Moyra McWilliam

Moyra McWilliam, Learning Agent, Northern Ontario Region, Canada Revenue Agency and member of the NCR Bob Cats Learning Organization Community of Practice shares her story on how she has been able to build her practice in CRA using the tools for Leadership and Learning in her organization.

What great memories I have of September 2003! That is when I spent an amazing week in Westport, Ontario learning the Chartier-Lapointe “tools of the trade”.

Since then, I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to put some of the tools into practice.

I have co-facilitated two cafés. The first was for an intact team of 25 employees. There was no hard sell required for the Director here! She had attended a tool-shed session facilitated by Bob and Sylvie and was more than anxious to have a café for her team. We decided on an Italian theme: red and white checkered tablecloths, a few Chianti bottles as candle holders, Andrea Bocelli playing in the background and of course, lasagna and garlic bread for lunch! As people came into the meeting room, their reactions were priceless! There was great energy and motivation to complete the task at hand, which was to create a plan of action for the upcoming year.

The theme for the second café was completely opposite- a sports bar! (Root) beer in jugs, bowls of beer nuts and popcorn on the tables and my kids’ sports paraphernalia strewn about. The participants were 35 MG's (team leaders, managers, assistant directors and a director) chosen to represent their 180 colleagues. The purpose of the day was to find ways to promote learning to the management group. We generated ideas using the café and went on to triage them using the Challenge Wall. The outcome was the creation of five working groups which have actually followed up on this session with the design of an orientation session and a soon to be launched mentoring program.

The 5 Whys was used with a group of mid and senior managers during a strategic planning session. It was a very delicate situation as the discussion centered on the relocation of workload and the possible elimination of some of the participants' jobs! At a time when emotions were running high, the participants were really able to see the bigger picture. This tool helped them to resolve some issues in an “objective” way. By the end of the session, they were seeing the source of the problem in an entirely new light.

I was asked to help a team of 30 first line supervisors hold productive meetings. For several months, team meetings had been unproductive at best and screaming matches at worst. I used the Team Charter model and modified it so that over three sessions the team identified their values, established a code of conduct and a protocol and outlined the roles and responsibilities for the chair and the participants. A few hitches notwithstanding, the overall sense is that the meetings are back on track and people now remember why they started having them in the first place!

I hosted (I mean facilitated!) a Talk Show for a 70 person Management Team. Initially the conference organizers had planned a panel discussion of HR experts. When presented with the Talk Show option, they had to be convinced to try it. There was concern that the guests would be ill at ease if they didn’t have prepared answers and that as a result, they would appear unprepared to the conference participants. After some discussion, the organizers were eventually convinced to give it a try. The guests were briefed and felt comfortable once they had a flavour for the questions they would be asked. We found some risers to use as a stage and set up a small couch and a couple of “comfy” chairs. We begged, borrowed and stole a small table, plants and some wireless mikes and when it was done, it looked as good as Oprah's set!

While very excited to try this tool, I was a bit nervous too. What if there were moments of …silence? Luckily I had great guests who not only answered my questions but actually were heard to say: “Would you mind if I asked Joe a question”? and “Could I add something to what Sue said”? Whew!!

The feedback from the guests, organizers and participants was very positive! People enjoyed the fact that it was “something different” and commented on how informal, conversational and interactive it was. (As for me, I can’t wait to do another one…this month!)

When I think about the work we are all doing in our organizations across the public service, I like to think of the analogy of gardeners sowing seeds and waiting impatiently to see their garden grow. When we use the tools we have, we are sure to have a bountiful harvest!

Moyra McWilliam
September 2004