Natalie Lock

gcp visit Edinburgh

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It was back in 2020, when former director, Colin Powell moved to Edinburgh from Bath to fulfil a family dream of living in Scotland. A global pandemic, three years and many successful projects later a small group of the gcp team embarked on a mini-office-trip to pay him (and magnificent Edinburgh) a visit.

Our trip started early on Friday morning with a 7am flight from Bristol International Airport, landing us in Edinburgh just as the day was beginning to break. An atmospheric mist settled over the streets as we took the bus into the capital, finally splitting to cast glorious sunshine over the gothic city once brunch was over.

That first morning was for exploring – the Botanical Gardens, Modern Two, quaintly cobbled streets and an independent-makers-market inside a church were some of the sights taken in before we headed to our meeting place of Edinburgh Castle for a group experience.

We battled the crowds to take in the beauty of the sun soaked city from upon high. The breathless, panoramic views were worth being squeezed like sardines through the entrance and once inside the settlement it was peaceful with lots to look at.

There might have been a pint (or two) consumed afterwards in an quirky little pub and many thousands of steps clocked up on the step trackers.

Day Two started off with pastries and coffee (for those of us who didn’t have breakfasts at the hotel or AirBnB) and meeting Colin at the bottom of the Royal Mile, for a walk that started in a graveyard and ended in a café.

We took a meandering route, soaking up amazing views and the lovely streets of New Town. There were surprising pockets of nature to be discovered in the West End, all sprinkled with history, stories, anecdotes and interesting facts from Colin. We caught up as we walked, taking in what felt like an entirely different city to the day before.

Everywhere you turn in Edinburgh, there is something for your eyes to feast upon. Each street looks like it could be a scene in a film or the setting of a novel; I found myself saying “it’s beautiful, no this is beautiful” more times that I can count. With Autumn just at the edges of the trees and the weather zig-zagging between smokey skies and blinding sunshine, I felt like we really got the best it could offer.

After our tour we were armed with knowledge of the best bookshops in the city and filled with the most delicious toastie I’ve ever eaten it was time for a well-earned rest. Another 15,000 steps clocked in on the tracker, there were a few free hours (an amazing entrance-way in the National Portrait Gallery, yoga, a chapter of my book, a glass of wine) before we met again for a lovely dinner.

Colin surprised us all with some hand-thrown tea bowls (he has taken up pottery since moving to Edinburgh); and we finished the evening in a wine bar, chatting about our trip so far and sharing our go-to karaoke songs.

By Sunday, there was still more to do and by now, my fitness tracker was wondering if perhaps my watch had been stolen by someone who walks much more than I normally do. Today was Arthur’s Seat for some, bookshops, people watching and coffee for others. Signed-First-Editions, origami book pages, museums, galleries, parks, fountains, a fancy new shopping mall – we made the most of our last, long day, squeezing in as many of the sights as we could, before heading back to Edinburgh Airport for dinner and a late flight back to Bristol.

 

Employee Survey Results #mentalhealthawareness

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#mentalhealthawareness

Two years ago, as part of our mental health and wellbeing initiatives, gcp implemented an Employee Survey. This is the second year of our survey and we are delighted to have once again received 100% participation.

Using quality questions has enabled us to monitor trends year-on-year so that we can build a picture of how we are all doing and we will continue to do this going forward. We will run the survey annually to track changing trends, but are also investigating other forms of feedback, which can be given more regularly so there is less time between whole office check-ins.

We understand the limitations to a survey taken at a moment in time and have a number of other options in place for staff to access support where required.

Below, we have summarised some of the quality question responses and the next steps we are taking in each area.

At gcp, we are really keen on focus weeks, especially for Mental Health & Wellbeing and use them as a time to reflect on progress to date and to put plans in place for the next period.

There is an awareness of mental health at gcp & this is talked about openly

Next Steps:

  • Set up a mental health task group

  • Finalise and publish our new wellbeing & mental health policy

  • Events Group to form a program of inclusive events

I feel confident that I can open up about mental health issues at work

Next Steps:

  • Investigate ways to receive feedback more regularly

  • Monitor the wellbeing and mental health of staff annually via anonymous survey

  • Keep mental health at the forefront of one-to-ones and reviews. Put wellbeing action plans into place for anyone who wants to

  • Keep to one-to-one schedule (these are informal chats with directors, outside of the review system, when any issues or concerns can be raised or feedback given)

  • Offer alternative ways to get support (via our private medical insurance or Mind)

I am aware of the support available to me at work with regards to mental health

Next Steps:

  • Clarify support available

  • Devise a plan for regular updates / training on mental health and support

Other:

International Women's Day.

