Zeitgeist

Two very interesting films:

Original: Zeitgeist

Sequel: Zeitgeist: Addendum

Enjoy!

People are like Numbers

So I found myself recently approaching a person that could potentially create a hazardous situation, believing that if I treated the person with respect and integrity - and most importantly as if they were 'nice' - then they would act nice in return. This situation was a legal one, and I've read so many horror stories about legal squabbles, enough to be apprehensive about approaching said situation. However, I felt convinced that if I approached the person with, pardon the cliché, an open heart, I wouldn't be 'fucked over' as it were.

Of course, I got the response I was hoping for, and I found myself telling my colleague that '99% of the time, if you treat someone nice, they will act nice'

I've since recently had a conversation with a wise young friend, and attempted to explain this to him. It was very difficult.

"If someone acts bad, then I would like them to feel bad as a result - for them to get their comeuppance." He said.

I spent a good deal of time presenting my argument for why this doesn't help - that people who do bad things already know they're bad, and don't need to be reminded by 'comeuppance'.

Two hours later, I managed to summarise it with a mathematical question:

1) If you start with a negative number, and subtract from it, what happens?

2) If you start with a negative number, and add to it, what happens?

I've since realised that this is a pretty good analogy - even if someone has a massively negative 'inner number', parental abandonment of some kind being the usual cause, eventually, if it is consistently added to, it will reach zero, and then start building.

I'm sure this will be contentious for many people.

Van Damme Dreamer

I have a gullible nature. For example, I'm always the first to fall for an April fools joke. Also, it takes me a while to realise when people are being sarcastic, unless it's obviously pronounced.

I'm also 'a bit of a dreamer', which has cost me a few laughs at my expense too.

I'm not sure whether gullibility is directly linked to being a dreamer, and until recently I'd never have suggested a connection, but over the last few days I've come to believe that being a dreamer, and being a bit gullible are probably side effects from one aspect of my personality: having an open mind.

First, an embarassing confession.

I was the kid at school who believed he could be Karate Kid. I had the piss taken out of me of course. I also believed I could be Marty McFly, and used to listen to The Power Of Love on my housebrick Walkman whilst repeatedly going down a very short hill on my cheap-ass market skateboard.

Again, I got the piss taken out of me severely.

When Kickboxer came along, it inspired me to take up martial arts and do weight training, so I could be like Van Damme - my hero.

Of course, all of this has been a source of much hilarity for my friends since I was young, so it doesn't surprise me that nowadays, when I order the Kickboxer Blu Ray for my birthday, so I can inspire myself to get back into the gym, I get the piss taken out of me again.

Now then, what's the point of this embarassing confession?

Well, over the last few days, I've discovered there's someone else who did all the same stuff as I did. He confided to me over the weekend that he used to copy Kickboxer too, by building a complex system of ropes in his bedroom so he could do the splits like Van Damme. It's easy to laugh at this, but it made me realise something.

This guy isn't just a friend of mine, he's my business partner. He's one of very few people I've met who has a truly open mind to possibilities.

He believed at the age of 15 that he could be Van Damme, just as I did. He probably got the piss taken out of him too. However, like me, he stuck at it, and did a bunch of martial arts training - got fit in the gym, and built the kind of body that makes that stuff possible.

In many ways, he acheived that dream, as did I.

Yeah you can do jumping kicks and lift heavy stuff, big deal.

This goes deeper of course.

In our respective ways, both of us believed we could be more than our friends would let us believe. My business partner for example started his own business when he was 21 - he believed, despite not having a clue how to run a business, that he would be a success. It took him a while, but guess what - he is now a success.

I look all around me, and see people that like to think they have open minds - they read high-brow newspapers, read intelligently crafted novels, listen to experimental or cult music, watch art-movies.

However, I see only a handful of people whose minds are truly open to one of the most important things - the possibility of being able to do what they want to do.

Most of the friends that took the piss out of me at school now have children of their own, and those that don't are likely to pretty soon. This message is really for them, and all of the other people who continue to take the piss because their minds aren't open to possibilities.

I'm the gullible kid who believed I could live a dream, and here I am, living my dream.

If you see the kind of behaviour in your children that looks like 'unrealistic dreaming', don't you dare discourage them, or take the piss, or do anything else to undermine their precious imagination, because even the slightest sign of discouragement will have a lasting impression. It's not just a bit of fun, it's hard enough in this life as it is without role models telling us what we can and can't do.

