GCA CONFERENCE 2017 RENCE 2017


Association (IGCA) congress, which will be held this year in Canada from September 17-22. Citing highlights from 2016’s trip to Switzerland, he noted opportunities to learn from other centres, and bring in new ideas. Gordale Garden Centre’s Peter Nicholson, whose commercial manager Mark was awarded the Dick Allen travel award to attend last year, described the congress as inspiring and informative, and a fantastic opportunity to exchange ideas.


Sailor and adventurer Peter Goss MBE took to the stage to talk about what he has learned from his projects. He said: “Some of the most successful teams are called lucky. But you can make your own luck – the harder you work, the luckier you get.” He also noted the importance of


trust in a team, allowing people to share their mistakes and learn from them. He added: “Use the knowledge of your team – it’s a tragedy if people feel they can’t share their ideas.” The GCA’s


Anthony Snow


discussed the latest developments of the association Garden Retail Online Workshops (GROW). He noted: “GROW is helping to educate staff in a more cost effective way. E-learning reduces time and cost of face to face training.”


The system now has over 10,000


registered users, with 87 garden centres and 39 organisations making use of the 86 modules available. He added that when the system launched, the primary focus was horticultural training, but the customer service element has now received more focus. The system is scheduled to be upgraded in 2017, with more modules in the pipeline. Discussion of GROW led naturally


to a presentation from Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) academy and careers manager Penny Evans, with the GCA’s Iain Wylie noting that collaboration between the GCA and HTA is ‘stronger than ever’. Penny noted that centre staff are quite different to 20 or 30 years ago, in terms of career ideas and how they learn, with particular expectations around being flexible. Penny cited technology as a


www.diyweek.net GCA chairman Julian Winfield welcomed delegates to the event in St Andrews


key tool in learning, allowing the HTA to implement its academy structure to reach more members that before.


She said: “It is an investment in your business. Look at the HTA Academy and GROW, and decide what is best for your business and where you apply your investment. Prioritise your talent and help them improve.” She added: “There is a real opportunity. I don’t think the industry has ever been in a better position to push training and support staff.”


Performance expert Rasmus Ankersen discussed adapting and changing when you are seeing success, combating complacency and resistance to change to develop ahead of being forced into change by outside conditions.


He also highlighted opportunities to use big data and performance indicators, and act upon them, occasionally driving change when others don’t see the need. In terms of talent identification, he cited the propensity to overlook talent that isn’t obvious, and suggested taking context into account – looking for the talent you want in a context where it is hard to demonstrate it.


Academic Professor Gareth Jones noted the differences between leadership and management, noting that leadership should exist throughout a company, not just at the top of a management structure. To be an effective leader, he said, authenticity is key. With trust indices at an all-time low, and a crisis of faith in political and business systems, being genuine is something people wish to follow. He also suggested that followers


want to feel part of something and to have significance in their role. Delivering those feelings, through effective communication, is part of effective leadership. He said that crux of effective leadership is to ‘be yourself more, with skill’. Behavioural economist Tim


Harford looked at the economic position since the EU Referendum, noting that while nothing has actually happened yet, stock market indications suggest the economy in UK has seen decline, especially as compared to stocks worldwide. He described performance as, ‘not a disaster, but not brilliant’. He also described his fear of hard line negotiations over Brexit, noting: “If you play chicken, it is possible to have a head on crash. The worry is neither will budge and damage will be hard to avoid.”


While nobody knows what will happen, he added, it is important to be flexible and ready to adapt. He cited the limiting effect of conforming to peer pressure and suggested encouraging new and different ideas in business, improving feedback processes to learn from actions, and to try and avoid getting tied into loss aversion. He said: “To be able to make good decisions, need to make peace with your losses.” THE GCA’s annual awards were


also presented at the conference. A full list of winners can be found at www.diyweek.net


The Gardens Group took home the Worrall Cup for Best Marketing Campaign or Initiative 10 MARCH 2017 DIY WEEK 19


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