Hello Members and Friends

Despite all of the challenges and disruption we have experienced in the past year, it was a wonderful and joyful occasion to launch this year’s Peer into the Future and bring something familiar in these times of uncertainty.

However, the title of the programme is all that is familiar this year. Thanks to the support of our current Peer winners – Emily Drake and Shawnna Gleeson – we have revamped the content of the programme to reflect the delivery is on line, which has been HR’s central role in steering organisations through the pandemic. It also means that we can use the opportunity of virtual delivery to reach out to international knowledge expertise, as well as tapping into the best across all sectors of public service and beyond in the UK.

The programme was over-subscribed – but don’t be too upset if you missed out, as due to the popularity of the event, we will be running a second 2021 cohort in the autumn.

On this cohort we have 16 of the best HR/OD professionals from across the UK’s public services and the learning journey got off to a flying start on 25th February 2021 with an introduction from PPMA’s current President, Steve Davies.

The focus of this first module was all about ‘Let’s Talk You’ and a Past President of PPMA and founder of The HR Lounge, Angela O Connor shared her valuable insights into the importance of personal and professional branding alongside the power and impact of story telling and the ability of leaders to be able to powerfully sell ideas into an organisation. Future modules of the programme will explore how this can be achieved in more detail!

We were delighted to welcome for the first time Jill Parker, Assistant Director HR/Communications from Doncaster Council. She shared her own career journey with our participants and gave a fabulous exploration about the joys, challenges and responsibilities in leading from the top. Jill and her HR team at Doncaster are the first recipient’s of PPMAs Gold Award which was awarded to the team last year for their world class work they have delivered for their local apprenticeship community. Jill is one of the public sector’s leading HR professionals and influencer and inspired us all with openness and generosity in sharing her expertise and experience.

The first module concluded with a seminar delivered by the awesome Alistair Williams from Creation Consultancy and a long time partner of PPMA. Alistair shared a unique methodology for developing a ‘personal statement’ that will enable of cohort of aspiring HRD’s to really stand out from the crowd. Last year, 9 out of the 15 delegates secured a senior promotion, so we look forward to even greater success this year!

So the journey is now up and running and watch out for a series of vlogs that our participants will be posting over coming weeks focused on the importance of ‘gratitude giving’. This will run through into April. Also in April we will be joined by a leading advocate of gratitude in leadership, Kevin Monroe from This Extra Ordinary Life and Kevin will be delivering a live session from his base in the US – bringing our first international flavour to our Peer programme.

Next up though will be a wonderful opportunity to work with Professor Beverley Alimo-Metcalfe, Founder of The Real World Group and sharing all things leadership – what a treat that will be for us all.

Leatham Green

PPMA Interim Executive Director and Chief Executive at the Mindful HR Centre