Kier gets trained at Sandhurst

Operational managers at Kier learn how to lead a team the hard way, on an army boot camp at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy.

"Vehicle!" someone hisses, and a group of Kier operational managers, camouflage paint smeared all over their faces, hit the deck.

The Kier platoon crouches low as an 'enemy' Ford Transit crunches across a gravel track next to the dense woodland in which they are hiding. As it moves out of view, they rise slowly to their feet.

A radio crackles and the command post barks out a grid reference. They re-adjust their backpacks and head off towards the next objective.

Welcome to Kier's military-themed training programme, which sees first-line and operational managers get shipped off to boot camp to learn how to lead a team the hard way: on a training ground at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in Surrey.

In a course spanning three or four days at the officer training facility, staff from the construction firm learn how to navigate their way to grid references with a compass operate radios crash through miles of Sandhurst undergrowth and, most importantly, how to lead each other through a string of challenging, timed tasks.

If that all sounds a bit intimidating then it is probably supposed to. "They arrive here all quiet and don't know what to expect because it is quite a daunting venue. All these heavy builder types who think they're hard turn up and think 'Oh my God'," says Kier learning and development manager Mel Lake, who came up with the idea for the course.

"But you can clearly see them develop over the two days," she adds.

Tailor-made programme

The programme, which is tailor-made for Kier in conjunction with a private company based on the site, started as a pilot in November 2006, before being rolled out to the entire company in March 2007. Initially it started training first-line managers only, but since then has moved on to take in operational managers - mostly project managers and site managers.

"We've now put through approximately 200 first-line managers and about 70 operational managers," Lake says.

"We targeted first-line managers first because they are the bigger numbers and they are closest to our workforce. So that is what will give us an immediate difference in the business," she adds.

But today CJ has come to see a group of operational managers in action. The course starts with a small amount of classroom activity, in which delegates learn about the principles behind the military leadership they have come to learn.

And in case they forget, the instructors - all ex-military themselves - have those principles emblazoned on the back of their shirts: "Understand, Decide, Empower, Achieve".

What that means, Lake explains, is that when each delegate leads their team in a task they will have to understand what is going on and why, make clear decisions on who does what and how it is to be done, and then empower those people to do it in order to achieve the objective.

Once those ideals have been drummed into them, the delegates have a paper-based planning exercise before splitting into two teams of about 10 and going out on a mission lasting roughly 24 hours in the woodland around Sandhurst.

The scenario: Kier's finest are an unarmed force that has gone in to rebuild infrastructure and secure peace in the exotic- and yet familiar-sounding republic of Basingstokia.

Although an instructor accompanies them, they will be required to take turns to be overall team leader, lead navigator, and radio operators as they negotiate their way through a series of tasks with the help passed on to them via radio from the command post.

Obstacle course

Missions require the team to find their way across an obstacle course, or build something that will benefit the citizens of Basingstokia. To make it more difficult, they will normally only have about 20 minutes and a bag with a few bits of kit such as ropes and a pulley in order to do it.

CJ saw teams in action on the tasks, but Lake is keen not to divulge too many details in case future delegates have the surprise spoiled for them.

Apparently, participants in the scheme can also be relied upon not to tell their colleagues about what happens on the course.

"The delegates who have done it support it so much that they don't tell the others the detail, because they can see how that would ruin the 'wow-factor'," Lake says.

Sandra Duggan, a Kier project manager in London who is participating in the course, agrees. "My friend went on the course and loved it, but she didn't want to go into too much detail when she talked to me about it because she didn't want to ruin it. I'll do the same," she says.

Once each task is finished, the leader gets immediate feedback on their performance from the instructor, as well as the rest of their team.

The practical nature of the course means that they simply take away the experience at the end of the mission, along with a four-page aide-memoire of the four leadership principles: understand, decide, empower achieve.

On top of that, delegates are asked to make a commitment to change on the final night of the course. Kier then lays on a half-day follow-up a few months later to discuss whether they managed to meet the commitment.

But what do the participants themselves think of the experience?

Jim Wren, a proposals manager for Kier Construction in the North West, North Wales and Sellafield says: "I'm fairly experienced - I've been in this industry more years than I care to remember - and I will get something from this course about what motivates people as well as ways of managing different situations."

"It's set at about the right level for all of the different people here. So far we seem to be surviving," he adds.

Meanwhile, Paul Lawrence, a project manager with Kier Eastern, is also impressed with the way the course is running. "It's is very enjoyable and well organised. It helps us understand and assess the situation before you make a decision.

"Situations arise on site every day and this helps you with how to deal with those situations," he adds.

Perhaps that sums it up best: the course is not only effective, but it is also fun. It is hardly going to make Kier employees ready to charge into a battle - the real Sandhurst officer training course lasts 44 weeks - but it gives them a taste of how to manage under pressure.

"We're not turning our guys into soldiers but the principles of military leadership is what we're teaching them," Lake says.

"Word about the course has got out now, even though we don't give detail. We have waiting lists for the programme, and that's good in construction."

And that's without them even knowing about the course's secret grand finale, which promises to put all that the delegates have learned to the test for one last time. CJ could tell you what it is, but then a squad of Kier's crack troops would probably have to kill us

How they found it

Previous participants in the Sandhurst course tell CJ how it helped them:

"I attended the First Line Manager Course at Sandhurst, spring 2007. Not only was the course really entertaining, it also provided a simple formula to follow which can be applied to any workplace briefing/toolbox talk to facilitate Planning, Briefing, Delegating and Motivating, this being: APTHUS - Aim Plan Tasks Health and Safety Understanding Summary. I have since been able to use this summary on numerous occasions. My best example was at the beginning of my current project (a £5.6m PFI school) where I was able to brief my asbestos removal, demolition and groundworks subcontractors together before the start of the project about the first two-to-three months of the project. This enabled a really good start to the project."

Tim French, senior engineer, Kier Eastern

 

"I attended the Sandhurst course just over a year ago now and it was by far one of the best courses I have attended in my career to date. It was just so different in the way the learning was facilitated being outdoors and working as a team was great despite the weather being terrible (it rained solidly for the entire first day!). All the tasks were geared to pushing you into following the structure of the skill areas the course was teaching - Plan, Brief, Delegate and Motivate. The basics came through very strongly and it did teach you that if you didn't plan and brief the team properly, or you decided to do too much on your own, how things can go wrong. It also showed that if you did follow the structure how successful you can be. It was easy to understand, put across well and the concepts can easily be transferred into everyday working life."

Richard Hamlin, site manager, Kier South East