Pukka Herbs, a case study

As well as running open leadership programmes throughout the year the HotHouse team work on a bespoke basis with a range of clients, usually in the fields of leadership for sustainability and personal and organisational development.

Eden Project has worked with Pukka Herbs, based in Bristol, UK, since 2015. The two organisation's missions clearly align, which has meant successful collaborations on commercial (Eden shifts a lot of Pukka tea through retail) and educational (we both like talking about the magic of plants) partnerships.

Pukka's Head of Tea, Sarah Cook, came on our inaugural HotHouse programme and apparently returned to the office raving about it. Even so we were surprised and delighted when Charlotte, Rich, and Dan from Eden were invited to Bristol to meet the founders of Pukka, Tim Westwell and Sebastian Pole, to talk about how to develop our partnership further.

After a colourful morning chatting about anything and everything one thing became increasingly clear: the rapid trajectory of the company, with its 30% growth year on year, was causing some of the 'heart' - the founding ideals and principles - of Pukka to be stretched and frayed.

What Pukka needed was a development programme that could re-align the growing team with the organisation's core essence. And so, 'Chrysalis' was born. The metaphors about transformation held in the name Chrysalis barely need explaining here...

Tim and Seb came on HotHouse flagship programme The Nature of Leadership, which Chrysalis is modelled on, in Nov 2016 to test the waters. They liked what they saw and so over the next few months we co-created, mainly with Pukka's brilliant People Director Suzy Stollery, a four-day residential programme through which all 100 or so Pukka people would attend in six cohorts. We're now half-way through that process, on a summer break, while Eden is inundated with both rain (it's absolutely chucking it down as I write) and people (it's just gone midday and over 6,000 have already come through the gates...) so it seemed a good time to pen some thoughts about how it's going.

At the philosophical heart of Chrysalis are the Wisdom Seeds - which represent qualities that Pukka and its people should embody - of Truth, Respect, Purity, and Effort. Sebastian Pole, Pukka co-founder and Master Herbsmith, derived the Wisdom Seeds from his long work with the ancient Indian holistic system Ayurveda.

On the four day programme the Pukka people engage in a collective enquiry that explores their individual relationships with the Wisdom Seeds.

There's also plenty of time and space to connect with colleagues in unfamiliar and beautiful surroundings, and examine what this all means for the future direction and ambitions of the organisation.

The hyper-experiential learning element is top and tailed with pre and post-reading (and some watching), group meetings with Tim and Seb, and the offer of mentoring sessions. All of which provides a rounded learning and development experience that hits a broad spectrum of learning needs.

And so far... the results have been stunning. I'll wait till November to release the complete data, but I would like to share some of the feedback received so far:

"Beautifully organised. Allowing time to feel, think and process. An amazing setting that helps the Wisdom Seeds come to life. The most wonderful team to work with."

"A total inspiration – inspiring on a personal level, inspiring in relation to the Wisdom Seeds, inspiring the connection with nature and inspiring facilitation." 

"Expertly and carefully held by a group of special people. I feel like we have been physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually challenged and nourished. The organisation of the programme has been seamless."

It's been a huge privilege getting to know the people behind Pukka and lead the team, from all corners and levels of this inspiring company, on this profound journey of personal and organisational discovery.

If you'd like to work with HotHouse on a personal or organisational project, we'd love to hear from you.

About Dan: Dan is Learning Curator at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK. Dan creates, facilitates, and consults on learning and development experiences for the higher education and business communities.