ARJardine

  A weeks or so back, at a very badly cobbled together work reunion (I know it was bad because I cobbled it), my lovely, yet challenging friend Ruth asked me to write something on creativity, in particular, difficulties surrounding being creative. My first response was ‘who the hell am I to write such a thing?’ Then I considered my long-standing love / hate and in / out relationship with creativity and that somehow my singer / songwriting glory days never quite got me to the Albert Hall, and well? Maybe I am capable of sharing something useful. Guess we’ll find out … Quick pre-ramble disclaimer: I’m writing this with absolutely no hardcore shock and awe statistics or facts, it’s just my little life (super condensed don’t worry) and a bit of intuition. My tale of creative peaks and valleys and of trying to cope with the creative gene, and it’s many built-in destructive tendencies. To begin at the beginning [insert 70’s time travel wibble-wobble here], my very first creative offering...

  The Career Path: a potato-based factual tale My first few days at the Bolivian Potato Company were a hardcore mix of induction training, colleague meet and greets and senior management palm pressing. Eight-hour days of back to back, non-stop, relentless walking around, punctuated with systems and workflow process bombardment. When my laptop and log in details finally arrive d (week three), it was quite a relief to be left alone for 5 minutes and feel like I was actually doing some work. Time, as it tends to, passed. I did my bit, shouldered my load and at times carried water for others. Time continued to pass; line managers came and went and I was blessed to have one, but in the main cursed with the others.     One grey morning in late March, waking to my tweety birdsong alarm, I realised I was now five years in and had gone absolutely nowhere. As I gazed deep in to my decaf latte , starting to question my dreams of potato corporation world domination, m...

“Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?” Do you find some tasks feel like gliding on ice, whilst others are like wading through treacle? And that some days you’re the pigeon, other days the statue? Well don’t worry, you’re not alone. Truth is, it's practically impossible to get everything done when other want it to be done, and it always has been. To put in non-scientific layperson terms; this is because a) there's always lots of shit going on, b) all that shit going on is what keeps you in the job and c) everyone's default setting for delivery of said shit (along with other random shit) is usually 5 mins before yesterday. In this context (of extreme scene setting) the world of time management can often feel like a wriggly sack of angry cats, and it isn't helped by the fact that many in your company will try to dump any already overdue shit on you. If we could take away all of that shit, and the shirkers, and those aggressive deadlines and unreasonably demand...

  One of the best pieces of advice I received when starting my management career was; "AJ, no matter how much you want to, you can't do it for them." I confess to learning the wisdom of this the hard way. The GROW Coaching model is a very straightforward, easy to apply framework that all managers, regardless of experience can benefit from using when they need to develop others. G oal - where do you want to be? R eality - where are you now? O pportunity - what (and who) can help you to change? W ill - when will you do it? GROW provides a structure in which to question, explore and develop commitment in others for growth and performance improvement. It is an essential tool for any management role, and as with all people development activity you will need three things to happen. 1) Clearly highlight and gain understanding on the reason(s) why it needs to happen / the implications of it not happening 2) Offer support, but ensure an individual knows they are the one responsibl...

The main culprit in what I call The Great Race (to the bottom) is commerce. I don’t just mean supply chains strangling manufacturers and service providers, nailed to the wall by partners who enforce lower prices so shareholders enjoy bigger profits. Well, maybe I do mean that, but let’s begin with a story about shoes… Once upon a time (not so long ago), a man went to buy a pair of shoes. He had no preferred style in mind, just something that would be comfortable on both his feet and wallet. Being a shrewd sort, the man set himself a budget of £60. The discount store offered low quality, mass produced shoes at £30, whilst a pair from a shoemaker would cost £80. The salesman at the discount store suggested that whilst his shoes were of lower quality, the man could buy two pairs, in theory lasting twice as long! The shoemaker explained that his higher quality shoes not only lasted longer than both pairs of discount shoes, once broken in, they would provide a level of comfort that made wal...

[cue alluring background music] A few years back some people sold a bigger bunch of people a load of populist crap to initiate the greatest socio-political upheaval of recent times (any UK or US readers, you can pick your own spot). The rest of the world looked on in sheer bemusement as it all unfolded. This piece is not written to give those shit-shows oxygen, it got done and sooner or later we’ll know the implications. This one is to recognise that in politics (and global leadership), there is a general lowering of standards happening across many aspects of our life, and it’s hard to see how it will end any other way but badly... Education, like healthcare is something we should all have an equal right to, right? And without the need to sign up to the Communist Party. Until you look deeper. In the UK a wide range of public services are strategically eroded so as to make way for the private sector ‘cavalry’ to come in and save the day. Because, of course, these noble, economically sav...

      “We’ll get back to you…” Are delays caused by your customer decision making frustrating you, messing up your bonus structure? Or maybe it’s people’s decision making in general? If this is your day to day then I’d like to introduce you to something called the Socio-Assertive Matrix, It’s one of several 'missing links' in timely influencing someone on what they want, whilst bringing them to what they need.  In short, it’s a better understanding of how you might help someone make that right decision. I mean come on??! What is there to think about, right?   Fluffy little social teddy bears Throughout my many interactions with sales people around the world, I discover that most professional influencers are generally by nature, highly social creatures. And a significant amount don’t like having to work within a process because they feel it stifles (or bores) them, they feel structure confines them. ‘People’ people, am I right?  So these guys create great re...