Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett invited to British Army's culture training day
Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett has been invited to help inspire the British Army at a training event which aims to transform the service’s culture.
The entrepreneur and television personality, who created The Diary of a CEO podcast and who is one of the wealthy investors on the hit BBC TV show Dragons’ Den, will be a keynote speaker at the Army’s event, part of its Op Teamwork programme, which will include a day of workshops that aim to update and improve Army culture and behaviours.
Mr Bartlett said: "There are basically two things when building an organisation: the first is hiring great people. But the culture, the thing that binds them together, which determines their philosophy, their strategy, their motivation, their vision, their attention to detail; that's the [second] thing.
"My job as a CEO…when building businesses, is that how do we make sure we hire the best people and get the best people in the world to come and work here?" he said.
"Then, how do we bind them together with a culture that gets the best out of them."
The All Stop Day will see 150,000 personnel from across the British Army stop working for a day in an effort to make the service a better place to work.
It also sees troops removed from their day job, allowing them to discuss the way their team operates and air any issues they may have.
The event, on Wednesday, 8 February, is part of the Army’s cultural transformation programme - Op Teamwork.
This has included training, workshops and away days for both senior and junior officers and other programmes to help develop cultural norms that aim to recognise the contribution each individual in the service makes, generate trust and enhance operational capability by giving everyone in the team a voice.
This has included regular events that support diversity and inclusion and other projects that examine how the Army intervenes when dealing with inappropriate behaviours within the service.
The Teamwork campaign looks to make the British Army a better organisation to work for by providing personnel with everything they need to create winning teams.
In the latest round of training, the British Army's second service-wide event of its kind, keynote speakers including Mr Bartlett aim to inspire troops with talks on building trust, innovative risk-taking and other ideas about how to bring out the best in a professsional team.
As well as keynote speakers, the training will also provide workshops, with the war in Ukraine in mind, to challenge small teams to become more efficient and effective together.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, Chief of the General Staff, said: “I am utterly determined that we foster the culture needed to ensure that the British Army remains a great institution – one that is great to be in for everyone and one that maintains the respect and affection of the country we serve.
"To succeed in war, and in peace, we must all engender the culture and behaviour required to forge confident and winning teams.
"We must engender true professionalism."
The Army said the event will continue work that began last year and "set the conditions to generate shared understanding of the need to update and improve Army cultures and behaviours".
It comes after a number of crackdowns by Army chiefs on unacceptable behaviour, including the announcement in July last year the MOD would kick personnel out of the military for paying for sex in other countries.
In December last year, Salute Her UK, which represents female military personnel who have experienced sexual abuse, alleged Sandhurst is plagued by a "toxic" culture of sexual assault.
And in November 2021, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace met with British Army leaders to address concerns around bullying, sexual harassment, and discrimination.
It followed a report into the bullying and sexual harassment of women in the Armed Forces led by Tory MP and former soldier Sarah Atherton.
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