Columnist

Want to grow and future proof your business? Start by investing in your people’s professional development – the best investment you’ll make

The last 24 months have been some of the most challenging times for businesses; irrespective of if you’ve stumbled, pivoted, survived or thrived, we can all agree the world turned upside down.

As business professionals, we’ve all experienced years’ worth of uncertainty, stress, change and evolution, compacted into the two years. We’ve learnt, failed, grown and experimented probably far more than we are consciously aware of and our organisations and people have been tested.

The pandemic for many, was like a circuit breaker and a shake-up – it certainly was for us at theatre, drama and creative learning company Mortal Fools.

During a period where a lot of “normal” business activity felt impossible, seeds of possibility emerged – things we just hadn’t been able to see before; the pandemic was a trigger for great innovation. There is nothing quite like a global crisis to break us out of our decision-making routines, structures and ways of doing things; suddenly business and project planning was fueled full of new ideas, as we had to let go of everything we once knew in operating as a business. In this chaos, we found through creativity, collaboration, co-creation and opportunity seeking in our network (and beyond), new ways of working and exciting new community serving and/or income generating streams of the business.

At Mortal Fools, we specialise in supporting people to have better quality inter-personal relationships and to be the best authentic version of themselves as a professional. We do this internally by investing heavily into professional and personal development, for individuals, teams and the organisation collectively. Mortal Fools’ employees sit on the edge of their comfort zone all the time, they authentically show up, try new things, experiment and we celebrate failure, learning and being human. We call it our Mortal Fools’ practice – we scaffold for our employees to be vulnerable, to grow and to evolve into the best version of themselves. We do this through regular training, company development days, team development and really getting to know each other – there is no game facing at Mortal Fools, it’s collaboration over competition.

We believe it was this investment in our people, that enabled our sustainable growth, ability to innovate, explore new opportunities and pivot across 2020. Despite the uncertainty, the unknowns and feeling the fear, our senior management felt empowered to take positive action in a contemporary business landscape that had fundamentally changed.

Instead of playing it safe or waiting to see how the pandemic played out in our sector, we felt able and resilient enough to manage and mitigate risk, whilst continuing to grow and pivot the organisation, scale up projects, support all employees through the constant change and follow through with clear, transparent communication to Mortal Fools’ clients, partners and community about our activity.

We’ve taken a lot of this learning and experience, alongside our work delivering training underpinned by social sciences, to large corporate companies, public bodies, SMEs and freelancers across the last decade, to develop CONNECT; a programme of training and professional development for organisations, teams, and individuals.

The CONNECT programme offers dynamic and effective approaches to developing leadership practice, engaging and impactful communication, presentation and persuasion skills, managing difficult conversations, embedding growth mindset, overcoming imposter syndrome, investing into team dynamics, digital presence online and emotional resilience & well-being.

CONNECT has been in high demand, as with many organisations, the pandemic revealed skills gaps, fixed mindset culture, inability to innovate and feeling stuck when approaching the fundamental changes to business and building relationships in 2022. We’ve been delivering CONNECT training to the likes of Newcastle University, National Trust, Wakefield Council, Virgin Money, Ryder Architecture, Muckle LLP, INTO Global, Sunderland Culture, Circus Central, Arts Council Ireland and many more.

Moreover, like us, some organisations leaned into the possibility of doing things differently, experimenting and growing in unexpected, exciting ways and looked at their business with fresh eyes and a want to do better. This has led many folks to seek out CONNECT training, as an investment in their people, to grow with their organisations, as it adapts, changes, evolves, innovates whilst enabling staff well-being and competitive advantage.

Exactly as the diagram shows below – CONNECT leads folks from their place of comfort towards the growth zone.

This flexible training and professional development programme was designed in response to the contemporary business and professional landscape, and is grounded in real world practical applicability. It’s not a passive “how to”, it’s an active exploration of possibility and self-discovery through a unique combination sharing theory and research from the social sciences with creative sector practice intertwined through-out.

Mortal Fools are running a digital showcase on 14th June, to walk folks through the CONNECT programme, sharing how it supports and enriches organisations and is a good investment in people; empowering and enabling them to succeed and thrive in the contemporary business landscape. They will also be sharing some of their take aways and learning as a growing business in the pandemic. You can sign up HERE.

You can download the CONNECT information brochure HERE; full of client testimonials.

You can book a call with team Mortal Fools to chat about CONNECT by emailing Rachel.Horton@mortalfools.org.uk

In addition to delivering the CONNECT programme, Mortal Fools is a theatre, drama and creative learning charity co-creating theatre, film and creative projects with children and young people across the North-East. By booking CONNECT training, not only will you be receiving high-quality, specialised training from an experienced and knowledgeable team, but you will also be supporting 1000s of young people in the region, including many who are highly vulnerable and isolated.

You can find out more about Mortal Fools’ work generally HERE, about their award winning digital mental health intervention Melva HERE and you can connect with them on social media via @mortalfoolsuk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mortal Fools .