Success Factory News
Latest News From The Successfactory, view the full archive here.
- All kinds of things...and our Global Business Excellence Award
Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 12:15 pm
Last week Successfactory welcomed two of Coca-Cola's Northern Teams to our beautiful Venue. The first team arrived on Monday evening and their challenge was to organise and cook a BBQ for all 20 team members (including all the trimmings - various salads, corn on the cob, bread rolls, etc). The evening started with a bang as Coke got busy! Drinks were flowing, meat was sizzling and a great time was had by all. The evening BBQ, out on our patio overlooking our beautiful views, was a great relaxing way for Coke to begin their time at Successfactory.
Alison worked with a group of Samsung's Senior Leaders from across Europe last week. As a part of a Leadership Development Programme they explored what is needed to lead really high performance teams in today's ever changing and highly challenging world. They explored the tools, processes and key leadership skills required to both create and sustain true teams, ensuring the delivery of great results from highly motivated people. Shaun Bradley of Samsung said of Alison and the event,
"Congratulations on a facilitating a great day, from a personal viewpoint I felt you were excellent. You have a facilitation style that really engages the audience and helps them see problems as opportunities. The contrasting New World/Old World part of the day was brilliantly done, there were some real light-bulb moments which is exactly what we need to continue the change at Samsung."
We're also extremely proud to announce that last week we found out we had won a prestigious Global Business Excellence Award for Outstanding Learning Solutions! As we quoted in our previous news article (and we thought we'd quote it again because we're excited about this!) Simon Burgess, Chairman of the Judges said, "Effectively delivering high impact learning interventions in the areas of leadership, change and team working is easier said than done. SuccessfactoryTM have created an innovative environment and business proposition as well as a socially aware company. Their work for major global brands is testament to their ability to produce results that impact on the bottom line while guiding them towards ultimate business excellence. With an international roll out of the proposition planned by 2011, they are one to watch." Thanks again to all our clients and to our great team at Successfactory.
Aside from that, we're really pleased to have Anne back from her holiday! She had a lovely time away with family and a lovely birthday. Kate keeps bringing in more and more new leads - we've had 3 show-rounds of our venue already this week and its only Tuesday! Graham is on annual leave this week in Boston with his partner, Carole, having a wonderful time no doubt. All is well in Chester (apart from the sun disappearing!) and we'll update you with more juicy news next week.
- Successfactory™ Wins Global Business Excellence Award!
Thursday, 15 July 2010, 1:45 pm
We have just found out some extremely exciting news! It has just been announced that SuccessfactoryTM have won a prestigious Global Business Excellence Award for Outstanding Learning Solutions!
Commenting on Successfactory's Global Business Excellence Award for Outstanding Learning Solutions, Simon Burgess, Chairman of the Judges said, "Effectively delivering high impact learning interventions in the areas of leadership, change and team working is easier said than done. SuccessfactoryTM have created an innovative environment and business proposition as well as a socially aware company. Their work for major global brands is testament to their ability to produce results that impact on the bottom line while guiding them towards ultimate business excellence. With an international roll out of the proposition planned by 2011, they are one to watch."
A BIG thank to all our clients who have trusted us with their teams and given us the opportunity to grow and develop ourselves. A huge congratulations must go to our entire team at SuccessfactoryTM for always working so hard, always putting in that little bit extra and all their innovative ideas! This is further proof that our team truly is high-performing whilst still sticking to the SuccessfactoryTM company purpose, "Making a difference whilst living a wonderful life". Well done everyone!
- Birthdays, Holidays and BBQ's...
Monday, 12 July 2010, 4:48 pm
Our Successfactory team have been hard at work over the past week, here, there and everywhere! Our trainers, Alison and Graham, have travelled far and wide in the last few days working with all sorts of fantastic teams.
Alison has been in Cheshire working with Cheshire East Council and head teachers to develop a shared vision and set of values as part of their strategy for change. She then went to Leeds working with Bupa running a workshop on creating greater impact and influence. Then Alison was in London working with Samsung on leading high performance teams! She finally returned to the office on Friday where we helped her recharge and prepare for another few weeks of being in demand and on the road!
Graham spent some of last week in Malham, North Yorkshire, putting the Bupa Supporting Excellence team through their paces, learning about leading remote teams! They have taken part in, amongst other things, a Mad Allen's Challenge which is great for developing strong communication strategies and developing problem solving skills. The Successfactory team spent our last Christmas party in Malham, walking through the valleys and taking in the beautiful views (particularly the stunning view of Malham Cove!), so Graham knows the area well. It's a fantastic location for the Bupa team and the event was a brilliant success!
