Dear Partners and Friends,
Looking back on this eventful year 2024, we feel that every moment of it reflected that a commitment to change and progress is made truly effective through community work. We invite you to take a short trip back in time: let’s look back together at some important events and milestones.
⛵ Our traditional January kick-off Navigator programme provided an opportunity for those present to take stock of the past year in a quiet and protected environment. Participants were able to recharge their batteries and make a conscious plan for the year ahead – helping them to find the focal points, goals and actions that will help them to successfully implement their plans and keep their lives and leadership on track.
🔥 A remarkable kick-off event for the year was also the Flow Foundation’s Fire-starting Conference in February, where hundreds of participants, leaders from the for-profit and non-profit sectors, met to share ideas and give each other a boost. The event provided inspiration and new connections for everyone who believes in the power of community and social collaboration.
🎙️ From March onwards, we have a new FlowTime podcast. The varied topics included training transfer, psychological safety, multitasking, time management and emotional intelligence. If you’re interested in the world of training, self-awareness and organisational development from a slightly different perspective (in Hungarian), tune in.
🛡️ The role of psychological safety in the workplace is becoming more and more important, and this was one of the topics we addressed in the FlowAfternoon event in May. Participants in the event were able to adopt an approach that helps to create a stable and safe work environment, supporting effective and healthy working.
🤝 We continued our cooperation with key players in the non-profit sector at the NonProfit Developers’ Professional Conference in June, where participants were able to gain new insights and innovative solutions, and insights into the challenges and opportunities of running NGOs. The event served as a bridge between the for-profit and non-profit sectors, strengthening social impact.
🏙️ Péter Kalmár presented at Business Fest / HR Fest on “Strategy and culture change through the power of informal networks”, on how the traditional and dominant “top down” change management methodology can be successfully complemented by mapping informal networks, reaching out to opinion leaders and consciously maintaining a dialogue with the real key people in the organisation. How to build on “peer to peer” and “viral change” approaches to get your message to the blue collar.
🍹 The summer season kicked off with our Flow-Cocktail event: we spent a sparkling afternoon with our partners talking about open training and opportunities for self-development. At this event, we presented a wide range of individual and group development programmes aimed at developing professional competences and leadership skills. It also showcased Flow and the NonVerbal Academy’s Behavioural Analysis course.
🥐 FlowKenyér programme is a joint development of Flow Hungary and JÓkenyér. It operates in real time, in real places, with physically measurable outcome expectations; real human functioning and communication is manifested through the design and implementation processes. At the end of June, our back office staff participated in the simulation: they were confronted with a real business problem, which they successfully solved. And the pastries of shared success were eaten together.
🧭 At the end of summer this year, we made our popular Flow4Learning online mini-course “Compass – solutions for everyday leadership situations” available for free, covering 4 topics in total: leadership, leadership communication, motivation and delegation. Each chapter contains not only video material, but also exercises to help you practice and apply each topic. Plus, those who complete the Compass mini-course can continue learning with us at a discount as a participant in our Successful Leadership course.
🌳 Flow Foundation‘s summer and autumn Street Training programmes offered a unique community experience for participants. In this series of events, training sessions on city streets and public spaces made learning part of everyday life, providing opportunities for self-improvement, connecting with others and strengthening social inclusion. Although the Szeged leg of the series had to be postponed, the motto “you can learn from anyone, anywhere, anytime” was proved true in Balatonalmádi, Debrecen and Budapest.
🎓 In the autumn, we were pleased to launch the HR Business Partner / Specialist Economist training course in strategic partnership with Corvinus University of Budapest, which specifically prepares HR managers in medium and large companies to implement more agile and efficient processes. The programme aims to enable HR professionals and managers to create value and improve organisational culture in alignment with business leaders.
🤖 In October, we participated in an exciting collaboration organized by the Training Roundtable Association, where Flow experts Dr. Ildikó Magura, Boróka Erdélyi and Ádám Balog presented the possibilities of using artificial intelligence in the world of training. New methodologies and tools offered by AI will allow training processes to become even more personalised and efficient in the future.
🌎 We were also part of the international professional scene: in early October, we participated in the IODA Conference in Mexico, a world-renowned forum for those interested in organisational development. This year’s conference brought together experts from more than 30 countries to share their knowledge, and the central theme was intercultural challenges and global trends in increasing organisational effectiveness.
🕯️ We were saddened to learn in October of the death of one of the greatest figures in psychology, Prof. Philip Zimbardo. His lessons, particularly in the areas of “growth mindset” and responsibility, have had a profound impact on us, and his life’s work continues to guide us.
🛠️ In the autumn, thanks to the hard work of our back office team, our office was also renewed. We have brand new, bright and non-creaky (!) parquet flooring and freshly painted walls. Thanks to some minor rearranging, we’ve even added an extra meeting room, so we don’t have to leave the office if we want to go to the Liget (we’re glad that the eponymous Liget is right next door, of course).
📊 Finally, we closed the year with the expansion of the Flow HR Benchmark programme, which now provides HR professionals with benchmark data on salaries and compensation. Launching in January, the Flow Salary Benchmark program is specifically designed for our partners who want to make their employer brand more competitive and attractive.
🔢 In conclusion, we cannot miss some “essential” 😊 figures: 35 consultants in 20 countries around the world have trained, developed or coached more than 4500 employees of nearly 300 clients. Together with them, we “consumed” nearly 3,500 ballpoint pens, around 750 felt-tip pens and more than 600 PostIt packs.
Thank you to all those who joined us again this year, supported us and contributed to building the community!
On behalf of the entire Flow community,
we wish you a prosperous new year:
Ildikó Magura and Gábor Gyimesi
