Art of Clean: Team Building Event - August 2017 ~ Art of Clean - UK

My name is Pierre de Wet and with my wonderful wife Laurence we own and run Art of Clean.

Over the past 12 years in business I have learned that our company is only good if our people are good. From our humble beginnings when I bought a very small window cleaning round in Cambourne to when we bought our very first track mounted carpet cleaning machine (Truck mount is an American term that means a large carpet cleaning machine that is built into the back of a van. It should really be called a van mount) to when we employed our very first technician Steve.

Soon we employed Ann in the office and after that we realised that if we want to build a business that benefit our clients, our team members and ourselves we have to grow the company.

We are proud to say that from those times to now we now are part of a team of 6 Technicians (Adam, Gavin, Jo, Nathan, Warren, Wayne) and they are supported by three wonderful office team members Barbara, Danielle and Nicola.

Neil and Sam are heads up our flooring supply and installation division Art of Flooring (www.artofflooring.co.uk) A few other amazing people we cannot do without is Simon who take care of our repairs and maintenance requirements and David our bookkeeper ensure we keep the money in check.

I have a deep rooted passion to see people come to Artof Clean and develop themselves. I have had many wonderful people in my life that helped me realise that I have a lot more potential than I thought. As we became more successful to the point where we became the largest specialist flooring and soft furnishing care and restoration firm in the Cambridgeshire area I knew I had to give back.

The way we give back is to challenge our team members to grow and develop with us. To reward and encourage them we put on a team event at least once per year. This day is a day to have fun and connect with other team members.

On Friday the 18^th of August it was that time again. The last team event was our Go-Ape experience I have been inspired by so many successful business people to ensure we look well after our team.

Richard Branson once said “Look After Your Staff, They'll Look After Your Customers. It's That Simple.”

So what did we get up to at our team event?

We started with a hearty breakfast at the Red Lion in Stretham. We had to fill up for a busy day ahead.

Our next stop was The Prospect Trust in Reach near Cambridge - http://prospectstrust.org.uk/

Here is a video they made that tell you more about what they do - https://player.vimeo.com/video/107268365. Art of Clean and Art of Flooring sponsored the Prospects Trust 105 trees and we helped by planning the trees. Some of our team even had a chance to drive the farm tractor.

We also had the opportunity to meet some of the people that work on the farm and who benefit from the amazing work they do there.

After the great time at Snakehall Farm we headed over to Wild Tracks in Kennett. This was a competitive session to see who has the best driving skills in a Go-Kart. It was great fun and everyone really enjoyed it. Well done to our top 3 winners – 1^st Place Nathan 2^nd Place Sam and 3^rd place was Warren.

After the Go-Karting we all set off to meet up with Steve Gonsalves of http://www.successformulae.co.uk

This art of the day was dedicated to help our team serve our clients better. We always look for ways to connect better with our clients. We then rolled this into goal setting.

As I explained it to the team. We get up in the morning and come to work for a reason. The reason is a personal matter for each of us. It is down to us to understand why and set a goal or goals. This gives us a clear reason to come to work and do what we do.

To ensure we break through and chase after our goals Steve helped us by creating a metaphor in letting us write our goals down on a wooden board and showed us to safely break the board symbolising us breaking THROUGH what hold us back, breaking TO what we would like and in the process breaking FROM what habits that stop us.

After the board break Steve showed us how we could now break and arrow with our throat.

At this point our team where all very motivated and realised if we take the right steps and do it safely we can do anything we put our minds to. The last challenge for the day was the FIREWALK

This was about 12 foot bed of coals. As I have been trained as a Firewalk instructor by Steve several years ago I was the first one to cross over the coals.

Those that chose to then had the opportunity to do the same.

All the activities above took place in a safe and controlled environment and all team members signed the appropriate documentation and was shown the safest way possible to do this. It was wonderful to see our team so motivated after the event.

That is what makes us all a great team.