Minding Your Head Has Positive Impact on Business

Dorset Cereals Ltd, a premier food manufacturer in Dorset, has found that using the information from our Mind Your Head courses has had a positive impact on the business.

Challenge:

Despite growing from a family business to a successful leading brand, it was recognised that some people were stuck in their ways in decision making and were not prepared to challenge ideas or the status quo. There was a lack of techniques to generate new ideas with only a few people putting options forward. Some people lacked the confidence to propose concepts. As a business, the mental well-being of the team was not recognised as a high priority.

Proposition:

Two senior managers came as ‘guinea pigs’ on the first Mind Your Head series of three one day workshops! As a result of their feedback and tangible quick wins, it was decided each senior manager in production should attend.

The workshops consisted of Engage the Brain – Engage the Team, New Ways of Thinking and Effective Decision Making. These covered aspects of brain function, mental well-being, team engagement, authentic communication, lateral thinking techniques, mind mapping, and factors involved in good decision making. Each delegate developed action plans to implement at work and follow up visits were made by a facilitator to review progress.

Results:

Managers recognised the importance of spending more time with their good people and ‘hero boards’ were installed. Time was also set aside to think things through in meetings rather than accepting first suggestions. They began to challenge the very basic thinking of how and why things were done. This improved cohesion and communication between these managers; leading to greater autonomy. They set their own agendas and goals, which freed the Operations Director to focus on the essential aspects of her work.

The learning was cascaded down to their teams, which has led to greater engagement; as demonstrated by people taking more ownership, responsibility for excellence, less blame culture, more solutions being offered, improved productivity and reduced rework. Mind mapping is being widely used to aid creativity and memory. Ideas boards have been set up and creativity meetings have been held. Some of those ideas now need to be pushed through. A drip/drip approach is achieving the overall vision.

The open course allowed sharing of best practice and for managers to realise they are not alone with their concerns and despite these; they work for a good company. Mental well-being is now on the agenda and individuals are taking actions to safeguard their own.

Future:

The message will continue to be repeated and spread. More time will be taken to generate and push through ideas. Further training on building mental resilience is being considered.

If you would like to benefit from Mind Your Head, book on our next series, starting February 21st