View publication - Chartered Institute of Housing

PART ONE: LEARNING TODAY
This ‘psychological mobility’ is a pre-step to social and economic mobility. Without this
pre-step other interventions do not work as effectively. The growing practice of
workplace coaching can help as it focuses on the individual and can personalise
learning. The degree to which it is person centred will determine its effectiveness in
helping individuals identify their gifts and redirect their futures inside and outside the
business accordingly.
INSIGHT number six – A team is endemically problematic…take a more
flexible approach
The endless time and energies workplace teams consume raises the question whether
the returns are worth the effort. True teamwork does yield outcomes which are greater
than the sum of the parts, but the frequency with which this happens tends not always
to be proportionate to the resources they consume.
Chief Executives and Directors appear to feel obliged to have a single team comprising
of staff who report to them directly. There can be more benefit in modifying this 20th
Century approach by having a network of teams rather than a single hierarchical team.
Virtual teams, fixed life teams, single issue teams can all provide richer insights, analyses
and solutions than the traditional team arrangement.
Seldom are senior hierarchical teams constructed with the object of ensuring they work
as a cohesive and synergistic unit. More often members are in the team on the grounds
of hierarchy and the function or specialism they represent. Silo thinking is not
uncommon and politics and personalities can also be counter productive. Investment in
learning and development does not always show a return and the challenges of the
21st Century suggest there is a need and an opportunity to rethink how teams are
formed and operate. Reinvention can address an over reliance on traditional team
structures and provide the opportunity to materially and psychologically engage more
people on different bases in finding new solutions to complex problems.
INSIGHT number seven – Stop learning and you die!
This insight is a blatant truism but sadly it has not been appreciated by all. At the turn
of the Millennium most leaders in housing organisations in England remained confident
in the UK economy. Whilst house price inflation was in someways problematic, it also
helped the bricks and mortar based business models stack up quite easily. However the
2008 crash provided a double reminder to housing organisations that ‘what goes up,
76