Niall Blair has known and worked with Noddlepod from the early days of its inception, when Ollie and Stephen were first getting the concept off the ground.
One of the things that really appealed to Niall about Noddlepod was the collaborative and partnership elements. He also likes being involved with new things, new ways of working and communicating. “I have a constant radar out there, looking at new and experiential techniques. I don’t just stick to the script of what I have been doing for the last ten years.”
That said, Niall says it is vitally important in the work that he does to draw from past experiences and knowledge. “At 2Turtles, we believe that in order to help businesses you bring all your experiences to bear – all the war wounds, what’s gone well and what hasn’t. Experience is one of the only advantages of being old!”
Not that Niall is particularly long in the tooth, but he says he is still older than a lot of others in the market. “A lot of providers, particularly in the development side, are fresh out of college or university and it’s all out of books. I believe in richness of experience.”
“At 2Turtles, we believe that in order to help businesses you bring all your experiences to bear – all the war wounds, what’s gone well and what hasn’t. Experience is one of the only advantages of being old!”.
What is Niall’s experience? Well, for over 30 years he held senior leadership roles in multi utility companies, including roles such as head of leadership development and head of innovation and quality management. Now he works for himself. He is the founder of Innovisation Group, which includes the people and leadership development arm 2Turtles. Why 2Turtles? “I co-founded it with a business friend. Turtles sort of summed us up…quietly getting on with the task in hand, no fuss, efficient…and think about the tortoise (turtle) and the hare story. Well, up against some ‘fast’ rivals, we’ve managed to get business by being authentic and customer focused, not brash, over promising and letting clients down. Plus it made us chuckle!”
Niall firmly believes that learning should be fun. And he likes to make learning memorable – cinema trips, holding workshops on portable picnic tables in Princes Street gardens in Edinburgh, building and burning Viking longboats from salad trays and tinfoil as part of a leadership course…
Typical clients for 2Turtles are organisations that have reached a plateau. It might be that they are suffering the effects of the recession and austerity. Or have reached a stage in their development where they need to grow, but need help getting to the next stage. Because most of 2Turtle’s work is with SMEs, Niall says a lot of the time clients have focused on the product and now need to focus on their people development. Clients often lack strong internal processes in people development, so 2Turtles help with that.
Another big focus is building the capability of the leaders themselves and helping them to develop a consistent, considered approach. “A lot of them are entrepreneurial but don’t necessarily have leadership skills or have been unable to develop them consistently,” says Niall. “Sometimes they are not sure why a particular approach has worked so are unable to repeat it.” 2Turtles do a lot of coaching work, helping clients to use the right kind of leadership in the right kind of situations.
“The part I love the most is when people get it. It is incredibly satisfying seeing that the work you have done has helped someone and made a difference”
Communication is often a problem, says Niall. “In organisations that are growing, communication channels have to change. When it’s just five of you, communication happens over a desk. When a company gets bigger, a new approach is needed.”
Like many of Noddlepod’s partners, Niall has a strong interest in things techy. Indeed, as well as 2Turtles, Innovisation Group also has an arm called getreality, which is all about connecting enterprise to technology solutions.
“We are a one-stop shop,” says Niall. “Everything is bespoke. Some materials are more effective than others for certain situations. Plus clients have different wants and needs – some like case studies, some like 360 feedback…”
With its strong techy focus, 2Turtles makes good use of media and gamification. Niall really likes the fact that Noddlepod enables 2Turtles to follow the Tell, Show and Experience approach. What this means is that he can Tell - expose people to information. Then Show - they can see how it works. Followed by experience - gaming methods that enable people to experience and practice what they have just been told and shown.
Another feature of Noddlepod that Niall likes is the fact that clients can snorkel, shallow dive and deep dive. “They are drip fed information over a three week period and can learn at their own pace. Then we do a two-three hour workshop, which is much more specific because they’ve had time to absorb the information and think about how it applies to them.”
Niall says the feedback from clients about this approach is very very positive. He says he gets a lot of positive feedback. But, seeing his efforts working and having an effect is the best reward of all. “The part I love the most is when people get it. It is incredibly satisfying seeing that the work you have done has helped someone and made a difference.”
You can read more about Niall Blair here.