Co-Operative Financial Services - The Big Picture

The brief was to help to run NetJets annual meeting (which had traditionally been a day of presentations on the company status, strategies and plans), in a way that would continue the effective processes that had previously been used, but also add a new dimension of passion and energy to develop the internal relationships between staff and departments. This was all in order to raise the standard of 'internal customer' service and in consequence, further improve 'external customer' service. The theme was 'Zumbido' - Portuguese for 'buzz'.

Meetings and consultations with several senior members of the organisation were followed up with a guided visit of their main operations office in Lisbon, before the delivery of our two-day solution.

The agenda was already pretty packed with in house presentations from various key members of the company therefore our timeslots were limited, however, this gave us the opportunity to run the event with a number of short, fun and illustrative training plenary sessions. These would frame the 'jewel in the crown', our high impact experiential activity River Runner, which we had closely tailored not only to match the requirements of the client, but to maximise the potential of the venue and timescale allocated. To complete the framing, cement the learning, and ensure that the whole event was an enjoyable and truly memorable success, we came back the next day with more short bursts of experiential activity (the energiser One Voice), and open reviews of the learning that had taken place.

How did it go? Awesome! The task had been a challenge, to match their level of service and to get the participation, interest and 'buy in' of 250 highly trained, high performing staff with the highest standards and expectations (all within what was a very short lead in time) was a big one. The short plenary sessions were well received with some really good points being raised and dealt with further enhancing relationships. By the time River Runner was about to start, we were sure it was going to be a success, but what we hadn't fully appreciated was just how much the delegates would buy into it.

They were unbelievable, the energy, positive attitude and professional manner in which they approached the challenge was breathtaking. This was truly an event and an organisation that was a pleasure and a privilege to be involved with. Feedback was instantaneous and a huge number of people (from all levels of the organisation) came to thank us with beaming smiles and to say ‘Wow, you worked us hard there but it was brilliant – are you coming back next time?'

Are we coming back next time? We certainly hope so. We feel that the event was a success on many levels, not least that the delegates had some very practical learning outcomes, but also that we learned a lot from NetJets too. We learned that the best companies always look for ways of being better, that the best companies invest in their people, and that you can see the energy and commitment from the people in the best companies as soon as you meet them. We very much look forward to working with any companies who fit that bill!