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Commemorative book marks success of pioneering partnership

Axiom Communications | 19th July 2014

More than 100 people involved in a groundbreaking partnership between global pharma AstraZeneca and contract research organisation Quintiles have been recognised for their achievements over five years with a special commemorative book produced by Axiom.

Before the arrangement was in place, like most of its global peers, AZ carried out clinical pharmacology studies via a combination of its own clinical pharmacology units and tactical outsourcing. Under the Clinical Pharmacology Alliance (CPA), Quintiles took responsibility for delivering AstraZeneca’s clinical pharmacology studies around the world across multiple therapy areas for a five-year period. At the time, this agreement was unprecedented in the industry.

Over the lifetime of the CPA, the speed and quality of studies increased significantly while costs came down. This helped AstraZeneca speed up early-stage drug development and bring innovative medicines to patients more quickly.

To mark the end of the CPA, our client asked us to write, design and print a 36-page book to tell the story of the CPA and highlight the contributions of those involved. The client wanted to use the book to maintain high levels of engagement in both partner companies and to reinforce collaborative thinking and behaviour.

The Partnering Pioneers book featured a timeline of milestones in the life of the CPA, a reunion interview with four senior stakeholders involved at the outset and a rundown of major outcomes. We also added fast facts and employee quotes. Printed and finished to a high-quality specification, the book has now been delivered to everyone who worked in and with the CPA.

We also produced a matching PowerPoint slideshow for use at a CPA leadership event.

Our work on the CPA communications is just one strand of our wide-ranging work for AstraZeneca over many years.

More about the communication solutions we create for our clients

 

Global pharma’s shared services organisation sets sail for success with Big Picture communication

Axiom Communications | 14th July 2014

A global organisation formed from in-house and outsourced providers is finding a sense of common purpose and clear direction thanks to a Big Picture strategy communication designed and delivered with Axiom’s help.

Global Finance Services (GFS) is a partnership between pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and business process outsourcing company Genpact. It was set up to deliver transactional finance operations for the entire AstraZeneca business and comprises 825 employees in service centres in Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.

Following the merger of several groups to form GFS, the client wants to unite and inspire employees by communicating the organisation’s strategy. We are working with GFS to co-create a communication campaign that will enable line managers to engage their teams in dialogue about the GFS strategy.

The centrepiece of the campaign, which will launch in early August, is a Big Picture visual. The Big Picture is a highly successful technique that exploits the power of images and storytelling to bring a business strategy to life across an organisation at all levels. Crucially, it helps employees see where they fit in and how they can contribute.

The Big Picture developed for GFS shows where the organisation has come from, where it is today and where it is going. It highlights the challenges, priorities and key programmes for the organisation as it charts its course to success in the years ahead.

More about Big Picture communication

 

Marketing from the inside out

Axiom Communications | 25th June 2014

However eye-catching and novel a communication programme might be, for it to be effective it has to start with careful work behind the scenes. For one, that means analysing the needs, concerns and expectations of the audience. It also involves articulating with precision the key messages that will cut through all the noise. This vital groundwork is what Axiom has been helping a German medical supplies company to do in recent weeks.

We facilitated a meeting of the client’s top team to support them in building a communication ‘manifesto’. This document will set out the company’s communication aims, audiences, messages and channels as well as where the business has come from, where it is today and where it needs to be in future. It will also include the mission, vision and values and, critically, the strategic priorities and key performance indicators.

The manifesto will then become the source from which all the company’s communication messages are derived. It will help ensure consistency in communication with internal and external stakeholders, aligning employees’ beliefs and behaviours with the company’s strategy.

We will be following up this initial work by running communication skills workshops for members of the top team so they are equipped to convey the new messages with impact.

Axiom’s communication skills workshops for leaders and managers

More about communication manifestos

 

Life-changing speaker coaching helps senior execs make an impact worldwide

Axiom Communications | 18th June 2014

Speaker coaching by Axiom founder Chris Carey has helped senior scientists in one of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies overcome nerves and learn to present with impact.

Our clients were due to speak to scientific and non-scientific colleagues at sites worldwide about changes to the company’s approach to drug development. One-to-one coaching sessions over several weeks helped them develop their story, boost their confidence and enhance their delivery.

Says Chris: “We started by getting the speakers to use the power of storytelling to find a way to engage their audience and make their messages clear and memorable. We also helped them discover and embrace their natural styles so they were able to come across as authentic, credible and passionate.

“At the end of our work together, one participant described the coaching as genuinely life-changing.”

Chris adds: “For many of us, public speaking can be anxiety-provoking if not downright terrifying. Yet by working with people on their underlying beliefs and thoughts and then exploring and embedding best-practice presentation ideas and techniques, it’s possible to overcome this barrier and become a confident presenter who can captivate an audience.”

Our workshop High Impact: Clear, credible and compelling presentations

Our workshop The Power of Storytelling in Business

 

Positive approach trumps cynicism and distance

Axiom Communications | 10th June 2014

Try telling a bunch of loyal and long-standing employees who are being displaced that you’re sending them on a training course on positive psychology and you might expect a sceptical response, if not outright cynicism. That was the case when a group of 15 scientists from a global pharma entered the room to take part in Axiom’s Taking a Positive View workshop recently. However, just two hours later the US-based participants were feeling buoyed and ready to embark on the next chapters in their careers with renewed enthusiasm and resilience.

