Poisson Rouge - What's Happening

Managing Time is a Big Undertaking

2010-08-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

Douglas Adams famously once said -"I love deadlines - I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by"

Managing Time is a very big undertaking! - on one level it's a bit like trying to learn how to command ocean waves or trying to master switching the sun on and off!

Yet there are a plethora of time management courses out there offering to make you better and more efficient human beings.

Time management is as much a philosophy as a learned skill. Most ‘courses’ focus on concepts we all already know but fail to implement on a daily basis.

In essence time management is about the art of avoiding distraction, the ability to prioritise, the importance of planning and goal setting, managing deadlines and the art of saying NO.

Above all else time management is about the need to do what’s important NOT what’s urgent.

For time management to be really effective as a learned discipline - delegates need to accept, identify and personalise their own time management issues in order to create a unique tactical plan for themselves that will be different to those of their colleagues.

Some simple time management techniques that we find particularly effective and that we include on our Time Challenge - time management courses are:

- Switch off your emails for two hours every day
- Write your to do list every morning - then rank tasks from 10-1( ie from "absolutely must do now" to "would be nice to get to
this as and when)"
- Spend at least half an hour a day not at your desk
- Have formal "me time" breaks at least twice a day and for at least 15 minutes each. You have permission to relax
- Have a weekly meeting with team colleagues - see who's got bandwidth to help if you are snowed under
- Log everything you do for a week and put the time used against each entry - then review it. Be warned it's frightening!
- Stay relaxed.
- If tasks are very big - break them down into 'bite-sized' blocks
- Plan each day - the day before
- Be realistic
- Buy a watch!

VENUE REVUE

2010-07-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Does the following scenario sound familiar..?

You are planning a team day for your team. It's an offsite / away day and you want it to be memorable, exciting, motivational, fun and at the same time serve as an important business process.

As it is rare to get the entire team together in one place you have also decided that the first hour or two of the day will be a quick 'state of the nation' catch up - a look at plans going forward and a canter through the recent sales figures.

Now you have managed to secure a budget but times are still hard - after all our illustrious new government keeps telling us that now is the age of austerity - and so you decide that for the sake of prudence you'll take advantage of the training rooms on the 5th floor.

BIG MISTAKE

The point is this - you have to engage and excite people in order to motivate and inspire them and you wont do this at work!

When people literally get to go -offsite they change. They can no longer nip to their desks or feel inclined just to do a couple of things at lunch time. What's more - we all like a nice venue - a good lunch - a chance to wander around some beautiful gardens or at least hang out in a funky venue

At Poisson Rouge we place a HUGE amount of importance on being able to find and contract venues that are ideal for your business needs and a really great venue can make the difference between an offsite being a phenomenal success and merely - yet another training day.

For this reason we have a dedicated venue resource. We have a vast database and working knowledge of venues all over the world. We visit at least two new ones every week of the year. We work with venues - we hold showcases in them - we get to know their marketing teams, and we share feedback and client experiences.

Our venue team will find you venues wherever you need to be and we do this FREE of charge. Whilst if course we love all our clients and would happily work for nothing anyway - we are fortunate that venues pay us a commission of between 8% and 10% for bringing business to them whilst still ensuring that we get the best possible rates so there is no detriment and only advantage to you in letting us help you.

So - please please please - don't ignore the importance of the venue - there some really cool venues out there to match every budget.

Showcase Showtime

2010-07-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

There's a wonderful quote which says that "the role of Marketing is simply to make people unhappy with what they have"

Well for us it's more about making them aware of what they don't have YET but could have - in our case fantastic, unique and creative team building ideas.

To this end therefore we regularly hold 'showcase' events in partnership with luxury training and hotel venues.

The thinking is simple - we invite you to come along FREE OF CHARGE to a stunning hotel - where we give you a hearty breakfast, a damn fine lunch and the opportunity to take part in one of several of our teambuilding or people development activities.

