We Need to Collaborate. Anybody for Toast?

Leadership Change News UK

Achieve Breakthrough Blog Post: 6 Impossible Things
#Leadership Inspiration

1) WE NEED TO COLLABORATE. Let's start by making some toast…

“Aherm, what?” your little voice just asked? Yep, ours did too when we watched a recent TED talk filmed back in 2013 about visualising the making of toast and how it can in fact create the space for us to more effectively solve those problems that we are wrestling with, particularly when we have a number of opinions to consider and pull together.

According to the speaker in this funny and clever TED talk, Tom Wujec, the seemingly menial and inconsequential act of making toast unveils unexpected truths about the way that we collaborate and make sense of things.  In a ludicrously simple three step exercise where he asks delegates to draw the process of making toast, Wujec argues that the activity is fantastic at fostering collaboration because it enables teams to integrate the diversity of everyone's individual points of view whilst bringing them together collectively. Awesome huh? And some way off the usual outcome of your conventional business meeting.

This TED talk is really useful because in it, Wujec spends a lot of time drawing out the lessons from this exercise, including:

“When people work together under the right circumstances, group models are much better than individual models.”

Watch the TED talk in full by clicking on this link. Enjoy! (And happy toast making).

Collaboration Man

 2) IN THE PRESS: Achieve Breakthrough set to repeat CIPD award success

After winning the CIPD Consultancy of the Year Award in 2013, Achieve Breakthrough has been shortlisted for the CIPD Best HR/Learning & Development Consultancy Award 2015 for our work with Leeds NHS Trust.  We won the CIPD Consultancy of the Year Award in 2013 for its leadership and culture change programme with Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The CIPD People Management Awards are the most prestigious awards in the industry. Delivered in partnership with People Management Magazine, the awards recognise and celebrate outstanding achievements in HR and the impact HR has on business success. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on the 29th September 2015.

Mike Straw, CEO and Founder of Achieve Breakthrough said:

“We have been providing global organisations with new ways of thinking and acting to deliver better business and people performance since our inception, so it’s a real honour to be recognised by the CIPD again for the transformational work we are doing.” 

We also received recognition for its work with Bath and North East Somerset Council on the ‘10 in 100’ initiative, coming second in the Municipal Journal awards and being shortlisted in the CIPD People Management Awards in 2013.

Fingers crossed for 29th September!  We will keep you posted!

3) EMBARKING ON THE QUEST FOR OUR FINAL COLOUR:  Lindsay Hawdon goes in search of Indigo

One mother, two boys, on a trip around the world to seven countries to find the origin of seven colours. Today we publish the seventh colour of the final chapter in the story of a quest of our friend and colleague, Lindsay, to find seven colours in seven countries with the help of her two sons.  The final story tells of their search for Indigo.

“We are in the world of ghosts, where Spanish moss drapes from the branches of bowing cypress trees and where the past still brushes up against the present.”

Inventing Futures supported Lindsay’s trip around the world and in doing so she has helped to promote our work with young people.  We have loved sharing her journey and the stories of the adventures that she shared with her sons in their quest to find the seven colours, inspired by her hotly anticipated debut novel Jakob’s Colours.

Jakobs Colours is out now (and has a 5 star review on Amazon!) so grab a copy and we hope that you enjoy it as much as we did! You can also read the beautifully written final chapter of Lindsay’s journey, click here.

 4) “LITTLE VOICE” HEADS ALL THE WAY TO HOLLYWOOD:  How Disney’s ‘Inside out’ is more breakthrough that you might think

We have an office brimming with Disney fans (including an ex cast member!) so any Disney or Disney Pixar release is always hotly anticipated by the team at Achieve Breakthrough. None more so than the latest blockbuster to hit our screens this weekend, Inside Out.

Penned by the genius minds behind the gut bustlingly hilarious Monsters, Inc. and the heart-string-pulling Up, this moving animation is set to provide a little insight into a strangely unchartered territory - the wonderful world that lies inside our heads. The movie explores five emotions which sit within all of us, namely anger, joy, sadness, fear and disgust and the role that they play in creating our moods and actions. In the case of the leading character from the movie, Riley, the emotion of joy normally runs the show but unraveling circumstances see the other less useful emotions battling for space in the foreground with interesting results!

