ABP News
Newsletter Spring 2009
Posted: 07/04/09You can download the Spring newsletter in pdf format here
Message from the Chairman
Francis Butler
Welcome to the Spring 2009 (Pre-Conference trailer) issue of the ABP Newsletter, which we hope will be the first of regular quarterly issues of the Newsletter. Others are planned as follows: Summer (Post-conference reports); Autumn (Welcome and introduction to the new Board); and Winter (Review of the year).
Firstly, I would like to draw your attention to our forthcoming Annual Conference at the Robinson Centre, Wyboston on 7 – 9 May 2009. The topic: Business Psychology in an age of austerity is one that is going to be important for all of us. The Conference will provide useful ideas and collaborative contacts. Can Business Psychologists survive in an age of austerity? Yes we can!
You may already have seen on the News section of our Website the ABP’s response to the Governments tabling of the s60 Order on the Statutory Regulation of Psychologists. While we have succeeded in ensuring that the title “Business Psychologist” is not one to be regulated by the HPC we will all need to be vigilant and the Board urges you to writes to your MP. Can we convince the Government that the statutory regulation of Business Psychologists would not be in the interests of our nation’s prosperity? Yes we can!
Finally, the ABP is only going to be as good as the members’ contributions to the Association make it and that is why we are going to hold the AGM at the start of the conference this year. Over a quarter of the active membership attend the Conference and we feel that holding the AGM then gives a better opportunity for member participation. Elsewhere in this Newsletter there is a call for nominations for the new Management Board that will take office in September. Elections will take place in July and the AGM will provide an opportunity for candidates to speak briefly on why they think that you should be voting for them on the new Board. The Board is functioning well but we will need more Board members and volunteers if we are going to make a greater impact on Business in the coming Decade. Can we do this? Yes we can!
In the meantime, I hope to see as many of you as possible in Wyboston in May. My very best wishes to you all.
News from the Conference Team
Alan Redman, Conference Dean
We’re less than 5 weeks away from the 2009 conference so the team are focusing considerable energies on the logistical side of making the conference a smooth, rewarding and enjoyable experience for all delegates and speakers. We will be sending out the stream choices soon so remember to get your preferred choices back to us early to stand the best chance of securing a place on your favourite sessions at the conference.
We have encountered an interesting range of responses while marketing this year’s conference. Among those people who have decided not to attend this year the key reasons have been:
- My employer has cut right back on training
- My business is quiet at the moment so I can’t justify the spend
- I can’t justify going on a jolly this year
Comments from people who have booked a place this year have been:
- My competitors in the market may be there – I need to learn what they’re learning
- I want to get some market intelligence/insight into other’s experience of the downturn
- I want to look for some opportunities to collaborate with others
- I’m looking to expand my opportunities for associate work
- It’s only £400 – if it helps me win ½ a day’s work then it’s paid for
We have a diverse range of speakers this year from inside and outside the Association. A significant proportion of the keynotes and speakers are presenting from a client perspective through case studies or by describing more generally what business psychologists must do to adapt to the dramatically different trading climate.
Speakers from Ernst & Young, Syngenta, Barratt Homes, Avivia and Hertfordshire Police will be sharing experience and advice concerning what organisations need from our profession right now.
Speakers from Robertson-Cooper, A&DC, Xancam, Arup and Talent Drain will be presenting leading edge developments in business psychology.
Delegates from Criterion Partnership*, Roffey Park, Norwich Union, The Met Police, Vodaphone, Zircon and Shell will be there to learn, network and share experiences.
Can you afford not to be there?
*That’s me.
The ABP database and ‘Find a Psychologist’ service
Richard Taylor, Administration
We hope that you feel that the website upgrade has been worthwhile and gives a more positive image to the ABP. The delivery of the main website was Phase 1 of the project. Phase 2 covers the establishment of a Members Area and the online database which will link into the “Find a Psychologist” facility.
We now turn our attention to the part of Phase 2 which concerns the setting up of the database. So far members’ personal information, such as address, telephone number and e-mail address has been entered into the database. Other information, such as professional profile and catalogue of interests and areas of specialisation, can not realistically be entered into the system by us and we should like to invite you to update this information yourselves.
