Post by hereticus on Feb 11, 2006 17:03:05 GMT 1
I am becoming ever more disillusioned by the negativity of some of the posts on this forum, and honestly wondering why I and others put so much time, effort, and commitment into preparing and submitting our case to management at the recent seminars. I have repeatedly appealed for a little patience but there are some people out there who seem determined that no good can possibly come out of our efforts and, indeed, will probably be disappointed when it does because it will neutralise a lot of their ground for whingeing.
So lets get this into perspective. On 7 January I posted a long message on this forum to announce that two Advisor Feedback Seminars were to be held. Over the following ten days about 80/100 of you responded with your comments and ideas, either through open forum or by personal messages to me or to the other advisors attending the seminars. All of this input was then sorted, collated, and presented as a substantial dossier to the management team. The first seminar was held in Reading on 18 January, and the second in Leeds on 25 January, and the advisors attending both seminars have been unanimous in praising the open attitude of management and their readiness to take our comments on board. Ross Kenney and his team have since put together their own internal summary of the points raised and the recommended courses of action, and have presented this to a meeting of FSM’s and to the Board of Directors, and have been given the go ahead to make some immediate changes and to come up with action plans on a vast range of issues. We have even already seen a couple of ‘quick fix’ solutions announced, with more to come soon.
Total time scale so far – just five weeks ! So what are some of you moaning about ?
A posting yesterday stated “The agents that went to the northern forum told me (Hillarys) had listened and would take our concerns on board. Seems they did but threw them over the side once the agents left” (sorry, Madman, not having a go at you specifically but simply using your posting as an example).
You are wrong, you will soon discover that you are wrong, and when you do I hope you will return to this forum and admit that you were wrong ! In just five weeks Hillarys have given us an opportunity to listen to what we have to say, they have listened with an open mind, they have taken our comments to heart, they have got Board approval to start making changes, and they are now forming specific action plans. So far, so good – in fact I would venture that this is both more than, and quicker than, we could ever have dreamed of just six weeks ago !
The next stage is that half the agenda for the forthcoming round of Team Meetings will be devoted to sharing the Advisor Feedback Summary and Action Plan with the whole of the advisor network. This will be the same presentation as given to FSM’s and to the Board, and details the points made through our dossier and through the seminars – it highlights frustrations, grievances, recommendations, proposed action, etc and does not exclude or shy away from any of the issues raised, no matter how contentious. So, to those of you who still cannot open your minds to the fact that we have already achieved something, please hold back your negativity and reserve judgement.
I can already anticipate a flurry of postings over the next few hours and days undermining even this message so let me answer a few points before you even raise them :
- how do I know what is happening and why do I seem to have ‘inside information’ Has Hereticus gone native, have I become a company mole ? To those of you who know me personally, obviously not. For the rest of you I would explain that all 23 of the advisors attending the seminars have seen the internal document which forms the basis of the Team Meetings and some have already posted to commend its thorough and fair reflection of the proceedings. If I seem to be getting advance information it is simply because I stuck my head over the parapet and took a leading role in preparing for the seminars, plus the fact that I have always been open about exactly who I am rather than hiding behind a pseudonym so, yes, perhaps I have become one of the few who is on an ‘inside information loop’, but this is only transitory because everybody will be brought up to speed as quickly as possible.
- secondly, why does it have to be done through Team Meetings, in the form of yet another Powerpoint Presentation. Why can’t it just be posted back through this forum without delay, or sent out with the weekly mailers ? Answer – because Team Meetings are the only fair and effective way of communicating equally with the whole advisor network. We can boast that half of the advisors are members of this forum, but that also means that half of them aren’t. Also, of the 400 or so signed up to this forum, probably more than half only ever took one look and never came back, and many more only log on occasionally. In reality, probably less than a quarter of advisors are even aware that these seminars took place, so they need to be made aware of what is going on in a manner that also puts events into context.
- Will all of our problems be answered and all of our suggestions be affirmed ? No, of course not but, more importantly, you will find that none of our problems has been ignored and none of our suggestions overlooked. Everything covered in the seminars is acknowledged, though inevitably some subjects will require detailed review, internal working parties, further consultation with advisors, etc to ensure that the problem is fully understood and that any proposed solution is appropriate and sustainable.
I would therefore ask you all to make an extra effort to attend your local team meeting and to see first hand what has resulted from our activity so far – I believe the first meeting is in Lincolnshire on Monday 21 February and hosted by Louisa Thorne, who was the host FSM at the Leeds forum, and that meetings take place nationwide over the following 2/3 weeks (mine is on 1 March).
Also, please all prepare to use these meetings as an opportunity to consolidate - make sure that everybody is aware of this forum, encourage them to join up and to log in more often, to make Advisor Online the home page in their web browser, and stress the part that this forum has played in creating the atmosphere in which they are being presented with action plans to resolve issues which they were previously impotent to even mention.
