectively, and is sent on an appropriately labelled training course. The person now returns to work, knows a few tricks and tools for running better meetings and perhaps even tries some of them out. However, the real problem, perhaps a lack of confidence in a new role, hasn’t been dealt with and old habits soon return. But where does the blame for poor performance now lie? Who is regarded as even less capable even though they have been ‘trained’?

The development activity needs to fit the development need and too little time is spent really understanding what’s going on. Sometimes all that is needed is time and supportive management.

SP - How can I deal with people as individuals?

PB - That’s a really important question for the workplace. We accept and even enjoy difference in our relationships outside work but for some reason there is more pressure to conform and treat people the same in work. This may seem to be a ‘fairer’ but everybody’s experience in life knows that this doesn’t get the best from people.

The most productive teams and workgroups accept difference and use the strengths and weaknesses of individuals to advantage. So how do we do that as managers? The most satisfactory answer I’m aware of is ‘Start from where you are’. The most successful managers I know are very self-aware. They understand themselves and their influence on others and are forever seeking to stretch and challenge themselves. They serve as models of personal growth and acceptance of difference. They challenge others to do the same by setting an example – not demanding that others should be different.

There are many tools to aid self-awareness like MBTI™ or N-Code® to name just a few. A good tool and effective practitioner of these tools will stress the importance of self-understanding rather than how to change others.

SP - How does personal development really happen?

PB - Well the first thing to say is that it happens continuously. People are growing and changing all the time – regardless of what formal development activity is going on.

Perhaps the clearest answer I can give to this is that personal development happens most effectively when there is a good balance of challenge and support, i.e., when people have enough new experiences and enough time in the right environment to assimilate learning. These ‘new experiences’ may be anything (a failed project for example) and don’t have to be a specific ‘development’ activity. The meaning applied and the learning generated will be heavily influenced by the environment in which this happens.

SP - So, is the environment more important than the content?

PB - Another cracking question. I think I would have to say that in essence yes the environment is more important than content.

There is no shortage of content out there. Just look at the business section of most bookshops or indeed the internet. So, if there is so much content out there why do people need ‘training’? Why is good training so useful? Why is training sometimes literally transformational?
The reality is that good training provides both challenge and support in an appropriate environment. The best training makes the learning real and creates experiences that enable people to get what they need ‘in the muscle’.

I know in our trainings we pay a lot of attention to environment and in our experience this makes a huge difference. That means many things including having the right size of group (not too small or large), modelling that you don’t have to be perfect, building in plenty of time for reflection and discussion, engaging experiences that are as ‘real’ as possible, encouraging networking and on-going support outside of courses.

It’s one of the reasons why I often prefer the open workshops we run. We have complete control over the learning environment and we know, because people tell us and we can see it, that people get a better learning experience.

SP - How does Coaching fit with developing people?

PB - Honestly I think coaching is one of the most effective tools for developing and managing people. I wish I had actually known more about it when I was managing large numbers of people myself. And when I look back now I realised the best managers I experienced were natural coaches and when I managed at my best I was actually coaching.

Managers, especially new ones, often fall in to the trap of thinking they have to have the answer to all the problems that turn up. Even really smart managers who do have all the answers will find that coaching invariably works better than telling people what to do. By helping people to find their own answers, which is essentially what coaching is, you empower and develop people as a direct consequence. You also relieve yourself of the burden of having to have all the answers – which simply isn’t possible.

We now include ‘Coaching’ as an integral part of all our training. For example our ‘Expert to Manager’ programme spends almost 2 days of a 5-day modular course covering coaching tools and techniques. It simply is the best way to work with smart people who increasingly are smarter than their managers in specific areas.

SP - What is the one thing that you would encourage a manager to do to get the most from their people?

PB - There are actually two things that I would mention.

The first is be consistent. No one is perfect and there is no one right way to manage people. Be consistent in your treatment of people and they will learn to manage you for the benefit of everyone. If you want to change your approach significantly then let people know the change is coming and explain why it’s happening. Nothing demoralises people more than not knowing where they stand or having surprises dropped on them. In my experience the best managers are consistent in the approach whilst constantly working to develop themselves and others – starting with themselves first.

The second thing I would encourage managers to do is to be constantly curious about people. If you don’t find the people you work with fascinating and remarkable then you are not being curious enough. So that pretty much means everyone could be more curious. I know from my own experience that when we operate from our own assumptions of what is going on then these assumptions usually just get in the way. Take the time to find out what is really going on for people, what they value, what motivates them and how and why they like their work. Sometimes that’s all you need to do – take a genuine interest in other people.