Got 10 minutes? If you’ve been considering training for your staff that’ll improve your bottom line, improve communications and result in a happier team, let us tell you a story about David*, a Chief Procurement Officer for a large NHS trust who saved £600k on a single project using NLP.
First, a bit of background. David works in procurement, an essential function in a wide range of industries and business sectors but one that can be fraught with misunderstanding and confrontation.
The language of procurement can be peppered with strange acronyms and it can be hard for people to hear past a wall of words studded with, “You have to…”, “We must…” and “You can’t…”. Procurement is all about building relationships: with suppliers, with departments and with individuals within your own company. Flipping the script from one of negativity and conflict, to positivity, civility and respect can mean the difference between a successful contract won or lost, or hundreds of thousands of pounds saved.
NLP training can give supply chain leaders and procurement managers the tools, skills and knowledge to foster a culture of positivity that will forge stronger relationships and add value to the process.
Back to David. David is Chief Procurement Officer at a large NHS trust, responsible for a team of over 30 people who spend more than £150 million per year. Not long after he joined the Trust he was involved in a major project to enhance endoscopic surgery. This was the biggest project of its kind in Europe and his customer was a “prickly and vocal” Consultant Surgeon.
At the start of the project he was forwarded an email from this Consultant that simply said, “This is War!”, a rather forthright way of summing up the classic tension of two opposing philosophies familiar to many procurement professionals – the desire to spend and the need to save.
Choosing communication rather than confrontation, David used the skills he had gathered on one of our NLP Business Practitioner courses to steer the project to a successful conclusion and at the end of that journey the same Consultant sent the following email to 150 NHS leaders:
Dear All
Re: Laparoscopic stacks – skills training
See enclosed photo – the new HD stack systems in the skills training room in the Radiology Academy – result!
Many thanks to all being involved in this initiative to bring us out of the dark ages (literally!).
The stacks for the rest of the hospital to follow shortly.
A special thanks to David XXX, whose god-like skills in the laparoscopic stack tender have saved the Trust ~£600k
David and his team continue to add value and save costs for the NHS: for example, they went on to make a saving of £1million on a £3 million annual spend through collaborative working with various teams within the Trust.
The Consultant Surgeon now champions procurement within the Trust and leads a commercial team in addition to his work in theatre.
At Evolution we have a particular understanding of how NLP can benefit procurement practitioners and we have delivered training courses on that subject to a wide range of industry sectors, particularly in manufacturing and engineering.
If, like us, you see the benefits of building better relationships using clearer communication – or you’d like to hear more about how NLP can improve your bottom line – then please get in touch and we can discuss your specific needs.
*Names have been changed.