How we work
We work with the really ‘hot’ issues of relationships in business that others will not touch. We stop situations escalating and give both parties fair access to creating shared solutions.
These 'hot' issues often show up as significant relationship difficulties between two senior level individuals that are costing time and money, with a wider impact on the rest of the senior team and beyond. These relationships are ‘pivotal’ to the success of the business and there are significant financial, emotional, and organisational gains by making the investment to resolve them.
Our intent is to resolve these business relationship problems before they become issues that damage the business, reach lawyers, and result in compromise agreements.
Our work is very different to mediation or arbitration. We work to get beneath the surface of the problems, understand the causes and fully address the relationship dynamics, behaviours and beliefs that exist in ‘difficult relationships’.
These behaviours and relationship dynamics didn’t appear overnight, and they won’t disappear overnight. Our work lasts as long as it takes to see sustainable new behaviours embedded into everyday working patterns.
What happens?
The two of us work actively with the two of you in a series of meetings that follow a Pivotal Relationship Programme designed exclusively for you. This features The Relationship Paradigm - our proven approach to developing great relationships.
Each of you gains considerable insight as to how you come over to your colleagues. You will refine your current relational strategies and develop new approaches to assist you in extending your personal relational intelligence skills.
Our pragmatic duo-coaching will increase your abilities, adding to your flexibility in difficult situations. We may spend time 1:1 during some sessions if there are individual behaviour patterns that need to be resolved in order to move the pivotal relationship to a better place. You gain agility and greater choice in how you relate to others and we will help you to bring any behaviours that you believe are unhelpful to you, under your control. What makes you successful remains intact, but with more skill. Rest assured we observe discretion at all times.
To get to this point of connection and beyond, we give both of you unlimited support.
Pivotal Relationship Programme
A typical Pivotal Relationship Programme features eight intensive sessions working 2:2 – the two of us, working with the two of you. Each programme is designed specifically for your unique situation and built on our proven process and model – The Relationship Paradigm. The programme lasts between 6-12 months depending on the scale and nature of the relationship issues and dynamics that exist.
Session 1: Contextual Understanding – this is where we understand the business need, and the impact these sabotaging behaviours are having on business performance and team effectiveness. We agree the business outcomes needed from this work and the boundaries of confidentiality.
Session 2 – is an intensive session to understand how you both got to where you are now. We work to create a shared understanding of each individual’s perspective, and the impact the current situation has on each of you. We learn how you interact with each other, assist you in identifying unhelpful patterns of behaviour and relationships dynamics that you may have unintentionally set up, and clarify the outcomes you both want from this work.
Subsequent Sessions 3-7 - dig deeper into the behavioural patterns and dynamics that feature in this relationship, understand the impact of that on you as individuals, on each other, and on the wider business. We help to surface and co-create strategies, options, and choices for change from both perspectives, supporting the development of new patterns of behaviour and new relational skills for personal success, business success, and happiness.
Session 8 – steps back to consider the wider systemic perspective and how the new relationship dynamics are impacting the immediate team environment and business performance.
Two Checkpoint Reviews – observe and reflect on how new behaviours are embedding and how the relationship dynamics have evolved to achieve the desired outcomes. These reviews are typically held 3 and 6 months after our intensive work has concluded.
Throughout the programme we provide unlimited individual support for moments of need when the relationship dynamics are difficult. This is via email, Zoom or phone.
Our working sessions take place in a neutral environment, away from the office and organisational interruptions. These can be in our consulting rooms in Hampshire, UK, or another private space/meeting room.
For clients not based in the UK we can work by Zoom.
For UK clients, we are able to work by Zoom if required, after Session 2 has taken place.
What if a clash of personalities remains?
Not every situation can be resolved. It may be that agreement to disagree on a particular subject or point of principal can be achieved while reaching an understanding and agreement to work amicably in other arenas.
Relationships In Business can only work if both parties are engaged in the process. There may be occasions where full disclosure of important facts or motivations are not made, for either personal or competitive reasons. In such cases we will bring the process to a close as positively as possible and will then make recommendations for the future.
Should the situation between you prove to be irresolvable, then you will have the security of knowing you have done all in your power to find an amicable working solution and that you can now move on to other solutions with a clear mind. You will still have gained clarity about this situation, learnt lessons for the future, and have acquired greater flexibility in handling other people situations.
If you are wondering if a Pivotal Relationship Programme might work in your situation, give us a call to talk things through.