Fine-tuning of the team

A two-day training on the topic of "Communication competencies in the legal service" was held in Perm for specialists of the legal services of the "Metafrax Group" companies. The goal of the course was to teach managers and employees to use specific methods of interaction, to work on practical skills necessary for successful communication with colleagues and to increase personal effectiveness.

The classes were held in the format of mini-lectures, tests for self-analysis, work in pairs and small groups, exchange of experience and discussion. 18 specialists from "Metafrax Chemicals" and "Metafrax Trading" took part in the training. Natalia Shakhova, a management consultant and a coach in management and communication skills at the «TOPeople» training center, acted as a teacher.

The specialist spoke about the features of this course.

- Team building is most often understood as rope courses, joint fishing or, for example, a trip to the bowling alley. But, unfortunately, when we return to work after such events, the existing conflicts and misunderstandings of the team remain. As a result, the effect of informal communication is lost. But when we learn to solve problems together and look for ways to interact together - it works in the long run. Today we had this exact event, during which we formed a team and set its work up around the goal, practices and joint skills, - noted Natalia Shakhova.

According to her, it was only about those problems and tasks that are solved by legal departments.

- Conflicts and difficulties in communication often arise due to the fact that its participants simply did not agree. We used techniques and skills development to make the information channels between employees cleaner. Therefore, everything we agreed on will go further into work and change the regular actions and behavioural markers, - explained Natalia Shakhova.

Larisa Potemkina, Head of the Legal Department of the AUM Complex under construction, gave a high rating to the results of the training course.

- The training was conducted at a good level - with immersion and development of tools for a specific legal service and for a specific situation - without going into theory and taking into account the communications of our legal service. We have figured out which methods have already been practiced and what needs to be done to make the situation even better, - said Larisa Potemkina.

Simon Vikhnin, Director of Legal Affairs of "Metafrax" PJSC, stressed that employee training and development is a significant component of the legal service development strategy, which was adopted last year:

- We have analyzed the work of lawyers and identified the tasks that need to be solved. Firstly, we are faced with a variety of communication channels in our work. During the course, we tried to adjust the communication system and choose adequate communication channels depending on various typical situations. As a result, we have determined the methods for ourselves for improvement of internal communication in the team, so that information is not lost and distorted and its transmission speed does not fall. We have made an important step towards establishing common rules of interaction in the team, we can call it its "fine-tuning".

According to the manager, the specialists' training will definitely continue.

- This is a long-term trend. Training is ultimately aimed at the personal growth of specialists, which is especially important in today's rapidly changing world. We will continue to look for "bottlenecks" and eliminate them. "Metafrax Group" is developing dynamically, so we must fully meet this high growth rate as we improve, - concluded Simon Vikhnin.