John Lewis Senior Management Team

On September 24th 2009, John Lewis opened its second largest Shop outside Oxford Street London.

As an organisation with its roots in South Wales, it was a real privilege for Call of the Wild to be asked to work with the Cardiff MD Liz Mihell and Training Manager Will Read to design and deliver an intervention as part of their leadership development strategy for the new shop.

The brief given to Call of the Wild was very clear – create an environment in which the whole management group are able to come together, get to know themselves as individuals and as a team and help enable them to transfer this as smoothly as possible into the opening of the branch.

The development of the intervention was done in close collaboration with the MD and Training Manager. It was essential that the message received was consistent with those of John Lewis.

Given the quality and can-do attitude of the individuals involved it was possible to create a truly innovative intervention that took delegates and teams outside of their comfort zones resulting in a real and lasting learning experience.

The process which took place over 6 days culminated in the entire management team working with the Cardiff Arms Park Male Voice Choir to learn and sing a traditional Welsh Hymn in a four part harmony to the partners on opening day-a real welcome to Wales!

To be a part of the transformation of a group of hugely talented individuals into a team that will deliver an outstanding retail experience to the people of Cardiff and South Wales was an extremely enjoyable experience for the Call of the Wild team.