Bourne Leisure - a fresh approach to team development

Seeking a fresh perspective to team development

Bourne Leisure Group owns 37 award-winning family holiday parks close to some of the best beaches and resorts throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The parks are operated under its Haven brand, with the company also owning Warner Leisure Hotels and Butlin’s Resorts.

Mark Harper, Joint Managing Director of the caravan parks business, says, “When my fellow Managing Director Tim Gibson and I were appointed in 2011, we realised that for long-term viability, we needed to invest in the team who would take the business forward into the future. After all, if managers do not fully understand and engage with the vision, how can they cascade it down to their own teams?”

Tim and Mark chose Lane4 to work on two specific programmes, the first being with the senior management team and the second being with those general managers who were new appointments to parks.

Mark recalls that for the team development programme, “What we really needed was a fresh perspective on how we were performing as a team and guidance on how we could improve. With their experience of supporting a broad range of different organisations, Lane4 was perfectly placed to provide this.”

We see the Lane4 programme as one of the core reasons for our improved commercial performance.

Mark Harper, Joint Managing Director at Bourne Leisure

Diagnosing the situation

First, Lane4 worked with managers one to one, to diagnose the current mood and assess the level of change and development required. Three two-day group sessions, reinforced with individual coaching, then looked at where senior leaders wanted to be as a team and worked on removing obstacles to improve team performance.

Mark comments, “During these workshops, there was often an external, sporting influence, with exercises such as wheelchair basketball to embed the skills and develop a ‘one team’ mindset. It’s a good example of the fresh approach we were looking for when we engaged Lane4.”

A rewarding investment of time

Lane4’s unique researched framework, tracked the teams’ improvement during the course of the programme. The scores in five key areas of team performance have increased significantly, especially for leadership. The company’s internal team survey showed a 95% engagement score last year for the leadership team.

Mark says, “The substantial improvement in our leadership team has coincided with three years of exceptional financial growth; last year saw record levels of growth and a 10% increase in profitability. Moreover, the performance is clearly sustainable, with 2015 proving to be another outstanding year. Against a backdrop of widescale investment in the business, we see the Lane4 programme as one of the core reasons for our improved commercial performance.”

Programme participant Operations Director Ian Pennell agrees: “I believe that we would not have had such a successful year if it wasn’t for the work that Lane4 carried out with our leadership team. We now feel like a team, rather than a group of individuals and, as a result, our performance levels have dramatically improved.”

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Key benefits of the programme

  • Improved team scores using Lane4’s team assessment diagnostic.
  • 95% engagement scores for leadership team.
  • Programme coincided with record levels of growth and 10% profitability increase.
  • 95% engagement scores for leadership team
  • 10% profitability increase as the programme coincided with record levels of growth

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