For those who so desire - we also offer very highly discounted rates to those who wish to stay on for the night, the week-end etc

It's not rocket science but its very popular and it's a win - win - win. We get to demo our exciting products, the venues get to market their wares to exactly the right audience and you get to network with industry peers whilst enjoying a legitimate and throughly innovative team experience

So - Hoping w enow have your undivided attention - here are the details of our next 'Showcase adventure.

Poisson Rouge in conjunction with Hand Picked Hotels are delighted to invite you to attend a FREE Team Building Showcase. Not only will you get to see what is out there at the forefront of creative team building ideas, but you will also get to experience first hand one of Hand Picked's fantastic venues, Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa in Surrey.

WHAT:

FREE Breakfast
FREE Teambuilding Showcase with a chance to experience and participate in several unique teambuilding ideas for yourself
FREE Networking opportunity to exchange ideas and information about how you build your teams
FREE Lunch
FREE Hotel showround
FREE Goodie Bag

WHEN:

Thursday 5th August 2010, 0800 - 1330.

WHERE:

Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa
Nutfield
Surrey, RH1 4EL
http://www.handpickedhotels.co.uk/hotels/Nutfield-Priory/

CONTACT:

hannah@poissonrouge.co.uk– 0207 267 3646.

Places will be limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis so BOOK NOW*

* COURTESY REQUEST
We understand that in these challenging times, schedules and diaries change rapidly and client interactions always take priority. However, we would respectfully request that if you have managed to secure a place and your plans then change, that you kindly let us know as early as possible so that we can offer your place to someone else. THANK YOU.

TASTY TEAM BUILDING FOR THE SUMMER

2010-07-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Ok - So it's hot outside and the business is heading for summer slow down as clients and suppliers take off for their annual holidays.

So now is the perfect time to think about teambuilding and what better way to build a team than with ICE CREAM...Yum!

Yet another of Poisson Rouge's uniquely creative team building activities is the ICE CREAM CHALLENGE http://bit.ly/cqRXpd

The Ice Cream Challenge combines product R&D, brand strategy, communications, creativity and team dynamics to create optimum team performance (and you get to eat some ice cream!!)

In this activity - Teams essentially have to develop, manufacture, brand and promote a new product - an Ice Cream.

The event starts with a briefing at which teams are informed that they have just been taken over and that the new owners have changed their line of business to become an ice cream manufacturing company. They must now develop a new product for the World Food Fair - an ice cream!

Teams have a limited amount of time to create a new recipe, actually make real ice cream using specialist equipment provided – then package and promote it.

Judging is based on taste, packaging, the commerciality of the teams’ marketing plans and a TV commercial with jingle that they will have filmed and / or performed live.

As mentioned already - many aspects of team performance are touched on here including: communication, customer centricity, resource management, leadership, teamwork, empathy, interdependence, trust, creativity, problem solving, discovery (i.e. getting to know your colleagues) and having fun.

This can be delivered just about anywhere and although we hate to admit is - is very, very good value

Mind you - having tasted some of the concoctions such as pork and broccoli ice cream - it's not always the nuts!

Unique Talent Management Process

2010-07-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

Talent Management is dark art at the best of times

Here at Poisson Rouge we have developed a unique process that we call ‘Navigator’.
This is our generic name for this process although when we embed it into a company culture we often develop a unique ‘brand’ name for the process that matches the style and lingua franca of the client.

So what is Navigator?

Navigator is an innovative assessment methodology used in Talent Management and Identification. It is a diagnostic technology used for exploring and contrasting current performance levels whilst simultaneously assessing future potential. It departs from current assessment methodologies by focusing on the ability to handle and manage complexity at all managerial / seniority levels within an organisation.

In particular, it examines:

* The headroom between applied capability (current) and potential capability (future)
* The capacity to deliver against role specific competencies (current) to mastery of supra-leadership competencies (future) that
cut-cross all leadership roles, and across all political, economic, technological, and change climates
* The likelihood that temperament (current) will fuel the emergence of a dark side of personality leading to derailment /
disruption.
* The contrast between motivation and personality (current) and aspirations (future) that support progress to higher level roles.

