People Lab is an employee engagement consultancy, it’s our passion, it’s what we do. We work with clients day in, day out, to help them develop and improve their engagement. But sometimes we have to remember to think about our own engagement too.
For me personally, a big contributing factor to my own engagement is to ensure I regularly embrace my inner nerd. I love learning – no surprises there given I started my career as an academic. It might be via a book, or an open access course, working with a mentor, or spending time with a bunch of like-minded folks who are happy to share their knowledge and wisdom.
With this in mind, last week I spent a fantastic day at an event run by The Agency Hackers. It was a real treat to have a whole day to listen, learn and chat to other agency owners. The venue itself was the old vault at what used to be The Midland bank, now better known as The Ned Hotel. And despite being underground it was an inspiring place to be for the day, shut off from the rest of the world talking about what we love – our agencies and our clients.
The day kicked off with some interviews with agency owners. We heard from Dan Moore, MD at Studio Output, who talked about the transformation his agency had been through. Dan talked about how taking a strength based approach had really helped, enabling their people to craft roles that motivated them, and therefore of course, they performed well in. He also talked about the role of engagement and how critical it was to the success of the transformation.
We then heard from Gareth Balch, Chief Exec at Two Circles, a sports agency. He co-founded the agency back in 2011 and has grown it to over 150 people located in four offices across the world. Again, it was great to hear Gareth talk about a focus on their people as the foundation for their growth. They spent time and effort getting what they call their spirit and principles in place – it was a great case study on the power of values and purpose in growing a business.
And finally, it was down to Neil Davidson, MD at Hey Human, who describe themselves as a behavioural comms agency. There’s a big clue in their name that they have a belief in Human Brands, and once again there was a focus on the power of people for business success.
The day then featured a series of ‘campfires’ where we got to work on common challenges, sharing our ideas and experiences. By the end of the day not only was my head swimming with new ideas but I’d also met some fantastic people too. I left the day feeling energized, motivated and inspired by the stories I’d heard from other agency owners. But I think my biggest take-away was a reminder that taking time out to look after my own engagement, is a very worthwhile thing to do.
@emma
Photos courtesy of Caitlin Lock @ https://caitlinlock.me/
