developing the business case - do elephants...

Do Elephants Jump w| www.doelephantsjump.com m|+61 418 400 828 e|[email protected]

Learning Leadership Strategies Workshop

Entrepreneurs Senior Leaders Coaches

Emerging Leaders Project Managers

Curious Leaders

Developing The Business Case

Do Elephants Jump © 2017


The purpose of this document is to help you gain approval for you and or your team’s professional development. Each section

includes examples and space for you to develop a sound business case. We have also included formulas to supplement and

substantiate your request for professional development. If you would like assistance with this document please contact Nicola at

[email protected].

First rule keep it simple, people are generally time poor so grab their attention with a persuasive hook – you have 10 seconds.

Second rule be prepared you may only have one chance to plant the seed that this training request has a healthy return. Time

and money are valuable commodities being prepared will demonstrate your respect for both. When your presentation is electronic

include links to your research, websites, videos, brochures if presenting live think of your audience would they appreciate

promotional material or find it cumbersome.

Third rule own it, be confident you have done the

pre-work – the seed has been planted they will see a

return on their investment!

The key to creating a great business case is to write it with your audience is mind – how would THEY like to see this business

case presented – what would appeal to them.

Key attributes to consider;

•  Big picture or detailed – if your audience is big picture have the details available just in case they throw you a curve ball - a

nice touch is to ask - do you require more information?

•  Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic – if you audience is visual give them something to look at, auditory something to listen and

if their kinaesthetic include doing words like “feels, grab, try, fits, hold...” and if you don’t know use all three here’s an

example:

•  How would they like to see this business case presented – stated visually

•  How would they like to hear this business case presented – stated for the auditory person

•  What could you include in this business case to grasp their attention – this is written kinaesthetically

Ground Work

Determination


The Hook Creating A Compelling Why

You have 10 seconds, maybe 3 to grab their attention

How will this solution help, put some feeling into this and provide examples.

What do you want to achieve, paint a compelling picture.

•  ....................................................

•  ....................................................

•  ....................................................

•  Increase / Decrease

•  Improve / Fix

•  ..................................

Why is this important, make it sound logical.

•  .................................................................................................................................................

•  .................................................................................................................................................

•  .................................................................................................................................................

•  .................................................................................................................................................

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•  Financial

•  Motivational

•  Public image

•  Improve moral

•  ................................

•  .................................................................................................................................................

•  .................................................................................................................................................

•  .................................................................................................................................................

•  .................................................................................................................................................

•  .................................................................................................................................................

•  More productive

•  Less stress

•  Harmonious atmosphere

•  Open communication

•  ................................

Still to come

•  Formula’s to calculate costs

•  Sample paragraphs to get the creative juices flowing

What if we train them and they leave?

What if we don’t and they stay?

What else might they want to know?

Vision

They may want to see, hear and understand what return on investment is anticipated - to get a clear picture of this talk to your

provider of choice and let them help understand what you can anticipate as a return on investment. We have a participant return

on investment workbook if you would like a copy please let us know.


The easy way to calculate hourly costs is to use an online meeting

cost calculator we use the Harvard Business Review meeting calculator.

Just enter the time spent on the activity the number of people involved

and their salary and then multiply that figure by how often it happens

(daily è weekly è yearly) and this is your cost.

** Society for Human Resource Management SHRM ©, Retaining Talent: A guide to analysing and managing employee turnover

The Harvard Business Review* meeting calculator

* https://hbr.org/2016/01/estimate-the-cost-of-a-meeting-with-this-calculator

Examples of Time Lost Revenue

•  Conflict management - personality clashes, a lack of respect, lack understanding...

•  Redoing work - misunderstanding, lack of trust, a need to be in control, not being trained properly...

•  Duplication of work - missing procedures, blurry role definitions, unclear lines of responsibilities...

•  Higher turnover - lack of leadership, bullying...

•  Absenteeism is being at work but not producing, very often this happens when people are stressed.

Turn over : Calculating the cost of losing an employee is no easy feat due to the number of variables involved - you need to

consider the loss of productivity, training and indirect costs like writing job descriptions, conducting exit interviews, payroll,

writing contracts...

•  Direct costs can range between 50 - 60% of an employee’s salary **

•  Total associated costs could bring this figure up to 90 - 200% **

Examples of Emotional impact

•  People are leaving because they don’t have confidence...