Graham and Anne are celebrating their birthdays this week! So a huge, happy, happy, happy birthday to them both! Graham is going to be spending his special day this year at the Bolesworth Show Jumping Classic! Successfactory is located on the Bolesworth Estate and every year, we feel it's important to take part in events like these in order to keep up great relations with our local community. Graham will be taking a few of our clients such as Coca-Cola, Muller, Airbus and some potential clients to the event and enjoying a day of show-jumping, fine food, good wine and most of all, great company! He is then off for a week in Boston.
Anne is away this week, spending time with her family. There is definitely a hole in the team, Anne is practically our Office Mum! However, we've made contingency plans in order to survive the week without her and we hope that she has a really wonderful time and lovely birthday in Kent, the Garden of England.
Kate is busy, busy, busy, as always! She's been doing lots of networking and bringing new business in. She also has a lovely holiday coming up, where she and her family will be jetting off to the Med for a well-deserved break! Teegan spent last week in Abersoch, North Wales, with her family. She didn't forget us though, we received our first ever postcard from her with a picture of a beautiful sunset on the front...we were all a bit jealous!
Last week Martin & Vicky took care of our lovely venue and wonderful clients. We had Marks & Spencer and M&S Money in and they ensured that their days ran superbly. Vicky took Tuesday off as it was her daughter's 6th birthday. They went to Chester Zoo as Carlie's birthday treat and had a brilliant time!
Today we have Coca-Cola joining us for an evening BBQ so that's all for now, but more news next week!
- Robin Hood, Scouts and even more sunshine......
Friday, 2 July 2010, 3:22 pm
So, England have managed to take themselves out of the World Cup! However, despite the disappointing football, it's been all systems go at Successfactory this week! On Monday, we had 80 children from various schools in the Sandbach area joining us to celebrate the end of their SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) Programme. The Sheriff of Nottingham had kidnapped Maid Marion and it was up to the children to complete a series of Robin Hood themed tasks in order to get enough treasure together for the ransom! The activities included den building in our woods (Robin Hood's Merry Men need to know how to survive in the forest!), Trebuchet (to break down the castle walls), cobwebs and castles (in order to get across the castle moat) and Little John's Trail through the forest (the low ropes course to ensure the children had the skills to manoeuvre quickly and quietly!). They had a brilliant day and we even heard from one of the teachers that the children had said "this was the best school trip ever!" We're pleased we've managed to outdo ourselves, once again!
Muller Dairy joined us on Wednesday for a team meeting. The day began with teas and coffees on the patio in the glorious sunshine...you can't ask for much more really, can you?! We did have one small hiccup when a little swallow flew into the training room (well, it IS the countryside!) but Muller powered through and the little bird eventually found its way safely out. A good day was had by all and yet another group of clients go away happy.
Martin worked with the Bunbury Scouts on Wednesday evening. We pride ourselves on helping out our local community when we can, so Martin took the opportunity to facilitate a great session with 11 scouts and ensured they had fun, learned about themselves as a team and achieve great things!
Alison has been driving the length and breadth of the country this week facilitating all kinds of exciting work! This week she has been working with Centra in Coventry, London & Manchester, as well as with Cledford Primary School. Next week she's working with Cheshire East Council, Bupa and Samsung. The team back at Successfactory are working hard to support her and assist with all the prep for her training!
Graham has been busy working for the University of Liverpool running Inspirational Leadership Programmes as part of their ongoing Management Development Programme. He also has been meeting with clients to build on a new strategic alliance with an online learning company - The Working Manager - more to follow over the coming months. Exciting projects and offerings to be announced soon!! The rest of the week Graham spent on business development and getting ready for a leadership programme for Bupa on leading remote teams.
A huge congratulations goes to Kate, our Sales & Marketing Manager, for completing her Bob Graham Fell Run last weekend! She did so well and feels its one of her biggest running achievements to date so we're proud of her!
In terms of the rest of the team, Vicky's looking forward to celebrating her little girl's 6th birthday next Tuesday (happy birthday Carlie!). Teegan is off to Abersoch next week and is looking forward to spending some time with her family. Anne is busy busy busy with wedding plans for her younger daughter, Liane. The wedding is in September (we're all really excited to have been invited!) and the clock is ticking so it's all dresses and flowers and hair appointments at the moment...how lovely! All is well in the world of Successfactory and we're looking forward to welcoming both Marks & Spencer and M&S Money to our venue next week.
- Some like it hot....
Friday, 25 June 2010, 2:17 pm
As England prepares to go to the next round of the World Cup, we look forward to the next round of exciting team events! Summer is definitely here at the moment, the maize crop is growing fast outside our office - fields of dreams...
