The 2014 Google Snapshot of the World by Sellena Ford

As the first month of the new year comes to a close, I felt it important to look at the world from a Google perspective from 2014 (don’t ask me why, but Google seems to know a lot about a lot!).  The top 10 Global Trending Searches 2014 - does any of the below surprise you, Flappy Bird at number 6 maybe!?

1.            Robin Williams

2.            World Cup

3.            Ebola
4.            Malaysia Airlines
5.            ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
6.            Flappy Bird
7.            Conchita Wurst
8.            ISIS
9.            Frozen
10.          Sochi Olympics

In terms of the top 3 global trending people in 2014 (different from sheer number of searches), Jennifer Lawrence finished in first place, followed by Kim Kardashian and Julie Gayet.  2013 saw the top three people as Nelson Mandela, Paul Walker and Malala Yousafzai.  I wonder what the balance will be in 2015; perhaps the General Election will encourage more googling on political figures this year?

The top three “how to…” Google trends in the UK were How to draw, How to kiss and How to crochet.  The USA “how tos” were How to AirDrop, How to contour and How to vote.  Touchy, feely United Kingdom?

So what has the trend been for Zest in 2014?  We saw continued growth and in particular, organisations who had drawn their training budgets internally during the recession, beginning to reinvest in their people once again.  We have seen an increase in organisations developing their internal coaching capacity through the coaching skills workshops we offer, developing through CMI Coaching and Mentoring programmes and bespoke workshops.

2015 has seen a major change for Zest with the retirement of Paul Cook from the business.  He has been a breath of fresh air and a hugely positive influence and Elaine and I are sorry to see him go, but wish him well in his new venture.  What does this mean for Zest?  We strongly believe that “when one door closes, another opens.”  Zest's future is developing our business model further and working more regularly with our expert business associates, in order to offer a broader range of workshops.  One of the things we love doing is nurturing the relationship with our existing clients; Elaine most enjoys these meetings when they involve discussions over coffee and cake!  This year we will concentrate on how we offer supervision and support to the ‘super coach’ groups we have already developed within some of our client organisations and look to offer our now considerable experience of growing coaching cultures to more new clients.

And you and your businesses for 2015?  What will you do differently, what’s working, what’s not…?  It would be good to hear your story, even better, if you would like a chat with us (don’t forget prerequisite coffee and cake!) please get in touch.