BMMI has launched a new learning initiative that encourages managers from across the organisation to share their experience and insights with the Group’s employees.

The initiative was inspired by the book ‘The Real Life MBA’, written by the Executive Chairman of the Jack Welch Management Institute and former Chairman and CEO of General Electric Company, Jack Welch, and his wife, Suzy Welch, author, businesswoman and former Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Business Review. BMMI President and CEO, Gordon Boyle, an avid reader, was impressed with the book’s approach, which guided the Learning and Development team to create a training programme based on it.

“We have a great opportunity to tap into the wealth of knowledge across the Group,” said Gordon. “Our workforce is made up of people with truly diverse experiences and backgrounds, who remain united by our core values and work culture, even as we operate across 11 countries. This puts them in a great position to offer personal and customised experience sharing and in-house consulting, which is a major boost towards our commitment to creating a culture of learning and knowledge at BMMI,” added Gordon.

The Learning and Development team worked hard to introduce a new learning method that utilises the experience available across the organisation’s management team. “We devised a plan where each manager is assigned a topic or two from the book, which is relevant to their own personal experience, that they will then present and discuss with employees,” said Mahdi Jawad, BMMI Learning and Development Manager. “By drawing on each manager’s enormous amount of knowledge, experience and skills, and providing a format where they can directly share it with employees in an interactive way, we created a platform that is mutually beneficial to everyone involved,” said Mahdi.

Eleven managers are currently part of the project, sharing a collective 200 years’ worth of experiences between them. Throughout the year, they will be delivering approximately 26 workshops, to an average of ten employees per session. This will amount to a total of 500 learning hours that will be based on in-house expertise and training.

So far, seven sessions have taken place, benefiting 70 employees from across the business. The workshops are divided in-line with each chapter from the book, covering a range of topics such as leadership, finance, crisis management, marketing, creating great teams, resilience, globalisation and career-planning. With the initial success of the initiative, plans are in place to include more managers in the near future.

“We believe in the importance of thinking outside the box when it comes to training delivery, as it is vital to use a range of approaches in order to meet the needs of our diverse employees,” said Mahdi. “We must continue to utilise the human capital around the business and give them an opportunity to share and enhance their experiences, as well as to make the best use of technology in delivering trainings, in order to take learning and development to the next level.”

The commitment to knowledge sharing and technology is well ingrained in the BMMI Group. The organisation was one of the first in Bahrain to successfully introduce and launch an internal eLearning portal named Ignite. The portal offers employees 60 learning modules that include topics such as human capital development, sales and marketing, leadership, workplace essentials and topics related to health, safety and the environment. Ignite provides employees with the tools to take charge of their own learning, at their own pace. All employees across the BMMI Group can self-enrol into modules, access an online library and course specific material, and are provided with a certificate upon successful completion of a course.