New Possible’s British Training Awards sets out to discover and celebrate the organisations that are truly passionate about L&Ds role in building a thriving workforce.
In our ‘Sharing Success’ series, we interview British Training Awards Winners to shine a light on the inspiring projects that are improving workplaces across the UK and beyond. In this article we talk to Charlie Kneen at Solvd Together and Sue Ruston at Heathrow Airport, who together achieved Highly commended in the 2024 ‘Leadership Development Initiative of the Year’ category.
Introducing Charlie Kneen and Sue Ruston
Charlie is the Managing Director and Founder of Solvd Together, a consultancy specialising in learning and development.
Sue, with a 16-year tenure as Learning and Development Manager at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, describes her role as “looking at what the business problems are, and what's the best development solutions to support with those.”
Immersing Heathrow's Leaders in the Future of the Airport
The Lead the Way programme, a collaborative initiative by Solvd Together and Heathrow Airport's L&D team, was designed to revolutionise leadership development at Heathrow. The collaboration earned Solvd Together the ‘Supplier of the Year’ award and secured executive-level recognition for Heathrow's L&D team.
Watch the interview with Charlie Kneen and Sue Ruston below:
Innovative Initiatives:
- Immersive Environment Transformation: To inspire change, the programme used immersive theatre set designers to transform the mundane office environment into an engaging space.
- Behavioural Science Nudging: Recognising that Heathrow Security officers lacked access to phones or print materials on shift, the team created pocketbooks that fit into lanyard holders. These books provided practical guidance and logbooks for eight challenging leadership conversations identified through on-site interviews. Additionally, a badge system (gold, silver, bronze) was implemented to reward participants for applying their learnings.
When asked why immersive theatre set designers were chosen for this project, Sue commented “the whole immersive experience is really important for people. It does make a difference. It helps you switch off from your day job and it helps you be transported into another place, which frees your brain, helps you relax, helps you engage and get really get stuck in. People have loved it.”
The programme was tailored for approximately 1,800 Heathrow leaders, from security officers to engineers. It addressed the diverse contexts and needs of these leaders, factoring in the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The data-driven design aimed to reset expectations, acknowledge past experiences, and provide practical, personalised learning from day one. The nine-month programme featured in-person events and continuous practical activities.
When asked how Solvd Together approached the design and delivery of the programme, Charlie mentioned: “We approached the delivery of the programme in the same way we approach every design, which is the research part, so working with Sue and the team to really define what it is they were trying to solve as a problem, then designing a solution using the research, spending time with the target audience that made the real difference. And it's the same process we always follow. It's a human centred design methodology”.
Evidence of success
Post-pandemic, Heathrow faced significant challenges, including a 97% drop in passenger numbers, redundancies, and low staff morale. Lead the Way aimed to reboot and refresh the organisation, targeting metrics like engagement, trust in leadership, inclusion, and leadership confidence.
The programme significantly altered L&D expectations at Heathrow, achieving an NPS of +55 and demonstrating substantial business impact, including:
- A 19% increase in overall engagement since the programme's inception
- A 9% increase in leadership trust within the Security division
- A 7% overall increase in inclusion
The judges commented on a “tough target audience and an exceptionally creative solution” and “impressive impact”.
When asked what were the crucial elements which lead to the success of Lead the Way, Charlie mentioned three important factors:
- A client willing to take a risk
- Collaboration – “spending that time and getting to know each other on a personal level really helped us in the design of the programme.”
- Audience centricity
What advice would Charlie and Sue give to other organisations looking to implement a similar initiative?
Sue mentioned “I think one of the key things is, don't skip the 5Di stage. Spend time getting to really understand the business and what the problems are. And then from that you talk to people, find out the scenarios and get really clear about the measures, so that you can quickly show that return on investment and get the buy-in of the senior leaders that that you need to continue the programme.”
Charlie commented “The human centred design methodology, putting the target audience at the heart of the design is the key thing I think people should take away. The only other advice I would give is design with the benchmark of consumer experience in mind, not an internal training or internal event because you're not operating in a free market where the best things rise to the top in business, you're operating in a closed market where basically you get what you're given”.
About the British Training Awards
Learning and development is key to unlocking the potential of your workforce and the British Training Awards searches for the individuals, teams, and partners that are passionate about making this happen.
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