It will take your children many years to undo the damage that you and other children will inflict on them, and to be frank I'm getting tired of meeting people with huge talent and no self confidence. It's up to parents to cut through all the playground teasing with positive encouragement.

In short, open your mind before opening your mouth.

In loving memory of multiple Dave Szulborski's

I haven't written anything here for about two years - I haven't had the time, or have been involved in confidential projects that I was dying to blog about, but unable to do so.

So, it's with a relief and an overwhelming sadness that I can now talk about working with the late Dave Szulborski, and can let you all into the story behind this photograph: Dave Szulborski.

Many of you reading this will already be familiar with Dave's brilliance, and will be as gutted as I am that he is no longer with us. Many others here in the UK and the rest of the world probably haven't heard of him, so I'm going to share a personal story that will provide a glimpse into his genius.

Dave was a pioneer of Alternate Reality Gaming - look it up. He wrote the first book on the subject, and it's through that book that I got to know him.

First, a bit of background:

I've been working on an idea for a console game, film and ARG rolled into one for about 8 years. The idea was formed at University in 2001, and for several years I carried it around looking for people to work on it with me. Many people didn't get it. Those that did wanted to take it in directions that I wasn't happy with.

Fast forward to 2007, and I'd found a handful of people with the right ingredients to make it happen. I consulted a well respected games company here in Brighton, Relentless Software, and took some advice on how to present the idea to Sony Computer Entertainment. After a bit of toing and froing with David Amor, Relentless' Creative Director, I settled on the idea of doing a role playing pitch to put producers in the centre of our game experience. David thought I was a bit mad.

After spending several days practicing the role play with my producer Jade, we took the train up to Liverpool to pitch the idea to Sony.

They loved it. They loved it so much they had to step outside and discuss what to do - which I'm told is unusual. When they came back in, they thanked us for a great pitch. The top brass who is apparently very hard to please even came over to shake our hands to say thank you.

However, with our complete lack of experience in console games, ARGs, and not a sniff of film experience, they said: "Sorry, your pitch has made a real impact with us, but we have to say no this time, as you don't have the necessary experience. We will however, find a way of working with you."

I was devastated and thrilled simultaneously. I'm a self confessed Sony fanboy.

So what to do? I picked up Dave's book for starters, to get some 'experience'.

I was blown away - Urban Hunt, the ARG he put together with a handful of helpers showed the kind of creative genius that I was looking to work with. So I sent Dave an email with all my ideas wrapped up in a tidy punch.

To my amazement and delight, he wrote back the next day. His words were:

"It's not very often that an idea comes along that inspires me so much that I can see no end to its potential."

Pretty good huh!?

Our relationship was sealed over a couple of emails, and we talked very seriously about Dave and his family moving over here to Brighton to realise this idea together. I was so happy.

Meanwhile, Sony had delivered on their word, and were offering us a project that would provide an opportunity to produce a full scale ARG.

So, I asked Dave to help us out, which he was more than happy to do - offering several consultations for free on the strength of our passion to work together. Man, this makes me tearful to think it will never happen now.

Anyway, our relationship with Relentless had also grown strong, with both David and his business partner Andrew Eades interested in our ideas. So much so that we decided to form a new company together, FuturLab Meta.

Now then, onto this picture of Dave.

Relentless could not believe that Dave Szulborski, the man who wrote the book, pioneered the genre, and now worked on the coolest stuff in the world, would have any interest in working with little ol' me. I'm just a Flash developer afterall.

For months they would ask: "So, Dave Szulborski, is he really going to get involved? Is he even real? I just don't get why he'd be interested in working with you." Thanks guys ;)

I am forever in debt to both Andy and David @ Relentless, but what they failed to acknowledge was the power of the creative spirit. I know how strong it is because it's in me - it drives me - up the wall sometimes. Dave had that same drive. He knew that our idea was a corker, that it could change the face of entertainment if done correctly. It was this bond that we shared so strongly.

So, the time came for Dave to travel over to the UK to meet with Sony. At this point it had become something of a joke that Relentless didn't believe Dave was committed, as they'd never spoken to him.

The day he arrived in our office was a great day for me and Jade - the living legend, in our office, working on our project!

We got a call from Andy from Relentless asking if he could have a picture of Dave, to prove he was actually real. It was a joke of course, but we thought we'd oblige.

Now, I'd told Dave about this disbelief we were getting from Relentless, and he thought it was hysterical. The man was so humble, again it brings me to tears.