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We join the IWD community to celebrate the achievements of our women.

To highlight just a few of these, we have recently welcomed Martina, who has immediately made herself part of the gcp team. Catriona, an Architectural Student, who has also recently joined us from Bath University on a four-month placement, has a passion for creating thriving and sustainable communities. Sarah, our social secretary, has recently summited the final design project of her part-2 qualification at Oxford Brookes University. Completing this all whilst in full-time employment, which is a fantastic achievement!

Work Life Week 2021: Using National Awareness Days to Evaluate Our Progress

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At gcp, supporting mental health has always been at the core of devising sustainable working practices. We have long had family-friendly working policies in place and support flexible working requests for a variety of reasons from caring responsibilities to personal development, knowing that there is no “one size fits all” solution to improving work/life balance.

For the last few years we have used Work Life Week to evaluate our progress, celebrate achievements in this area and set targets for the following year. In a busy, hybrid working environment, it is helpful to use National Awareness days and weeks as a way for the whole team to think about and discuss our mental health at the same time.

In 2019 we held a mindfulness and creativity week, where we took some time out to be creative together. This was a great opportunity to have fun, take a break from our screens and chat with members of the team we might not work with on a day-to-day basis.

In the midst of a pandemic, Work Life Week saw a change of focus to physical activity breaks: we set ourselves a 1,000,000 step challenge for the week and encouraged everyone to take time off from their screens to get some fresh air. Working virtually, we also held coffee mornings as an opportunity for some chit-chat amongst the increasingly work-focused Teams meetings.

It is important to highlight that these weeks aren’t just one-off events, but something gcp are keen to continue to improve on. In the past year, we have signed up to Thrive at Work West of England and have embarked on a two year commitment to improve and evaluate our working procedures in a way that puts keeping our team mentally healthy at the core of what we do.

One year into this commitment  we have made some subtle shifts in established working practices to support mental health, wellbeing and balance. At the beginning of 2021 we introduced private health insurance for everyone, to provide easy access to medical support for physical and mental health issues.

Long supporters of Mind, all members of the Senior Management Team have already completed Mental Health Awareness Training for Managers in 2021. This training will be provided to the rest of the office during 2021s’ Work Life Week.

This year we also ran an Employee Satisfaction Questionnaire to let us know what we are doing well already and what we need to improve, on an individual and organisational level. This will now become an annual undertaking, with benchmarking questions used to track trends amongst our team. As a result of this survey, we have:

  • Put mental health at the forefront of one-to-ones and reviews

  • Committed to putting wellbeing plans into place for anyone who needs it

  • Reinforced our one-to-one chats, now scheduled every 6 weeks (these are informal chats with directors outside of the formal review system, when any issues or concerns can be raised or feedback given)

  • Checked in on the wellbeing and mental health of staff via an anonymous survey

  • Arranged mental health awareness training for the Senior Management Team

  • Collaboratively planned for return to the office / bubble mixing

  • Attended a RIBA CPD Wellbeing session, with action points fed back to the wider team

  • Encouraged coffee breaks Tuesday & Thursday @10.30 for drop in (online – or in office for those in an office-based bubble)

  • Empowered staff to set up challenges, breakout rooms, coffee breaks, informal meetings as and when they need / want them

To follow, we will in the next 6 months:

  • Arrange mental health awareness training for the whole team

  • Devise a wellbeing & mental health policy, using our survey results, research and findings from year 1

  • Run the annual Employee Satisfaction Survey & report on trends / actions to wider team

  • Undertake a review of our appraisal system

Our Events Team will:

  • Define a place to play games, do puzzles, sketch at lunch (when closer contact is permitted)

  • Plan architectural/cultural day trips

  • Plan lunchtime events: games, exercise, Lego, pub – a mix of events to appeal to a wide audience

It is fair to say that the pandemic has highlighted both the positives and the challenges of virtual working and so this year for Work Life Week, we have changed the focus towards discussions about what sort of working environment we want to create as we move towards 2022.

gcp became employee owned in 2020 and now more than ever the wellbeing of our colleagues is central to us being a successful business. In Work Life Week 2021 we will be having daily discussions around the following:

Flexibility:

What does flexibility mean to me?

How does it impact my colleagues?

Mental health:

What can I do to help my mental health?

What can gcp do to help my mental health?

Practicality:

How do we see the new flexible and hybrid system working?

Creative and collaboration:

How do we see creative and collaborative design working in the new flexible and hybrid system?

Burn-out:

What is the best way to avoid burn-out? How do I work best?

For this week and beyond gcp continues to place employee wellbeing and keeping our team mentally healthy at the core of our company values.

