Tony Coll & Associates’ consultancy services identify and evaluate opinions and practices and make recommendations for change. These typically specify an appropriate mix of research, training, presentation, print, audiovisual and electronic media content.
Cultural Audit identifies and reports on the specifics of an existing culture, its strengths and weaknesses.
Communications Audit maps out and assesses an organisation’s channels of internal and external communication.
Rebranding Consultancy works with designers and other specialists to ensure that branding is understood, applied and communicated within the organisation and to its stakeholders.
Tony Coll has been involved since 1990 in the communication of organisational change, working as a researcher, writer, producer and director. Here are some of the projects he’s worked on:
Turning sailors
into waiters
After the Zeebrugge disaster and a protracted seamen’s strike, cross-Channel
ferry staff were embittered, entrenched, cynical and hostile to management.
This company embarked on a programme of culture change, designed to alter
the way staff saw themselves and their relationship with the company. Ferries
had become more like floating hotels than traditional ships, so a key objective
was to persuade staff to see themselves not as traditional seafarers but as
modern hotel and catering workers. The programme was extensive and involved
all parts of the company. Tony Coll played a key role in its conception and
delivery.
Much use was made of the ‘cascade’ method – senior managers
would be given a speaker-led presentation which included video modules interspersed
with live discussion prompted by the videos. The managers would then be given
trainer packs containing the video modules and some supporting print material
to help them lead and stimulate discussion.
Thus equipped, they would give the same presentation to their junior managers,
and the juniors would give it to their juniors, and so on all the way down
the company.
Because the programme involved discussion at all stages and at all levels,
and featured real-life examples of best practice, rather than abstract theory
handed down from on high, it engaged the interest and attention of the workforce.
After some initial resistance, there were significant improvements in both
productivity and customer care levels (measured by customer satisfaction surveys).
Absenteeism and staff turnover fell.
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Hunting for best
practice
One of the world’s oldest and largest mass transit systems was beset
by historical anomalies in the terms and conditions of its employees. The
company wished to encourage and reward innovation and achievement, but had
no means of identifying specific cases. Tony Coll was commissioned to research
within the organisation, find good examples, film them and make a news-style
documentary, to be shown around the company in facilitated discussion groups.
The idea was to praise and reward achievers while encouraging others by showing
how it should be done.
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Empowering high
fliers
The ‘Managing Winners’ programme was designed to empower customer-facing
staff at one of the world’s largest airlines to use personal initiative
when dealing with customers who had suffered loss or upset while in the company’s
care. Cabin crew and ground staff were authorised to incur expense on the
customer’s behalf, and to think laterally when things went wrong.
The moral of the story was that Service Recovery – putting things right
when they’ve gone badly wrong – can often leave customers more favourably
impressed than if the mistake or accident had never happened.
Tony Coll researched examples of Service Recovery to create a video in which
staff told their stories, illustrated by Crimewatch-style reconstructions.
This was shown in facilitated discussion groups around the company.
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Fixing holes in
buckets
An attitudinal survey among staff at a large general insurance company revealed
that departments were poor at talking to each other, and that staff would
not intervene outside their defined role even when they saw something going
wrong.
Tony Coll was asked to find a light-hearted and memorable way to point this
up in a live stage show, with professional actors, to form part of the company’s
regular motivational roadshows for middle managers.
The solution was ‘Acme Buckets’, a short comedy play set in an imaginary
company based on the old song “There’s a Hole in my Bucket, Dear
Lisa, Dear Lisa”. Staff at Acme Buckets noticed the products all had
holes in, but took no action because they didn’t feel it was their place.
Until the day the new girl met the new MD….
‘Acme Buckets’ was a great success. It stimulated staff discussion,
helped to break down the barriers between departments and encouraged staff
initiative. A video/DVD version was also made so that the story could be used
further within the company.
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Nailing down the
values
A survey at one of the UK’s largest aerospace companies showed that staff
had difficulty relating the five company values - Partnerships, People, Innovation
and Technology, Customers, and Performance – to their day-to-say work.
Tony Coll was commissioned to make a news-style documentary to show each of
the values working in practical, down-to-earth situations that the workforce
could relate to. The video was shown at facilitated discussion groups across
the company.
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What’s in a name?
A leading Middle Eastern airline introduced an extensive rebranding programme,
and wanted to explain it to a mixed audience of staff, suppliers and customers
largely unfamiliar with rebranding as a concept. The programme had to explain
what was happening and why, and to present the new branding in detail.
The project had to be undertaken in such a way that it worked in Arabic and
English, was respectful of Islamic culture, yet modern and upbeat. Tony Coll’s
script formed the basis of both English and Arabic versions.
