Amanda Crouch has been working with companies on relationship building throughout her career. For the past twelve years, she has been working with the Department of Transportation and National Highway Fund (NHF), consulting on an initiative she created with the company. Her work involves connecting people to build relationships so that the parties involved work more effectively together. She emphasized that much of the work is about “developing a culture and an environment or space where people feel valued and listened to.”
For example, in the NHF, there are large construction projects that will take years of development and execution with different companies involved. She will work with 4-5 of the key company’s senior leadership teams, bringing them together to discuss effective collaboration and how to incentivize the project. She says this has proved valuable for all parties involved, as it mitigates risks of the project going wrong.
She helped to develop the proprietary “Improving Behaviours, Improving Performance” or IBMP framework that is used in all of these projects, which involves questionnaires for those involved beforehand, and structured facilitation.
The value of this sort of role is widely accepted in business communities; before NHF she was at GE doing behavioural work and relationship building. Though Amanda has been working in this arena for 30 plus years, the role was one she had to build a case to become permanently embedded at the NHF, so she has experience with the public sector’s “resistance to change,” as she puts it.
So, when I explained my project and the issues I’m facing at the university, she was sympathetic. We discussed a series of steps I could take, some specific questions to ask, and general advice to drive change within a business.
Given the “resistance to change,” Amanda said I needed to be clear what my ask of the University was. She asked: what would you see people doing differently than they are now? Linking socializing to the eventual outcome of network and connections. By bringing facets of structural understanding of the importance of such a change, I then need to show why it would benefit the university to have such connections.
She said to build the case, it needs to be grounded in specifics. If it’s collaboration, spell it out: are people feeling valued, listened to, that their voices matter? And then if not, what is meant by that, and what, specifically it looks like. Building this case to knit the structure together is the first part and then next is selling it to people. She said the mindset would need to be one of winning hearts and minds to see this sort of change.
The advice about this project from someone who has been working in this arena for many years in different businesses was very welcome. It provides a clear link beyond the university structure, and highlights how far behind in this sort of thinking HE is compared to the business world. I’m grateful to hear this perspective. Amanda also said once I have a more specific plan, I could touch base with her for more advice.