Advice, tips and inspiration to help you perform at your best
So, it’s the 1st of September and the Summer has officially ended. The sun is getting weaker, there’s a chill in the air and the days are shortening. To me, it feels like a new beginning. Much more so than the 1st of January. It feels like the start of a new school year. So, my suggestion is to take the time to start afresh as if you’re heading back to school. Here’s what works for me.
I had always believed in following your passion at work. Doing what you love and getting paid for it. This for me was the ideal scenario. Occasionally I’d fantasise about my dream job. This usually involved food or sport.
It was a seductive vision. Make a career out of your passion. It’s the passport to true happiness.
One of the biggest challenges we face in facilitating online workshops is to make sure people stay engaged throughout. It’s so easy for people to switch off, given the amount of time we spend staring at screens nowadays.
So, as a facilitator, how do you make your online workshops more enjoyable and more productive? These are my suggestions.
Creative workshops are not like normal business meetings. Where you sit, listen, nod your head and leave. Attendees have to work hard. They’ve got to join in. They’ve got to come up with ideas.
As a facilitator, your challenge is to extract the maximum creativity from the people who attend. It’s important to get people in the right zone, right from the beginning.
Here are some suggestions:
In the past, I’ve shared three essential creative exercises for innovation workshops. In case you’re looking for more exercises that will help you generate new ideas, here are three more. They’re just as useful.
I’m in the middle of running an online training programme with facilitators looking to sharpen their approaches to facilitating innovation workshops. Whilst there are common skills we can all learn, it’s important to facilitate your way. To create a style you feel comfortable with. Where you also get the best out of the workshop participants.
There are many different brand positioning models in the world of marketing. In the early days of my old agency Added Value, we created a tool called the ‘Bullseye’. I also remember developing a tool with Unilever which became the famous ‘Brand Key’.
Every brand owner and agency has their own version, which they claim to be unique or proprietary. Of course, it isn’t. In marketing, nothing is. The shape of the boxes might change as do the names, but essentially, it’s the same kind of thing. A positioning model.
One of the podcasts I enjoy is ‘The Pitch’. It’s a bit like ‘The Dragon’s Den’, but with an American twist. Where budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to potential investors. The episodes are short and entertaining. And you hear lots of interesting new ideas.
Getting clarity on your ‘elevator pitch’ is essential for all of us.
I’m a regular listener to the Guy Raz podcast ‘How I Built This’. I listen whilst out walking the streets of Tooting and across the muddy Common with my faithful dog, Stan.
It’s full of uplifting stories of how entrepreneurs created successful businesses.
One episode that I loved was about Jo Malone. How she worked tirelessly from an early age to create her iconic global brand, initially from her house in Bexleyheath, south east London. It’s a story of success against the odds. Click the link below to listen to it.
I share a love of football, cycling and music with an old friend of mine from university. We live in different parts of the UK, but keep in touch via WhatsApp and meet up when our paths cross. He’s funny, outgoing and has a lovely family. However, our politics are very different and we hold conflicting world views. I really don’t understand why an otherwise decent guy can hold such opinions. I’m sure he thinks the same of me. Luckily, this doesn’t stop us being friends.
‘Keep showing up’.
These were last words spoken by Elizabeth Gilbert in one of my favourite Ted Talks. She was speaking about creativity. She implored us to stay present and work at your craft so that ‘your elusive creative genius’ will make an appearance.
In our personal and professional life goal setting is easy. We find it easy to imagine the life we want to lead. A life where we’re happier, fitter, richer and more successful. Achieving goals is much harder. Unsurprisingly, New Year’s Resolutions usually end in failure. Goals help us grow, but we can get so much better at setting and achieving them.
