D&D News February 2006 - some recent work
We have of course managed to fit in some work since our last newsletter, and here are some of our activities. Of course if there is anything that you might like to consider for your own organisation, do please contact us and we will see how we can help you.
Highways Agency CAT Assessment
Dave had the opportunity of linking up with John Whalley and Carol Adams again for another Highways Agency CAT assessment. This one had a bit of travelling to and from Birmingham with a couple of days in London but again a very good experience and another really good organisation to get to know.
The team itself has had very positive feedback from the Highways Agency about the way the site visits were conducted and the quality of the Feedback Report. It was the third time we had been grouped as a team and the benefits of knowing each other very well are paying off for the client, the HA and, of course, ourselves.
Assessor training
Derek returned to Abu Dhabi in December for the second part of the Assessor Training Workshop. This covered the consensus, 
scoring and feedback processes based on the participants' homework on the case study. The 'students' did really well, and
demonstrated some good analysis - in particular spotting some valuable areas for improvement for the case study 'client'.
All in all, it went very well, and there was some positive feedback from participants. While waiting to leave for the airport, Derek was able to spend a short time sitting in the sun looking out over the Arabian Gulf ... and clearly being concerned about the weather that Dave might be suffering back in the UK! And with a camera rarely far from his side he was able to capture this unusual shot of the hotel ceiling, as well as the pool picture on the front page.
TNT Masters Awards
You may recall that Derek has been working with the TNT Logistics Division helping some of its businesses with their submissions for the TNT Group's internal excellence awards. Well the great news is that TNT Logistics Netherlands, one of those he supported, won the prestigious Ton Pijnenburg Award for Society involvement and results - many congratulations to them.
Derek saw many other very good entries, and it is a shame in many ways that there had to be 'losers' but that is the nature of a 'first past the post' competition. However even those who did not win didn't really lose out as they had the opportunity to take a close look at elements of their operations to see how they are doing, and together with the feedback report outlining key strengths and areas for improvement this should help them get even better.
Investors in Excellence
Although not quite as warm as his last trip to the 'seaside' in Abu Dhabi, Derek enjoyed a trip to coast when he went to Brighton in the south of England where he carried out the site visit for another Investor in Excellence assessment. It was a full but good day, in a fairly large office, and whilst the jury decision is not yet known, Derek was told that the people there felt that the experience was a good one. Most of you know that we believe in making our site visits enjoyable at the same time as getting the information we need. A culture of continuous improvement is a core part of Excellence, and how can such a culture survive if there's fear about a site visit?
More award submission support
Dave has been providing coaching and mentoring to a business unit of a large organisation that is creating a portfolio of evidence for external assessment. They are not 100% certain yet if they will go for for a local excellence award or an excellence 'standard' but the core thinking and discovery of evidence is common whichever route they choose. The lady managing the development of the document has said she has found it a tremendously useful way of learning even more about the organisation than she knew already - some great personal development: well done Heather.