Even more remarkably, the workshop was facilitated remotely, via video conference. Axiom founder Chris Carey ran the session from one of the client’s European sites where he was due to run a face-to-face version of the workshop the next day.

Says Chris: “At the outset, several participants admitted they were feeling demoralised and weren’t sure they wanted to attend. That’s completely understandable. However, during the workshop they became convinced of the merits of taking a positive view and the implications of not doing so. They learned to challenge their inner critic and to gather evidence for a more balanced view, possibly even a positive interpretation.

“As a result, they finished the session engaged and much more motivated – and with tools and techniques they could apply right away in their work and personal lives.”

Overcoming remote challenges

“I felt some trepidation about how it would be to work with people over a video conference on something as personal as their own feelings, beliefs and behaviour,” says Chris. “I wondered how easy it would be to generate the discussion and interactivity that are so vital to a good workshop. It certainly tested the advice we give our clients on how to run remote meetings!

“We can now confidently add this workshop to the list of those we can run remotely. This approach enables clients to give their people around the world easy access to our communication and performance training – and without the expense of travel and accommodation for our facilitator.”

The next day, Chris successfully delivered the workshop in person to 35 scientists who, while they weren’t facing redundancy, were disenchanted by changes to their roles and workload. As you’d hope given the topic of the workshop, feedback was very positive.

Taking a Positive View is for people and teams faced with challenges, cynicism and negativity – well-founded or not – who want to create positive outcomes. Previous participants have included whole project teams as well as leaders tasked with delivering major change.

Our workshop Taking a Positive View

Our workshop Effective Telephone and Video Conferences

 

Helping Generali UK leaders engage their people

Axiom Communications  |  2nd June 2014

More than 40 senior managers from the UK arm of global insurer Generali are creating an even more engaged and effective workforce, with our help.

In a kick-off event in May, Axiom’s Chris Carey and Miles Henson provided training in some of the key skills of effective employee engagement. They also facilitated a lively discussion in which participants co-created their own bespoke engagement skills development programme, which will be rolled out in the summer and autumn.  Our Knowing Me, Knowing You influencing skills workshop topped the wish list and will help leaders understand their communications preferences and strengths.

First up though, we will be working with Generali UK leaders to help them draw up a communication ‘manifesto’. This will articulate the key messages for the business and set out a comprehensive communication and engagement strategy.

Generali Group is of the world’s leading insurance companies. It serves around 65 million customers in more than 60 countries.

Our suite of communication skills workshops that we run inside organisations

Our views on the essential communication skills for leaders and managers

 

Fixing performance management: Axiom to help lead new study

Axiom Communications | 23rd May 2014

Companies will fail to engage their employees if fundamental mechanisms such as performance management are failing. That’s the basic premise behind the creation of a new cross-industry group that Chris Carey of Axiom is helping to lead.

Chris has been instrumental in setting up a Special Interest Group (SIG) for Engage for Success (E4S), the UK-based employee engagement movement. The SIG will examine current practice in performance management, uncover the most common weaknesses and identify best practice.

Says Chris: “In recent years, I’ve been struck by the extent to which organisations are trying to embrace the latest employee engagement without the fundamental building blocks in place, such as effective performance management. If employees don’t know what’s expected of them, if they aren’t recognised and rewarded for a job well done and if they aren’t called on under-performance, is it any wonder so many of them are disengaged?

“Organisations either don’t have the right system in place or they haven’t given managers the support they need to implement it.”

Recent research from Deloitte reveals the extent of the problems in performance management. Only eight per cent of companies report that their performance management process drives high levels of value, while 58 per cent say it is not an effective use of time.
“Well-meant initiatives such as employee wellbeing and digital enablement will not get off the ground if issues such as effective performance management are not championed by leaders and embraced by managers and employees alike,” comments Chris.

The aim of the new E4S SIG is to explore the failings of current performance management processes and to create a framework of best practice tools, case studies and behaviours to enable organisations to harness the value of effective performance management.

E4S is a movement committed to the idea that there is a better way to work and to enable personal, organisational and national economic growth by releasing more of the capability and potential of employees. The E4S SIGs seek to further debate and come to conclusions on specific aspects of employee engagement.

Contact Chris to find out more about the new E4S performance management SIG and how to get involved

 

Knowing Me, Knowing You: New communication training workshop to boost influencing skills

Axiom Communications | 12th May 2014

However hard we try to get through to someone, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Usually, that’s down to a mismatch between our preferred communication style and the style of those we are talking to. Too much detail, too much excitement, too much command-and-tell, not enough reflection – all these things can lead to a mis-communication and a failure to bring about the change we want.

Knowing Me, Knowing You is a new workshop from Axiom that helps leaders and managers identify and understand people’s habitual ways of behaving and communicating so they can more effectively influence others. It is based on DISC, the behavioural and communication assessment tool that provides an insight into people’s personality traits and how they behave at work.

The difference it will make

• Clear understanding of people’s habitual behaviour and communication styles through a simple and memorable model.
• Greater self-awareness and self-confidence.
• Improved ability to read others and communicate effectively with them – from the moment the workshop ends.

The workshop is designed and delivered by Axiom consultant and interpersonal communication expert Miles Henson. It is part of Axiom’s suite of communication skills training workshops for leaders and managers.

Talk to us now about how we can equip your leaders and managers to be better communicators