So, the picture you see on his website, is the picture we took of him in our office, to prove his existence to our doubtful business partners.

However, Dave had the idea that we should send a picture of me, with Dave's head cut out and stuck over mine. Classic. We sent that, and I don't think Andy found it too funny.

The next morning as we travelled to Sony for our meeting, we told Dave that we'd all be having a meal that evening. It would be the first time that Relentless would meet Dave.

Dave pondered this for a moment, and then announced that we should all wear Dave Szulborski masks - Dave included. Haha, what a genius!

So we did - we had the staff make around 10 Dave Szulborski masks, and when we arrived at the restaurant, a bag full of masks were there for us to wear.

When Relentless walked in, they were met with a large table full of 'fake' Dave Szulborski's.

Now, to me this seems like such a good example of Dave's way of thinking. The man best known for playing with people's heads in a charming way - wearing a mask of himself.

I don't think Relentless found it too funny really, but it was our joke, and I'm really happy we had the chance to share it with Dave.

Rest in peace buddy. If I ever get a chance to realise my opus, it will be dedicated to you.

To get an idea of just how much this guy was loved, check out this thread on the unfiction forums: Unfiction.

Creative Catapult

Here are the notes from my creative catapult presentation, edited to read as a whopper blog post for those of you who either couldn't make it, or would like to read for reference.

Creative Expression - Avoiding Project Churn

John Davison from Kanoti invited me along to present at his Creative Catapult event because I did a talk at DScape a couple of years ago which he thought was pretty cool. I talked about how I'd managed to get my own creative project up and running, and John suggested I revisit it, as it might be a good example for the possibility of doing your own thing, as opposed to working for someone else, or working project by project as a freelancer.

Well, the title Creative Catapult got me thinking, and rather than just tell my story, I've decided to write a bit about the things I've learned that have made it possible to do my own thing. The aim being to ensure that you understand how I've been able to realise my own creative goals, rather than me just blab about what I've done, which could be a bit lame. Hopefully then you'll be able to take something away and apply it to your own situation.

Now I'd say the ultimate goal for us all is some level of creative expression, doing the stuff that comes from our own imagination; our own visual or storytelling style - cultivating that uniquely creative thing that we do, so that one day we can earn a living doing exactly what we enjoy. It's a very rare thing in fact, as it's so easy to lose track of what we want by getting caught in the digital media project churn. What I mean by this is just all the projects you don't care about - the ones you have to work on to make a living.

So, I'm going to quickly run through my story, to illustrate how it's really easy to lose sight of creative goals, and then detail the things I've learned in order to stay on track.

Some of you are no doubt thinking: 'as if I'm gonna get lost, I know what I want!' Well, what I have to say is actually pretty relevant to you, because that was my attitude too. For those of you thinking 'I haven't got a clue what I want!', don't worry, because you're just as important to this story.

My Story

After I graduated from a fine art degree, I went to study for an MSc, and during that time I came up with what I considered to be a genius idea for a creative franchise. A film and game idea so radical and amazing that I had to commit every second of my life to realising it. I quit the MSc course and moved to Brighton, talking a bunch of friends into joining me, hyping them up about this idea, and about how we all had to learn web design, get into Flash, steal the imagination of a particular publisher, and then proceed to take over the world. In fact, I was so confident that I told my colleagues who stayed in Exeter that in 5 years time I would own Brighton. That was 6 years ago, and I don't own Brighton in case you were wondering, but that illustrates how cocky I was.

At the time I thought that in order to pitch the idea to a publisher, I had to demonstrate being able to realise the idea myself. If I couldn't demonstrate it, then people would either ignore me, or they'd steal the idea and do it themselves.

So we came to Brighton, and I found a startup company looking for someone ambitious, worked with those guys for a year and then started my own company, FuturLab. We had a big old launch party, inviting all the media crowd to make a statement that we'd arrived.

Fast forward 3 years to 2006, and I'd made no concious effort in pursuit of our goal. From 2003 to 2006 we'd jumped ladders from web design, to web development, to Flash corporate training, to Flash based eLearning, and we'd actually done nothing I was proud of the whole time.

During a particularly depressing period I got a swift kick up the ass from my producer Jade, and I realised that my cocksure vision had gone totally off track.

Something really extraordinary happened after that. I came back into the office and started building a Flash game. A big, complicated, platform game. I'd never made a game before in my life, but I sweated for 3 months, working flat out learning how to do it all. I had so much passion for it, and I couldn't really understand why. The game idea that had brought me to Brighton was so buried by that time, having been so preoccupied with project churn, that it didn't even cross my mind. I even felt a bit guilty that I was spending so much time working on it - as if I was ignoring something really important.