A separate note will be sent out shortly giving specific instructions as to how to access the system and enter your information on the database and check it. The objective of this note is to advise members of progress which has been made and to give advance notice that the administration office will require help from members before the database can become operational.
We should like to add that the system appears to be totally secure and that each member will have his/her own password to access personal information. Members will have the facility to update their own passwords and other information as they wish. The only other person who will have access to this information is the administrator.
We wish to have information on the site from as many members as possible by the end of April so that so we can demonstrate the system working live during the Conference. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Membership Survey
Firstly, a big THANK YOU to the 100+ members who have already filled in the questionnaire and who have provided us with some very constructive feedback, lots of motivational comments and certainly some food for thought! If you haven’t already completed it, please do so – we have another week before we start analysing the results and preparing the feedback. It really does only take 10 minutes and the more feedback we get, the bigger a say our membership has in the future direction of the ABP.
You can complete the survey here
If you are one of those people who have already responded and indicated that you are interested in being more involved with one of the Committees, please do contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.
Would you like to help determine the future direction of the ABP?
Call for nominations for 8 Board Members
The ABP has made considerable progress in the last three years. In this time we have set up an interesting programme of events, developed stronger links with education and continued to deliver the highly successful annual conference. The membership is at 800 and growing and we have a number of services and offerings in development, with plans to make these available in the next two to five years. Through the survey we are gathering feedback on how people view and make use of their ABP membership, with suggestions for things we can do in the future. We need to bring new people on to the Board to take things forward.
What do Board Members do?
- Lead, or contribute to the Committees
- Support other members of the Board who are leading on different projects
- Attend the annual strategy meeting
- Attend Board meetings, held in central London in the evening.
- Attend the AGM, which this year will be on Thursday 7th July 2009
- Attend some London/regional events
What’s in it for you?
- An opportunity for learning and personal development (and all it will cost you is some of your time)
- You get to work as part of a committed and enthusiastic team who are all keen to promote business psychology and support the development of the profession
- Valuable experience of working as part of a Management Board
- An opportunity to extend your network and make new contacts
For an insight into what it’s like to be part of the ABP Board, see this article written by a newer Board member.
Please consider standing for the Board whether you are:
- relatively inexperienced but enthusiastic, and, after perhaps a while on the Conference team or another ABP Committee, want to gain experience of Board work and leading on projects,
- or more experienced who can add wisdom as well as contacts, energy and initiative
and if you have:
- a proactive approach
- commitment to making the the ABP succeed and a willingness to offer some of your time to ABP events, projects and activities.
The current Board
The current Board is working well and has made significant progress. However, the period of tenure is two years and for some, 2009 marks the end of their current stay in office although some are eligible for re-election. So we need some new blood; people with a bit of energy and time to contribute. In particular, Francis Butler, who has served two years as Acting Chair and two years as Chair and has done an excellent job in stabilising the Association and steering it through a very difficult period, has said that he intends to stand down as Chair – and going forward, we need another tactful and proactive person, whether from among existing or new Board members, to take up this important role.
If you are interested in getting involved, you can find details on the nomination and election process here.
Hustings and the AGM
Potential candidates should seek the support of two nominating members. Nominations then need to be sent to the ABP by 5th June, 2009 . However, we very much encourage members to get their nomination forms in early which will help them clarify their position if they want to present their ideas to the AGM in the hustings slot at Wyboston.
This year’s meeting will be the first of the ‘new style’ AGMs. Starting at lunchtime, we are providing a sandwich lunch and a cash bar, followed by the feedback from the Membership Survey. We are hoping that there will then be a sizeable number present at the formal AGM (likely to include a discussion about the level of membership fees) and the hustings opportunity which will round off the afternoon and lead us into the formal start of the conference.
The ABP is only successful due to the efforts of its members, and volunteers are needed to support a number of activities and areas. Our next article discusses the issue of volunteering with the ABP more widely and outlines some key roles and areas of contribution.
Volunteering as an ABP supporter
The ABP relies heavily on volunteers to deliver services to members. This sets out, for those considering volunteering, what might be involved, apart from the obvious facets of giving up some time and knowing that one is making a useful contribution to one’s professional association.
Current opportunities are mainly as website contributors, as members of committees (including the Conference Committee), and for more senior members as members of the Management Board.
