Progress Reports from our Teams

Last week we hosted our annual Team Day as a chance to catch up with our colleagues, reflect on the year, and look ahead to the future. This Team Day was quite different from the others, as it was the first one we've hosted online. Here's how it went...

Every year we close our offices for a day and get together with our Team. The day gives us all a chance to get to know one another better, find out more about the business, think of new ways to help our clients, and be inspired for the new year.

This January we experienced an entirely different kind of Team Day, as it was all hosted online.

Instead of arriving at Burleigh Court, our usual venue, to mingle and enjoy a cup of coffee before the day started, instead bustling faces filled up our computer screens, each armed with an easy smile. For many, this may have been the most sociable event they'd been to this year. Working from home is fine, but everyone has been missing the daily interaction with colleagues, and the Day was designed to bring people together for the first time in a while.

Welcome & Successes

The event began with an introduction from Andy Jervis, Chairman of Chesterton House. Andy made a note of welcoming the Team as they popped into the virtual venue, and he spoke of the year we've experienced. It's difficult to sum up such a challenging and unique 12 months, but our successes video explored the highlights of the past year, including what we've achieved as a business and as individuals. You can view it below:

Challenges & Performance

Last year we wrote about the move to working remotely, and our team's experience over the past 12 months. It can easily be said that 2020 was quite a challenging year of change for everyone. Our managers had each contributed to a series of videos summarising each department's challenges and how they ultimately worked together and adapted. The three videos we showed on the day were each around 20 minutes long, but we've picked out some of the key points and condensed them to just a couple of minutes. Take a look at this highlight reel of our manager's comments below:

You can choose to watch the video or listen to the audio podcast. Just click on the appropriate image below.

Watch the video below

Listen to the Podcast below

The Importance of Values & Opportunities

In our next session we looked at the importance of values, based on the Tedx video of Why Values Matter. The speaker, Jan Stassen, argues that we attach values to objects based on our experiences. Jan has created a unique Museum of Values, with a goal to create immersive experiences for people to connect and reflect on personal and collective values. We used this idea to discuss the video as a team and reflected on our own values, both personal and the ones we have attached to Chesterton House.

For many reasons, 2021 promises to be a brighter year with many opportunities. Our departments discussed what they're planning on achieving this year. Some of our goals include growing and training our team, reconnecting in person, hosting events and much more. All in all we were hugely impressed by the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of all our staff who have risen to the challenge of the last most demanding year, and are enthusiastic about serving our clients in 2021 and beyond.

An Inspiring Speaker

To round off our Team Day we invited Jean Martyn, well-known organist, pianist, and composer to inspire us. Jean is most famously known for her performance on Britains Got Talent back in 2011 where she was a finalist. From the age of 2, Jean was learning to play instruments and has lived a life full of opportunities, whether it's being part of Britain's Got Talent, performing around the world, or teaching countless students. You can watch Jean's performance here or if you'd like to learn more about Jean, take a look at her website or subscribe to her YouTube channel here.

Our theme for this year was Planning For A Great Year Ahead, and we're pleased to say that we've already experienced an inspiring, productive and sociable start to 2021. We're excited to see where the rest of the year will take us.

January 2021

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