It turned out to be the company finances, because during that time I didn't do any paid work. We ran on vapour and almost went out of business. I didn't care, I'd unlocked 3 years of unspent passion and it felt like I was getting somewhere for once - the business would benefit somehow.

Toward the end of this period, I realised that we could build some elements of our idea into the game engine, and then we'd have something approaching a demo.

Jade discovered that Adult Swim were looking to publish Flash games for their site, and the next day we had Adult Swim really interested in our game. This was a real breakthrough for us at the time, and that's when I did the talk at DScape which John saw. That was in November 2006.

By March 2007 Adult Swim were still debating contractual clauses. It was mind numbing, and out of sheer frustration I decided to go straight for the publisher we'd pinned our dreams on.

Once I'd made this decision to just go for it, I felt a tangible rush of confidence. We pitched the game idea, using the game engine I'd built, and they said:

'We really love your ideas, and we want to work with you, but you can keep the game engine, cos... it sucks a bit'.

Ok, so I just spent 4 years tech'ing myself up, because I thought I needed to... and... you want to work with us because you like the ideas on their own?!

Does that mean we could have come to you with the ideas and pitched them about two years ago, or even straight out of Uni?

What I've learned

I've had a lot of time to think about this since, and it's become clear that during that whole time I was so fixated on our weaknesses, such as a lack of design talent, illustration, 3D etc - that I failed to cultivate our real strength: ideas. As such I was constantly (and half heartedly) trying to fit us into some abstract model of a successful web company, which is ridiculous because I've never cared about web design.

Flash is an amazing tool for creative expression, and I've always seen it as a means to an end, but I realised that I'd become completely lost in the means. I'd built a company with a good reputation, but I was leading my team around in circles - learning new technologies to be better, to get better projects, although 'better projects' wasn't something I could really define properly.

Until I'd begun to commit to what I wanted, I lacked a lot of confidence, but once I did make that step, and realised that our strengths were ideas - particularly the ideas that had prompted the journey in the first place - it was much easier to start building confidence because I was playing to my strengths and the strengths of my team.

It turns out that many of the skills we learned during that period have bolstered our offering to the publisher, and the game engine is now being licensed as a product in its own right, so it's not as if we've wasted a lot of time, but I can't ignore the fact that if I'd just had the confidence to stick to my vision from the beginning, and not been swayed by insecurities, we'd have saved around 2 years of hard, directionless work.

However, we have reached the goal - we are working with our dream publisher, and we're having a great time, and despite the stops and starts and problems along the way, it's become clear that there are three fundamental things that have kept the business on track. These are things that I've either learned through the process, or learned after the process through reflection, or some gut feel intuitions I've had all along, which have only been compounded by experience.

These three things are: knowing what I want, knowing my value, and actively building confidence around those two things. In retrospect, I think all three of these things are interdependent for success, and so I've devised this horribly corporate slide to illustrate the concept:



As you can see, knowing what you want and knowing your value are two things that are mutually dependent, and without either of them, you don't get a well rounded confidence that's needed to move forward.

I want to talk a bit more about confidence, because it's rarely addressed, and is almost a taboo subject. It seems many people think that you either have it, or you don't, but I've learned that you can build the confidence to do anything you want.

Confidence

Of course, talking about confidence being important is a bit of a no-brainer, but I think I have an original thought on the subject which I'd like to share with you.



It never ceases to amaze me how ugly Reebok trainers are. They seem to get uglier every year. For a long time I just couldn't understand how people could pollute the world in this way, and then I remembered a phenomenon I experienced at art college, which some of you may be familiar with.

A character, let's call him Pete. Pete has next to zero talent, but has the biggest portfolio. He just works like crazy, creating bad work that even the nicest tutors can't say positive things about.

Behind his back the poor guy is the laughing stock, but what happens when college finishes? He goes for an interview and gets a creative job immediately out of college, because he has the confidence to knock on every door. He probably works at Reebok now, and this is a really important thing to acknowledge. There must be thousands of people with more talent than this chap, yet they're stacking shelves at Waitrose and getting increasingly bitter about their talent never being recognised.

I propose an explanation - Pete knows his value, and he knows what he wants. He knows he's not the best, and so he's not fussy about the level of prestige his job has, as long as he's doing something he enjoys.

