On Thursday I boarded a plane with trepidation. Not because I am a nervous flier, but because I was headed up to Edinburgh for the final instalment of my MBA – Organisation Behaviour. Having been a model student and completed my homework my nerves didn’t stem from being unprepared, but because the subject matter seemed extremely green for a red and I feared I was in for four days of hell.
If that last sentence was utter gobbledygook to you, you’re not alone. I also stumped my fellow study groupers with the same sentiment. Following a lecture on individual difference, we were allotted our syndicate teams and asked to discuss the kinds of individual data we captured and acted upon within our organisations (for those of you that know me, the word data meant I was up out of my seat and in the break-out room before anyone else had even gathered their files – if there’s anything I know its data, so all my fears evaporated – this would be a breeze).
I shared my group with people from huge organisations such as British Gas, J&J, Royal Bank of Canada and people from smaller companies including a steel manufacturer and vaccine producer. Spurred on by data collection, I set about mining the information from my colleagues – although none of them had much to say (until we went on to discuss data privacy – but that’s a whole other blog post) further than discussing what happens to the information collected at interview and during appraisals. I on the other hand was fit to bursting with oodles of individual difference information on my fellow Eulogites. This is because we use a psychometric testing tool called Insights. However, where some organisations seemed to use similar tests for candidate selection, at Eulogy! we use it to understand ourselves and team mates. In a nutshell (and at a very basic level) Insights through a series of multiple choice questions assigns you a colour either Red, Green, Yellow or Blue and attached to each colour are a series of traits which suggest how you manage people and how you yourself like to be managed – from your communication preferences through to your speed of work. This has become a part of Eulogy! culture. We all joke about our colours and are constantly reminded by our blue colleagues to TIDY UP or encouraged by our more yellow ones to come for a drink, however, behind the fun facade it really has helped us at an operational level. We are all aware of each others’ colour and make a conscious effort to work in the ways that suit that person, making a very harmonious (most of the time) and conflict free work place. One of our common sayings is that it PR not ER, but this reminds us that the job itself is stressful enough without having to worry about team conflicts – and Insights has helped us to eradicate this.
I was astonished to find that Eulogy! (and indeed the PR industry as a whole) was well ahead of the game when it came to Organisational Behaviour (particularly given the size of companies and range of sectors represented on the programme who in my mind were the guys to follow) – however, given our PR Week Best Places to Work accolade last week, I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge. Lesson learnt. At least I’ve now got something to write about in the exam in December – not bad for an uncaring red. I’ll be fascinated to see whether my green side increases as a result of my stint in Edinburgh.
