Three Hands > News > Newsletter, November 2006
News From Three Hands
November 2006Welcome to the ThreeMail, an update on how we’ve been linking learning & development with community engagement, and benefiting both businesses and charities…
In this issue:
- Three examples of how we’ve linked business, people and communities
- Crossing the Line at Kids Company
- New associates and new London office for Three Hands
- The three handiest haikus
Reuters throw 500 Lifelines to Zambia
How do you run a senior team development programme for a group of managers distributed between London and Geneva who want to make a positive impact in a ‘neutral’ community? And how do you ensure their programme addresses pre-defined learning & development objectives and concentrates on a social theme linked to their core business? This was the brief that Reuters gave Three Hands…
We responded by introducing Reuters to the Freeplay Foundation, an international NGO committed to education for the poorest of the poor. Its Lifeline radio does not need electricity or batteries - scarce and expensive resources in some developing countries - and in many remote African villages the radio might provide the only means of education.
So how could the European based Reuters team help the Freeplay Foundation to fulfil its objectives? By raising £20,000 to provide 500 new Lifeline radios for education and healthcare projects in Zambia… This project would test the team’s sales, marketing and creative skills, while challenging them as a geographically dispersed group to genuinely work together. Combining this major fundraising challenge with day to day business priorities meant team members had to adopt a supportive, imaginative and positive approach - all of which were team development objectives. They hit the £20K mark after a month of intensive fundraising, and the team's project co-ordinator, Spencer Downey, will be going to Zambia in January to see the radios being distributed… we’ll ask Spencer to bring back photos for the next ThreeMail!
“The Three Hands programme challenged us
in a very effective way to work collaboratively and enabled us to develop
our proactive sales, marketing and communications skills. The trip to
Zambia for one of my team to see the Lifeline radios in action will complete
the experience and bring us closer to the cause of promoting education
and healthcare in Zambia. It’s been a fantastic learning experience
all round.”
Martin Yates, Head of Customer Support, Reuters Europe
Reuters used their impressive Jumbotron screen
outside their Canary Wharf office to promote the Freeplay Foundation
De Beers go digging - in the River Thames
You can’t extract diamonds from the banks of the Thames, but look hard enough at low tide and you’ll find all sorts of items that give clues about London’s history. That’s what a strategy team from Diamond Trading Company, part of De Beers, did on their recent Corporate Community Event when they worked with the Pumphouse Education Museum and a local primary school to dig deep to teach school kids about history - and insects too!
De Beers was looking for a team development event that would help demonstrate its commitment to communities. So we asked them to work with a group of 30 primary school kids to forage for items of historical interest on the foreshore of the Thames in Rotherhithe, and in doing so to help the kids learn about London’s history - a key objective of the Pumphouse Education Museum, with whom we worked to devise the project. Once the items, ranging from old clay tobacco pipes and ceramics to sand smoothed glass shards and other modern, less savoury objects were collected, the corporates and the kids got creative and made them into insects, to be displayed in the museum’s ‘Mini Beast City’ - a fun and scary educational resource for the hundreds of kids who visit the Pumphouse - with ingenious results!
The team also undertook to raise desperately needed funds for the Pumphouse - check their progress at www.justgiving.com/pumphouse.
“The event put us in a new environment,
offered us a different experience and was a great shared experience for
the team. It also emphasised some important team learning for us to take
back to the workplace.”
Jon Savage, Diamond Trading Company Strategy Department, De Beers
More than three hands in the De Beers strategy
team
How Direct Line plotted for mental health
The Business Services team at insurance company Direct Line is used to taking on projects from within the business, but their most recent challenge was a little bit different… This time their ‘client’ was mental health charity Mind, which wanted to launch a new horticultural project for its members in Croydon - the perfect opportunity to develop the team and make a valuable contribution to the local community…
Mind in Croydon had recently been donated a plot on a local allotment and planned to use it for a new horticultural project for its members - people suffering from poor mental health - who would benefit greatly in terms of meaningful occupation, social interaction and healthy living from working on the allotment. But the plot had been neglected for years and the charity needed to both physically clear the plot and plan a planting cycle, as well as carry out an official launch.