Now, many of the more talented people find it hard to decide on what they want in the first place: "If only I knew what I actually wanted, I'd be able to go for it!"

However, when I ask people if they could have any job or lifestyle they wanted tomorrow, with instantaneous experience and a good salary/wage, most people can think of 5 or so jobs or careers they'd like to do within a minute.

So what's the deal there? These people are usually very capable and see potential for themselves in many areas. It's these kinds of people who have a sharp eye for quality, and it's exactly these kinds of people who have the most strict self-critique going on.

Indeed, it's often the really gifted individuals that are most lacking in confidence, because they see flaws everywhere around them, and can't for the life of them assume they'd do any better. The fact is that these people will always be the best at the things they're most scared of, because they're so critical. If only they could lift the pressure of self-criticism to see this blinding truth, there would be no more ugly Reebok trainers!

Now, going back to my case, I had plenty of confidence in my heart - I've sacrificed everything to build my company, and sacrifice can only come from the heart. However, I was leading myself around in circles because when you only lead with your heart, you're essentially leading blind, feeling your way around.

You need to have confidence at the front of your mind, to be able to see what you want with an objective, logical perspective. Write down what you want, stick it on the wall, analyse it, plan it, discuss it with people - commit to it.

Often the hardest part of deciding what you want is admitting it to yourself. Writing down something you really would like to achieve is a scary thing, because.. if it never happens, and someone calls you on it later in life. You'll feel like a failure, right?

Wrong. When you mentally commit to getting what you want by putting it at the front of your mind, things start happening immediately.

Conversely, some people don't even get as far as having a few options to choose from, because they literally don't understand their own value, and so it's hard to judge what can and can't be achieved.

It's important to be realistic about goals, but it's really hard to separate being realistic from thinking pessimistically. It's a constant balance that many people get wrong in both directions, and it only becomes easier with experience, by taking risks and learning your limits. However, there is something you can do to help you narrow down the options, and that brings me onto knowing your value.

Belbin - Understanding Your Value

I was really fortunate to have attended a creative leadership course recently, which was heavily team focused. During the course I was taught a deep understanding of my own value in a team environment, and the value of the people around me. This is something that really should be taught at University level I think. Institutions tend to fall over themselves trying to supply students with the quantifiable skills they need, but rarely cultivate things like confidence, and certainly don't to my knowledge make any attempt at identifying each student's possible team role. However, this system is really big in the corporate world, especially in the states, and although I never thought I'd say it, we can all learn something from a bit of corp tech.

Each of us has a preferential style of working. Some people like to research, others like to plan and schedule, others like to just think up ideas and experiment. These skills and approaches to work are all needed in the creative industry, just as much as the ability to use Photoshop/Illustrator and Flash. Indeed, the way in which we choose to even use these applications is determined by our preferred working style.

Having gone through this training I think it's important to understand where each of us fits into these team roles, as it can help to shape our goals. By recognising our skills and working styles objectively, we can evaluate the options for ourselves, and the sooner we do that, the sooner we can decide on what our goals are and get to work.

Whether you're at University or College, or part of a small network of creatives, your group will likely be divided up into types of team roles - the planning types, the getting things done types, the 'people people' and so on.

Now remember that this post is about not getting stuck in the project churn - some of you will likely have no problem with the idea of being a freelance animator, working on marketing campaigns for completely soulless products. That's cool!

What I'm interested in however, is encouraging you to make the most of the skill dynamics in your peer group, because believe it or not, that represents the best set of resources for your future career. For those of you who don't have a clear idea of what you want, you'll know people who will be able to guide your talents to new heights. For those of you who have a master plan or vision, but have no idea how to go about it, you'll know people that can help you achieve it.

Something I did for the presentation which seemed to work well, is a simple technique you can use to identify yourselves by getting hold of a bunch of coloured stickers and ascribe the following meaning to them:

Red means you know you have some skills, and you know what you enjoy, but you don't necessarily know how those skills are best used in terms of a career path.

Yellow means you kinda know what you want to do for a career, but could do with some guidance.

Green means you know exactly what you want, and you're going to achieve it whether you have the skills to do so or not.

I suggest wearing the stickers, and talking to each other about why you've decided to wear each colour.

It's very rare for people to possess aptitude in all of the team roles, and so if you want your skills to be used to their fullest, or if you want to achieve your goals, you need help from other people, and those people need you too.

I've only been able to achieve my goals because I'm working with people who don't have their own dream as such, but have skills they are happy to contribute to a journey.