Website copywriters
The website editor aims to build up its resources reporting and commenting on current news of interest to business psychologists, and offering information on research, best practice and contacts. If you would be prepared to volunteer copy for this purpose or to write it, please get in touch with .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Contributions will carry an acknowledgement of the author (unless they request otherwise), which will bring them to the attention of colleagues. No fee is payable. Help, on similar terms, would be welcomed with editing or contributing to the ABP newsletter.
Conference Committee
Each year the ABP’s outstanding conference, a keystone of its finances, is organised by a team of volunteers. These are often fairly recently qualified members who welcome the fun of being part of an enthusiastic team, the excellent opportunities for networking and for expanding their contacts in the profession, and the management experience of helping to run a significant project with commercial risks. A fee is not payable, but reasonable travelling expenses are met and there is a small fund for motivational rewards, related to the amount of the conference surplus. Meetings are generally in London. In addition to the conference committee, a small team of students help out with the conference on the day, and receive a concessionary fee rate.
Other committees
From time to time there are vacancies in the Education Committee, the Membership Committee (which makes recommendations to the Board on applications for membership), the Marketing & Communications Committee (which deals also with the website), the Members’ Services Committee, and the Finance Committee. Such work can provide useful networking opportunities and the chance to maintain or build a favoured area of expertise. No fee is payable, but reasonable travelling expenses are met. Meetings are generally in London. There is also a standing Disciplinary Committee, but this usually draws its membership from the Board or from outside the profession, rather than from other volunteers.
Management Board
The Management Board is the governing body of the ABP. Elections are held for Management Board membership every year, in accordance with the Association’s Articles and Regulations. However, there are fairly often opportunities for co-option to fill gaps in expertise or resource which the Board has identified. Co-option lasts until the next AGM, when a co-optee has the opportunity to offer themselves for election, or the Board may wish to renew a co-option. All Board members are expected to make a real input to the Board’s work and to take this into account when considering applying, though the Board is anxious that the contribution of all members should be arranged so as to sit comfortably with their other commitments. No fee is payable, but reasonable travelling expenses are met.
Other opportunities
Other roles supporting the ABP become available from time to time, for example as assessors for the accreditation or approval of higher education courses in business psychology. A small fee or honorarium may be payable for such tasks, depending on the case.
Making a move
Members wanting to find out more about volunteering to help the ABP, to register interest in a possible vacancy, or to make an application, should in the first instance contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), the ABP administrator.
Update on Statutory Regulation
You have probably read a number of communications on this subject recently. The relevant legislation has now been introduced to the UK and Scottish Parliaments, in the form of the Health Care and Associated Professions (Miscellaneous Amendments and Practitioner Psychologists) Order 2009. Once it comes into force, all practitioners describing themselves as “occupational psychologists” will be required to register and maintain registration with the Health Professions Council, in addition to their membership of any professional associations. At one stage, business psychologists were to be included in this process, but the ABP Management Board, supported by members, has argued to Government that this would be unreasonable, both on level playing field grounds, and also on the grounds that the primary purpose of this regulatory process is the protection of patients, but that business psychologists do not deal with patients, nor with children or vulnerable adults. We have also emphasised that any steps which weaken business psychology are likely to result in poorer advice to business on psychological issues and hence in worse management and motivation in organisations, and consequent damage to the national economy. This argument has been successful, and the current legislation does not propose the regulation of business psychologists, who will remain self-regulating, as hitherto.
The ABP issued a press release last week congratulating the Government on giving up its earlier proposals for unnecessary and potentially damaging regulation. However, the BPS has made it clear that it will nevertheless lobby Parliament to extend regulation to all psychologists, and the Department of Health has indicated that it is its ambition in due course to extend regulation further.
The Management Board asks all ABP members to write now to their MP
The Management Board asks all ABP members to write now to their MP (and also in Scotland to their MSPs, in Wales to their AMs, in Northern Ireland to their MLAs)(keener members are encouraged also to write to Lord de Mauley, the Opposition spokesman in the Lords for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). They might say that the current regulatory proposals, which leave business psychology without additional burdensome and unnecessary regulation, go far enough, and that any extension of statutory regulation to cover business psychology would weaken a key sector of business advice. Psychologists whose practice is evidence-based would face unfair burdens compared with other consultants. The overall standard of advice to business on psychological and people issues would fall, and the effects on the competitiveness of the UK economy would be adverse.
