...except that in many conversations that have taken place today, people have not heard what the other person has been saying.

For an awful lot of people, 'listening' is simply the gap between the last thing they said and the next. It is a passive thing, rather than an active experience. If we want to really engage with people, we must work at making our listening far more active. This takes determination, it takes effort and it takes care - no wonder that so many people simply don't bother. 

So what is active listening? Here are a few thoughts:

Observation - giving careful, non-evaluative attention to the person speaking and making appropriate eye contact will enable you to gauge the emotional element of the message that you are receiving. After all, there is always more to the message than the words that are being spoken.

Reflecting Facts - by reflecting back some of the information that you are receiving, perhaps by the use of paraphrases, should help turn listening into hearing.

Summarising - by occasionally summarising what has been said, we can check our understanding and thus gain clarity about the message we are receiving.

Reflecting Feelings - we have heard the words, hopefully understood their meaning and been able to reflect and summarise them back to the speaker. Now we should also consider feeding back the emotional part of the message that we have received.

If we try some of these ideas, it is just possible that we will raise the confidence level of the speaker that they really are being heard by us, and that has got to improve the level of communication that is taking place.

Active listening - give it a try!

Here's my suggestions for the top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Business and Management Trainers:

1. I am a lifelong learner, therefore I will learn from other people - include any people that I am meant to be training
2. I will not be arrogant enough to think that I know all there is to know, so I commit to using the phrase "I don't know"
3. I will treat all delegates with fairness and tolerance, seeking first to know, to empathise
4. I will always seek to try new ways of delivery - stepping outside my comfort zone
5. I will not become dependent on visual media such as PowerPoint, and I will not use it as an instrument of boredom
6. I will check the arrangements, the logistics and my materials in advance - not taking anything for granted
7. I will seek to ask questions, in a way that will aid the learning of my delegates
8. I will try to understand what people are trying to express and not just listen to the words spoken
9. I will prioritise my own development to ensure that I 'sharpen the saw'
10. I commit to adding some value to the experience of the delegates attending the course I am leading

Other suggestions are welcome...

You may have heard that London Zoo have recently been carrying out a stock-take.

This is Adrian Walls - counting penguins.

How was your day at work today?

(The count of more than 16,000 mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, invertebrates and amphibians is a compulsory part of the zoo licence renewal.)

It may not be the most attractive building in the world, but for us, and the people in Nehemiah Primary School, it's one of the most exciting.

Nehemiah School is in the town of Yei in the world's newest nation - South Sudan, and this building is the newly emerging school library.

You may think that a new school library is still not the most exciting thing in the world, so here's a few facts:

• Less than 2% of children in the country complete primary education
• 85% of adults cannot read or write (92%  of women)
• The average class is made up of 127 pupils

It is therefore no surprise to learn that education is a major emphasis for this new country. That is why we at Roots have decided to put all our efforts in to ensuring that we get this library up and running (we are told that this library will be the first school library in the country...).

We have paid for the building, which is nearing completion. We have raised the funds to equip it with furniture and fittings. Now we need to fill it with learning - books!

As a trustee of Roots my main focus for the first part of this new year is to raise enough funds to allow our friends in Yei to purchase the books they require, and to pay for someone to run the library for them.

Interested in helping in some way?

Why not drop me an email at john@rootssudan.org

Happy New Year!

Are you interested in making sense of change management? This short interview with Patrick Mayfield may help you.

Our final principle of programme management - #7 Learning from Experience.

This principle is one that is also found among the seven principles of the project management method PRINCE2. Both programmes and projects perform better when members of the management teams assume the attitude of being learners.

In fact, a programme can be considered to be a learning environment, where we adjust and adapt our path through the programme.

Lessons should be something that we go and actively seek out, not passively record to pass on to 'someone else'.

An organisation's ability to learn from experience speaks volumes about its level of programme management maturity - how mature is your organisation's approach...?

This is one in a series of seven programme management principles that use the programme management guide MSP (Managing Successful Programmes). If you would like to know more about MSP, why not give us a call on freephone 0800 052 1600 or go to www.pearcemayfield.com

... that's not really a question for a programme, is it. We are planning to create a deliver some new or changes 'things'. We have outputs in mind, we are thinking of new and improved capabilities.

We have an idea of the 'To Be' state in our minds, don't we?

Where am I going with this?

I'm looking at another in our series of programme management principles. Now, #6 Designing and Delivering a Coherent Capability.

The essence of this principle is that we need to have a view of both our current capability (As is) and the intended future capability (To be). It is only when we have these views that we understand the capability gap that exists, which in turn helps us to determine the projects that we require to fill that capability gap.

The definition and explanation of this future capability is expressed in the programme Blueprint - a key piece of information for the programme.

Think of every project in the programme as a piece of a jigsaw. Without understanding the intended finished picture it is difficult to complete the jigsaw. The Blueprint is the picture that is on the lid of the jigsaw box.

How can we deliver a final capability that meets the needs of the organisation if we do not have a way of ensuring coherence throughout.

What is your Blueprint planning like?

Well, to answer that, we need to consider programme management principle #5 Adding Value.

The point that this principle is making is that to run a programme (and to run it well) costs money. Programme management teams do not come cheap (!), and the cost of them is above and beyond the cost of the various project management teams already in place.

The programme must therefore add value.

"A programme only remains valid if it adds value to the sum of its constituent projects and major activities." (MSP) Projects do not need the structure of a programme around them if that programme is simply a cost and adding no value.

How then, can a programme add value? Here's just three ideas:

• Better alignment with corporate strategy - with organisations running more and more projects it is vital that they are heading in the same direction as the business
• A programme can deliver additional benefits that any one project could not: 2 + 2 = 5
• Greater coherence across the capability being delivered by the projects. By maintaining a view of the required overall capability (the Blueprint), the programme can optimise the project mix at any one time.

Does your programme add value...?

Programme Management Principles: "Envisioning and Communicating a better future"

(This is based on a post originally made last week, but inadvertently deleted by me as I wrote this week's post on Benefits, messing up the permalinks in the process!)

Vision - it's one of the main weapons in the programme leaders armoury. Something that describes the better, more desirable future has got to be good news if we are attempting to bring about transformational change.

A good vision inspires, attracts support and indicates to the organisation that we are in line with their strategic objectives. It also provides an excellent basis for communicating to the world what this programme is about.

The clear and consistent communication of the vision is essential if we want (and we should) the engagement of stakeholders.

Programme leaders take note - a programme without a clear, well-articulated vision confuses people, and has a reduced chance of success.

Get your vision clear from the start!

Programme Management Principles #4 Focusing on the benefits and the threats to them

One of Stephen Covey's famous sayings is, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." It's a quote that we in pearcemayfield use to explain the emphasis that good programme management approaches (such as MSP) place on the realisation of benefits.

In fact, to quote the MSP guide, "Best practice programme management aligns everything towards satisfying strategic objectives by realising the end benefits."

Ultimately, a programme should be judged by its ability to realise benefits that are relevant to the organisation sponsoring that programme. The programme will do many things during its life - plan and implement projects, manage issues, engage stakeholders, manage vast amounts of information - but unless it focuses its attention on the main thing, it will not be considered a success.

And the main thing?

Benefits!