We’re doing some cool communication skills training for managers at Northern Rail and last week Sarah was with a fantastic group in York who were thirsty to learn.  She had them trying out all sorts of tools and techniques to help them improve their communication and relationships with colleagues… and with not a PowerPoint slide in sight!  Their feedback included comments like:

“the whole of the programme was useful and this was because I was challenged to move out of my comfort zone and was taught practical techniques”

“an excellent course, conducted at the right pace with a very knowledgeable facilitator.  One of the best courses I have ever been on”

“the key thing I’ll take away is more confidence”

Without exception, everyone there agreed with the question: Would you recommend this course to others?’  So as you can imagine, Sarah’s feeling pretty chuffed and looking forward to the next one in September!

communication skills for managers course delegates

We have a simple reason for being – to help individuals, teams and organisations achieve their goals by refreshing the way they communicate, lead or think.  All of which ends up with more productive, effective and engaging workplaces and communities for people to spend their time with!

We have lots of plans and ideas about how we’ll do this and we’ll be letting you know more as the story of Rambutan unfolds.  Please join in with our thinking and conversations:  ask us questions, let us know what you’d like to know or how we can help you, let us know what you think about anything you’ve read in this blog entry…  We look forward to hearing what you’ve got to say!

Well, we’ve been really, really busy with our clients doing the things we are passionate about! This is great, but has meant that some of the other stuff, such as our website, has been left behind a bit.  So, to help Rambutan grow into the kind of company we strive to help others achieve we’ve invited a few more like minded people to join our bunch.  There’s Craig who’s working his magic with some of our clients, Gemma who’s working out how to spread the Rambutan word and Nicki who runs the office and keeps us all in order.  There’s a new member of the bunch too, and he’s due to join us in the next 3 months once he has worked out his notice in his current job… we’re very excited about his arrival and that’s all we’re saying at this stage!

After a fruitful discussion with another friend and brand communication guru, Tim Bleszynski from the alternative we had a plan for creating our visual brand.  Tim helped us think through what we wanted our brand to stand for and once this was clear (which was no mean feat and we thank Tim for his patience) he tasked a member of his team – the very talented Lauren Archer – to come up with something we’d love… which she did!  Our Rambutan-shaped logo is affectionately known as ‘the splodger’ and we’d like to think that our refreshing people strap-line reflects both what we do and what we’re like to work with.

The next challenge was to decide whereabouts to have an office – not as simple as it may sound given that I live in Leicestershire and Sarah in Kent!  For excellent reasons, we chose my home town of Market Harborough (which is well worth a visit if you have yet to discover it) and my wife Lisa, whose work as an estate agent came in very handy, found us the Treetop Rooms.  These two rooms are the hub of Rambutan’s office-based activity and we love them!

So, we were now a legal entity, with a domain name, email addresses, a VAT number, an office and a bank account – and we won’t dwell on the stories and struggles that awaited us as we undertook these seemingly simple tasks.  Suffice to say, we got there eventually and had reached the point where we could pay the rent and get paid by our clients!  We started trading on 1 September 2008.

Once we’d made the decision to go for it and create our own business, there was the minor (!) issue of coming up with a name for it.  Fortunately, our friend and marketing guru Ian Hall www.spottydogmarketing.com was up in York at the same time as Sarah and the idea was born when he saw the little, spiky, red fruit sitting there in a fruit-bowl!  When I got back from my holiday I said “I’ve been thinking about the name and reckon that using some kind of fruit could be good…”  Bizarre, but true!

Rambutan started with Sarah and I.  Over time we realised that what we really enjoy doing (and what we are really good at!) is helping people to make a difference to the teams and organisations they’re a part of.

How we’d arrived at this realisation is something that either one of us would gladly tell you about in detail over a coffee or a glass of pinot grigio, but in summary…

Having started our professional lives doing something completely different (Sarah in business strategy and me in retail management) our paths crossed at Smythe Dorward Lambert in the millennium year.  There we realised just how well we work together.

Somewhere in the middle of all this an idea of building a business was formed – a business that helps people achieve their goals and make a real difference to the organisation or tribe that they are a member of!  As with many ideas it just hovered around in the air whilst we were busy earning money and bringing up families.

Then, just as a plant grows if it has the right conditions, the idea turned into a realistic possibility in the summer of 2008 because the conditions were right.  OK, there was a credit crunch in full flow but we decided not to ‘do the recession’.  We seized the moment and decided to start creating something to be really proud of…  In fact, we were so sure that we would be proud of it that we also decided to guarantee the quality of our work on a better than risk free basis.  Get in touch to find out what this means!

David and Sarah founders of Rambutan