Any queries on this item may be sent to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Online networking groups
We want to encourage our members to share ideas, talk BP and get to know each other a bit better! So, we’ve created ABP groups on some of the main online business networking sites. Checking in to the LinkedIn group last week, we noticed a live demonstration of the potential value of these groups; a member was looking for ideas on testing creativity, and several people had responded with useful suggestions and insights. It’s a way of throwing your net a bit wider and tapping into a wealth of knowledge and experience, all from the comfort of your own office chair!
So, whichever platform you use, why not join one of the ABP networking groups? It only takes a few seconds – simply click on the following to take you to them -
Events
We have a good programme of events planned for this year. In London, we recently had Amanda Harrison and Mary-Clare Race of Arup talking about the principles of action and experential learning . A successful regional event was also hosted in Newcastle, with more than 20 people attending.
The rest of this year will see presentations on a range of topics, as we have a number of speakers confirmed, including:
- Bridget Grenville-Cleave, Tuesday 21st April
- Emma Farnsworth, Wednesday 20th May
- Max Blumberg, Wednesday 27th May
Dates yet to be confirmed:
Nina Len, Q-OPD
Harpal Dhatt
Patricia Pryce
Jane Sullivan
David Cook, Future Works
Stephen Blackbourne
David Sharpley
Sheila Keegan
Information on timings, locations and the focus of each workshop will be provided shortly. Do pencil these dates into your diary, and we will be in touch with further details shortly.
If you are organising a regional meeting or event, please make sure that you notify .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) in advance so we can publicise the event to other members. We’d also like to make more event reports, summaries or presentation materials available to members on the website and these should be sent to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for entry on to the events area of the website.
Book recommendations
Peter Burton
A colleague told me recently that she’d seen several warnings that psychologists who do not keep up with the emerging neurosciences would fall behind in competitive terms. I strongly agree. Development of fMRI techniques has allowed researchers to see which brain areas (or even which individual cells) light up when the individual is undergoing various experiences. This technology led to the discovery of ‘mirror neurons’ which are key to understanding social interactions. ‘Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others, not through conceptual reasoning, but by direct stimulation, by feeling not by thinking’ (Goleman 2006 P43).
A recently-published book (Lehrer 2009) brings us up to date on some even more remarkable discoveries in the field of neuroscience. In particular, that thanks to the presence of ‘dopamine neurons’ the ‘emotional brain’ learns rapidly from experience and shapes much of our behaviour, especially when there is little or no time to think about a response. The job of the ‘rational brain’ is, when time is available, to interpret the outputs of the emotional brain and produce a considered reaction (an important part of being human), but it is relatively slow and inefficient. Remember Timothy Galway’s ‘inner game’ concept?
Lehrer’s writing is very accessible and full of examples that illustrate the connection between brain structure and human behaviour. I found the book fascinating.
Goleman, D. (2006). Social Intelligence: the new science of human relationships. London: Arrow Books.
Lehrer, J. (2009). The Decisive Moment: how the brain makes up its mind. Edinburgh: Canongate.
Location, location, location
Please note that our old domain name and web address (theabp.org) will shortly be discontinued. We need to ensure we use the new one www.theabp.org.uk and the corresponding e-mail address for administrative and enquiry purposes .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
If you want to e-mail a specific Board Member directly, our ABP addresses will shortly be in operation. These are formed by the individual’s full name, all lower case with no full stop separating first and last names, with the new suffix at the end (for example, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
In the news
The Glover Review recently issued its report, which can be found here.
The Review was set up to identify action to reduce the barriers small and medium sized firms face when competing for public sector contracts and to advise on the practicality of setting a goal for SMEs to win 30 per cent of all public sector business in the next five years. It sets out twelve recommendations which aim to build on recent initiatives by further improving SME participation in public procurement in line with the concerns identified by:
- making opportunities as open and transparent as possible;
- making the procurement process equitable and as simple as possible; and
- managing procurement strategically to encourage:
- innovation;
- procurer capability; and
- ensuring a fair deal for SMEs that participate in the supply chain.
ABP members may benefit from being familiar with the contents of this review and the recommendations made.
