Richard Howell is an International HR & Organisation Development Consultant focused on change and performance solutions. He will lead an interactive workshop “Adapt or Die, Sustaining Organisational Learning in Volatile Times” during the 2018 MERIT Summit.

You will be one of the workshop leaders and panel experts at the MERIT Summit. Can you first tell me a little bit about your career to date and your particular area of focus?

First, thank you for the opportunity to share. I have been living and working abroad for most of the last 17 years, based either in Switzerland or Germany. Before that I was based in the UK for a few years, cutting my teeth on some generalist HR roles in the Banking sector and working as an HR consultant. I am fortunate to have had a number of very exciting senior HR roles with international companies, mainly in the Chemical and Life Science sectors. The common themes and challenges that I have always sought in a role are delivering change and commercial solutions. I am passionate about enabling organisations to optimise people and business performance. I am in my sweet spot when I have lots of scope to design and deliver challenging projects and solutions, preferably in a very dynamic and international context. Sometimes it has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride. For example, one of the companies I joined – with the aim of helping to turn it around – went bankrupt only three months after I started. I assure you that it had nothing to do with me coming on board! Shift tends to happen when you seek out such roles! More recently, I have been working as a freelance OD and HR consultant. Honestly speaking, it has proven quite difficult for me to find a company that has really bought into and embraces the potential of an HR professional being a very commercially orientated change driver – at least on a permanent basis! So, I figured I could probably fare better hiring myself out for shorter term, very targeted assignments. In the process of my business development conversations I met a company called AdEx Partners. AdEx are at the forefront of leading and managing huge international change projects in areas such as strategy, IT development, restructuring, sales and finance optimisation. I will be joining them from 1 October 2017 as a senior manager, focused on the area of Change Leadership and Management. I have been given the mandate to help boost the ability of both AdEx consultants and AdEx clients to deliver organisational change successfully. I am really looking forward to this new challenge!

Can you share a little about your views on “Always On Learning”?

Sure. To me this is about ensuring that Learning is: (1) Accessible – We need to be able to access learning experiences both on and off the job and be aware of the opportunities to learn through many channels. (2) Appropriate – People have many different learning styles. Depending on what needs to be learned, different media or means will be more, or less, effective. So, Learning and Development professionals need to remember that there is no “one size fits all” solution, know their customer or target group and get creative and focussed on brokering and enabling learning opportunities. (3) Appetising – The route to learning needs to engage the learner’s interest. Note the increased use of gamification in learning – to make it both fun, motivational and sticky. Our attention is pulled in so many directions these days. We need to fight to win the bandwidth and attention of learners with appealing or appetising learning experiences. (4) Attainable – By this I mean broken – where possible – into bite-sized chunks or modules. There is a big difference between clearing one’s diary for a whole morning of learning online and taking a 15-minute concentrated espresso shot of learning, perhaps whilst having a coffee at the same time! (5) Aligned – Perhaps it goes without saying, but we always need to ensure that learning is appropriately aligned to the needs of the business, to ensure we get the ROI on the time, energy and money invested by all parties.

What are you going to talk about at the conference?

I am going to lead a workshop on being a learning organisation in volatile times. In today’s world, it is critical to survival and success to keep the organisation learning and developing capabilities at a pace that matches the ever-changing challenges of customer needs and expectations and market forces. Based on my extensive experience in helping organisations to adapt and develop “timely” cultures and capabilities, I have also learned that it is not enough to simply define the gaps and deliver programmes or solutions that grow relevant employee capabilities. Organisations are like living organisms. There are so many factors in play when it comes to learning successfully and implementing ongoing change. So, as well as sharing some of the more classical approaches I have used to define and develop organisational capabilities, I also want to get delegates thinking about what other issues may need to be addressed to support the overall desired organisational development. For example, we could also consider reward mechanisms or the overall design and structure of the business and how these factors impact focus, behaviour and outcomes at both an individual and organisational level.

What do you want people to get out of your session?

My goal is to both envision and enable people to assist their organisations to learn and develop more effectively. Having a good grasp of change theory and change models will never go amiss but, at the end of the day, people also want and need practical and workable tools and solutions. I will share what approaches have worked well for me and the organisations I have worked with. I also hope that – in the course of the workshop – we will have lots of interaction and sharing amongst the participants that will be to the benefit of everyone there.

What are you looking forward to at the event?

Such events are an excellent opportunity to sharpen up one’s professional edge, through focussing on real-life and topical issues and solutions. I am looking forward to learning with and from the other delegates and speakers. In addition, I anticipate there will be great opportunities to network and further enrich my already excellent professional network. I am convinced that we deliver value beyond the sum of our own individual expertise and experience. Developing and delivering mega value as a professional is also dependent on the quantity and quality of our business contacts: who can we actively spar and share with? As someone once said, “The time to dig a well is when you are not thirsty”. Time and again, my established network has proven to be of immense personal and professional value to both me and my clients when it comes to delivering an effective solution.

Thank you for taking the time to share!

Thank you for this opportunity. See you in Lisbon, 17-18 January 2018!