Successfully surviving Select Committee grilling Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council

Background:

• UK Parliamentary Select Committee hearings are notorious for the depth of their questioning with reputations often won or lost as a result
• The EPSRC had recently appointed a new Chief Executive who was to give detailed evidence to a hearing. Whilst a veteran speaker, he was relatively unfamiliar with the procedures of a Select Committee hearing and wanted to ensure he was both prepared and confident enabling him to accurately reflect the organisations views and reinforce the positive work of the EPSRC amongst key stakeholders

Solution:

• A 4-hour coaching session including the provision of a compact overview of the Select Committee process, detailed briefings on the individual Committee members, expected lines of questioning, key message development, review of past inquiries and the staging of a "mock" inquiry with simultaneous presentation skills coaching

Results:

• The hearing went extremely well and the new Chief Executive, according to the client, "answered very strongly". This re-affirmed the EPSRC's excellent and valuable work at the highest levels of Government, helping to ensure continued success for the many worthwhile projects it funds
• In a testimonial, the client said they were "really impressed by both your research and coaching" and said that colleagues had "worked with other companies in the past and found your session much more useful and better prepared"
• Our work was subsequently recommended to other Research Councils

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