It’ll be a brilliant evening, in a gorgeous venue, with live music, great networking, and much more…

Your invite!!

Since 2000 our charity has been “inspiring human development and creating positive change.” We work primarily with disadvantaged and marginalised young people, using BBM training and coaching to provide them with opportunities to develop essential soft skills — the skills that enable them to take control of their own lives, increase their employability, and improve their well-being.

These are the skills that change people’s lives for the better, forever.

Find out more about the party…

We’d love to see you there!!

Can you have a sense of responsibility if you’re unsure of your purpose?

Can you feel part of something larger if you don’t see the bigger picture?

In many organisations, not only are one’s own roles and responsibilities unclear, but those of others are a mystery, or misunderstood.

Do you know what part you play in your ensemble?

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.

We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Albert Einstein

Without structure, imagination will evaporate and never find form.

But structure and systems must support, not dominate.

Listen to the latest podcast … and honour the gift.

Maybe some actions are taken.

And that’s it.

What about celebrating?!!

Celebration is valuable—even if the outcome fell short of targets, the process was bumpy, and things got fraught.

Celebrate to clear the air, acknowledge hard work, share lessons learnt, motivate individuals, and build the team.

Celebrate to recognise achievements, get over mistakes, move on to the next thing.

Even better—don’t wait until the end of the project…celebrate steps along the way. Why not?

Can you find a reason to celebrate today?

As the painter needs his framework of parchment, the improvising musical group needs its framework in time.

BILL EVANS

Artists of every discipline work with structures within which they experiment.

They decide on the medium, the form, and the tools.

Once the set-up is in place the creativity can begin, having a place within which imagination can turn into form.

How are the structures you work within?

Do they help or hinder your creativity?

Listen to the latest podcast for more about framing your creativity.

The features of their office spaces are becoming legendary — games rooms, incredible free food, sleep ‘pods’ for cat naps, scooters to get around the space, lego stations in the corridors, and more and more…

Getting to taste the food, feel the energy, play with the lego, you not only enjoy yourself, you also get what great business sense this makes.

And as I watched employees chatting while they decided which free pots of herbs they’d have — an impromptu giveaway by the cookie truck, to celebrate World Earth Day — I saw communication, learning, and positivity in spades, through a simple, imaginative gesture.

Yes, it’s a huge company with mega resources, but many of the initiatives that make the working environment exciting, relaxing, industrious, and creative are not about money, but mindset.

Other companies — of any size — would do well to get some of this juice.

According to Fragkiskos Filippaios,  from the University of Kent, this is changing. Widespread criticism of the MBA has forced action, in order to ensure that the qualification maintains its relevance, and continues be in demand despite a stagnating market. This has been done, in part, by focusing on soft skills and leadership. And the revamp is spreading.

It’s a good move.

But there are still a lot of senior executives out there who need the soft skills they never learned.

Is the MBA change too little too late?

We’re all coming to terms with this change in mindset, yet there’s little understanding about how to “frame” these new skills–not only in terms of identifying and assessing their progress, but also how to develop them in the first place.

At the root of this—whether as an individual or within an organisation—is setting up the best structures. With these, the soft skills development flows naturally as a result. The wrong structures have the reverse effect—and unfortunately that’s the case in most organisations at the moment.

Do we not find great freedom along the guiding lines of discipline

Yehudi Menuhin

Here are a few tips to improve the structure of your work life:

• Set up systems and processes that suit your personality as far as possible
• Take time to set these systems up—it’s a project in itself
• Be flexible—if a system doesn’t work, adapt it until it does, or test out another
• Whatever the project, chunk it up
• Set your own deadlines, even when they’re not strictly necessary—it sets our intrinsic motivation in motion
• Celebrate your achievements regularly—completing the chunk of a project, meeting a deadline, having a productive day’s work…recognise and reward progress and process, not just outcome

Have a listen to the latest podcast, to find out more

As a nation we place insufficient value on the basic tools of employability such as behaviour, attitude and communication…we fear a whole generation of potential workers will be deemed unemployable, and lost to UK business.

Searle and his colleagues are not alone in thinking that the issues are “real and pressing”, and if solutions are not found it will “significantly impact upon Britain’s future performance in the global economy.”

This problem has been the theme of one or two previous posts but nothing’s changing.

Things might even be in reverse.

Aldi carried out research studying 2000 recruiters, of which only 20% said a degree made a potential candidate stand out, whereas soft skills, such as confidence and leadership, are now far more sought after.

Commenting on Ernst and Young’s survey of over 1000 UK university students, their head of graduate recruitment agrees that a good degree from a respected university no longer guarantees a job:

Relationship development and problem solving are key attributes we look for in our trainees…also determination and resilience.

Soft skills are now what employers are looking for in job candidates, over and above a degree. But they’re lacking in applicants.

OK we’re getting the message, but is the education system?