Latest Unthinking - December

Welcome back, and festive greetings to one and all! 🎅🎄

12 unforgettable moments from Unthink’s camera roll across 2024

1. The once-in-a-lifetime moment

Eleven Madison Park is the first and only plant-based restaurant to have been awarded three Michelin stars. It’s hard to argue there is a more inspiring experience in the world than spending some time with the head chef and general manager so including it as part of a Learning Experience was truly a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

2. The proud moment

The insurance industry isn’t something you typically associate with gender equity. So, it’s a pleasure to work with Gallagher over the last 18 months to design and roll out 3 cohorts of Ampl!fy – an emerging female leadership programme. Despite being shortlisted for Gender Inclusion Initiative of the Year we didn’t pick up any silverware (this year) for it, but with 4 more cohorts next year, we’re just getting started.

3. The grateful moment

We truly believe we have the best community in the L&D industry. We just wish we saw everyone together, more often. It’s only happened a handful of times this year. One of those was in September when we celebrated this community with a couple of pizza chefs, a bartender and a flammable cake. Oh, and on the UKs largest houseboat, docked in London.

4. Every ‘someone recommended we have a chat’ moment

Doing brilliant work that creates impact is the biggest sales tool any B2B company has. There is no amount of marketing, social media posting, or billboards that can substitute for an outstanding service or product. And when we receive those emails from curious folk saying a friend had recommended us to them, it means more than you imagine. We just wish people told us who had referred them… There’s always something fun about posting a surprise thank-you gift.

5. The delicious moment

2024 was a year with several ‘firsts’. The most delicious of those was Yetunde, now an Ampl!fy alumni, who baked a wonderfully decorated cake for the final learning experience. The thought and detail that went into the design was incredible: the replica logos, the colours, the sentiment. And it tasted superb. It’s hard to think workshops would have had the same impact.

6. The award-winning moment(s)

Awards are a funny one. They look great, boost credibility and land well on social media. Plus, it helps explain to our parents that what we’re doing is not rubbish. If someone says they don’t care about winning awards they’re lying! Across 2024 we’ve added Most Disruptive Learning & Development Provider 2024 and Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 to the trophy cabinet. When we were told we’d been shortlisted for the Entrepreneur awards, we thought the chances were close to zero but thought we’d go anyway and make an evening of it… Glad we did!

7. The testing moments

These photos look like everything is okay – smiling faces being the main evidence. But at this moment, we’re in the middle of running an activity we designed specifically for this day for SPW. To say there were a few moving pieces is a laughable understatement. It turned out, the hours of prep calls and ‘what if’ questions allowed it to work well, despite a genuine fire alarm pausing us for ten minutes in the middle of it – the participants thought it was part of it and took some time to convince them they actually needed to leave, now.

8. The high-agency moment

It’s not easy to apply for a competition sharing intimate information about why you don’t enjoy your job. It’s not easy to change that. It requires bravery and agency. And that’s what 55 people did this year when they applied to win Love Sundays, Again. This was the first year we ran Love Sundays, Again – a competition where we’d give someone £2,500 cash and pay for return flights anywhere they wanted to help them do something they’ve never had the time/money/bravery to do. Aidan McCartan was the winner for the inaugural competition and to see how he’s taken that opportunity to craft a niche in whisky consulting has been wholly rewarding. It excites us to see who will be rewarded for their agency in 2025.

9. The moment to pause

For a few short days in August, we swapped laptops for beer pong, learning experiences for sack races, Microsoft Teams for quiz teams and book clubs for run clubs. It was only a couple of nights, but it was brilliant to spend time with each other, and families, away from the work environment. Plus, we were reminded why the CEO is the CEO with her beer-pong composure, and why Owen won't be winning any sack races anytime soon.

10. The ‘why we do this’ moment

By definition, moments don’t stick around. So, if learning is built around moments, the work isn’t done after one moment. It’s done when we know the impact has stuck. In the same way you do not become fit after going to the gym once. That’s critical to everything we do. No gimmicks, pure impact. Oisin doesn’t know this, but his message below really means a lot, sharing how it’s made a difference to his team since the Learning Experience. It’s why we do this.

11. The sliding doors moment

In June, we had the pleasure of working with a bunch of curious and high-achieving international athletes, helping them to understand what the next step may look like following their playing career, and how to approach it. We heard from three different entrepreneurs/organisations on what they do, how they operate, and how they hire, helping the athletes understand how they can utilise their unique skillsets off the field.

12. The world record moment

Finishing up a two-day, leadership conference for VEON’s top 200 leaders in Dubai was both an exciting and tricky brief. We needed to be punchy and positive to keep the audience engaged before heading back to lead their business units into another year of grow. Cue Nick Holmes with a mic. Included in the set was a world record attempt that actually was much closer than we were expecting. You couldn’t fault the energy in the room.

Highlights

⚡Another first-class group of P&G’ers finished a 3-part leadership programme this month that was hyper focussed on their 5 desired leadership behaviours: Envision, Enable, Energise, Engage, & Execute.

⚡Redefining the L&D industry can’t be done by just Unthink alone, so it was brilliant to see so many passionate L&D folks under one roof discussing and sharing how they’re pushing the boundaries in their organisation. Not to self, be prepared for war when starting the Quality Street V Roses debate.

⚡When the tables are turned…

⚡Unthink welcomes Joe Davis to the team! Here he is on his first day at school Unthink. Joining us full-time as Director of Learning Experiences, Joe kicked off his time with Unthink with a strong 17-hour day finishing with a serious accolade to his name already. And that brings us to our final highlight.

⚡🏆Great British Entrepreneur of the Year 2024🏆The Unthink team signed off 2024 with a pretty amazing trophy at 'The Grammys of Entrepreneurship' in November.

🔄 ICYMI: Our last four Unthinking Thursdays💡:

💡Welcome to the powerful world of dyslexic thinking

💡When ‘fake it till you make it’ crosses the line

💡When Nike took the fine: how thinking differently redefined the sponsorship game

💡5 ways Emirates elevate the travel experience