Case Cargotec: New tools for running remote meetings effectively

Cargotec promotes the use of virtual meetings instead of travelling, as it saves time, resources and the environment. To make the remote way of working even more effective, a shape up in meeting facilitation skills was deemed beneficial.

There was a particular need for working on complex topics and larger groups. For this reason we decided to focus on the virtual workshop process: how to work in stages and how to produce ideas in a group and choose the best ones.

Grape People provided virtual facilitation training to about 80 of Cargotec’s team leads. The facilitation solution used in this training was a combination of Google Hangouts and Google Slides.

The session began with a presentation about best practices for remote meetings to orient the participants. Then we tried out a complete practice workshop with stages and facilitation methods.

The feedback from the training participants was excellent – when asked “How satisfied are you with the training session overall?”, the average grade was 4.26 out of 5.

Some free-form feedback:

“An eye-opening session.”

“Really nice simple tricks on how to engage a larger group of people in online meetings. Exactly what I had expected.”

“I realize that I need some more insights in Google and what it can do for me!”

Feedback by the numbers:

Reference
Mirelle Granvik
Cargotec Finland Oy
HRD Manager

Most Excellent Business Training in China 2014-2015

The Facilitation training of Grape People was chosen as the Most Excellent Business Training in China 2014-2015  

The Facilitation training of Grape People was awarded on October 14th, 2015 as the most Excellent Business Training in Chinca 2014-2015 (in the category of trainings with a copyright, there are three categories). The award was given by the Training magazine at the China Business Training and Development Conference and Expo 2015 in Shanghai. Grape People is a company specialised in workshop facilitation techniques and operates in Moscow, Helsinki and Shanghai. 

Virtual training useful for all

We started the collaboration with Grape People several years ago. Our aim was to address the ever increasing need for our employees to manage almost any operational situation within virtual setting. Grape People has trained during these years a large number of Tieto employees, introducing and fostering a culture of collaborative way of working and co-creating, and overcoming the challenge of globally distributed teams. Our employees come from the Grape People training with hands-on skills and techniques to make their virtual meetings and workshops goal oriented, interactive and collaborative. The most common comment I hear from the training participants is “I learned a lot of new techniques and features to manage virtual meetings more efficiently and this training should be taken by everyone working in virtual teams”.

Gunita Juzupa
Tieto Oyj
Global Learning & Development team

Long-standing partnership

“Rock-solid expertise alone is not enough; to successfully act as a top expert, you also need to be able to handle group situations well. In training and coaching our specialists, we have made use of Grape People’s high-class facilitation competence. We have been extremely pleased with our long-standing collaboration.”

Getting clients involved through facilitation

“I work as a sales director at an ICT company. In our industry, getting clients involved in product development is absolutely vital. Too often you see cases where the product that has been developed is basically a good one, but in the end it’s left unused as it fails to meet the demands and expectations of the client.

We decided to seek improvement in what we gain from our client activities, and for this we sought help from Grape People and facilitation. Our goal was to get our clients involved in our processes in a way that would result in a better end product. Grape People brainstormed a training package for us that featured multiple components. In the workshops we contemplated the issues both individually and in small groups. Finally, the most important ideas from the small-group discussions were compiled for all to hear. The group exhibited a new level of activity, and everyone’s ideas were made available to the group.

Thanks to the skills we learned in the facilitation training, the product is now better than before. Client meetings have been more effective and creative, and have brought more out of people. Getting the clients involved in product development and genuinely enabling them to pitch in and bring forth their creative improvement suggestions has resulted in a product that is pleasing to everyone’s eye.”

Getting stakeholders involved in strategy creation

“Our previous strategy was created almost ten years ago. It was subsequently implemented in annual planning with minor updates. Now it was high time to think about how to respond to new challenges posed by changes in our operating environment. Grape People created a unique process for us, one involving our stakeholders in strategy creation. Our personnel were included in the next stage, and the management only towards the end – so the typical process had been reversed in a refreshing way.

The joint discussion and the new approach to doing things were received positively. The new ways of working inspired both personnel and stakeholders. It has been rewarding to see the joint discussion gradually crystallise into tangible goals. It was valuable to get outside insights on what is expected of us. A participatory way of working has clarified our shared vision. Previously, the operations were largely planned at the unit level, but now, by thinking and acting at the strategic level, we have been able to establish a broader common foundation and reconfirm the shared sense of direction for our organisation and its stakeholders.”

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City Museum, Helsinki

New tools to support leaders

“We wanted to kick off our financial year with an event that represented something new and more inspirational than what we usually do, so we decided to turn to Grape People. We felt that day had to be more active, energising and participatory.

A key goal was to ensure the transfer of facilitation methods into the day-to-day managerial work of regional managers. Many times, after you learn something new you feel that what you just learned seems quite good and functional in theory, but for one reason or another you never get to put it into practice. On this kick-off day, all regional managers got to try and lead a facilitated workshop in person for the first time in their lives.

With the aid of Grape People, we were able to simultaneously carry out as many as 13 identical workshops. We had already learned the methods and ways of working applied in the process through the training provided by Kari Kukkola from Grape People.

The feedback we received on the training and the kick-off event was positive. Regional managers felt they had been provided with new tools, even inspirational ones, to support their managerial work. According to the participants, the day had been inspirational, well planned and well executed.”

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Sodexo

Inspiring training carries through into better leardership

“In our organisation, there are numerous teams whose members are based in different locations. This has brought new kinds of challenges for planning and implementing the teams’ operational activities and team management. In the training series provided by Grape People, our supervisors were provided with concrete tools for developing virtual teams, building trust and enhancing commitment in different situations.

The training provided a concrete and practice-oriented model for making participatory leadership a part of everyday management work. The training content and effectiveness were perceived as excellent, and the supervisors also commended it for being interactive and inspiring.”