How Might We...?

How Might We Become More Effective Leaders in These Difficult Times

This week my guest is Neil Laughton, he is an ex-Royal Marine Commando, helicopter pilot and SAS Officer. During his business career he has won many personal, leadership and business awards and outside of work his passion is in sport, travel and adventure. He has organised and led more than 50 expeditions on 7 continents by land, sea and air.
Neil is also involved the founder of the Penny Farthing Club that  offers individuals the opportunity to ride Penny Farthings and even get involved in street racing and Penny Farthing Bicycle polo matches.
Neil shares his thoughts on the five qualities needed for leading in the 21st Century.
 
01:15 Penny farthings look scary, never mind riding them from Lands End to John O’Groats
02:17 Coping in a crisis is about good leadership
03:10 It’s not about leadership in the 18th and 19th Centuries, it’s about helping people be the best they can be
04:23 The qualities of leaders in the 21st Century
05:04 The first quality is that of competency
07:37 The second quality is having strategic vision
11:37 The four principles of the special forces
12:32 The Third quality is empathy
14:49 I can’t count, maths was never a strong point
15:11 The fourth quality is optimism
18:12 Neil explains how optimism showed up during an expedition to climb Everest
20:47 The fifth and final quality we talk about is resilience
25:01 We discuss sports and I discover there is such a thing as Penny Farthing polo
Neils's website: https://laughton.co
 
Scott's website: https://theinnovatecrowd.com
 
If you want to get involved and share some of your thoughts, insights and ideas, then drop me an email at scott@theinnovatecrowd.com

How Might We Build An Online Business

This week my guest is Jacky Clark, Jacky is a business strategy coach that founded the Blueprint to Business Success. The program is 12 weeks and helps entrepreneurs and freelancers create the foundation to an online business that is scale ready. Building out your Why, Who and What to get clear directions and the ability to create the life you have always wanted to live.
Today Jacky wants to share her thoughts and experience to help micro businesses build an online business.
00:37 Jacky introduces herself
02:22 The role of automation
03:44 Some lessons from Jacky’s journey in the corporate world
05:26 Small business owners who are not techies
06:12 Take the path of least resistance
06:41 Business fail because the owners try to make it too complicated
08:06 I won’t tell clients to do anything I haven’t done myself
09:05 Realising you have been working in your business and not on your business can often be too late
10:47 Keeping tags on your interactions with clients and potential clients
13:07 You have to put the effort in, build a fire
15:13 How to set up a 14 day challenge
18:54 You can be anywhere, even working in Iceland
20:01 COVID and Learning and Development
22:28 A value for money model
25:19 Minimal Value Proposition
27:30 Look at your network, who can help
29:18 Be present on your social media
33:54 Setting your systems up and the customer journey
38:21 Running a business is not easy
40:46 Jacky is so excited to share her top 5 tips.
 
Jacky’s website: https://clarkelearning.co.uk
 
Scott’s website: https://theinnovatecrowd.com
 
If you want to get involved and be a guest on a future How Might We…? Podcast, then drop me an email scott@theinnovatecrowd.com

How Might We Help first Generation Scholars Gain Valuable Work Experience

This week my guest is Heather Suttie, she  is about to enter her final year at the University of Sussex with a degree in Psychology with Business Management. Currently an intern for Strategic Management Partners in Brighton.
 
As the first person to attend University in my family, I think it's so important that employers recognise this when looking for summer interns. I think I can relate to some students when I say that I come from a family were no one’s career has required a degree at entry level/ times have also changed a lot since when they were in their early 20s.
 
Heather shares her experience and discussed
What can students do before University? (take your time! - this goes against most people’s advice)
How can University's help students gain work experience?
How can other Universities take note from Sussex
Application for graduate schemes - things I wish I knew before I started the process
Why is work experience actually important? - more than just a good cover letter story
 
01:56 – The challenge of the application process
03:39 – Look for support specifically for people who are going to university for the first time
05:25 Why are employers now looking for work experience rather than just qualifications
09:26 Using work experience to gain an internship
11:24 The internship process
15:17 Working for free
16:34 What type of interns are organisations looking for
19:46 Biggest bugbear about internship
25:47 Benefits of internship with smaller companies
30:59 heather provides her top 5 tips
 
Scott's website - Https://www.theinnovatecrowd.com
If you want to get involved and become part of The Crowd then drop me an email at scott@theinnovatecrowd.com to book your place as a guest

How Might We Need To Adapt Learning and Development to Take Advantage of The New Normal

This week my Guest is Gary Gorman, he is a business owner, podcast host, and training specialist. He is a negotiation expert and trains sales teams to agree better deals, contracts, and prices.
Gary tells his story about he moved his in-person training to provide virtual training solutions. He shares his thoughts, apprehensions, and experience on the journey and the lessons he learned. He also discusses how this will influence his approach once in-person becomes available again.
We meander off topic occasionally and discuss the new language and COVID bingo, is it a numb bum, or a bum numb, and was the 80s a good music decade.
 
