Last week I wrote about many of the emerging Spring sights I’ve noticed outside Alliantist’s office. Among the loveliest elements to appear are the flowers that have recently bloomed (my favourite happens to be the tulip). If we are to enjoy the flower, then we must also appreciate the bee, whose inadvertent pollination makes possible the lovely colours we see when we look out the window. The image of the industrious beehive has always evoked a sense of teamwork, efficiency and creativity – a simple Wikipedia search for beehives will yield images of hives with varying shapes, sizes and locations. Here at Alliantist, our “hive” is the open plan office, where the tech team, customer-facing team and CEO Mark Darby, work together to achieve our common goals. I would definitely describe this space as a hive of activity, and no day is ever the same.
Tracy, our Northern Customer Success Manager, had the pleasure of visiting another busy hive this week: Derbyshire Probation Trust. She started the day with a pam orientation to get them up to speed with the latest pam developments. Then in the afternoon, she worked with the executive team and their assistants to create a Programme with an over-arching risk map for their Business Plan. As part of this Programme, each executive needed to create an individual Project within the plan, including a risk map. In addition to all of this, the goal was to leave the session with a template for their Executive Team Meetings.
It was definitely a challenge for each individual to get a handle on their projects before the session’s end, and the goal could easily have eluded them. Amazingly, they did accomplish all of their goals, and Tracy attributes the team’s success to everyone’s positive attitude and willingness to embrace change. At one point during the session, Tracy looked up and noticed that everyone in the room was buzzing. With CEO Jo Mead’s permission, Tracy took a quick video to capture the energy in the room, and it definitely resembles a busy hive:
Jan Stevenson, PA to Jo Mead, said of the session: “Really enjoyed this training. This is going to be a very good tool and will make life easier.” Samantha Swann, PA to the Director of Probation, noted her new-found excitement: “Feeling a little inspired now we have (almost) come to grips with it. Even came home and carried on amending the County LDU Business Plan and trying to think of other ways to utilise…Interesting!”
While Derbyshire’s face-to-face session resembled a swarm of activity, Paul Gotts of Merseyside Probation Trust has recently created a cross-agency digital hive on pam in the form of a “pam masterclass” Group. He created this Group for different organisations on pam to share best practice and to build on good working relationships. Many of the Group’s members have already begun to shout about how pam is helping them manage their work, which is so exciting for Tracy and me. As Customer Success Managers, one of our duties is to pass on good practice to our clients. Now, they’re beginning to pass this good practice on to each other. This approach is fantastic, since they know first-hand what works best within the probation community.
The pam hives around the country are growing and evolving in such a beautiful way, and we look forward to the flowers that will surely bloom as part of this collaborative work!