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End of year blog 2020

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A year like no other is coming to an end and I just wanted to say that, despite the numerous challenges presented to us, the whole team has responded magnificently demonstrating a deep-routed culture of mutual support and understanding. My thanks and appreciation go to you all. I have known for ages that it was all about the people and so I want to mention some of the ways that we have progressed as an organisation to put us in such a strong position looking forward to 2021 and the part that the individuals have played in that.

Everyone has developed a ‘teams’ persona whether it’s during a virtual rendezvous with genial GP ‘doctor’ Martin Spear, ‘cat juggling’ Esther Brown, ‘squeezed under the stairs’ whispering Michael Hanson or ‘wild man of the woods’ Jonathan Platt. Sometimes they all appear at once on screen like a mad version of University Challenge.

I thought some like borrowing the cool neutral background of a beautifully tasteful modern kitchen until I eventually realised that in Olia Kyritsi’s case it was actually her real kitchen.  Some like Tom Mellor, Tom Hubbard and Matt Andrews like fading out the domestic child strewn chaos in which they obviously live while Owen Faunt either has many rooms in his house or a different selection of bold wallpapers in each. Sarah Markroum looks as though she is just about to pick up an instrument and sing us a song and Matt Bonney has been sitting next to his match pot decorated wall for most of the year.

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Natalie Lock likes to share her domestic bliss with us occasionally interrupted by child or husband or both and recently we have been able to share the homes of Maria Steward, who’s husband lives, we now know, behind a door curiously located half way up the wall in her kitchen, or Siobhan Tarr who has brought the garden inside her house with her spectacularly green fingers.  James Pilling resides in his person shed in the middle of a building site with bike poised for an early morning spin whilst Jon Briscoe organises our every waking hour with benevolent decisiveness and our recently distanced genial voice of reason and wisdom Colin Powell looks over us and after us. 

What a dream teams team!

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This year really has been full of achievement. Financially we have, more or less, broken even which has been no mean feat on its own.  During a year when we have completed a refurbishment of the office, had to work in bubbles, incurred the considerable cost of converting the business into an Employee Owned Trust and set everyone up with the IT infrastructure to work fairly seamlessly from home or from Corum 2, this performance has been even more remarkable.

The year stared with James Pilling achieving a Part 1 Architectural qualification by distance learning with Oxford Brookes and ended with Esther Brown becoming a fully qualified Architect.  In the middle Sarah Makroum passed her first year of Part 2, again at Oxford Brookes and Own Faunt his first year apprentice Part 1 at South Bank University, both with flying colours.  Matt Bonney and Olia Kyrirtsi became qualified Passivhaus designers and Tom Hubbard became a certified Architectural Technologist.  Congratulations to you all.

Shout outs go to Michael Hanson for his tireless responses to your never-ending technical queries and Michael again with Tom Mellor for masterminding the IT development and eventual delivery of a VOIP telephone system.  Don’t ring us ( and expect to get transferred ) we’ll ring you back!  Lastly a big mention for Esther Brown, Natalie Lock, Matt Bonney and James Pilling for boosting our social media presence to the status of influencers – who would have believed it!

And then there was the actual work!

Happy Christmas to you and yours and I look forward to eventually meeting up with you all in 2021.

Jeremy Pilling

Advent day 21: DRAW!

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Today a festive favourite!

Place a paper plate on your head and draw a picture to a set of instructions:

Ground line.

A circle.

Another on top.

And one more … you’ve guessed it, it’s a snowman.

Add some eyes. A nose. A smile.

Give them three buttons and two arms.

30 November 2020: Gingerbread Me!

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One day earlier than normal, and still in November at that, team gcp got together on our weekly huddle-zoom to discuss planning for the week. But something was a little bit different this week. Over the weekend beautifully (or creatively!) wrapped boxes had appeared on desks or on doorsteps with this message: bring to huddle.

What followed, in a flurry of tinsel, santa hats, wrapping paper and giggling was the unveiling of the gcp Advent Box: a wrapped gift of goodies, quarantined and ready for a month of fun and challenges.

Box contents as follows: small biscuit tin (not to be opened 10.30 tomorrow), a strangely coloured candy cane, a Baileys miniature, a hot chocolate spoon, a paper plate, a small cardboard house (which rattles when shook, but is not to be open quite yet), a gcp recipe book and the items needed for today’s challenge…

Gingerbread Me

You will need: one gingerbread person & two stars (made by Sarah) and a set of icing tubes

Time: 5 minutes

Challenge: to decorate your gingerbread to look just like you!