A Navigator candidate’s development and achievement potential is expressed in three ways:

* The ability to perform a higher level role – e.g., can / could the candidate in their (current) role successfully take on the
complexity demands of a next level or more senior position (future)
* Future potential – the maximum level of complexity that the candidate is likely to be able to master in the future – i.e., what is
the cap on performance (current and future)
* Time span – what is the time related progress curve of realising potential – e.g., in a Law firm when will a Senior Associate
(current) be ready to take on a Partner role (Future)

Navigator is based on an 8-level model of complexity, where each level is conceptually and significantly different than the previous level. Below is an overview.

A typical example of how we use Navigator is to look at the difference between say - our level 3 (Convergent Thinking) and our level 4 (Divergent Thinking).

Convergent Thinking typifies the technical professional roles (e.g. a practicing lawyer). Here the emphasis is on pure logic and linear thinking e.g. if London is bigger than Birmingham, and Birmingham is bigger than Sheffield, then the logical conclusion is that London is bigger than Sheffield.

Divergent Thinking typifies roles that go beyond technical delivery on its own and involve a degree of ambiguity (e.g. managerial role). Divergent thinkers are able to manage contrasting views and are able to manage two or more lines of thinking in parallel. Divergent thinking goes beyond pure logic. E.g., If Holland’s football team is far superior to Switzerland’s football team, the fact that Spain beat Holland in football, does not necessarily guarantee that they will beat the Swiss team (they actually lost 1:0).

As part of the set up we map the complexity of roles within your organisation against the navigator 8-level model. Then for each candidate we map their capability both current and future / aspirational.

HOW NAVIGATOR IS EMBEDDED IN AN ORGANISATION

Stage 1:
One-off diagnostic research of the organisation and its roles to map the roles into the 8-level model and profile existing good, bad and ugly!
Stage 2:
Candidates are filtered and selected by the client (in consultation with us)
Stage 3:
Candidates are invited to complete some pre-work (questionnaires incorporating psychometric, personal and career-focus instruments).
Stage 4:
Each delegate spends a min of half a day (4-5 hours normally) with a Poisson Rouge Navigator assessor to explore with them their career, personal profile, aspirations, and the findings from the pre-work.
Stage 5:
Complexity handling exercise
Stage 6:
Analysis and reporting

Less is More

2010-07-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

The government keep telling us - this is now the time of austerity...well Ok but do stop banging in about it.

We - like most companies had to put our hard hats on in 2009 and adapt in order to survive and prosper.One of the positive outcomes of those hard times (they do say every cloud has a silver lining!) is that we are now delivering hard hitting , high impact team building and people development activities for a truly diverse cross section of clients - but with less than a third of the in house resource we had in 2008 meaning we can remain much more cost effective than many of our competitors.

So what's changed?

Well for a start we have really focussed on the way we use associates - making sure they are qualified, insured as appropriate, available and have experience and track record within the relevant sector.

We also make sure that there is a best fit. We consider carefully which associates we are going to put forward for any job taking on board not just qualification and experience but also the less scientific but supremely important other factors such as shared interests, geographical proximity, psychometric profile, empathy, communication style etc....

We work very hard to get to know and understand our clients and we vigourously support these relationships to build partnership status with our clients.

So far so good as 2010 is proving to be a great year for us and our clients ..... see below the feedback we just received from our most recent team-building event last week

"The aeroplane challenge was brilliant, as you know we did ours outside the room and the intensity and concentration of people when I went in the room was amazing and you could tell by the presentations how well the teams were involved and committed to the challenge.

I was going to email you today and thank you for everything, including you help throughout the day, couldn’t have asked for more and it was massively appreciated – Thank You

Would definitely use you again if/when we do this type of thing"

MAKING TEAMS FLY

2010-07-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

As one of the Universes leading team building companies we are often asked whether we can motivate, engage, cajole, persuade and inspire teams to help them 'fly'.

So taking this literally we were delighted earlier this year to launch (ha ha) our latest , exciting and innovative team building idea - the AIRLINE CHALLENGE

In the Airline Challenge teams are set the task of coming up with an entirely new concept for an Airline.

