Compass Group's management development programme
This 3-day module was the climax of a 9-month management development programme.
A group of aspiring managers from Compass Group were approaching the end of their nine-month ‘Meridian’ management development programme, a comprehensive learning & development experience, designed to give them the tools they would need to take on bigger management roles. While the previous modules had been classroom based and theoretical, the last module, the Community Challenge, was to be real and live, and, if successful, the results would make a genuine difference to disabled and older people in a community in the bottom 20% for deprivation.
We devised a project with Pathways Community Interest Company, a social enterprise in Crewe focused on the health and wellbeing of people in areas of deprivation. The task was to transform vacant allotment plots into a therapeutic garden for disabled people and to work alongside school pupils and wheelchair users to do so.
It was a tough but highly successful project for both the team and the local community, with resilience, a drive for results, embracing diversity, inspiring others and great teamwork among the critical success factors.
“I feel that the project has given me a new resilience and tenacity when faced with tasks that I may have once said I could not do! It will also make me more supportive and understanding of others when they think a task is beyond them.”
Project participant, Compass Group
"This Community Challenge has proved to be a fitting climax to a concentrated nine-month programme bringing learning and leadership behaviours together while making a positive impact on our people professionally and personally."
Management Development Manager, Compass Group