NCP

Management Development Programme

Developing a consistent approach to management

 

With an 87-year heritage and more than 150,000 car parking spaces at over 600 sites across the country, NCP is the UK’s number one car park operator. 

The company has achieved such long-standing success thanks to its visionary founders, committed stakeholders and dedicated 1160-strong workforce.  But it lacked a consistent, sustained approach to management development across the organisation, and so NCP asked t-three to create a programme to develop managers, change mindsets and improve performance across the whole organisation. 

The diagnostic or ‘discovery’ phase involved strategic interviews with directors; interactive focus groups with senior managers and their direct reports; and live, interactive polling – with staff rating statements on a five-point scale. Not only did the immediacy of this exercise encourage staff participation across the board, but its transparency also proved to the whole workforce that managers were prepared to listen and learn from what they had to say.

 

T-three worked with the NCP project team to create engaging communications to launch the programme, which was delivered through a series of face-to-face modules that all staff could undertake alongside their existing workload.  As well as offering full day and half day courses to maximise flexibility for full- and part-time workers, t-three tailored the content according to employees’ experience or level within the company.  But, crucially, departments were intermingled, giving colleagues an unprecedented opportunity to network, learn and forge new relationships.

Over the course of 12 to 18 months t-three ran 62 sessions of six modules, bringing 446 NCP management colleagues together in live settings where they could apply tools and theories with immediate effect; they could practise new ways of working in a safe, supportive environment and receive instant feedback from peers and facilitators. The course content – alongside video footage and key learning points from the sessions – was made available on a supporting app, tailored to each cohort through their log-in. 

PROGRAMME OUTCOMES

92% believe there will be a measurable benefit if NCP continue to provide an MDP to junior and new managers.

87% felt more confident and better able to manage their workload and their personal development.

79% felt more confident and better able to manage their team and other colleagues involved in projects they manage.

t-three Director Laura Whitworth said: "[NCP] are now significantly more self-aware and open to others' views and challenges. They've retained the fabulous sense of humour that they've exhibited throughout our working relationship and developed it into a genuine empathy and synergy that has improved performance at an individual, team and organisational level."

black-quote

This has been of huge benefit to individuals and teams. There is tangible value in bringing an outside organisation who can challege the norms and ways of working within NCP.


Watch the case study