HRD Forum

This is an invitation only Forum developed by the Møller Institute team at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, for a select group of HR Directors and, facilitated by Møller Institute leadership development specialists to discuss approaches to the development of leaders within their businesses and organisations. Previous forums have focused on employee engagement, happiness, viral change and mindfulness and are detailed below.

We explore new and current approaches, best practice, the typical challenges we face and how we can best design and deliver high impact programmes and interventions that will bring about real change and demonstrate a return on investment for the business.

We have interesting discussions, inform each other around what works and what doesn’t – and participants will leave with some new connections and sources of help and some good ideas to take forward into our future work. All events take place at the Møller Institute, Churchill College in the University of Cambridge.

The events are designed around busy HR professionals and start with registration at 10:00, start at 10:30, lunch at 12:30 and then finish at 15:15.

‘If you want one year of prosperity grow grain, if you want ten years of prosperity grow trees, but if you want 100 years of prosperity grow people.’ Chinese Proverb.

Previous Forums

Below is an outline of what has been covered at previous HRD Forums.

When we think about our teams, organisations and culture we often get stuck in one perspective. But what if we flip the coin and take another view?
“To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often” runs the Sir Winston Churchill quote, so changing our ways of looking at our everyday challenges is critical if we are to ensure that we stay agile, relevant and ahead of our competitors.
At this HR Directors Forum we invited participants to switch their perspective and view familiar challenges from the other side.
Associate Amy Brann switched our understanding of how we understand our behaviours by moving from “soft” skills perspective to “hard” science, exploring how neuroscience can accelerate performance
Richard Hill switched our focus from leader to follower, looking at how we can reframe our bias around followers and followership to refocus the way we look at our contribution to success.

This session focused on the holy grail of Happiness at Work and was designed in partnership with the Danish UK Association and was led by Møller Associate Ruth Berry. The forum featured contributions from Danish organisations including one of our Explorer Mindset Alumna, Anna Lyczak-Czepukojc, of Scandinavian Airlines System. Happy and engaged workplaces are more profitable, have a higher share growth, and lower costs. Teams have higher staff retention, less sickness and are more productive. We know through our Danish heritage that the Danes are consistently ranked as one of the world’s happiest workforces. The forum ran as follows:

The elusive concept of happiness – Cathy Butler, Director of Programmes (Executive Education), Møller Institute
The business case for happiness at work – Ruth Berry, Partner, Møller Institute; Scandinavian Airlines System ‘How embedding employee happiness leads to results’ – Anna Lyczak-Czepukojc, Regional HR Manager Europe
Group discussions in tables – how would the initiatives in use here work for your organisation/culture?
Blue shorts and reading glasses: satisfaction and productivity in work – Des Woods, Partner, Møller Institute
Leading an organisation which has employee happiness at the heart of its ambitions – Ruth Berry, Partner, Møller Institute

Led by Møller Associate Jeremy Keeley. Viral change uses the power of a small set of well-defined non-negotiable behaviours, spread by small groups of highly connected individuals within the organisation. Their peer-to-peer influence – more powerful than hierarchical – creates new norms, new ways of doing and new cultures. We also heard from change agents within two organisations who shared their stories of the successes and challenges associated with this powerful concept.

This forum focused on employee engagement and was led by Møller Partner, Ruth Berry, supported by Sasha Hardman, Global HR Director at international law firm Allen & Overy and Richard Bandell former CEO of Grass Roots, the world’s leading provider of employee and customer engagement solutions.

Employee Engagement at Allen and Overy
Engaging your employees on diversity and creating inclusion
Creating high performance through engaging leadership
Leadership in a truly engaged organisation (Ruth Berry)

Sasha shared with us what Allen & Overy have been doing to increase engagement through a variety of interventions, including a specific career conversations programme which is reaping real results. Carol Rosati OBE and Dan Gallagher discussed what steps and considerations should be made to engage employees on diversity, and talk to us about a practical method of tracking career satisfaction and engagement. We will also posed the question – How do you engage employees on diversity in an age of diversity fatigue? In today’s environment HR Directors are tasked with creating initiatives to increase the diversity of their workforce. The traditional solutions of training and awareness seminars are failing to move the diversity needle forward. This has created a pressure point for HR Directors who are expected to solve what is a complex and nuanced issue, from both C Suite and employee groups.

This session inspired delegates to become more mindful and resilient themselves and become more able to promote mindfulness and resilience within their organisations.

Present research evidence of the positive effects of developing mindfulness in managerial positions
Provide a nurturing environment for delegates to practice personal resilience and mindfulness
Invite delegates to engage in a strategic discussion about organisational resilience and how to develop it within their businesses and organisations

This forum focused on Personal and Organisational Resilience and Mindfulness and was chaired by Cathy Butler, Director of Programmes, and led by Møller Associate Dr Javier Marcos, supported by Michael Chaskalson, one of Europe’s leading mindfulness trainers.

Key dimensions of personal resilience – Dr Javier Marcos, Associate
How mindfulness at work works – Michael Chaskalson
Organisational resilience for OD practitioners, what it is and how to develop it – Dr. Javier Marcos
Best practices for enhancing mindfulness – Michael Chaskalson

This session focused on Coaching and Leadership Interventions, exploring how organisations can ensure they get value from leadership development and coaching.
The session was led by Jeremy Keeley, professional coach and Møller Associate and looked at:

Curiosities, excitements and fears
Ensuring development and coaching adds value
Selecting your coaching pools
Special considerations for internal coaching
Why develop your leadership?

In partnership with the Danish UK Chamber of Commerce around 30 Danish senior leaders met at the Møller Centre for their quarterly Human Resource Forum to discuss ‘Operating in dynamic complexity.’ As a member of the Danish UK Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board, the Møller team provided leadership development content for the Forum which included a session from Møller Senior Associate Sudhanshu Palsule exploring ‘Leading Change in an uncertain world.” Senior leaders from some of Denmark’s largest organisations including LEGO; Scandinavian Airline Systems; Novo Nordisk UK Ltd and Schneider Electric attended the Forum and also heard a case study from Lone Jacobson, Analyst Relations Director at Schnieder Electric on their Thought Leadership Journey.

Welcome by Lani Bannach, HCOD Chair, Setting the scene of Operating in a Dynamic Complexity
Leading Change in an Uncertain World, Sudhanshu Palsule, Senior Møller Associate
learning to deal with complexity
becoming aware of the cognitive and behavioural traps of the industrial age
learning to shift your mindset from reactive to mindful
building the resources to lead change in times of complexity and change
How to inspire others through authenticity and purpose
Case Study: Schneider Electric presented by Lone Jacobsen, Analyst Relations Director – Extracts from Schneider Electric’s Thought Leadership Journey.