Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - (Page 33) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe January 2008 The Mix 33 Doing Away with the Lampshades Kevin Dolgin looks at what makes sales conventions work. very pharmaceutical company has its regular sales force convention, where the reps get together, listen to a series of internal presentations from their management and product managers, celebrate their victories — and then put lampshades on their heads and dance all night. Not very serious, all that. And there are some executives who would question whether pharma companies should be footing the bill for such antics. They look for ways to tighten the screws of gravitas and squeeze out some of the more frivolous aspects of conventions. However, we must not forget that reps spend the vast majority of their time working in isolation. That being the case, the value of conventions in creating a sense of team and company culture should never be underestimated. The question is how to get the most out of these major events — whether they be sales conventions or any large company meeting. If their team-building, community-enhancing aspects are crucial, there are also more intellectual elements that are equally important. It then becomes a question of how to kill two proverbial birds with the same proverbial stone — putting into place activities that allow team building while still addressing key business messages. PowerPoint presentations can deliver the latter while lampshades and rock bands take care of the former; but delivering a PowerPoint presentation with a lampshade on your head is not the best way to combine the two. E Large group interventions create a context, a space and a set of rules for engagement that help participants listen to each other Kevin Dolgin and this is very common. However, over the last ten or fifteen years a number of innovative techniques have arisen that go much further, not only in terms of collaboration but also in offering the chance to reflect. Examples abound: “As a CEO, on a number of rare, but powerful, occasions I had a chance to experience the long-lasting impact on my business that came from creating a valuable, and far-reaching conversation within a large group of our people,” says Sean Lafleur, founder of Flower, a French-based consultancy that uses interventions to harness the collective intelligence of large groups. “When you enable important conversations to take place at the meeting, about things that matter to the organization, you generate energy, facilitate learning, and achieve alignment within large and complex teams.” engage in powerful questions around small tables, moving from table to table before harvesting their insights together. This technique has been employed with great success for companies such as British Telecom and Bertelsmann. The power of simulation It is the impact of high-involvement techniques such as these that make simulation-based events among the most effective available. Let’s say you want reps to use a new CRM system, or perhaps adopt some principles of closed-loop marketing. Or perhaps you have a group of senior executives and you want them to weigh in on a new global strategy. They might already have an idea of how to do these things, but we all know how difficult it is to foster change. You may well need some behavioural change initiatives to accelerate acceptance of your new approach. Conventions — or any type of large, eventbased programme — represent a stellar opportunity for simulation-based behaviouralchange initiatives. Why is this approach so effective? In order to understand, you’ll have to remember some basics about change management. The key point here is that people generally don’t change because their bosses want them to — they change when they see their peers employing new behaviours. This is a major problem in A listening context Large group interventions create a context, a space and a set of rules for engagement that help participants listen to each other, search jointly for patterns, deeper insights and meaning and then share them all together. It is often said in the wake of a conference that the most interesting discussions occurred at coffee break. One large group intervention technique created by Flower, called ‘The World Café’ turns that observation into insight by transforming the meeting space into a gigantic café. Participants Interaction critical The key is to focus on activities that allow participants to interact with each other as opposed to listening passively to someone else presenting, while at the same time ensuring that this interaction is actually relevant to the business in hand. There are a number of techniques that allow this. At the very least, these involve group work,
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 Contents From the Editor News and Analysis Calendar Corporate Strategy: Walking the Line Executive Profile: The Pharmacist’s Friend Q&A: An End to Drug Counterfeiting Healthcare Cost Assessment: Ready to Make NICE? Pricing and Reimbursement: Through the Reimbursement Barriers Generics: India Inc. The Mix: New Models of Excellence Last Word: Mid-size Matters Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Contents (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - From the Editor (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - From the Editor (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Calendar (Page 12) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Calendar (Page 13) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Corporate Strategy: Walking the Line (Page 14) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Corporate Strategy: Walking the Line (Page 15) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Corporate Strategy: Walking the Line (Page 16) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Corporate Strategy: Walking the Line (Page 17) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Executive Profile: The Pharmacist’s Friend (Page 18) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Executive Profile: The Pharmacist’s Friend (Page 19) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Q&A: An End to Drug Counterfeiting (Page 20) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Q&A: An End to Drug Counterfeiting (Page 21) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Healthcare Cost Assessment: Ready to Make NICE? (Page 22) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Healthcare Cost Assessment: Ready to Make NICE? (Page 23) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Healthcare Cost Assessment: Ready to Make NICE? (Page 24) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Pricing and Reimbursement: Through the Reimbursement Barriers (Page 25) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Pricing and Reimbursement: Through the Reimbursement Barriers (Page 26) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Pricing and Reimbursement: Through the Reimbursement Barriers (Page 27) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Generics: India Inc. (Page 28) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Generics: India Inc. (Page 29) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Generics: India Inc. (Page 30) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - The Mix: New Models of Excellence (Page 31) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - The Mix: New Models of Excellence (Page 32) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - The Mix: New Models of Excellence (Page 33) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - The Mix: New Models of Excellence (Page 34) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - Last Word: Mid-size Matters (Page 35)
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.