When reflecting on the first six months of 2021, our exceptional people immediately come to mind.
The communications and media space is energetic – it is always evolving and overcoming new challenges. As Lumine Group President, I believe it is my responsibility to create an environment that empowers business leaders to inspire their teams amidst this exciting industry.
Over the last six months, Lumine kicked off two talent development initiatives to cultivate an environment that is fueled with opportunities to exchange ideas, to learn from one another, and to recognize exceptional leadership.
Mentorship: The Lumine “Black Belt” Program
The Lumine portfolio is made up of 21 businesses that vary in size, age, experience, and organizational structure. As part of this, there is a wealth of knowledge that certain leaders across our businesses possess, and we want to ensure they have the opportunity to share and nurture this knowledge with the greater Lumine organisation.
In January 2021, we introduced the Lumine Black Belt program. “Black Belts” are awarded to functional experts and leaders within the portfolio who have the achieved the following characteristics:
- Outstanding excellence in their domain
- They have been key contributors to the Lumine Group Playbook – our home for best practices around strengthening and growing communications and media software businesses
- They actively mentor their teams
- They are actively recruiting up-and-comers
We call these up-and-comers “Yellow Belts,” a designation that recognizes emerging senior leaders. We believe that this relationship between the two leaders will encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing, sparking a mentorship relationship.
In addition to working with Yellow Belts, Black Belts are encouraged to share their expertise to the wider group of senior leaders across Lumine. This is done through our “Black Belt Bootcamps.” In these Bootcamps, we invite senior leaders across the organization to hear directly from Black Belts on their area of focus – whether that’s sharing best practices on managing through change, or how to leverage digital marketing to drive marketing initiatives.
I am proud of what our Black Belts have accomplished so far, and look forward to seeing the program evolve.
Illuminate 2021: Virtual Knowledge Sharing Event
In June, we held Illuminate 2021, Lumine’s virtual knowledge sharing event. The name Illuminate comes from our goal of the event – to illuminate people through knowledge sharing.
This three-and-a-half-day virtual event brought together 145 senior leaders and across Lumine.
Day One was filled with inspiring keynote addresses and featured a special Q&A with customers from within the Lumine ecosystem.
Day Two was action-packed. Our #Illuminate2021 attendees heard from a variety of Lumine thought leaders – our “Black Belts” – on topics from Sales to R&D, from Finance to Professional Services.
During our third and final half-day of events, attendees joined sessions focused on their specific job functions, providing participants the opportunity to ask questions and learn from their global group of colleagues.
I left the event feeling proud of our team and the knowledge base we continue to develop and share with our businesses. The response from our attendees was great, and I look forward to next year’s event, hoping that we will be able to gather in-person!
Our goal at Lumine is to create an environment that empowers leaders across our businesses to thrive, enabled by a culture of mentorship and knowledge sharing. We are a community of lifelong learners, and it is vital to the success of Lumine that our people consistently feel refreshed and recognized. In the second half of the year and beyond, we will continue to prioritize creating an environment where businesses – and the people behind them – can thrive.
Onwards & upwards!