The Stanton Marris Blog

Articles from July 2010

  • Another award!

    We’re delighted to announce that our client, The London Borough of Lewisham, has recently scooped an HR Excellence Award. They have just been announced as the winners of the 2010 Outstanding Employee Engagement Strategy award.

    We have worked hard with Lewisham on developing the ‘Lewisham Way’ to help engage their people and promote employee participation and breaking down barriers. So we’re thrilled to see all the hard work recognised by the HR annual awards.

    The judges said Lewisham showed “genuine involvement from employees at every level – proper engagement, not just for the sake of it”.

    Read more on the Outstanding Employee Engagement Strategy Award

    Read the full article "Another award!"

    Published July 22, 2010
    Written by John Bruce-Jones. This article is filed under:
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  • The six Cs of communication

    Nearly every client meeting at the moment touches on conversation that managers may find difficult – communicating downsizing programmes and redundancies, or just the need to manage general uncertainty and anxiety that can affect performance.

    When emotions are involved, too many managers handle the conversation badly, or avoid it altogether.

    We use a simple, effective tool for communicating high-concern messages, known as ‘The six Cs’. Of course there’s a skill to how you use them, but if you follow them in order, you can be sure you have at least touched all the bases:

    • Care – show empathy with the person/people receiving the message
    • Cut to the chase – say in a simple, clear sentence the news you have to communicate
    • Criteria – give the three main (evidence-based, not opinions) reasons why the decision has been made, or the criteria used to reach a decision
    • Concerns – acknowledge the concerns of the potential human or personal impact of your message
    • Confirm – repeat the headline message to re-state the facts, and add any helpful practical details such as next steps
    • Commitment – genuine personal commitment to provide support, keep people informed, and an organisational commitment to treat people fairly and well.   
    Read the full article "The six Cs of communication"

    Published July 2, 2010
    Written by Beatrice Hollyer. This article is filed under:
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