•  Workers are stressed...

•  .... doesn’t feel supported.

•  ... is frustrated and isn’t performing at their best.

•  The team isn’t happy and productivity is down by __________ .

Summary for tipping the scale:

1.  Have the numbers.

2.  Include emotion – interview the people and ask them

what do they need.

3.  Go back and check – have you included the impact of

doing nothing and the benefits of taking action.

Take your time and get this right

Measurements and Calculations Tipping The Scales In Your Favour


The Gold Tying It All Together With Examples

1. What you want to achieve... the desired state

We want sustainable growth and the way to do that is by investing in our leaders now. The Learning Leadership Strategies

workshops focuses on the importance of having structure, increasing behaviour awareness and improving communications skills.

•  Structure - Like organisation’s teams need structure too, as it helps to build team alignment and keeps the team on track - with

the right training a team’s vision and values will support our organisation’s existing vision while increasing personal

responsibility as employees will better understand the impact of their contribution.

•  Increased Behaviour Awareness - As you know our employees separate us from our competition and to keep that lead our

leaders need to understand the impact they have on their employees and how to manage team conflict when it arises. This type

of training will increase their confidence. These workshops go beyond putting the checks in the right boxes they explain how

the mind works and responds to challenges so our leaders can be more purposeful with their actions.

•  Improve Communication Skills - Our leaders need to know how to build rapport and provide feedback with confidence,

elegance and ease so they can have those difficult conversations and learn how to accept feedback graciously.

2. Explain why this is important... the current state

•  Please allow me to explain our current costs, conversations having to do with conflict management costs our organisation

$__________ over 1 year.

•  Exit interviews show employees are leaving because _______________ the cost to replace an employee is ____________ if this

continues it’s unsustainable.

•  Our leaders are frustrated as they have not been properly trained as managers or leaders... if just one leader were to resign it will

cost the organisation $__________ and if one employee were to leave due to poor leadership it would cost organisation

$__________.

•  We have promoted our top people let’s invest in their success so they will stay.

3. Explain how your solution will help solve the above issues... the action to take

To help you answer this question we would need to know more about your specific situation we can be reached by email or phone

E| [email protected] M | +61 418 400 828 W | www.doelephantsjump.com

Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well

enough so they don’t want to. Richard Branson


More Tips & Suggestions To get this business case approved

Need a little help in articulating your “why” - here are a few words, phrases and sentences that you can build on.

Benefits of investing – motivated by moving

towards a goal.

•  Skilled Employees •  Greater team cohesion

•  Ready made succession planning •  Greater awareness of self and others •  Reputation for investing in the team

•  Higher performance output •  A more confident workforce

•  Improved customers service •  Greater Team alignment

•  Increase productivity

•  Happier workforce

•  Healthier Workforce

•  Situational leadership

•  More open conversations

•  My knowledgeable about stress

•  Solutions focused

•  More informed

•  Increased respect of difference

Risks for not investing – motivated by steering

clear of danger.

•  Increased number of mistakes •  Interpersonal conflict

•  Lack of understanding •  Duplication of work

•  High level of staff turnover

•  Claims being lodged

•  A more stressful environment

•  More sick leave

•  Higher rate of absenteeism

•  Frustrated workforce

To really impress... have reasons why you choose Do Elephants Jump’s

Learning Leadership Strategies over other programs.

Remember, think of your audience what is their motivation - is it to move towards a goal or is it to steer clear of danger?

Do Elephants Jump is a boutique teaching and coaching business that specialises in developing leadership skills. The founder

Nicola, is a sort after leadership strategist, she mentors entrepreneurs, has managed teams internationally, is a Master NLP

practitioner consultant and trainer. She provides behavioural, leadership and executive coaching to leaders at all levels and has been

engaged to work on projects in various sectors including not-for-profit, health, automotive, recruitment, education and government

in Australia, New Zealand and North America. She has a background in anthropology, Certificate IV in Training and Assessment,

is a recognised and certified Master NLP trainer and practitioner and is accredited in various survey and profiling tools such as DISC

and 360 assessments.

And she’s curious about your training and development needs so feel free to set up a time to chat.

developing the business case - do elephants...

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