A former policeman and policewoman are using their skills to offer leadership training to North businesses.
Mark Pannone and Zoe Billings set up Adapt and Evolve Consultancy having met while Mr Pannone was assistant chief constable for North Yorkshire Police and Ms Billings was his staff officer. The pair saw an opportunity to transfer their stills in tactical and strategic operations to help individuals and teams.
They are already working with a number of national clients, including law firm Irwin Mitchell. Adapt and Evolve have been delivering well-being training to the firm's Newcastle team.
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Phil King, from Irwin Mitchell's Serious Injury Team, said: "We’ve asked Mark and Zoe to look at how biological well-being can be supported and how to improve dynamics within our teams. Our team works across the UK assisting clients and their families who are victims to road traffic collisions some sadly resulting in fatalities.
"Mark and Zoe have first-hand experience of the traumas and emotions we face on a day-to-day basis and so they can not only prepare the right training for us, but they can relate to our lives and show empathy because they too have been in those tragic situations."
Mr Pannone, who lives in North Cumbria, served with Essex Police, Cumbria Police and latterly with North Yorkshire Police while Ms Billings, from York, is still a serving officer. Both realised that they had a passion for training, engagement and community focused work, with helping people being at the core of their shared values.
Mr Pannone said: "I really enjoy the management of complex situations having been involved in many major incidents throughout my career. It’s very satisfying to be able to make sense out of chaos. Zoe and I can help individuals and organisations gain the confidence they need to make tough business choices and help people understand how to make defensible decisions through effective problem solving.
“Zoe’s role when we worked together was as a staff officer - basically to be the critical friend and sometimes the conscience of a senior manager and I suppose that's what we’re doing with Adapt and Evolve Consultancy. We want to be that critical friend; we will stand back and look at what someone is doing and say that's great, but you could be better, then we will help them move forward."
While Mr Pannone's role in the business is based on his experience looking after 800 staff, managing huge budgets and his knowledge of how teams fail and how effective leadership can help teams out, Ms Billings has utilised her academic background and her biology doctorate to bring a unique angle of well-being training to the table.
She said: "I use my background as a biologist to challenge thinking on how we perform and how we need to adapt, and balance this with my experience in the workplace as a senior investigator managing road traffic fatalities.
"Everything we do relates to the mind and the body and there is still a stigma about mental health. There will always be some people that feel embarrassed talking about it, so my well-being approach comes from a completely different angle. By looking at the biology of it rather than the psychological side, this reduces any perceived stigma related to chronic stress and really increases engagement. The feedback that I've had to date has been phenomenal and is making a really significant impact on people’s ability to look after themselves, their families, their colleagues and actually do their job effectively."
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