Teams must develop the airline’s service offering, create a brand, identify their target market and develop their marketing strategy.

Simultaneously teams are tasked with constructing a 21-piece 1.5 meter model of their flagship plane, out of specially created bolser-wood pieces. The plane must then be painted and branded before the maiden flight.

These planes are seriously highly engineered and if constructed well will fly extraordinary distances in open space.

Finally teams must put together a presentation or film or TV Commercial to promote their Airline.

The activity can last a half or full day and where time and budget permits - teams also have to design the uniforms which must be modelled andalso deliver a full – pre flight safety briefing.

We have a lot of fun constantly coming up with new and exciting ways to build powerful teams. But don't just take our word for it - Recent airline launches include KBR , Disney and BT!

Recession - Arctic snow - BRING IT ON!

2010-01-11T02:46:00.000-08:00

Well - Unless you are lucky enough to have been living in Mocronesia for the last 18 months where your biggest decision may have been whether or not to go fishing or have another coconut you will know that 2009 was truly 'anus horribilis'.

Well that was then. But 2010 - whilst still in its first few weeks of life - seems full of promise.

People have returned with a renewed sense of verve, vigour, passion and - well - intent. Intent not to let the misery of last year and even the Arctic conditions of now - get them down!

These early signs have been most manifest in our team building business. Whilst last year we couldn't give team-building away - we have already had record bookings for January and had assigned our full target revenues for January by the end of week 1.

So what is it all about?

Well the answer is simple and one we subscribe to wholeheartedly - and that is - you make your own luck. To use an oft' overused quote -

"You can't wait for your ships to come in - You have to swim out to them!"

If you want to make this year count - if you want to fill in any holes left by last year and if you want to make sure that you are one of the companies that really scores a 'win' in 2010 then you have to develop, motivate, reward, understand and communicate with your teams

It's not rocket science but it's ssoooooo important.

let your teams know how much they mean - what they contribute and why they are valued and whatever you do - don't make the mistake of thinking - we'll times are tough - we cant spend any money on team building - becuase it could be a very , very expensive mistake

Have a great year

WE WILL!

Ever growing interest in HAPq

2009-07-11T00:54:00.000-07:00

This was published in M&IT magazine in July 09

Poisson Rouge MD Mark Katz wants to lift the lid on British businesses and find out how happy their employees are. Belinda Cole finds out why

Happiness is the key to a successful workforce – so says Mark Katz, MD of Camden-based teambuilding and motivation company Poisson Rouge. He’s so evangelical about it that he’s spent three years and £100k developing an online tool to measure corporate happiness in partnership with fellow director and behavioural psychologist Raminder Braich.

HAPq (which stands for happiness quotient) is a ten-minute survey which staff can complete anonymously online. "It basically ascertains whether you are happy at work. Do you like your
colleagues? Are you stressed? Are you able to fight back in a recession?

Companies that score highly will have better staff retention, higher profitability and better customer satisfaction.

"Now, more than ever, we need to know how happy our employees are and what we can do
about it if they’re unhappy." HAPq launched in March and has already been completed by 1,000
employees. Katz is aiming to get all the FTSE 500 companies on board in order to measure the average happiness quotient of UK PLC.

"We’ve had some of the largest companies in the world use it," says Katz. "And we’ve had a proactive approach from a high net worth individual who wants to fund it.

HAPq is the biggest thing that has happenend to us and I think we are about to go ballistic with it!

Interest in the tool has not been restricted to Britain, he says. "It’s just gone live in Italy and we hope to have it in the States by the end of the year." Katz hopes it will remind companies
of the importance of motivational and team-building activities, yet another casualty of the recession. "The budget for team-building events has gone down by 70 per cent and the decisionmaking has become a lot more kneejerk. Lots of people are trying to bring
it in-house and we’re begging themnot to. The worst thing is to take your team away and do it badly."

The nature of the motivational activities has changed too, with people afraid of public perception.
"The big danger is that fun is off the agenda and that’s a big mistake," says Katz. "No fun equals no engagement and no results and people will leave.

