One of the big things on the radar when I joined Insight
back in April was the potential of working on a large Management Development
Programme (MDP) for the L.B Southwark.
During the first couple of meetings I had with John and Terry I realised
winning this contract meant a huge amount to them. Not only in terms of actual long term work,
but the challenges it brings with it. Launching and delivering a programme
which would shape the future leaders of such a prestigious London Borough is
after all a huge responsibility. The
amount of trust an organisation places in a provider on awarding a contract is
huge. MDP’s are a chance to shape and
influence the ongoing management strategy for years to come. How the programme is delivered directly
impacts the communities through the managers and supervisors. It really feels like we make a difference.
It doesn’t matter how much we would like to do the
programme we have to win the contract by proving how Insight can deliver what
the organisation is looking for. My
understanding of the tendering process is limited, but I know it can be very
complex and involves getting all your ducks in row. There’s the writing of expressions of
interest documents, which have to convey how we can best fit the needs of the
specification, what we can offer and how we can give them an MDP to be proud of.
There are evaluations, interviews and
presentations to master. Suffice to say
it’s a team effort in collating everything in time to submit it.
I was delighted that John and Terry included me on this
tender as a member of the delivery team.
I was presented on paper to the stakeholder board as Project/Programme
Manager, ILM Administration and tutor support.
A huge honour to be such as lynchpin in the support functions of
delivering the programme.
After waiting a few weeks the news came that we had been
shortlisted to the final two and the board wished to meet as many of the
delivery team as possible. I won’t
pretend that I wasn’t just a little bit nervous about meeting the board. If something stupid came out of my mouth, I
would’ve hated to have cost us the contract.
John and Terry, of course, made sure we were all very well briefed and
calmed the jitters.
I have to say I really enjoyed meeting the stakeholder
board; they went out of their way to make it informal, it felt more like a
focus group rather than an interview. It was really nice to see some old faces
too. Bob Chapple and Ruth Dover, both of
who I’d worked with on various projects 7 years ago were at the meeting. They helped to calm my nerves as well. Laura did a sterling job of broaching the
topic of equalities and inclusion, showing a video which went down really well
with the panel. On the whole the meeting went well, but it was hard to gauge
how we’d done. Now we had to wait for
the decision.
Thankfully Southwark didn’t keep us waiting too long and
gave us the amazing news they were awarding us 2/3 of the contract. To undertake the MDP for the Supervisors and
First Line Managers, in my opinion the most exciting groups. Training grass roots managers quite often
means employing a wide range of techniques to have a real impact on culture
change. You can see immediate effects in
the workplace on service delivery and in feedback from the communities they
serve.
Another huge win for us was the entire MDP is to be
accredited by the ILM. This means around
300 supervisors, first line and middle managers will all come out of the MDP
with a tangible usable qualification.
This of course means for me a lot of work over the summer
months getting to grips with project management. But I do love to organise and plan!!
The other 1/3 of the contract was awarded to an
organisation called Cygnet. So a new
challenge will be working in partnership to deliver a cohesive programme across
the 3 levels of manager.
Exciting things on
the horizon and great news I’m sure you’ll agree.
~ Vikki
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