Client Case Study - Cheshire East Council

Stratus has been delighted to be associated with Cheshire East Council since early 2010. A full programme of communication skills workshops has seen Stratus immersed in the culture of public sector life - and we have enjoyed building an honest, positive and warm relationship with Cheshire East’s Organisational Development team.

"Every course I have attended (delivered) by Stratus exceeds expectation. The material and examples used are super. The course presenters are outstanding"
CEC delegate

WHAT WERE THE DRIVERS FOR THIS LEARNING?

Stratus was asked to deliver a Personal Effectiveness programme for Cheshire East Council, starting in April 2010. The Council recognised that emotional intelligence, understanding colleagues and clients and the ability to communicate were key skills that were needed now and would become even more necessary as the public sector Coalition cut backs became a reality.

The Council laudably recognised that it had a fundamental duty to equip their teams to adjust to the changes. Especially as staff at all levels were having to coping with moves to new posts working with unfamiliar colleagues and coping with the reality of doing more with less!

HOW DID STRATUS HELP?

We designed and delivered a series of workshops including: Communication and Influence, Creative Problem Solving and that old faithful - Time Management!

Colleagues at CEC thoroughly embraced the inclusive, practical, lively and fun learning processes and were pleased to be thought worthy of development and investment by their council. They worked very hard to put the tools and techniques into practice in the workplace and fully engaged in the workshop days.

Towards the end of 2010, due to delegate demand, we introduced a Presentation Skills workshop with them too. Whether people are making internal moves, perhaps unfortunately having to move on completely, or just needing to procure finance or buy-in where funding is scarce - there is no more useful skill for today’s public sector workers.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NEXT?

Organisation Development at CEC has been thrilled with our 2010 programme and has invited us to continue in 2011. Thank you for your continued trust in us CEC!

New for this year, again in response to delegate demand is the introduction of our Conducting Challenging Conversations workshop.

Whereas difficult conversations might have been set aside in the past, no-one now has the luxury of carrying people who do not co-operate and contribute to the cost-effective running of the Council - and someone needs to be able to have the skill to conduct that conversation! So we are looking forward to providing some useful tools to overcome the fear of tackling tricky issues - and demonstrating some practical techniques to manage dealing with performance, disruptive behaviour, attitude and reaction to change.

PROOF OF THE PUDDING! COMMENTS FROM DELEGATES ON CEC’S WORKSHOPS
(all available for scrutiny if required)

"Brilliant 2 Days – definitely recommend it - do not be afraid!"

"Wonderful course, everyone in CEC from the Chief Executive down should do it"

"I feel really motivated and inspired after training"

"Very interesting journey of self-discovery and on how to appreciate the skills of others. Thank you"

"(Sonya) kept my attention throughout and used fantastic examples and quotes to get points across. I’m really looking forward to putting into practice what I have learned. Loved it!"

"It was brilliant and met my needs and will help me improve relationships in my office"

"Superb course that really opened my eyes to the differences between people and therefore the potential for conflict. But over and above this – the opportunity to resolve conflicts … very practical and also fascinating"

"Helpful trainer (Colin), good group to work with. Practical ideas to use"

"Very good use of participative training techniques (Candy), well organised and structured"