On 23rd November, The Housing Forum’s Future Network met to launch its 2023 – 2024 work programme. The meeting was chaired by Thomas Bugler, Head of Marketing at the Bugler Group.
The event served as an opportunity to introduce the new 2023 – 2024 cohort of the Futures Network to each other and to their predecessors in the 2022 – 2023 cohort.
The event featured a presentation by Robert Isaac, Director of People Development at 4iSolutions: “Fostering skills in collaborative working within the housing sector”. The presentation featured an explanation of 4i’s work, including Robert’s own work in people development. The presentation featured a run-down of the importance of collaborative working, including sharing experience and skills, better outcomes, and diversifying thought.
Robert ran through the various challenges facing the sector, including Covid, Brexit, siloed working, and government churn. However, there are things which the sector has control over, and establishing successful collaborative working is key. Regular communication, having people with the right skillset, shared vision, a common understanding and collaborative behaviour are vital tools to establish a more collaborative culture.
4i then acts as an independent advisor, guiding clients to implement their learning and embed collaborative working within a client’s team. 4i enables clients to celebrate shared success, establish behavioural charters and comms plans, to have candid conversations in non-adversarial fashions, and devise and embed action plans with mentoring and coaching.
Finally, collaborative working can be fun! Robert ran through Experiential Learning retreats which 4i had run at Bowles Rocks – with fun physical outdoor activities such as climbing and scavenger hunts, bonding people socially so that they can connect on a human level.
Robert answered several questions from the Futures Network including queries on the impact of remote-working on team building and managing the risks of candidness.
At the meeting, the Futures Network’s projects for the year were discussed. First of these is the skills shortage project. An extra 225,000 construction workers will be needed by 2027 to meet housing demand, and 83% of construction industry businesses reported a lack of skilled workers. The work of the Futures Network will recommend changes to remedy this situation, and will include interviews with Housing Forum members to get a sense of the housing sector’s view.
The Futures Network will next meet on 30th January, with a collaborative workshop-style on the skills shortage project. Topics for sub-groups were identified to have the maximum impact for this research to employers, people joining the workshop, and policymaker audiences.
The Futures Network’s decarbonisation project was also discussed. With survey data collected from The Housing Forum members, future work can look into who should be delivering decarbonisation infrastructure and what this could look like.
Thank you to everybody who attended, we look forward to convening the next Futures Network meeting on 30th January.
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