Our Work

Check out some of our most recent work and clients the Optima team have been involved with.

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    Planting Seeds for Change

    Fine Lady Bakeries

    In 2019, we were asked to help build a leadership and management programme for a leading plant bakery. Fine Lady Bakeries are a long-established and highly successful own-label bakery. As part of their ongoing commitment to delivering business efficiencies and developing their people, Fine Lady were keen to do something new. The senior team really took ownership early on and were committed to getting it right. This programme would belong to them.

    The result was a truly collaborative project, working with the business to design and develop a coaching led programme; delivered across two sites, over three years and spanning five levels of management.

    We initially worked with the senior leadership and management teams to define their vision and strategy for the business. This included capturing the core values and behaviours that underpin their relentless pursuit of quality. We then built a programme around selected management tools and techniques, that would help drive the business efficiencies needed to remain competitive in a challenging and high-pressure industry environment.

    As the programme was rolled out across lower tiers of management, we helped develop internal workplace coaching and mentoring capabilities. Retaining a sense of ownership and creating sustainable ways of working.

    • Steve Cook, Co-Managing Director said… “The key benefit that Optima Training provide is their ability to work with us to develop bespoke workshops running alongside coaching and development programmes for employees from team leaders to senior management. We are seeing benefits come through and will extend the partnership beyond the initial concept.”
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    Shaping the best in education

    Westminster Kingsway College

    We’ve been supporting Westminster Kingsway College with both coaching and training since 2015 and absolutely love working there.

    In March 2017, we delivered a half-day session on ‘Developing Creative Meetings’ to a team of aspirational managers.

    • One of the attendees, Bryan, gave some feedback that made us chuckle, “I feel weirdly inspired by my next meeting!”
    • Ade Anwar commented, “Jo was a fantastic facilitator. She clearly helped us visualised how our meeting could be improved to help our strategic leads. Very useful.”

    We went back to Westminster Kingsway College later to work with a group of managers. The half-day workshop ‘Me at My Best’ was designed to help attendees reflect on their behaviours at work. It included activities on developing growth mind sets, using positive language and considering our impact on those around us.

    • They gave us just the kind of feedback that we like. Joy said, “I needed to be doing other work somewhere else but the training was really good and it was a privilege to attend.”
    • Paul Jervis, one of our regular attendees, said “Insightful and thought provoking, thanks – I am a big fan!”
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    Creating good vibes in Croatia

    'Be useful, be positive, be better'

    In June 2016, Jo delivered a four day self-awareness programme in Zagreb called ‘Be useful, be positive, be better’ to employees and middle managers working in the banking sector in Croatia. The attendees had been recognised by the Company as future talent and our programme was aimed at building their self-awareness and team working skills. We did this using a variety of activities including: exploring mind sets, exploring drivers and emotional intelligence, and developing coaching techniques.

    • “The overall impression is more than excellent. Each of us should take this type of training not only to start thinking of themselves and the areas that could be improved but actually to take some concrete action and achieve a step forward” is how the session was described by one attendee.
    • Another added “Loved the level of interaction, trainer noticing when it was time to ‘wake us up’.”