Instead of going and working for someone else, you could invest in your own creative futures right now by building yourself a team of contacts. Think about how you would like your skills to be used, and offer them to each other. Nothing may come of it immediately, but who knows what will happen in the months to come. The important thing is to get your gut feelings out into the open, for other people to hear, so that you might help each other in some way.

Once you start actively thinking about what you're good at, and what you want, you'll start to shape the confidence dynamic in your mind, and then you'll be able to make a decision about where to take your career. If you already have a strong idea of what you want, grab as many people as you can now to join you. If you don't have any idea, find the person in your group who does, and join them – they might take you on a very rewarding journey.

Together you'll be able to avoid doing the horrid, last minute banner adverts for some shitty product you don't care about.

Getting a great creative job

FuturLab gets a fair few CV's and demo reels through the post these days, and I have to say, very few of them catch my attention.

So I thought it was about time I shared a principle of mine. It's really simple.

If you want a job that's extraordinarily good, do something extraordinary to get attention.

Every job I've won in my life has been the result of doing something out of the ordinary.

If you want to work for a creative company, do something creative. If you want to win respect with a first impression, then do something original.

The number of CV's I take one look at and bin is pretty high, and it's because it says the same old stuff: I'm this, that the other.

Where's the proof that you're a very creative person? It's not in the delivery/presentation of your CV or your initial contact. Actions speak much louder than words.

Pick the top five companies you want to work with, make your CV to the point, and then deliver it with some creative imagination and personality. If you use your sense of humour, you're likely to be noticed by people with a similar sense of humour, and then you'll be working with people you get on with!

You're much more likely to succeed in capturing the imagination of the company you look up to if you stop serving up the same old grey robotic nonsense that is drummed into us at school.

Creative Direction & Leadership

A new year, and compared to my state of mind in Jan 2007, I feel like a different person. Last year was packed full of learning curves, mostly in the form of perspective shifts in the achievability of my goals for FuturLab.

I'm an artist at heart, so running a business and thinking in a way that puts business decisions first doesn't come easily to me. Around this time last year I was in a right old state, and realised I needed some training and guidance.

1) Get a business coach

I was introduced to a great chap named Bob Kessler based in Brighton, and we had an hour's session each week to bash out the issues I was having with the company.

In my case, most of the problems came down to self perception, ie. I am not a business man, I never wanted to be the Director of a business, I just wanted to make cool stuff... etc.

Getting that mindset out of the way was the biggest hurdle - coming to terms with the fact that, whether I like it or not, I'm responsible for what we're doing here - it's my vision, my drive and creativity that's put me here.

So, why not enjoy it and make the most of it?

What started with those meetings turned into a radical burst of energy and determination, to put our ideas in front of the people we really wanted to work with. I can't talk about any of this in detail yet, but I can say I realised one of my dreams in 2007, and the world will see the results in good time ;)

I can't stress how important it was to have Bob on my side for one hour a week, coaching me and helping me focus on what was important. Big ups to Bob yo.

2) Get some training

I was fortunate enough to join a course in 2007 that blew my face off it was so illuminating. The course was called Creative Leadership and Management, run through UCCA by a couple of very cool people; Donna Willis and Mandy Irons.

Donna and Mandy are occupational psychologists and development specialists who believe that creative leadership is about understanding and maximising the potential of people, and the best way to understand that is to start with yourself.

Their programme Creative Leaders is designed to create new understanding and inspired action in business owners and leaders - it gives individuals who are crucial to the success of their business some much needed space to reflect and develop new ideas.

To be honest I was dreading the typical corporate training days that we're all aware of. Not so. Donna and Mandy created an imaginative, fun and supportive environment for the group, using brief theoretical sessions followed by simple games that really illustrated the concepts. Over the course of 6 days (and a period of three months), I had a completely new understanding of my team, the relationships that had evolved between us, and how best to deal with difficult situations.

As my experience was so positive, and the skills I'd learnt so valuable, I thought it was essential we arrange for Donna and Mandy to take the rest of the team through the same training. We arranged a day trip to Brighton, and as expected a few of the guys were pretty wary of a 'team training day', but by 10am they were sold, and by the end of the day quite invigorated by the experience.

Our great year of business development has been in large part due to these people I've mentioned, and I recommend that anyone that's a bit confused about their business direction seek out similar opportunities when possible.

If you're based in the UK, check our Donna and Mandy's company Creative Interventions, and if you're based in the South East, give Bob Kessler a nudge.