It's what creates the difference between successful companies and others. Just look at Innocent or Virgin – in these companies you can see it, smell it, taste it... for the record these companies are perceived as among the happiest in the UK in the HAPq survey to date."

He adds: "A financial services company we work with was going to give away a little magic trick on their exhibition stand recently but they pulled it because they were terrified the industry would regard them as frivolous, yet our best give away ever was a chocolate bar which said ‘we
don’t talk bollocks’ on the wrapper. On the underside it said: ‘when you’ve finished binning the brochures you have collected from this trade fair, put your feet up, have a cup of tea and
look at our website’. It cost a fraction of a brochure and it won us some substantial business, including BP."

Prior to the banking crash, 65 percent of Poisson Rouge’s business of Poisson Rouge’s business
came from banks and big city law firms. Now the bulk is public sector, retail and pharmaceutical, and average spend has been halved from £200-250 per head to £100-150.

"To adapt to the current climate we've created a number of activities that can go out for very little money. We can do team-building for 30 for £1,000 - we don’t like to, but we can," reveals Katz. That way the client still gets to motivate their team and it keeps the accounts department
happy.

Visionary at Last

2009-06-10T05:15:00.001-07:00

It may seem strange for a blogger to quote another blogger's blog in their own blog yet at last recognition or at least flattery.

Poisson Rouge has always placed great emphasis on being creative and being different. No more so than in our original branding and naming of the actual company itself.

Being Poisson Rouge and not the 'Really Tedious Development Corporation of North London'...Catchy huh?) was always intended as a flag. It was and still is supposed to inform our loyal clients and supporters that whilst we take what we do very seriously - we don't take ourselves too seriously. In everything we do -making people think that what we offer is different, refreshing, innovative and unique whilst at the same time making them challenge their own pre-conceived thoughts and then making them smile is our aim - and one we have achieved consistently for over 18 years.

So recently a reference in a meetings industry blog (http://www.meetpie.com/Modules/EditorsBlog/EditorsBlogView.aspx?id=71) on the subject of agency names and what's behind them...they had the following things to say......

the mould wasbroken, and the new bright young things in the agency world worked out (at last) that a good name should:

a. Be different from the others (no words like ‘conference’ in it.)
b. Be memorable
c. Be short

What was the result? Well it seems to involve (mostly) an adjective and something edible. A few examples that have crossed my desk include Pickled Egg, Black Tomato and Banana Split.
I could be wrong but seem to remember this trend was actually started more than a decade ago by an agency called Poisson Rouge – definitely a ‘catchy’ name - but at that time its creator, Mark Katz, seemed to be in a club of one.

It took a while for his idea to catch on but now it seems he was a visionary in these matters and everyone else is following suit.

THE ART OF TEAM BUILDING

2009-05-06T05:36:00.000-07:00

It's a funny thing - over the past 20 years by far and away the most powerful and popular team building event / activity that we offered was our Art Challenge.

Yet in the past 6 months we have sold significantly fewer.

This is because teambuilding is changing.

Whilst motivating and developing teams is perhaps now - more than ever - a vital element of surviving and succeeding in a recession - people need to feel that they are doing something that is more justifiable - financially and emotionally.

We are seeing many more clients looking for shorter, more strategic interventions that tie into other activities - such as management meetings, off-sites, training days etc.

Clients are nervous that they will be deemed to be 'wasting' money if they fritter it on activities that have no direct action outputs or immediate and identifiable returns.

One continuing trend is a move towards CSR based activities which satisfies the head, the heart and often the budget.

Budget is another big issue - whilst the quantity of enquiries we receive is only slightly down - the budgets are significantly down. For some - this is as a result of mandates that have been handed down from on high effectively telling team leaders to continue doing exactly as they did before but spend no money (the phrase 'champagne taste - lemonade money ' springs to mind.)

In response to all this we have developed a number of team based activities that can last one hour, half day, full day - whatever is required. They are designed specifically to require little or no set up and little or no specialist equipment - thus keeping the charges down to simply our facilitation fees (which in line with the market we have of course reduced.)

