Learning and Development

by Shakyakumara

One of the founding principles of windhorse:evolution is that we can – and do – develop through our work. This development can be spiritual, it can be professional – and sometimes it’s both!

For example, if you’re involved in managing people, you need to develop listening and other communication skills. But listening to people doesn’t just help with professional relationships – it helps with personal relationships, and it helps build Sangha. It even starts to help us with the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice, letting go of attachment to a separate ego-identity.

There are many other examples. Mindfulness developed at work can be available to us outside of work too. We gain in confidence as we get better at our jobs, and this can help us in all sorts of ways. Speaking personally, as I’ve developed my skills as a trainer, I’m much better at running classes at the Buddhist Centre. Qualities we develop in our work can also help us to grow and develop as individuals.

That’s the background to my work as Learning and Development manager. My job is to make sure that people have what they need to learn and develop in their work – that they have the resources and opportunities to develop the skills needed to do their jobs well.

What does this mean in practice? A wide range of things! There’s basic skills training - for example, when people come from abroad to work here long term, and they need help improving their English, we help with that. We offer “Spiral Reviews” to people in the offices and warehouse in Cambridge. These are opportunities to consider the progress they’ve been making, think about their direction for the future, and find a really good way forward. These reviews are optional – and the people who take them up really seem to appreciate them.

We also offer people 1-1 coaching, on the subjects and issues of their choice. This means that even when there isn’t a course running for them on the right topic at the right time, they can still make progress. In fact, with this personal attention and tailored input, progress can often be extremely rapid.