The Blogworld of Poppyfish People Development

I've written and spoken about it so many times that to some people I must be starting to sound like a cracked record. But just in case this is completely new to you then let me crank the gramophone handle one more time.... The most amazing thing about critical incidents that impact organisations is not that they happen but that they do not happen more often. Turn on the news and you'll find one in an instant. Right now, somewhere in the world, an organisation is experiencing a critical incident. And you only have to look at the "Wall of Terror" below to see some potential consequences. So if there is a certain inevitability surrounding the fact that the organisation that you work in will experience a critical incident then what can leaders do to ensure that their organisation will survive?  Here's our suggested top 5 values, attitudes and behaviours: Communicate the vision Organisations that keep going through critical incidents have a strong...

The tragic and ongoing story of Malaysia Airways flight MH370 has few positives. At the time of writing it appears highly likely that the aircraft, which disappeared on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, ditched somewhere in the sea off the SW coast of Australia, many miles off course  from it’s planned route. No wreckage has been found and there has been no communication with any of the 239 people listed as being on board. No reason for the massive deviation in the flight plan or the loss of communication has been provided. What continues to unfold is a fascinating and disturbing tale that has flummoxed just about everyone. But what we have already experienced as part of this story helps us expand our understanding. And here's how. As humans we rely on our skills of pattern recognition to make sense of the world around us. When stories and events unfold we look to the validity of our own experience to assess the situation against our own memory banks of data, h...

Pandemic is a Poppyfish business simulation and management learning exercise designed to help organisations to understand the possible consequences of an outbreak of pandemic flu. The simulation involves participants managing a number of realistically structured and interactive departments, business units or teams through a pandemic cycle, juggling resources to maintain operations and deliver objectives. Run as a one day phased decision making exercise Pandemic uses data on infection rates from the UK Dept of Health and NHS but is tailored specifically to the organisational hierarchy of the client organisation. Learning objectives The learning objective of this simulation is that by the end of the session participants will have negotiated their organisation through a 15 week pandemic cycle and will understand more about the impact that an event such as a pandemic flu outbreak could have on their workplace. The simulation is primarily about strengthening organisational resilience ...

The legendary Australian fast bowler, Jeff Thomson, had a great way of putting things. 'Tommo', who alongside the equally fearsome Dennis Lillee spearheaded one of the most infamous fast bowling attacks that the planet has ever seen, isn't really one for management speak. "Pushing the envelope" or "touching base" are not really his style. Tommo liked to ply his trade the direct way: "The sound of the ball hitting the batsman's skull was music to my ears" This famous quote starts off this seasonally inspired post. In the spring time the passions of all true men turn to that noblest of sports - cricket. All across this noble isle dreams of smashing centuries at Lord's come creeping into the minds of men of a certain age as they attempt to reconnect with their youth by squeezing their increasingly rotund frames into their musty old cricket whites and puffing their red faces around the village green. Think of the village cricket match...

Ask anyone what they would do if they could travel in time and sooner or later someone will tell you they would go forward to the next lottery draw date, so they could return to the present day and buy the winning ticket. This week the Euromillions lottery is another roll over. Visualising the future isn’t easy. But never mind our own fanciful dreams of lottery riches, for managers and leaders creating strategy in today’s organisations seeing into the future is an essential skill, yet developing this foresight can be incredibly difficult. Taking the brave first steps now in a change programme to move your company towards an uncertain future can be even harder. How can we know what the future will hold? If only we could travel through time. If only we had a machine to take us there…. In Poppyfish simulations the scenario is our vehicle to the future. Climbing aboard a simulated exercise that projects your business into the future can be the vehicle that enables our expl...

Understanding how a critical incident develops can help us to know what to expect when an incident happens for real. So far this year there have already been a number of high profile critical incidents affecting organisations. Most recently the escalation of the Algerian hostage crisis has been a major news story. Last week, the first ever helicopter crash in London sparked a critical incident that, whilst more local in impact, was headline news and impacted organisations caught up in the maelstrom of unfolding events.   Studying how the news unfolded in this stand alone tragic accident can help us to assess the realism of the timelines in our own continuity exercises and critical incident simulations. In this blog post I present a timeline for the helicopter incident and briefly discuss critical incidents from an organisational impact perspective. Building the timeline What I have done below is to build a timeline of the helicopter crash incident, as best as I have been ...