This movie is, in essence, an animated adaptation of the world of breakthrough and most notably, the distinction of “Little Voice”.  Those of you who have been through our work will recall that everyone has a little voice inside their head which is constantly interpreting the world around them and making judgements and assessments in an attempt to make sense of what they observe. Anyone who has had the joy of participating in the exercise that we do will remember that often, our little voice is negative, all to keen to tell us all the reasons why things can’t be done.  It’s often selfish too, listening out for points where we can interrupt the flow of conversation, audibly shouting in our heads “Oh me me me, this bits about me. I have that too”.  And like it or not, our little voice is always there, always present and it provides the filter through which we interpret everything.  Now sometimes it’s useful, asking questions and helping us to be curious.  But in the times where it kills the possibility you see, we have to learn to thank our little voice for sharing (and learn to be okay with how awkward that feels!) and carry on anyway.

It’s delightful to see our work played out in such a blockbuster animation and you can be sure we will be (legally!) sharing clips or scripts from this innovative movie with our clients for many years to come.  We won’t spoil it for you as it’s an incredible movie and an asset to any parent who seeks to help their children understand emotions. But here’s a sneak peak at the transcript from one of the funny scenes in the film:

Joy: Hey, look! The golden gate bridge! Isn't that great? It's not made out of solid gold like we thought, which is kind of a disappointment, but still!
Fear: I sure am glad you told me earthquakes are a myth Joy, otherwise I’d be terrified right now.
Joy: Uh... yeah...

Tee hee! Go and catch it in cinemas from Saturday 25th July! It’s a goodie!

5) THE RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS:  5 simple practices to start your day

We enjoy reading lots of articles on Elephant Journal and we stumbled upon one this month which shared 5 insights into how to create a happy day.  It reminded us of the power of our intentions and the transformational effect that they can have on the choices that we make for the rest of that day and the consequences of those choices.

“State your intention for the day:  Once you’ve expressed your gratitude, make an intention for the day, or re-state it if you’ve set an intention before going to bed, or if you are already working on some of your goals.  You can have the intention of being less angry, reacting to obstacles in more positive ways, achieving something particular you’ve been meaning to work on, you name it. As long as it serves you, works toward the benefit of yourself and others (or at least, doesn’t intentionally cause harm), and helps you work toward your longer term ideals.”

The team at Achieve Breakthrough have created a daily individual practice of stating our daily intention and it’s a commitment that some of the team felt tricky to keep initially, particularly because ours comes with a twist! (Doesn’t it always!).  We start every day by looking in the mirror and stating 3 things that we BROUGHT into reality that day.  The distinction in language is key here – the conversation that you have with your reflection (yes, really!) is not one of “Today I will …” but one of “Today I did…”.  So for those of you who know our work, its acting from a future commitment as though you’ve already achieved it.

As clunky as it sounds, this activity can have a profound impact for two reasons.  Firstly, by stating your intentions in this way, it gives you a laser like focus for the day ahead and you choose to act on those things that are in service of you achieving the thing you said you’ve achieved.  Secondly, it can help you manifest the thing that you want.  We are not going all “send a letter to the universe” on you here, but many of you have experienced that somehow, there is a little bit of magic involved in saying manifestation in that if you say that something is so, somehow that’s how it turns out sometimes.  Thoughts become things.

So think hard and maybe even commit to starting your own daily intention sessions in front of the mirror.  But do so in the knowledge that there are 20 breakthrough-ers in Bath doing exactly the same.

To read the full 5 happiness practices, click here.

6) STORY FOR INSPIRATION:  Removed – the story of a girl and her brother

This month’s story for inspiration is a bit of a curve ball as it comes through a story of heartache that may resonate with many of you.  The video that we share is hard hitting and not easy to watch. But the essence of the story is incredibly powerful so we chose to include it as our story for inspiration this month.

The 20 minute story, entitled “Removed”, has been viewed by millions of people and tells the story of Zoe and her brother Beniah who are placed into foster care. In this incredible short film, Zoe tells her story and how it feels to be at the affect of the choices that other people make on her behalf and the whirlwind that this creates for her.

The powerful message in this movie is one of narrative of the self – whatever life places in our path, we have a choice as to how we respond to those circumstances and the only person who determines the narrative that our own stories will follow is ourselves.  In Zoe’s words,

“The question lives.  You have the choice.  Where to go next.  We are stars, born of fire and wind. Born into the chaos.  And the winds whip around us.  But one day, one day, we will shine.”

In the face of adversity and of the challenges that everyone faces in different forms be it at work, at home or elsewhere on this incredible journey that is called life, we all have a choice. A choice to take the chance to determine our own futures.  Choose to shine.

To watch “Removed” click here – remember the viewing guidance.  It’s hard hitting but for every inch of you that find this a difficult watch, this is a story of hope and inspired us to make the choice to shine in our own lives.

Have you got an extraordinary story that you would like considered for publishing on our monthly blog: 6 Impossible Things? Do get in touch by contacting karen.neal@achievebreakthrough.com