I am looking forward to postings on this forum following the first few team meetings and I know there will be some who will never be satisfied but, for the most part, I hope that advisors will come away much more confident about the future, much less cynical about Hillarys, and more appreciative of the efforts of a few on behalf of the majority.
So lets get this into perspective. On 7 January I posted a long message on this forum to announce that two Advisor Feedback Seminars were to be held. Over the following ten days about 80/100 of you responded with your comments and ideas, either through open forum or by personal messages to me or to the other advisors attending the seminars. All of this input was then sorted, collated, and presented as a substantial dossier to the management team. The first seminar was held in Reading on 18 January, and the second in Leeds on 25 January, and the advisors attending both seminars have been unanimous in praising the open attitude of management and their readiness to take our comments on board. Ross Kenney and his team have since put together their own internal summary of the points raised and the recommended courses of action, and have presented this to a meeting of FSM’s and to the Board of Directors, and have been given the go ahead to make some immediate changes and to come up with action plans on a vast range of issues. We have even already seen a couple of ‘quick fix’ solutions announced, with more to come soon.
Total time scale so far – just five weeks ! So what are some of you moaning about ?
A posting yesterday stated “The agents that went to the northern forum told me (Hillarys) had listened and would take our concerns on board. Seems they did but threw them over the side once the agents left” (sorry, Madman, not having a go at you specifically but simply using your posting as an example).
You are wrong, you will soon discover that you are wrong, and when you do I hope you will return to this forum and admit that you were wrong ! In just five weeks Hillarys have given us an opportunity to listen to what we have to say, they have listened with an open mind, they have taken our comments to heart, they have got Board approval to start making changes, and they are now forming specific action plans. So far, so good – in fact I would venture that this is both more than, and quicker than, we could ever have dreamed of just six weeks ago !
The next stage is that half the agenda for the forthcoming round of Team Meetings will be devoted to sharing the Advisor Feedback Summary and Action Plan with the whole of the advisor network. This will be the same presentation as given to FSM’s and to the Board, and details the points made through our dossier and through the seminars – it highlights frustrations, grievances, recommendations, proposed action, etc and does not exclude or shy away from any of the issues raised, no matter how contentious. So, to those of you who still cannot open your minds to the fact that we have already achieved something, please hold back your negativity and reserve judgement.
I can already anticipate a flurry of postings over the next few hours and days undermining even this message so let me answer a few points before you even raise them :
- how do I know what is happening and why do I seem to have ‘inside information’ Has Hereticus gone native, have I become a company mole ? To those of you who know me personally, obviously not. For the rest of you I would explain that all 23 of the advisors attending the seminars have seen the internal document which forms the basis of the Team Meetings and some have already posted to commend its thorough and fair reflection of the proceedings. If I seem to be getting advance information it is simply because I stuck my head over the parapet and took a leading role in preparing for the seminars, plus the fact that I have always been open about exactly who I am rather than hiding behind a pseudonym so, yes, perhaps I have become one of the few who is on an ‘inside information loop’, but this is only transitory because everybody will be brought up to speed as quickly as possible.
- secondly, why does it have to be done through Team Meetings, in the form of yet another Powerpoint Presentation. Why can’t it just be posted back through this forum without delay, or sent out with the weekly mailers ? Answer – because Team Meetings are the only fair and effective way of communicating equally with the whole advisor network. We can boast that half of the advisors are members of this forum, but that also means that half of them aren’t. Also, of the 400 or so signed up to this forum, probably more than half only ever took one look and never came back, and many more only log on occasionally. In reality, probably less than a quarter of advisors are even aware that these seminars took place, so they need to be made aware of what is going on in a manner that also puts events into context.
- Will all of our problems be answered and all of our suggestions be affirmed ? No, of course not but, more importantly, you will find that none of our problems has been ignored and none of our suggestions overlooked. Everything covered in the seminars is acknowledged, though inevitably some subjects will require detailed review, internal working parties, further consultation with advisors, etc to ensure that the problem is fully understood and that any proposed solution is appropriate and sustainable.
I would therefore ask you all to make an extra effort to attend your local team meeting and to see first hand what has resulted from our activity so far – I believe the first meeting is in Lincolnshire on Monday 21 February and hosted by Louisa Thorne, who was the host FSM at the Leeds forum, and that meetings take place nationwide over the following 2/3 weeks (mine is on 1 March).
Also, please all prepare to use these meetings as an opportunity to consolidate - make sure that everybody is aware of this forum, encourage them to join up and to log in more often, to make Advisor Online the home page in their web browser, and stress the part that this forum has played in creating the atmosphere in which they are being presented with action plans to resolve issues which they were previously impotent to even mention.
I am looking forward to postings on this forum following the first few team meetings and I know there will be some who will never be satisfied but, for the most part, I hope that advisors will come away much more confident about the future, much less cynical about Hillarys, and more appreciative of the efforts of a few on behalf of the majority.
