Stewart Hanegraaf

Queensland Business Support Manager – BOC

As interviewed at the FAST 2008© launch event.

“FAST © became evident to me out of the need to develop a pool for succession planning to fill so many of these Store Manager Roles that where coming about as so many people where moving through our organisation.

What we had, I guess, was a number of people who where put into roles by being thrown a set of keys to a Gas & Gear store. They did not necessarily have all what was needed for them to blend into that role quite comfortably. Therefore, the risk of success became a greater challenge. So I really wanted to have a program that certainly would fill that void and build on our succession.

The second part of this strategy was about retention. If the people in our Gas and Gear network could see we were concerned about their development, we would envisage that they would not want to leave the organisation to progress their career. They could see a path with us and we were there to help them through that journey.

The FAST Program being Future Asset Succession Training was also the next cycle of development.  The development is focused on leadership and ‘FAST’ so we certainly have a duel meaning to that title.

The program uses our favorite tool, SDI, which is Strengths Deployment Inventory, so it’s a stock take of their strengths, project management, networking opportunities, Leadership and how to lead and manage teams. There are a lot of innovative options -doing things differently, to what we have always seen and done in the past.

It’s a great opportunity around developing aspiring Leaders to become inspiring Leaders. Who help guide effective teams that are proud of the job they accomplish in the community and the brand they represent. A career that cultivates its people, to have the acquired skills to be able to step into the next role with confidence. Like for me, I learnt the sink or swim way in front of customers and managers. I felt I didn’t want to put people through that.

With FAST we will develop future leaders with the character to create a culture that will unleash the collective talent and passion of people towards the right goals.

I met Pauline from People and Teams roughly 5 years ago, and since then we have worked on many different programs over the years. I guess right from the start, Pauline and I have established a very trusting relationship; we tend to work fully on trusting each other. This really helps with the development of programs coming about really quickly. We can sit in a room and have paper, sheets of paper - all over the walls, but somehow Pauline manages to come back with quite a good scope around a whole new program.

So, it has been a great journey for Pauline too; she has taken plenty of time to get to know our business. It’s not about a consultant coming in and delivering 101 on customer service or sales techniques or leadership. She has actually understands our products and the uniqueness of our business, which has certainly been well regarded by a lot of our Gas & Gear Staff she has worked over the last few years. It never comes about as faith, there is a genuine interest by them in our business and this has been the key strength of Pauline and People and Teams.

We started our journey around SDI 3 years ago with Pauline and People and Teams.  As a result many other functions within our national business also took on their training and wonderful SDI program. Certainly, there has been a lot of interest on a national level with our Sales and Service Program that has been presented to our National Retail Peer Group late last year. It is a certainty that the program will be taken up nationally. I know from the FAST program, there is a great deal of excitement and interest again here and on a national level for that program. We actually have one of our national HR learning and Development people here this week, sitting in on the FAST program to consider it on the national agenda.

So we are very conscious the partnership with People and Teams is here for the long term, it’s already been 5 years as I said earlier. I’m certain, as my past role as Queensland Retail Manager I couldn’t have achieved the results with a better partner than Pauline and People and Teams and I certainly hope that she works with BOC nationally and for a long time to come.

In summary, over the 2 days we have been here on the FAST program.  For me, it has been absolutely amazing to see so many people from various functions of our organisation just get stuck into all this new material that has been put forward. This has been done in a manner that is friendly, warm, there is no fear or inhabitations around asking silly questions, just encouragement and I think it has been a great atmosphere for people to come and learn  in comfortable and safely.

I think that is an absolute credit to Pauline and her facilitation style. My wishes that in a couple of year’s time that people commend Pauline on the way she manages to deal with the role out of these programs. It’s fantastic, a fantastic start.”

  
2008