To help you get maximum value from your next team development activities here is a checklist:

Be clear about your objectives before you send out a brief
Have an idea of what budget you can make available and share this information with your suppliers
Try and avoid D.I.Y - recession or not team-building is a specialist area best dealt with by specialists.
If budgets are tight - it is better to do team-building events less frequently but do them properly than to try and save money. A badly conceived or badly executed team event has exactly the opposite effect to one that is well planned, well conceived and well executed.
Get competitive quotes from at least three suppliers but remember to give feedback to those you decide not to work with
See if the costs can be shared with other internal cost centres - ie. marketing, sales, training etc...
Make sure you get feedback after the activity to guage how it was received and what you can do better next time
Make sure it is Fun. No matter how serious the message, the rationale or the reason for doing it - there is little enough fun in business now.
Be bold - Look for things that will inspire, delight, ignite!.

HAPq™ CORPORATE HAPPINESS QUOTIENT

2009-04-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

Further to my recent posting about HAPq here is a more detailed overview about this exciting and unique Corporate Happiness Metric.

ACCORDING TO FEEDBACK WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM A DIVERSE RANGE OF COMPANIES ACROSS THE UK – INNOCENT, GOOGLE AND VIRGIN ARE PERCEIVED AS BEING AMONGST THE HAPPIEST COMPANIES IN THE UK

Recently after many years development and research Poisson Rouge launched the world’s first, and possibly only, on line instrument for measuring true corporate happiness. It is called HAPq™ and it actually measures how contented, engaged, fulfilled, motivated and and optimistic corporate teams and companies are. In other words it assesses and measures a team or company’s Happiness Quotient (hence HAPq™)

It is actually a scientific fact that happy people are more productive, more creative, more successful, earn more money, have better health, have better relationships, have more friends and are even shown to experience more luck!

HAPq™ is based on hard science, research and evidence as established by the Positive Psychology movement pioneered by global thought leaders such as Seligman, Clifton, Csikszentmihalyi and many others. It also based on Poisson Rouge's extensive track record of success in motivating and managing change and performance improvement in individuals, teams and organisations.

As mentioned - the HAPq™ survey is an online survey and takes only 10 –15 minutes to complete with reports generated automatically.

The HAPq™ score is measured through four scales:

1. OPTIMISM
A workforce that accepts responsibility for success, has huge hope for the future, bounces back from adversity and takes control.

2. PERFORMANCE
A workforce that is engrossed with what it does (flow), applies its strengths and talents and has the confidence and willpower to deliver challenging goals.

3. ENGAGEMENT
A workforce that experiences positive emotions and positive relationships, is motivated and has fun at work.

4. MEANING & PURPOSE
A workforce that has a true connection with what it does, understands what is important to it and is enabled by the organisation to deliver to this agenda.

With the recession all around us, with staff motivation at an all time low – if ever there was a time to measure and benchmark corporate happiness – that time is NOW!

5 a Day

2009-04-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

At Poisson Rouge we spend our lives telling others how to improve performance - how to help teams develop, bond, grow etc. But it is always harder to practice what you preach.

last week in response to unpredented market conditions we have instigated a new corporate health strategy - 5 A DAY

Everyone at Poisson Rouge is now publishing to everyone else internally - at least 5 things they have done to generate new business that day and/ or further enhance our customer relationships or service offering.

This is proving very effective and I can highly recommend it to all readers of this Blog.

Mark Katz

Major US Client Brief

2009-04-09T03:07:00.000-07:00

Poisson Rouge continue to provide ongoing team building solutions for this major US client and are currently working on a brief for a UK management team away day this May.

Exciting news about HAPq

2009-04-07T08:33:00.001-07:00

Poisson Rouge have just received another 200 respondents for the unique corporate happiness survey - HAPq™

As the world’s first online measurement of corporate happiness this is fast becoming the industry standard for establishing how motivated, engaged, optimistic and focused corporate teams are.