1:01 future topic of  future podcast discussed – the similarities and differences between corporate and hostage negotiation
2:36 The fork in the road, where you have to change your approach
3:26 Trepidation about technical aspects of virtual
5:01 Why are you getting in your own way
5:48 I’m going to keep on doing it in the future – blended approach
7:52 Is it a numb bum, or a bum numb – you decide
8:09 What bits do I cut out, what do I keep and what will work
9:17 Shout out to Mark Williams and his company Giraffe Pad
11:24 COVID Bingo
12:56 What demands will there be in the ‘New Normal’
19:41 How can I get online to be experiential
24:42 Face to Face will be more thorough and better preparation
26:17 Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick – Gary’s top 5 tips
 
Gary’s Website: https://www.garygorman.co.uk/
 
Scott’s Website: https://theinnovatecrowd.com
 
If you want to get involved and share your How Might We…?  question then drop me an email scott@theinnovatecrowd.com

How Might We Fully Engage Our Employees

This week my guest is Saima Arfeen, she has a decade of banking experience and working as an L&D freelancer in the UAE.
Saima discusses some key questions around employee engagement, what is it, and the nature of relationships between employees and the organisation.  
2:07 The emotional connection
2:54 The three types of employees and your boat
5:02 Crucial why we need to retain talent post COVID
5:33 Leadership and empathy
6:05 Wellbeing and engagement
7:24 Leadership need to sit down and actually talk to individuals
8:25 Impact of engagement of profitability
9:39 Fairness and positive behaviours
12:34 Moving away from tick box to walking the walk
15:26 The role of trust in employee engagement
18:06 Trust and remote working
20:44 How do you engage employees at an individual level?
24:00 The paradox of engagement being important, but little time is spent on it
27:22 Putting a man on the moon
29:18 Employees come first
30:52 Organisational DNA
Scott’s website; https://www.theinnovatecrowd.com
 
If you want to get involved and be part of the mission to create One Million psychologically safe and innovative teams, then email me at scott@theinnovatecrowd.com

How Might We Create High Performing and Agile Organisations

On a mission to create One Million psychologically safe and innovative team.
My guest this week is James Baker Duly, who is a partner with Swedish based company Youpal. James shares his experience to discuss various aspects in play now, and into the future about the need for, and how to create a high performing and agile organisation.
 
James talks about why he joined Youpal, moving from a traditional, bureaucratic business model to a more dynamic and agile model. Exploring the need for a balance between high responsiveness and structure for sustainable agility.
 
James talks about the areas he is working in to accelerate change, in business, society, and environment. Helping in education, green tech, and providing more of a sustainable environment.
We then talk our way through the world of intelligence, open-source data and information sharing. How there are communities and the breakdown of traditional industry barriers. The impact of Fintech, using an example of the auto industry to explore this.
 
We touch on the ethics of artificial intelligence and data use and the impact of technology on the future workplace and skills. How we can come together and co-create solutions that help the community. How using open source contracts can accelerate development. James touches on the banking sector and open banking as an example of opening to collaboration and cooperation.
 
How communities are becoming the drivers of decision-makers, and the role social media plays in building community advocacy. How the community-led research can be quicker and more trusted.
 
How structure and risk management stifle innovation, the need to trust the performance in the people. The friction between innovation and costs etc in larger organisations. The duality of optimising performance on one hand and trying to build future innovation.
 
We discuss MVP an innovation and the customer experience, and the importance of employee experience. Focusing on the gig economy and how it can benefit adaptability and innovation. How this pool of talent can be tapped into. How can we balance the gig economy model and the benefits of working for an organisation. We touch on the growth of digital nomads and the move from paying for time and paying for deliverables.
And at the end, James shares his top 5 tips to help create a high performing and agile organisation.
 
James Website: https://www.youpal.se
 
Scott's Website: https://theinnovatecrowd
 
If you want to get involved drop me an email at scott@theinnovatecrowd.com
 
 

How Might We Build Business Resilience

This week my guest is Clive Bonny, he is a professional support service provider for entrepreneurs often grant-funded. Qualified in IP trademark and design protection, funding for startups, and risk management. Well connected networks for introductions to larger supply chains 
 
Clive discussed 'How Might We Build Business Resilience.'
 
Clive shares his insights and provides concrete examples of how businesses can build resillience. He provides tips on gaining access to help that a lot of small business owners don't realise they have access.
 
Clive's Website: https://consult-smp.com/
 
Scott's Website: https://theinnovatecrowd.com
 
If you want to be part of the mission to create One Million psychologically save and innovate teams pop over to the Innovate Crowd website to join.
 

How might we get our sales teams back up to speed quickly and adapt to the changing needs of our client base?

This week my guest is Rob Moon, he is a Sales trainer/coach with a passion for improving the quality of conversations that every sales person has with their customers. A particular interest in Cold Calling and questioning techniques. 
 
He is discussing and sharing his insights for 'How might we get our sales teams back up to speed quickly and adapt to the changing needs of our client base?'
 
Rob covers, amongst others, How long will it take our salespeople to get up and running again either back out in the field or on the telephone? How many missed opportunities will there be while that happens? How have our customers changed? How should our approach change? Can we ask for business and orders again? Is it safe?
 
Scott's website: https:///theinnovatecrowd.com
Rob's Website: https://www.robmoontraining.co.uk/
 

How Might We Increase Creativity and Innovation

This week my guest is Sadia Rizvi. Sadi has training and content development experience over the last 15 years in business, marketing, and communication. Work experience in the oil marketing sector, media industry, and education. 
 
Sadia shares her thoughts on the drivers of change and innovation, Innovative leadership, Being creative for the right reasons, Organisational adaptability, The need for market research, Employee engagement, and Customer engagement.
 

How Might We Balance Tech With The Human Touch

This week our guest is Charlie Boyle, the CEO of Customer Service Excellence Ireland. Strong advocate that customer service starts deep within an organisation and not just a front of house function. Sees customer experience as the key battleground for the hearts and minds of the consumer in the coming years. 
 
Today Charlie discusses How Might We Balance Tech With The Human Touch?
 
Tech has been and will continue to add value to the customer experience. However, we run a big risk of going all-in with tech and forgetting we are dealing with humans. Balance is required now not when we have over-run the tech advancement.