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...

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...

We are pleased to announce that our new simulation, BIODECISION , is now at the pilot stage. Commercialisation strategy is one of the key decisions faced by start up companies in the biotech arena. This simulation aims to demonstrate the various decision points and processes that biotech start up companies and entrepreneurs may face when developing their technology. It also aims to raise awareness of individuals own mental models and how they may shape our behaviours, our perceptions of others and, most crucially, the decisions we make.   Thanks to support from the Incrops project, Poppyfish will be running a free to attend pilot version of this latest workshop at Rothamsted Research on 12 th December 2012. Anyone wishing to attend is invited to contact enquiries@poppyfish.co.uk or contact Rothamsted Research . Additional information is available on the main Poppyfish website     What form will the simulation take? The simulation takes the form o...

Ahead of some upcoming conferences and important workshops that we are involved with over the coming weeks we've been busy indulging our creative side and blowing the budget this week on some new publicity materials to help spread the word of Poppyfish. Just thought we'd share a few on the blog. We hope you like them. You can also see these on our facebook page. Alongside our more established OD work we have chosen to emphasis the key contribution that simulations and decision making exercises can make your people development programmes and organisational resilience, under the title "Simulate to Stimulate". We always welcome the opportunity to talk to anyone interested in incorporating these activities into their organisation learning and resilience programmes.        

Is Business Continuity a form of OD? It's a bit early in the week to wire up  "The Cogitator" and consider the world of OD through my own particular lens, but as I am delivering a Business Continuity decision making exercise this week I wanted to stop for a moment to consider the connection between Business Continuity and Organisational development. Does BC = OD? Simulations provide a key opportunity for learning and offer an opportunity to analyse decision making in a safe environment and are an excellent tapestry for personal development, yet few relatively few organisations choose to run decision making exercises for this purpose. In the field of L&D overall simulations tend to be niche areas, and not always regarded as the first option. I find this rather thought provoking, especially when the role of simulations is so well established in some other areas of organisations. Take for instance the field of Business Continuity. Business Continui...

Running wargames for business is not about playing soldiers As an Organisational Development Consultant I view wargaming as one of many possible interventions that I can offer to clients to allow them to challenge their own thinking and as a space for personal development and the spotlighting of talent.  For organisations we approach them as ways of building evidence of a spirit in support of resilience – that ability to maintain a dynamically stable state under continuous stress. Negotiation scenarios can be a subject for exercise, although critical incidents such as cyber threats, PR crisis, continuity incidents, strategic planning horizons and PR crises are more popular, and often higher profile, areas for our clients. Whole system approach Organisations exist as whole systems experienced by people, so from our OD perspective we like to look at the human influences and impacts of the scenario. Because of this, we do not tend to use software to number crunch as we g...

 The benefits of business wargames, simulations and decision making exercises  We left the last blog entry on a cliff hanger : How can simulations, red teams, decision making exercises and business wargames benefit organisations? Our experience of such simulations at Poppyfish  is that there are eight basic ways that this happens: 1. Stimulating innovative and creative thinking in a low risk environment. A realistic scenario allows learners to experience the type of decision making challenge that they will only face in moments of crisis – moments that they do not come across in their day to day working lives. Such activities provide opportunities to stimulate innovative and creative thinking in a low risk environment. The process of being involved in a closed door session serves to focus the mind of managers and leaders on the scenario and allows focussed discussion in a way that the normal day-to-day activities do not allow. 2. Challenging ...

With less than a week to go until the start of the London Olympics let's start with a topical metaphor. Think of a successful organisation as a healthy athlete. Honed, toned, in the zone and eager for success. Reaching the pinnacle of Olympic success takes time, commitment, vision and only comes with dedicated practice and preparation. This preparation comes in different forms – mental and physical - and all with the aim of being at your best when the moment of truth arrives.  Coaches ask their athletes to visualise what it will feel like to compete, to imagine in great detail, how they will compete in those vital moments when there is all to gain, or all to lose. What does success look like? What will it take to win through? How will it feel to do so? What needs to happen for success to be realised? The same preparatory techniques can be applied to organisations, where simulations can form part of this preparation, helping the organisation develop and maintain its v...