On the 24th of June, we held our second Colloquium, which is a series of academic conferences and forums where individuals and organisations who are committed to the Schuitema thematic can share their experiences and collaborate to further develop the thematic through constructive interaction and debate.
Sean Farrell, former CEO of RMB Private Bank, shared his experiences, successes and challenges of implementing Care and Growth in the financial sector. In his journey, he was supported by his Head of Human Resources Cilette Harris, who was also present to share the points of her Care and Growth learning journey.
For full access to the colloquium material, visit the colloquium website here.
You may also listen to the audio below or get the material via the links provided below.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99634801″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Here are some of the salient points of the speech:
| • The strategy was in two simple pillars: an obsession with the client and an obsession with the development of our people. |
| • The team was young. We didn’t need more MBAs; we needed to be more rounded as people so that they could then be better leaders. |
| • Performance appraisal templates were changed. A section on practical examples of Care and Growth practices was inserted. |
| • Money wasn’t enough to retain our people, there had to be an “employee value proposition”. |
| • We had an upsidedown hierarchy where the CEO was the least important person and the client-facing people were the most important. |
| • The HR head was a strategic position, not a soft, lovey-dovey feeling position. |
| • The “danger” of exposing the staff to Care and Growth principles is that they develop an expectation of different behaviour from the managers. |
| • “The culture and the way we operate here are very different to elsewhere, and if it’s not for you, please leave.” |
| • We had many courageous conversations. |
| • The more you make a public example of bad behaviour, the more people say ‘I don’t want that to happen to me’. |
| • As much as you hammer the people who are messing up, you also validate. |
| • Leadership Forums would try and extract the wisdom and experience from a group of leaders. |
| • This was not a training or a development-of-leaders process. |
| • It is not okay just to have classroom-based interventions. |
| • Give people the opportunity to grow as individuals at the Personal Excellence level. Only once that happened, did each human being in the leadership team change. |
| • Opportunities were created for people to reflect, and not get lost in the busyness of the process. |
| • Sean was prepared to hold accountable, first of all himself, and then all the people on his exco. |
| • This is not a process that HR should own, but HR should never be excluded from it. |
| • In cutting costs, instead of cutting the training budget we cut staff positions. There is fat in every organisation. |
| • A health warning about Care and Growth: what takes a long time to build up can be undone very quickly. So the succession plan is crucial. |
Visit Colloquium website Go to the Colloquium website to read the speech.
Get the transcription Download and read the speech offline.
Get the audio Download the audio and listen to it offline.
Get it on your device Connect to the podcast on iTunes for your device.
The establishment of the Schuitema Colloquia runs in parallel with our pursuit of enabling people to triumph as human beings by exploring the origination, dissemination and development of a set of ideas which have become known as the Schuitema thematic, which, at their core is the conviction that the essential criterion which accounts for excellence at the level of the individual, the team and the organisation is the intent to give or to serve.