Learning how to think more strategically, present more proficiently, use Google more optimally and manage projects more professionally are some of the skills passed on to staff during the winter term of Flow School. In what has now become somewhat of a company institution, the past two months at Flow have been punctuated by classes aimed to upskill, engage and stimulate staff in new and improved ways of thinking and behaving within our professional sphere.
Thursday afternoons see our playroom being annexed into a slightly more formalised space as Flowstars join facilitators to tackle interesting topics and learn more about facets of our business that we don’t all necessarily have a handle on. This term saw outside specialists adding to our knowledge on Leadership and Media Training (thanks Buyani Zwane, Kate Turkington and Camilla Bath), while our own staff also passed on their knowledge in areas of interest.
Head of the Programming Studio Richard Frank got the opportunity to promote Google+ to willing (and sometimes not-so-willing) converts; Roshni Nana passed on her project management hints and tips; Design Studio head Tina Brown covered branding basics; and strategist Kevin Collins and CEO of Flow Exhibitions Janet Berger helped staff learn how to (and more memorably, how not to) present. Some staff were also put through a media-training course (with follow-up trauma counselling offered to a few who are still recovering after watching video footage of themselves being spectacularly awkward and uncharacteristically inarticulate!).
Our PR guru, Shoni Makhari, facilitated his first Flow class on strategy and learned first-hand what it is to deal with a not-so-passive audience! (Our Flowschool classes are often characterised by debates, discussions and disputes that may lead to the facilitator chucking in the towel in terms of any preconceived lesson plan as the unplanned track that the class moves along is often much more engaging and informative.)
Flow thanks all of the facilitators for their expertise and efforts in putting the classes together (as well as their tolerance and encouragement when dealing with our Flowstar tendency to question and debate!). Thanks to John Kazembe and Marco Camacho for setting up the necessary equipment and facilities every week.
But a special thanks goes to all the Jo’burg Flowstars who show up with such enthusiasm to learn, question, provoke and dispute. Without you there to enjoy the classes and engage with the learning on offer with such enthusiasm, it wouldn’t be half as rewarding. Our next challenge is to figure ways to include Durbs and Cape Town in the Flowschool phenomena – maybe that will be a challenge for Richard’s Google++ course?
