Pictured above: MFG chairman Maynard Burton

The lions are set to roar for Midlands law firm MFG Solicitors.

It is to host a staff Training and Development Day on Thursday, June 3, at West Midlands Safari Park.

A major regional law firm, MFG Solicitors LLP has offices in Halesowen, Telford, Worcester, Bromsgrove, Kidderminster, Cleobury Mortimer and Oswestry.

The June 3 gathering will be addressed by Lindsay McKenna, a management and leadership expert who also has a remarkable link-up with the wildlife of Africa.

She will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of hyenas, wild dogs, elephants and lions and translate that into business tips for better teamwork.

Ms McKenna, whose business is based at Paddocks Farm, near Ross on Wye, said: "It is about going back to the fundamentals of belonging to and leading teams. In the African bush you don't play teams, it's for real and can be the difference between life and death. Yet in business life this has often become a passive role in many organisations."

The hyena was incredibly competitive within the clan while the wild dog was the most superb example of teamwork every moment of the day.

Lions would work effectively as a team in bringing down prey but the moment the kill was made started falling out - the message being that you should not just pick and choose when you want to be part of a team and then simply go back to being an individual.

Elephants were led by an elderly matriarch who could be incredibly traditional in where she took the herd and looked to find food. But she had an immense store of knowledge. Where poaching meant a much younger elephant had to take the role, sometimes they couldn't cope - the lesson for business being the strength of the leader could sometimes prove to be a weakness.

Mc McKenna went on: "The best business leaders should not be controlling and compelling people to do things.

"The leader cannot be expected to be visibly leading every second of the working day - indeed in the best teams it should not be instantly obvious who the leader is, so effectively are the individuals working together."

MFG chairman Maynard Burton said: "This is going to be an incredible experience for our people.

"They will be taken out of their comfort zone and challenged in all sorts of ways that for many will be completely new to them.

"Very few will have considered that the behaviour of the animals of the African plains may have valuable business lessons which can take their careers forward among the largely urban denizens of the West Midlands.

"We hope it will inspire them. For those who view training days as being stolid and tedious affairs, I challenge anyone to find this boring."

Lindsay McKenna Limited specialises in leadership, teamwork and change management.

It has a worldwide client base which ranges from global corporates, Olympic teams, government bodies and charities, working in 28 countries.

Underpinning it all is her passion for animals and a lifelong commitment to conservation.

And, to make the lectures and courses even more real life, parties are taken out to Africa to experience it all - centred on the Madikwe Game Reserve on the edge of the Kalahari.

All fees from the African-based activities are invested in a non-profit making conservation company based in South Africa, Jackal Connect, run by Rob Harrison-White.

Ms McKenna explained: "Thousands of wild animals are killed each year on South African farmland as innocent bystanders to an ongoing war waged between the livestock industry and primarily the black backed jackal and the caracal.

"These two predators are the most implicated with respect to livestock loss from predation. This age-old battle has been fought through the use of poisons, gin-traps, hunting with dogs and a host of other lethal mechanisms.

"But, despite over three centuries of unparalleled persecution, jackal and caracal numbers are on the increase on farmland, with the animals outwitting all attempts to exterminate them."

Jackal Connect is trying to provide farmers with practical alternatives and more effective long term and economically viable solutions to the jackal/caracal conflict - without the associated destruction of other wildlife.