Case Study 11

Facilitation - UK Passport Office

Situation/Need

As part of the response to increasing delays and poor customer feedback, the Passport Office decided to add to their resource and open a new office in Durham.

DDA Consulting were contracted to work with the newly appointed Centre Director in order to:

• Facilitate the process of goal setting
  
  
• Provide coaching support and training initiatives to develop the new team of people who would launch and run the new centre.

The Centre Director set an overall goal of becoming the benchmark for all centres in the UK. They wanted:

1. To open the new centre in Durham to a very demanding time scale

2. To establish response times significantly quicker than any other UK centre, thereby reducing transaction cost per passport.

3. To deliver quality standards better than all other UK centres such that failure time costs were significantly reduced.

Approach/Solution

DDA Consulting provided coaching support for key members of the management team to help them establish a compelling vision for the new centre, together with a values set to support this. We also designed and delivered a leadership training and development programme, for all managers and team leaders, consistent with a values set and key competences developed jointly with the leadership team.

Short team development activities were provided for all new teams to help to quickly involve and develop a commitment to the goals, values and ways of working that were to become a way of life in the Durham centre. Specific measures of capability, including a 360 degree feedback profile, were designed to help support skills development.

Results

• The Launch –Original target time achieved
  
  
• Performance –Quickly improved to become best in UK
  
  
• Quality –Became best in UK
  
  
• Transaction Costs - Target reductions exceeded 
  
  

The new centre at Durham was opened on time and became a benchmark for best practice within a very short time from opening for business. High measures of motivation and staff satisfaction all contributed to the centres success. The leadership team established an inclusive culture of working where staff enjoyed and benefited from a strong culture of support and challenge

Relationships within the centre were developed based on openness and trust, while feedback was highly valued.