Charlotte Phillips, Director of Communications
Monday 21 May 2018
Many moons ago, I spent a very frustrating 25 minutes explaining to a very assertive member of my team why I did not think that spending several hundred pounds on attending an ‘assertiveness’ course was a particularly good way to spend time or money.
I’m a huge fan of training in principle, but everyone has a sorry tale of bad training or training that equates to a waste of valuable hours and valuable pounds. Assertiveness training aside (by the way there are of course people who genuinely benefit from such guidance), it can be hard to identify the right training that will make a genuine difference to the way we do business and ultimately helps our clients get the best value from us.
Training at Crest
Last Thursday, team Crest found themselves being put through their paces by the engaging Steve Frobisher at PA Consulting Group. Top Down Thinking is PA’s own version of ‘strategic thinking’ or as some people know it – pyramid thinking. The course itself was great, the trainer was simply brilliant. I know for a fact that everyone – whatever their role at Crest – came away mentally exhausted (in a good way), challenged and like they had really learnt something valuable. Importantly, this valuable addition to our toolkit will help us deliver for our clients. I’m not joking when I say the excitement was palpable – people couldn’t wait to start applying the theory to some of our important projects.
Crest Advisory may be relatively small but we nevertheless emphasise the importance of our team getting the best training and development. We want to invest in our people to both support and develop them – aligning business and professional development with our values of being credible, courageous, challenging and collaborative. Ultimately, this means our clients are getting the best advice and the best value for money too.
Time away from the office is hard. Everyone is incredibly busy and clients must always come first. The benefits of good training are however multilayered. Being in the room when someone on your team is only the second person in 15 years to know the answer to the Sherlock Holmes question (deductive or inductive thinking) is a bonding experience. Spending time with your colleagues – not just in the office or in the pub – but where you are learning together is an important part of building the business and doing the very best we can for our clients and for our staff.
