Upskilling Logistics Managers to Have Difficult Conversations Training

How did this start?

We partnered with Co-op to design and deliver a tailored management development programme for their Team and Shift Managers across distribution centres throughout the UK. The programme focused on enhancing leadership skills around effective communication and handling managing difficult conversations training within diverse teams.

To address key challenges such as cultural and generational differences and the misuse of grievance processes, we delivered a series of engaging, face-to-face workshops on topics including unconscious bias, coaching fundamentals and feedback techniques.

With a nationwide reach and delivery required across multiple shift patterns - including night shifts - we crafted a flexible schedule that balanced impact with efficiency, ensuring managers received the support they needed, when they needed it most. This initiative focused on upskilling managers in crucial areas.

 Team Manager Workshops

Team Managers attended 2 x 2-hour classroom workshops in their depots: Workshop One - Honest Conversations This particular workshop focused on increasing self-awareness and awareness of behaviours when having more ‘difficult’ or ‘honest’ conversations with team members. The focus of this workshop was to give the Team Managers knowledge of this areas which they could then layer onto practical tools

The approach was to give the Team Managers this knowledge, then provide them with practical tools in the following workshop.

This included:

  • Managing biases/mindsets - To create awareness of preconceived perceptions could be making more difficult conversations, more difficult.

  • TTI Success Insights DISC Assessment - Debriefing learners on their DISC reports in a group form to increase self-awareness of their behavioural and communication preferences and how they may be perceived by others. With this awareness, they can adap their communication/tailor conversations in the way the recipient needs to hear them, which may be different to how the Managers want to deliver the conversation. 

  • Conflict Management - Identifying different strategies learners could use during difficult conversations and recognising when these are helpful or unhelpful in achieving the desired outcome.

Workshop Two - Coaching & Feedback 

The second workshop, delivered roughly 2-3 weeks after the first workshop - built upon the tools covered in workshop one by giving Team Managers practical frameworks they could follow to effectively coach and develop their team managers. 

This included: 

  • Situational Leadership II - Learners can identify their team members' development levels when completing specific tasks and adapt their approach to be more supportive or directive depending on the team member’s development needs. 

  • Coaching Tools - Introducing learners to easy-to-apply coaching tools that learners can use as a framework to layer on previous tools such as DISC/SLII to tailor conversations. 

  • Feedback Models - Learners will use a 3-step framework for providing objective, fact-based feedback to make conversations more productive and less subjective.

Post-work: 

Managers to ‘map’ the behaviours of their individual teams to understand the behaviours within their teams and how they need to tailor their approach when managing and developing team members. 

Managers to create a 30/60/90 day action plan to implement and apply the tools covered into their teams.

Shift Manager Workshops

Shift Managers attended a ½ day classroom workshop covering the DISC and Situational Leadership II elements from the Team Manager workshop with more focus on understanding the behavioural dynamics amongst their Team Manager populations.

With this knowledge, Shift Managers have greater awareness of the behaviours existing within their Team Manager populations and can adapt communication/delegation of tasks more effectively.

History / Summary

Co-op approached us to help design a management development programme for their Team and Shift managers within their distribution centres across the U.K. The key focus area was to equip managers with tools/techniques to have ‘difficult conversations’ with team members (agency & full time staff) across their packing/picking/transport sections which included a diverse group of individuals from different backgrounds, religions, cultures etc. This difficult conversations training was crucial for their management team.

Some of the problems included: 

Weaponised grievances 

Cultural differences

Generational differences

We created 2 x 3-hr workshops covering content such as; unconscious bias, effective communication, coaching fundamentals and techniques as well as feedback tools.

The client requested that the training be delivered face-to-face across all 10 distribution centers within the U.K and across their three different shift patterns; including night shifts.

From a logistics perspective, the biggest challenge here would be creating a delivery scheduled that maximised our time on site and allow us to deliver night shift workshops without incurring significant costs. To meet this need, our Facilitators delivered the content using the following schedule: Day shift workshops: 07:00-10:00 and 10:00-13:00 Back Shift workshops: 15:00-18:00 Night shift workshops: 23:00-02:00 and 02:00-05:00