Following an anxious pre-budget start to the week all has been very busy here as old and new friends have contacted us for our help with their business and personal development. Muller are bringing a team for a day of "fun with serious intent" and Stafford and Rural Homes will be challenging part of their business to save the world from evil perpetrators in a Mission imPOSSIBLE themed event. Alison has re-acquainted herself with the national rail network as she's been travelling the country, running some exciting conferences for the Choice Advice and Quality Assurance Networks. Graham has been helping ARUP develop their negotiating capabilities, whilst preparing for a 2-day 'Being an Inspiring Leader' programme with the University of Liverpool next week. Successfactory's venue team have been ensuring that our trainers have everything they need for their busy time offsite and preparing for a fantastic day with 80 primary school children on Monday. The children will be celebrating a year long SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) program and working together to rescue Marion from the Sheriff of Nottingham - we're keen to start now with tomorrow's leaders.
On Sunday Graham will be presenting prizes to winners of a free team build at Successfactory when he attends the final event of Chester Bike Week. The winning team will be given the chance to spend the day at Successfactory, experiencing our activities and unique approach to team development....we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate!
- MoneySupermarket.com, iLuka & some Scouts!
Friday, 18 June 2010, 3:19 pm
Summer seems to have returned just in time for the weekend, so let's keep our fingers crossed that the BBQ's can come out and the sun keeps on shining here in Cheshire! As usual, we have lots of news so let's get started.
Graham has spent the week at Successfactory. As well as catching up with clients, writing proposals and business development strategies he has managed to squeeze in a number of days working with clients - the bit he loves most! Monday saw Graham supporting the IT team from Moneysupermarket.com with their team-build, which they all thoroughly enjoyed! One delegate said, "Excellent, inspirational environment - I really enjoyed it all!" On Tuesday Graham ran a workshop with Alison and the team from Brand Vista. They looked into the exciting opportunities of working together to link the brand development work Brand Vista do with the change management work that Successfactory do. It all looks a very exciting collaboration. More news to follow shortly no doubt!
Wednesday saw Graham working with Bunbury Scouts on the high ropes course, doing our bit for the local community. Eleven scouts had a fantastic time working together to achieve things they never thought possible! On Thursday Graham presented Inspiration Monthly - Successfactory's collaboration with Pentacle Virtual Business School. We run virtual workshops worldwide - and share our ideas and pragmatic tools, it really is useful! Finally, today (Friday) has been staff development day - and getting ready for a busy week next week!
Alison and Martin spent the latter half of the week in the Norfolk Broads. A glorious location with lots of sun was the ideal setting for a team event for 28 members of the senior management team at iLuka. The team was split into groups and given the written briefs for their challenge - three hours in which to maximise their credit balance! In order to do this, the teams bought lots at auction. These lots were questions and challenges revolving around sites in the area of Fritton, where they had been staying. They had to develop and implement a strategy that not only earned them as much money as possible, but played to the strengths of their team and was flexible enough to cope with unexpected change. The team rose to the challenge, finishing with a great profit and having fun together!
In other news, it was Kate's birthday on Wednesday! A big happy birthday to you from the rest of the team. Vicki has been working hard around the venue (particularly outside so she could take advantage of the beautiful weather!) to make sure everything stays fresh and beautiful. Teegan, after weeks of doing a bit here and a bit there whenever she gets a spare minute, has finally managed to get the basics of the new Ops Manual together which she's pleased about. And lastly, as World Cup Fever has taken hold of the nation, we'd like to wish the England team all the best for both this year's World Cup and the 2018 bid!
- Some more news for you...
Thursday, 10 June 2010, 3:31 pm
Oh no! Where did summer go?! Ah, the great British weather! Never mind, at Successfactory there have still been smiles all round and happy, shiny clients...despite it being grey outside!
Last week Graham worked on a number of exciting proposals for new Successfactory clients. He also spent time developing and coaching our team whilst designing new leadership programmes for clients - helping their leaders to be better equipped with the tools, skills and knowledge to lead in our "New World". If you are not sure what the "New World" is please give us a call - we need to talk ASAP!!!
This week it was a delight to welcome back the multi-agency team from Kingsway and Upton Children's Centre in Cheshire. The team works really hard to deliver fantastic services for children and their families through strong partnership working. They joined us for a well deserved celebration of their excellent work and to spend time developing a new mission statement that will enable them to continue to deliver great work in our changing times. Sue, the Centre Manager, said "An excellent day - as always! Thank you for meeting all our diverse needs, brilliant!"
Graham has been involved in developing the project managers and change agents at 02 this week, helping to implement the new project and change framework we developed with them. He was also spotted enhancing negotiation capability at Arup, helping leaders and project managers in the business achieve "win more - win more" solutions with a new model of negotiation. If you are looking to enhance your negotiated outcomes then feel free to call us for more details.
Successfactory were also visited by a great team from Moneysupermarket.com! They explored building trust and developing great communication through one of the projects on our ropes course. They all had a great day and we're sure that as the fantastic team they are, they'll definitely be able to move forward!
We've been joined for meetings recently by ConvaTec and Reaseheath College. All round we've been working hard to ensure our clients receive the high standard of training, venue, food and overall experience that they deserve!
Graham had a great time at Wembley Stadium on Sunday when he and his two daughters went to the Capital Radio Summertime Ball, with acts including Rihanna, JLS, Usher and Scouting for Girls. The next stop for Ali this week is Norfolk to design a new team development activity based in the beautiful grounds surrounding Fritton Lake...we're all a bit jealous in the office! Anne is looking forward to a visit from her daughter, son-in-law and beautiful granddaughters this weekend for a visit to Chester Zoo! Kate is training hard for her Bob Graham Fell Run. Teegan is back from Bulgaria and had a lovely time. Vicky spent two days this week at Alton Towers to celebrate her birthday (happy birthday again Vic!) and Martin is off to Edinburgh for the weekend. As always, the Successfactory team are living a wonderful life and working hard!
- New clients, a team meeting & some horses
Friday, 28 May 2010, 10:10 am
The ash cloud may still be causing disruptions here and there but we're glad it didn't affect new clients, Microgaming Software Systems Limited, getting to SuccessfactoryTM. They came over last Thursday, all the way from the Isle of Man, to participate in an Equine Workshop with us.
The Senior team from Microgaming, the online gaming industry's largest and most established software provider, were eager to explore leadership. In particular they wanted to look at authentic leadership and coaching. Graham Wilson worked with the team using Equine Assisted Learning. Using horses for leadership development is a powerful experience that unlocks your personal strengths and develops your leadership, team, and communication skills while increasing your awareness and stimulating your creativity. Graham says, "Using horses makes the experience unique and unlike other experiential activities... the horses provide participants a real-life mirror of thoughts, emotions, and physical behaviours that may not be in their consciousness. This is then used to create powerful changes in leadership behaviour back in the workplace". The Senior team from Microgaming found the experience hugely beneficial, they said, "We enjoyed the unique challenge of the Equine Workshop, and in the process learned a great deal about ourselves, and a little about horses!"
Last week, MoneySupermarket.com's Senior Management Team joined us for a day of hard work and great learning in our venue Inspiration. We've been working closely with MoneySupermarket.com recently in order to provide them with the awesome kind of venue they deserve in order to assist in achieving great things!
This week we had a brilliant team meeting where we all got to catch up on where we're up to this year so far and how great it has been! We relaxed on our lovely bean bags in Inspiration, drank tea, ate cake and came up with some fantastic new offers for our clients (watch this space!).
Graham then dashed off to Samsung where he was invited to present at their European HR Directors conference on the topic of "HR in the future". The team were introduced to New World Thinking concepts which provided the thought provoking catalyst to changes the team have now planned. The ideas the team developed included creating a one-page strategy for the European HR Team to ensure clarity and brand awareness of the value they offer to the business. Ideas around a more collaborative way of working were discussed and a pragmatic move from transactional services to a true business partnering approach. The team were inspired by the possibilities of creating a true learning culture across the European Team. Watch this space as the results soar!!!
Alison has been working with the University of Liverpool this week, delivering training on Influencing and Negotiating skills as part of an ongoing leadership development programme. Kate is on to lots of new, exciting leads. We've got so much work coming in that Kate is pleased to be welcoming Vicki to the sales & marketing team to assist in dealing with all our bookings! Anne is keeping all our finances in check and ensuring everything runs smoothly as we gear up for a really busy period ahead. Martin has gone away on a Cadet Expedition and Teegan is off to Bulgaria on holiday for a week! All is well at Successfactory. In the mean time, we wish all our clients a fantastic bank holiday weekend and look forward to welcoming them all back very soon! We're really looking forward to enjoying more BBQ's on the patio with our clients.
- MoneySupermarket, Watts, Coca-Cola and M&S...
Friday, 14 May 2010, 10:16 am
Another week, more happy clients...that's what we like at SuccessfactoryTM! We've been up to all sorts this week, including having a sleep-over in our woods! Its been busy, its been fun and its all been done the SuccessfactoryTM way.
On Monday, we welcomed MoneySupermarket.com's Executive Team and Watts Commercial Finance. MoneySupermarket.com spent the day in Inspiration, working hard on their talent pipeline and achieving great things! They're joining us again soon and we're looking forward to having them back!
Watts Commercial Finance arrived in the afternoon, tucked into some lunch and then got involved in their Mad Allen's Auction challenge, set by Martin. This allowed them to explore their team values, develop successful communication strategies and demonstrate high performance as a team! After they trekked through the Cheshire countryside, they returned to our lovely venue and the team spent the evening celebrating successes, having a BBQ and a few drinks on our patio! After the BBQ, Martin took the team down to the woods where they spent the rest of the night! Snuggled in the yurt with sleeping bags and our wonderful woodburner fire, Watts had a brilliant time. Phil Gray, Director of Commercial Finance, said the next day,
"Just a quick email to thank you and the team for an "amazing" event over the past 24 hours. The event was fantastic from start to finish, great venue, great food, great auction exercise, great yurt, great BBQ and most of all great staff! I didn't realise just what we had on our doorstep in terms of "Lake District" type countryside and I will certainly be exploring the area more! Thanks from me and all the team and rest assured we will be using you again".
Added to the power of experiential learning the option of camping in the Yurt is a great way to reduce the costs of your teambuilding events!!! SuccessfactoryTM is looking forward to working with Watts Commercial Finance in the near future!
On Wednesday, Coca-Cola Enterprises joined us at our Cheshire Venue. 52 of Coca-Cola's Northern Team Leaders came to SuccessfactoryTM for the launch of their Online Team Development Toolkit - designed to boost teamworking and results. The focus is to develop the Team Leaders to run teambuilding workshops themselves. So the morning was spent exploring the online resources and how to develop teams through experiential learning. Part of the toolkit is access to Successfactory's teambuilding challenges. So after being split into 7 different groups, they experienced the power of activities such as Trebuchet, Stylities, Bubble Chair, Pyramid, Communicate and Rollarball. All these activities are great if you're looking to build creative problem-solving approaches, celebrate a team's past and current successes, deal with change effectively and apply project management skills and tools. Five of Coca-Cola's Team Leaders took the opportunity to facilitate some activities, alongside three of Successfactory's facilitators. A fantastic day was had by all, we received great feedback and we're excited about future events with Coca-Cola.
And last but certainly not least, we currently have Marks & Spencer with us. They're a great group who have opted to use Creategy as a blank space to allow for creativity and innovation during their meeting time!
So, after a quick catch-up of the last week and what we've been up to and who we've been doing it with...its time to look to next week! Busy as usual, however, we also have our Inspiration Monthly evening happening on Thursday! Its totally free, you'll get some tea, coffee & yummy biscuits, and then get involved in an exciting, thought-provoking discussion! If you'd like to know more, please don't hesitate to call!
- Crime scenes, toga's and paint!
Friday, 7 May 2010, 1:28 pm
This week, our beautiful Cheshire venue was visited by Unilever. They got down to some hard work in Inspiration during the day and then opted to have some team building fun and relax in the evening. Our Crimewatch challenge saw them putting their creativity and inventiveness to good use as they filmed a reconstruction of a very bizarre crime! After filming the team returned to our lovely patio for a relaxing barbeque. They admired the views whilst our chef cooked up a feast on the patio. The food was great (as always at Successfactory) and Unilever had a brilliant day!
Graham and Teegan headed down to Beaconsfield, London, for a team-building day with O2's Procurement Team. After a bit of a catch up and review in the morning, the team started on World Café. World Café is a great meeting technique designed to relax your team, pose questions and allow everyone to get their ideas and answers across in a creative and unique manner. O2 thoroughly enjoyed this process and have taken some great ideas from it in terms of moving forward in their team.
After World Café, Graham set the O2 Procurement Team a challenge in the form of ‘The Big Picture'. Although we can't give too much away regarding this challenge, it's a brilliant activity which aims to boost team communication, maximising profit, strategy planning and having fun. There is lots of laughter involved, team members doing all sorts of silly things (including wearing make-shift togas, building kites and drawing caricatures), a bit of bartering and paint...lots of paint! If you'd like to know more, please call us, we'd love to hear from you!
We're preparing for yet another busy week next week! We're also looking forward to having Martin back from his well-earned week in Rome and Anne back from spending some real quality time with her beautiful new granddaughter. We've got some more great clients in next week, as well as a big day for Coca-Cola...but that's news for next week!