Data protection scam
There’s a scam going about whereby individual professionals are being targeted by companies purporting to be requiring registration under the Data Protection Act. It is possible they are using the BPS register to obtain names. The documentation sounds official and rather threatening for non-compliance. However, it is a scam, as this web-site will confirm. Targeted individuals are requested to notify Trading Standards.
See here for more details.
If you hold personal data on people you may need to notify the data protection register. This costs £35. All the information you need is available here
BP Talk
In this section we encourage members to share case studies, recent projects, research, book reviews or any interesting information with other members.
We would like to thank Xancam for allowing us to feature the following interview.
The Big Three: Paula Coughlan, Talent Management Director, PepsiCo Europe, answers our Big Three questions on the challenges of developing Global Leaders.
How do you ensure consistency on a Global scale whilst maintaining relevance at a local level? In PepsiCo, we believe that real hands-on experience provides the most effective school for leadership. We recognise the benefit of early responsibility, stretch challenges, cross-functional moves, entrepreneurial flair and the opportunity to learn from the best in the business. A global career path, which can provide rich ‘critical experiences’ in a mixture of mature and emerging markets is an important part of developing world-class leaders.
There are a number of leading people processes which drive world-class leadership in PepsiCo. We place great emphasis not only on the ‘what’ but on the ‘how’. All PepsiCo leaders set people objectives in the following four key areas: Talent Development, Creating a Cherishing and Inclusive Environment, Learning & Development and Manager Quality.
We also have a well-established Global Leadership Model, a Global Manager Quality Index and our strategic People Planning programme to assess the strength and depth of the leadership talent pool.
But our mantra in PepsiCo is always ‘globally consistent and locally relevant. We have an open and inclusive working environment where we value unique qualities, cultures and perspectives and we encourage our people to ‘comes as you are’. Locally relevant brands are an important part of our heritage as is an entrepreneurial spirit and a strong, empowered GM cadre and culture. This means that leadership development is driven both by the growth needs of the local business and the need to secure a high quality global talent pipeline.
A Global career path - is it driven by the individual or the organisation? We take a ‘push-pull’ approach to the talent market. This means that we aim to strike the right balance between business-initiated career movement and a more individual ‘take charge of your own career’ approach.
We stimulate talent mobility through our Talent Forums where we review vacancies across the globe and identify those leaders who need to move into a new role for their career development. I guess you could describe it as a talent ‘match-making’ exercise and we see a great deal of movement generated through this channel. We have also seen many of our people make successful global moves through open postings on our global job board.
We have a well embedded career development planning process, which is created and owned by the individual employee with input from their manager. We encourage our people to think about their long-term target role (or type of role) and help them create a plan to get there. You could describe this as a personal career ‘roadmap’ and we have invested a huge amount in coaching our leaders to carry out the high quality career discussions needed to support this.
What are the biggest challenges you face with Global Leadership Development?
The current economic climate has certainly presented us with challenges, most notably we have seen a real concern around costs, and a reluctance to receive talent due to the costs of expat transition (i.e. housing, family, education) – there’s no doubt it can be a huge financial commitment for a business. This is a challenge in many ways because we absolutely need global talent movement to drive both business and personal career growth.
We see different challenges in mature and emerging markets as well. For example, in Russia where the war for talent is tougher, we have had to rely to an extent on expatriates because of the difficulty (faced by many other organisations too) in hiring and retaining local talent. However, our strategy now is to develop our local teams in these areas. One approach has been to take our local high potential leaders and place them in a development assignment in one of our more developed markets so they can gain the experiences necessary to return to Russia and take up a place on the senior management team. In mature markets where there are less upward growth opportunities, we have had to find ways of engaging and retaining our leadership talent in ways that do not necessarily involve an upwards promotion. This is where the importance of cross-functional moves comes into play and the focus we place on developing an array of critical experiences which will enrich people’s careers in the longer term.
Being a successful global leader at PepsiCo is all about mindset as well as skillset. Our leaders need a ‘one-PepsiCo’ outlook – the ability to create and flawlessly execute strategy within their own market but in the clear context of the needs of the whole enterprise. On the capability side, I’d say that a hallmark of PepsiCo leaders is their strong networking skills and their ability to ‘take others with them’. With PepsiCo’s 17 billion dollar brands, 185,000 employees in over 200 countries and a strong entrepreneurial culture, the ability to build powerful relationships across geographical and functional boundaries is essential for success.