A Day with Learning to Achieve and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance
Designed to achieve
There’s arguably no greater example of teamwork than the emergency medical services. The workplace ‘green flags’ of communication, coordination, collaboration, and trust aren’t just nice to have; they’re essential when responding to major incidents and ensuring patient safety and well-being.
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIOWAA) is a shining example of an agile, proactive team. The charity brings an advanced critical care team to the most seriously ill and injured patients in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, giving them the best chance of survival and recovery when a crisis strikes.
Of course, a charity of this kind requires an intricate interplay of skill sets, expertise, and logistics. Beyond the first responders, there must be an overall sense of organisational cohesion, such as shared values, priorities, and goals. I was asked to deliver a strategy day that would help HIOWAA continue to solidify its team culture and strengthen partnerships and connections between people from different areas of the organisation.
Learning to achieve
Any successful and efficient organisation requires different people with different skills working in different departments. The challenge I often see, as a facilitator, is these people are rarely in the same room together talking to each other. Over time, this can create unintentional sticking points and a somewhat amorphous company culture because people aren’t communicating their thoughts, feelings, and priorities face-to-face.
HIOWAA recognised that this wasn’t a path they could take and wanted all parts of the organisation to weigh in on a progression strategy. My job was to bring internal staff, trustees, partners, and team members from different departments together to communicate and reach the same conclusions on fostering interdepartmental teamwork and connections.
Despite differing organisational structures and priorities, the goal was to garner a solid common ground by allowing everyone to share their perspectives and opinions in a supportive and validating setting.
How did we create a smooth event?
To kick off, I handed out a name card to all eighty attendees entering the room. Every card had the name of a famous band member on it. Their challenge was to bring the band back together.
Rather than the typical awkward ice-breakers, people were dashing around the room to find ‘Freddie Mercury’, ‘Beyonce Knowles’, or ‘Keith Richards’. From the get-go, it prompted people to mix and mingle with people they may never have spoken to before from different departments. Instead of engaging in stuffy, contrived dialogue, they established a more informal relationship, which allowed them to loosen up.
With the ice well and truly broken, it was time for phase two. I asked the room one of my favourite facilitation questions: “If today was to go how you wanted it to go, how would it go?”. Attendees piped up with their preferences, which allowed us to establish priorities and set the tone for the rest of the workshop. The unanimous response was for the session to run like clockwork. Nobody wanted this day to be a meandering, navel-gazing waste of time, and it wasn’t going to be.
Next, it was time for a short presentation on the history of the charity and the progress it has made over the years. It outlined HIOWAA’s successes and challenges, providing us with a ‘where we’ve come from and where we’re going’ springboard for the rest of the session.
Attendees sat in groups at tables, and they were asked to discuss the presentation and its contents. Each group was asked to share their thoughts and feelings with me via a microphone in front of the room. I’d ask them open-ended questions to build curiosity and get them thinking.
Now, it was time to mix things up. During a break, I put in place a seating plan and rearranged the tables to make totally blended groups. I gave an introduction about trust and positive culture and asked each table to consider the following questions:
What is the culture we need to create to achieve the future we want?
What are the top two behaviours we need to encourage to get there?
Once they’d brainstormed the answers, I went around each table and asked them to share their thoughts with me once again so the whole room could hear each other’s perspectives.
After lunch, I split the groups based on what they did: the care group (doctors and paramedics), the operations team, the fundraisers, the partners, and the trustees. I asked each group the following question: ‘What do you want other people to know, and what do you need from the other groups?’.
Once again, I passed each group the mic so they could share their answers with me and the rest of the room. The repetition of this modality meant that people could relax into the process and not overthink it. Everyone was very honest and receptive to each other’s perspectives because we’d been warming up to this moment all day.
Next up was the 7 hot topics session. Each table had the opportunity to choose a hot topic that they wanted to discuss. The table would then nominate a person to deliver feedback and insights on that topic to the whole room. The topics prompted the room to think about the organisation holistically, leading to some excellent discussions about the future of the charity.
Last but certainly not least, we wrapped up the session with a favourite of mine by Liberating Structures, Crowd Sourcing. Every attendee wrote down an idea on a card. Then, we’d mix the cards up and hand them out again. Everyone would rate the idea on the card out of five. Then, we’d mix them up again, rate them out of five, and so on.
Eventually, every idea would get a score out of twenty-five. The ideas with the highest scores were considered the key focus areas. It’s a quick and easy way to identify the overarching priorities and common ground with minimal faff.
The outcomes
In one day, we ensured every group felt seen, heard, and understood to nurture strong partnerships and connections. The interdepartmental networking and brainstorming meant that the teams were able to work together as a collective unit and identify their common goals and priorities rather than view themselves as separate or independent parts of the organisation.
Here’s what Richard Corbett, Chief Executive Officer at HIOWAA, had to say:
“Phil designed the day so it was lively and interactive, and the process was very much in the background rather than taking over the event. Despite this low-key approach, we moved smoothly through the whole day, meeting our objectives while finishing exactly on time. My biggest takeaway was that the day was also designed to ensure mixing and networking, so I, and all participants, interacted with a wide variety of different people.
I now have a long list of action points but with some great prioritisation delivered in quick time on the day. I am clear about where I need to start, in terms of importance to those in the room. I am now getting on with that list knowing the changes will both make an impact and have broad buy-in.”
Let’s chat if you’re wondering how to unite the people in your organisation and foster a company culture to be proud of. Together, we’ll roll out a plan of action that keeps everyone on the same page while achieving your goals.
