The latest of our Breakfast Forums took place on 14th November in Basingstoke and we were fortunate to have guest speaker Laurent Bouvier join us.
It was an absolute pleasure to see Laurent Bouvier from The Zone Global deliver the HR Heads Breakfast Forum exploring the advantages of being human in today’s business world. The session began by exploring what it was to connect on a ‘human level’ and this created an atmosphere that was both open and keen to learn more.
My ‘take-aways’ from the being human session were numerous, but the key highlights were:
- We recruit individuals who are naturally excited and keen to join our business. So when they become either passive or disengaged, it is the working environment that has caused that transformation and therefore we can do something about that.
- Only 13% of the global workforce is considered to be ‘actively engaged’. A worrying figure – and one that we whole-heartedly need to do something about as leaders.
- High performing cultures deliver stronger commercial results – up to 24% more.
- Humans rely on the brain (think), heart (feel) gut (intuition), movement (action), inspiration (creativity) and combined together we have collective intelligence.
Feedback we received includes:
‘I really enjoyed the breakout conversations… they got me thinking about how I interact with colleagues and can try to change my approach to create more of a team spirit and improve collaboration’.
‘Laurent has focused me on aspects which I have noticed are quick to take a back step in the day to day rush’.
‘It’s liberating to talk – suddenly I didn’t feel alone with what I do which is very invigorating’.
The value gained from these sessions is incredible, they give you the time to explore and think about topics that are so relevant to our working practices, but we seldom slow down enough to really consider how we can improve and affect our conduct. These sessions are more than just networking, we aim to deliver practical tips and provoke thoughts and ideas that fundamentally allow you to make small changes in your workplace.
For details of our future events, see www.hrheads.co.uk/events and follow us on LinkedIn for future sessions.
About the author
Jennifer Gaster is the Founder and Director of HR Heads, an HR recruitment agency that specialises in placing senior HR professionals in leadership positions across London, Hampshire, Dorset, Berkshire, Surrey, and the Thames Valley.
Click here to connect with Jen on LinkedIn.
