Sewells’ Dr Will Holden to deliver culture lesson at AM People Conference

The AM People Conference has announced that Sewells’ Dr Will Holden will deliver a lesson on creating culture.

The conference, taking place at Towcester’s Whittlebury Hall on September 19, is set to provide industry professionals with the latest insights and ideas from the world of HR, training and staff retention.

Holden (pictured), chair of business improvement specialists at Sewells, will deliver a lesson advising on how to create a culture which fosters high performing, inspirational and unstoppable team players.

“Practically every company has its own core values and vision encompassed in a craftily written mission statement, but turning those into behaviours which deliver results often poses a stumbling block to success,” said Holden.

“Every organisation which has a minimum of three people has a culture, it may not be defined, but it exists. 

"The culture may not be a good one, it could be one that’s tough and masochistic, toxic or complacent, but every organisation wants to develop a culture that’s high performing.

"There are ways and means to make that journey and it includes turning a company’s vision and values into actual behaviours, leading to improved performance and results.

“The most important factor is the people who work in organisations who will be the ones to make it succeed or fail.

"A business needs to look at how its people can work together most effectively. Companies will have catchy visions and values but often nothing in terms of day to day support to ‘make it happen’.

"Organisations can be too focused on its systems and processes rather than looking at how they do things and ways in which employees can work better together – for the benefit of customers, the shareholders and the team themselves.

“It’s not an overnight solution, it’s a two or three year programme which starts with understanding where a business is now and where it would like to be but which focuses on day to day behaviours of employees.

"Lots of organisations send their senior management team away to a swanky hotel to devise or fine-tune their vision and values. On return to their businesses, they put posters on the wall which achieve nothing.

“Visions and values have to be translated into day to day standards of behaviour if they are to be turned into reality.

"They need to be communicated properly and effective enough to become part of everyone’s DNA. All too often this is done badly, or not all, and the ‘game-changing’ information is often filtered out and changed beyond recognition once it arrives ‘at the coalface’.  There are ways to do this properly and it is down to leadership.”

Click below for more details of the AM People Conference and how to register: