Management Blog

Leadership Development - Research Shows Call of the Wild Leading the Way

Leadership and Management Wales latest research into delivering ‘world class’ leadership and management development has delivered new insights, helping them to form their strategy for the future. The findings demonstrate that Call of the Wild's approach to leadership and management development has been innovative and "...can be a more effective way to improve higher level leadership skills."

The research, which will be published on their website soon, produces several key outcomes, including:

• ‘Experiential learning’ (learning through experience) can be more effective than solely classroom-based training, and should be embraced in Wales. This can include innovative models such as ‘leaders teaching leaders’, where business leaders share the secrets of their success, or leadership coaching.
• Organisations can increase the impact of their leadership and management development, for instance by ensuring that development plans align with organisational goals, and that there is ‘buy in’ from the top level of management and from employees throughout the organisation.

“The findings show there are exciting new approaches to enhance the impact of leadership and management development, and we are looking to take these to Welsh businesses,“ said LMW’s deputy director, Jo Riley.

Kevin Gould, Director at Call of the Wild said “it’s rewarding to find that LMW’s research endorses the approach we have taken for many years towards leadership and management development. An experiential learning approach combined with clearly defined client objectives is in our experience the most effective means of achieving positive change in the workplace.”

 Call of the Wild is one of the first organisations in Wales to achieve the quality award and become an endorsed training provider with Leadership & Management Wales (LMW) , the Centre of Excellence for leadership and management skills in Wales.

 Leadership and Management Wales was formed to support businesses in developing their leadership and management development skills, enabling them to increase efficiency and help grow the economy in Wales through raising standards amongst training providers.

Click here to read mor about experiential learning and our approach to leadership and management development

 

Combined Team Building and Office Christmas Party Idea

Be Remembered for Organising the Best Christmas Party Ever

Forget about sending a company Christmas card this year , forget the bowling and beer for the office party! Why not combine a team building event with an unusual festive marketing opportunity by creating your Company Christmas song! An office Christmas party idea with a difference.

Write and Record a Song in a Day!

A unique Christmas team-building event and whatever a team’s level of musical knowledge or experience, Song In A Day will provide the tools and facilitation to allow your team to create and record a song in only one day, walking away at the end of the event with a CD containing the song they made!

Why not also video the finished performance to maximise the the PR opportunity and also have a different and distinctive way of motivating your staff!

The day will include improvisation, role assignment, creativity resulting from group discussion, drumming, strumming, recording and much more!

Click here for more information on this unique team building, office Xmas party and PR opportunity

Call of the Wild Appear in ILM’s ‘The Edge’ Magazine

How Reflective Walking Can Make you a Better Leader

We are pleased to announce that our innovative work on Reflective walking has been noted by The Institute of Leadership and Management’s ‘The Edge’ magazine. Managers are being advised to amble outside of their normal working environment to help solve problems.

‘Reflective walking’ sounds like the kind of New Age fad favoured by Highgate Mums in between their juice cleanse and taking little Petronella to ballet classes. But taking some time out for a meditative stroll could help you solve problems and become a better leader or manager, according to leadership training company Call of the Wild.

It is within the geographical liminal space of a leadership walk that our particular interest lies. This is the effect of the environment on the mental processes of the delegates and the facilitators alike, what Will Self would term as psycho-geography. Psycho-geography relates to the playfulness and naturally occurring impact of outdoor environments on the human ability to think and reflect. The act of walking offers the walker a “place and space” to reflect and consider the experiences that await them as leaders back in the workplace. The concept of a liminal space in this context may be therefore understood as a place where ideas and concepts of the phenomenon we call leadership are in various stages of flux and negotiation.

For the full article on Reflective Walking  and Leadership Development click here

Team Building Special Offer - Free iPad When You Book an Event

All companies and organisations  need to get the best out of their staff. With the UK economy showing positive signs of recovery many companies are now  looking at recruiting new staff, adding to existing teams or just thinking ahead as to how they can reward their staff for the effort put in over what have been difficult times for many

In view of this positive vibe if you book a team building event/programme with us then we’ll give you an iPad Mini free of charge! A great team building gift to you for booking with us. So if you had in mind booking something very soon then this may be the catalyst you need whether it be a fun event, a developmental team building course or just a Christmas party event then give us a call or send us an e-mail for more info on team building services!

Team Building - Tom Wujec: Build a Tower, Build a Team Video

Tom Wujec from Autodesk presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" -- a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts

For more information on Call of the Wild's team building approach then visit our website

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Team Building Lessons for UKIP & Nigel Farage

Following their recent success what team building lessons are there for UKIP and Nigel Farage to ensure they don’t ‘internally combust’ before the general election next year.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he was "over the moon" about the European election results and hailed his new place as leader of the third party in British politics. UKIP has now got at least 23 MEPs, the Tories and Labour have 18 each, while the Liberal Democrats lost 10 MEPs leaving them with just one. (Not including the Northern Ireland results).

For months, the prime minister and other senior Conservatives have tried to avoid mentioning UKIP, after realising Cameron's portrayal of the party as a bunch of "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists" badly backfired.

Farage said the victory put his party in a good position to win seats at the general election if UKIP could build up "clusters" of support and broaden its top team beyond the one-man-band of himself. Farage said he planned to take some time out of the spotlight over the summer in order to build his new team of MEPs into a stronger frontbench of spokespersons.

This is an extremely difficult time for Farage when looking to build on this success and take the party into the genral election with a coherent manifesto whilst keeping his more outspoken supporters on message.

He’s been very successful so far in bringing togther a disparit group of individuals to form a consensus on a single issue – Europe. But as he’s identified, the challenge now is to broaden the top team beyond his one-man band and build a team of effective , credible frontbench spokespeople.

5 Stages of Team Development

So where are UKIP in the traditional 5 stages of team development  and team building which are:-

• Forming – Orientation, breaking the ice
• Storming – Conflict, disagreement
• Norming – Establishing order, cohesion
• Performing – Cooperation, problem solving
• Adjourning – Task completion

Given the successful outcome of the European elections it can be argued UKIP has gone through the 5 stages. However in seeking to broaden the consensus on a wider range of issues such as the economy, health and education for a General Election the danger is they will slip back to the ‘storming’ phase where there will be considerable conflict and disagreement. As Nigel Farage has acknowledged this will be a challenge when looking to build a team of strong frontbench representatives.

Article in Western Mail Newspaper Today

Great article in the Western Mail newspaper today giving details of our 70% LANTRA Wales funded business improvement courses

The Landscape of Leadership

 A recent groundbreaking study (National Ecosystems Report)  has provided a comprehensive overview of the value of the UK’s natural environment. The study looks at a new way of estimating our natural wealth and illustrates how we have undervalued our natural ecosystems. The study also emphasises the role that landscape plays in our general wellbeing and sense of place.

A recent DEFRA press release focuses on the economic value of protecting and cherishing our natural heritage.While in the past people may have thought that caring for the environment meant extra financial burdens, the UK NEA shows that there are real economic reasons for looking after nature. The NEA also shows that the benefits we get to our health, well being and from the enjoyment of nature have not always been fully appreciated or valued.

As an organisation based in the western edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park, Call of the Wild has always believed in the potential of using this majestic landscape as a vehicle for the development of leadership and management skills. By attracting business delegates from all across the UK, it not only brings economic benefits to the region, but also spreads the message that South Wales is a vibrant place to work and learn. 

Over the past 12 years we have evaluated the effect of this landscape on the learning of the clients we bring into the area. Almost universally the evidence has been that the most beneficial aspect of the experience was the environment. We believe the landscape creates a place and a space for “deep reflection’, in creating a powerful and sustainable learning experience.

Call of the Wild in collaboration with the Professional Development Centre, has further developed this “green classroom” approach and combined it with a research-led theoretical structure to create an ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) programme for a global engineering company. This is delivered within the Western edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park and will bring over 200 delegates from across the UK into the area.

This programme has resulted in an evolving set of crafted interventions which places the delegate at the heart of his or her learning.

The area offers a diverse and rich source of natural experiences and metaphors, which the delegates are encouraged to contextualise within their personal experience of leadership.

Some of the interventions we are using and developing include:

• A Leadership Walk, a facilitated walk encouraging the delegates to reinvigorate their relationship with the environment by really taking notice of what’s around them and then applying this to their workplace.
• A reflective exercise in a deep mine offering a new way of placing learning and meaning into a work environment.
• A guided run of exercises based around the theme of water making reference to both explicit and implicit metaphors such as reflections, sustainability and ecosystems

The real point is that the imagery and metaphor resulting from immersion in this inspirational landscape begins to create new ways of thinking and looking at the issues surrounding Leadership. This new leaning is therefore more likely to be taken back into the workplace and applied.

The ILM structure also provides a rigorous framework on which to base this environmental approach to development, adding a layer of theory to the more esoteric aspects of this approach.
We believe that there is huge potential to utilise this landscape in a sympathetic and sensitive manner, adding real economic value to the area by capitalising on the proven benefits of this approach.

For more information visit the Call of the Wild leadership website

Difficulties in Building Successful Teams - Different Geographic Sites

I think everyone would agree that building successful teams is much easier when the individuals work in the same building or area. The more dispersed geographically the more difficult the task is. This is for a number of reasons:-

1. People feel isolated

2. There's a lack of team identity

3. A "them and us" attitude can develop

4. Communication is often slow

5. The chance for shared experiences is lacking

How do you combat these problems? You look at ways of building a one team ethos. Read this article for more ideas on building a one team ethos.

For more information on our approach to team building visit our website.

Call of the Wild Training Courses for 2014

Here is a list of our training courses in 2014. This is not a definitive list but gives a flavour of the type of courses we have available this year whether it be for leadership, team building, management training or realted matters such as coaching.

If you wish to see a more definitive list then please do give us a call to discuss your exact requirements. These can be open courses, such as thsoe listed, or organised for specifici clients.

Click here to see the list of our training courses for 2014