Enter Direct Line. Over two days, led by Three Hands learning & development facilitators, they got their hands dirty clearing and preparing the plot, researching and planning a planting cycle for the year to come and launching the project at the charity’s AGM, which took place on the evening of the first day of the programme, in the presence of the Mayor of Croydon. An important aspect of the development process for Direct Line was to work alongside Mind members, to gain a real appreciation for the challenges faced by people in society with whom they do not usually interact; many of the team benefited from working with one particular Mind member who proved to be an inspiration for everyone involved - a true case of linking business, people and communities.
"Launching the Horticultural Project with
Mind In Croydon (MIC) was a challenging but very rewarding SRD programme.
The benefits to MIC were tangible and immediate and we all had fun and
made new friends at the same time. The project also gave the team an opportunity
to 'think the unthinkable' and challenge the status quo. We have taken
away learnings that have been implemented and are enabling us to work
more effectively as a team. A real win/win."
Damian Kilgallon, Head of Business Services, Direct Line
Richard Pacitti, Chief Executive of Mind in Croydon,
cuts the ribbon to launch the horticultural project
Crossing the Line at Kids Company
Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company, who recently won the prestigious ‘UK Woman of the Year’ award, hosted and spoke at our recent Forum, ‘Cross the Line - and Learn’ - an afternoon of presentations and discussions on how businesses and their people can learn through community engagement. Over 60 business people were challenged by the speakers to ‘cross the line’ from business to communities, and to genuinely address the needs of the voluntary sector in doing so. Some fascinating ideas came out of a truly stimulating event.
Our first speaker was Julia Fuller, Corporate Responsibility Manager at Reuters, who tackled the question ‘Have we crossed the line at Reuters?’ She drew on examples, including a Three Hands SRD programme, to demonstrate how Reuters staff genuinely interact with communities at home and overseas, and explained how this can contribute to skills development. John Williams, Chairman of Tomorrow’s Company, highlighted ’12 Reasons why your Employees should Cross the Line’ - his message that “you borrow your employees from the community; you should lend them back more often” was well received.
After a stunning song by a young person at Kids Company, Camila Batmanghelidjh challenged the audience to properly understand and engage with the voluntary sector, stating in no uncertain terms that business and society do not exist in isolation of one another and that they must work more effectively together. Finally, David Robinson of Community Links, co-author of We Are What We Do, drew on his vast experience to explain how the right leadership and values can help companies be better corporate citizens. We are grateful to all our speakers as well as to Kids Company for hosting the event.
The break-out groups also led to some fascinating discussions about partnerships that are genuinely effective for the charity as well as the business, on how community engagement is evolving and the benefits of learning & development through community engagement.
Do please contact us if you would like to learn more about these discussions.
Camila Batmanghelidjh of Kids Company talked passionately
about
why business needs to understand the needs of charities tackling social
exclusion
New associates and new central London office for
Three Hands
We’re delighted to welcome Robert Lane and Trevor Dahl as Associates at Three Hands. Robert recently retired from over thirty years at Barclays, is an executive development expert and is passionate about community projects, with a special emphasis on the Caribbean (lucky him!). Trevor runs the Woolworths charity Kids First and brings a wealth of Corporate Social Responsibility experience. We’re excited about working with them both.
Update your records - we’re now in central London. While Simon Hamilton is based in our Nottingham office, Jan Levy has moved into Amadeus House, Floral Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DP (the offices of leading CSR consultants Acona), telephone 020 7812 7077. Do drop by for a coffee if you are in the area!
AND FINALLY, THE THREE HANDIEST HAIKUS?
In our last ThreeMail we asked you to take some time out and have a bit of fun writing a haiku - a three line Japanese poem with a fixed length of syllables in each line (5,7,5) - about business and society. Our expert panel of judges (Jan and Simon) pored over the entries and chose the three winners…
And so, the winners are…
Wendy Birse of Vita Brevis, whose haiku is beautifully simple:
People serving at
The heart of communities;
That is the business
Una Sillars of Glasgow North Ltd wrote us a Glaswegian haiku, or should we say a Glaiku:
Hey Jimmy... see you...
But do you really see me?
Seeing me takes time
Finally, Duane Clark of Clark Cinema took a slightly less reverent approach:
No one really likes
A selfish, self important
Suit. Off your arse. Help.
Thanks to all three of you - the bubbly is on its way!
That’s it for now. Please contact us if you have any questions, comments, observations or even another haiku!