Screaming, cursing, giggling, banter, complaining about the limited colour scheme and five minutes was all it took to create this beautiful lot:

Christmas Advent

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In case you haven’t noticed: here at gcp we have a team with a love of competitive games.

In past years we’ve organised a “Christmas Avent” at the office. Throughout the month of December there is a daily task or challenge where we get to pit our mental, physical or practical skills against each other, to much cheer and merriment in the runup to Christmas.

2020 has been a tough year for everyone. Our close-knit team has really missed the normal pub quizzes, escape rooms and go-karting that give us the opportunity to have fun and connect with each other outside of work life. We think that having a team who genuinely like each other on a personal level is an incredible asset to the way we perform during business hours.

We couldn’t let the festive season pass us by without bringing a bit of cheer to the team. Though there was more detailed planning required this year with us working from home and in office bubbles, with help from a few of the team we were able to bring everyone the “gcp Advent Box”: a wrapped gift of goodies, quarantined and to be opened together on our weekly huddle.

If you want to know more about the challenges or to see the advent countdown, head over to our dedicated page, which will be regularly updated as we complete each festive task.

Natalie WFH: being a mum, an employee & the Tooth Fairy

My 6-year-old brings me a present during a Board Meeting. Grinning broadly, he holds up the tiny thing, close enough for it to come into view on the screen. “It finally came out!” He whispers, so proud, and I realise that the tiny, bloody specimen is in fact his tooth.

 

It breaks the mood of the meeting and for a few moments my colleagues and I discuss if the Tooth Fairy is in fact a key-worker and the inflation rates of teeth since the 80’s.

 

I’m lucky, my colleagues are supportive of this strange new working environment I’m battling, and we quickly get back to discussing strategy for a return-to-office plan.

 

When I sign off from teams, my house resembles a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Every toy box has been upended. Rice Crispies have been crushed into the carpet, the milk is under the bed.

 

This Brave New World for me is one of getting up before my children to work, spending twice the amount of time after a conference call wiping up spills and putting away toys and then back on to the computer late into the night.

 

The upside is that without emails, phone calls, a meeting-packed-diary and interruptions I’m churning out work in half the normal time. Perhaps that has something to do with the amount of coffee I’m drinking, or maybe this working from home thing is actually pretty good at focusing the mind.

 

I’m not going to emerge from this lockdown as a fitter, healthier, more zen version of myself. My house has never looked worse. The banana bread and wine consumption is off the charts.

 

But I have found creativity amongst the madness and joy in the break of routine. I have been able to fully immerse myself in one piece of work for long periods of time - as a chronic multi-taker this has shone new light on what happens when you go deep into a task.

 

I can hop onto the computer as an idea comes to mind and quickly whip up a blog story and make notes on a campaign idea. My colleagues feel relaxed enough to WhatsApp me ideas over the weekend, we informally chat through sparks of inspiration as soon as they arise.

 

Previously I had thought that blurring the lines like this would impact my mental health, but without structured hours sat at a desk, I welcome these pops of work to punctuate my day and balance all the #makingmemories I’m supposed to be doing with the children.

 

I do miss the small, genuine, everyday connections with my colleagues that you can’t get through a screen. And a house that doesn’t resemble a bomb site. But I have found so much hope during my time at home, not least for the future of the office.

 

I hope that this pandemic has shown us a way to make working from home more accessible - to the new mothers, carers, parents. The early risers (and night owls), to the people who can’t physically or mentally sit at desks for 8 hours a day.

 

I hope that the option to work remotely becomes the new normal, not the exception to the rule. That we’ve learned flexibility isn’t something to be tagged on at the end of an employee handbook. That we can finally leap towards true work-life-balance. That there is productivity in chaos and hope in even the most challenging of circumstances.

WFH Interview: Natalie

As you know from previous posts, gcp continues to be fully operational and are here to assist you. In line with government guidelines we are working from home to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, our clients and the communities we serve.

Working from home is a new experience for many of us, here are Natalie’s thoughts on this new situation.

What’s something challenging about working from home? Balancing mum-work-Natalie life is always challenging but it’s much more difficult when we are all together at home. They don’t understand that I can’t always stop to give cuddles … and when I (almost always) do, it can be hard to refocus on work!

What do you like about working from home? The change of pace has been excellent for my creativity. I feel much more mindful in my work right now. It’s nice not rushing everyone out of the door on a morning. Being able to take time to have a family lunch or do a puzzle together is really lovely.

What do you miss about being in the office? Its the team for me. I MISS YOU HORRIBLE LOT. I am a chatterbox (which I’m sure lots of people don’t miss!) and I genuinely miss chatting away to the gcp team.

The view looks a bit different right now, here is Natalie’s desk-at-home.

natalies desk