What now the youth of today?

Dame Joan Bakewell says Sunday School will do it, learned professors say improving the standard of children's handwriting lessons at school would help, and other erudite professionals say the blame lies with too much digital technology time.....make our children better people, that is.

It seems we overindulge our kids, we don't spend enough quality time with them, don't instil a proper sense of discipline in them and we don't teach them respect.  Woe is the lot of the modern parent!  On the one hand we need to be like the ChineseTiger Mother Any Chua, on the other we should be like Laura Skenazy with her free range parenting.  Make your choice, and attend to George Bernard Shaw's dictum -

Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children.

Dignified work

Today is Labor Day in the US (note US spelling) which celebrates the contribution of workers socially and economically and "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organisations" - (US Department of Labor).

And how about across the waters in the UK?  How are we celebrating our workers? 

After 3 years of trying to recruit for her textile factory Deborah Meadon highlighted the image problem around manual work -"It is about people not being interested in manual work.  At 16 or 17 people are still thinking about what is cool..." Certainly the vocational training option in schools has attracted a second tier image over the Aladdin's cave of academic subjects leading to university, even though the latter no longer guarantees employment.  In 2009 the Crafts Council audit revealed a severe skills shortage in the UK.

The value we give to vocational learning, 'blue collar' work, skilled craftmanship and manual labour, dictates how we perceive the virtue of ability and skills and informs our relationship with the material world. We've become so used to the convenience and immediate accessibility of everything we need or want, we've forgotton how to 'do' for ourselves.we've become passive and dependent. 


Maybe if we put more value on the vocational and manual tasks necessary to our lives, we might not find it so difficult to recruit for essential jobs, young people would have the ability to make real choices about their careers developing their own true potential rather than pursuing a course dicated by the 'shoulds' of others, and we might have a better appreciation and respect of the material assets we so constantly strive to accumulate.

Holby city star Jeremy Edwards hit the headlines when helping a friend in his landscape gardening business - "I really don't see the shame in manaual labour".  What a shame he had to say that.

For more about helping young people find the right paths, click here.

Opportunism or Altruism?

If you found yourself present at a disaster, say a plane crash or the recent riots, what would you instinctively do? Pull out your mobile to film it?  Help yourself to some casual looting because everyone else was?  Or would you call the emergency services, rush to stop the looting, help those in need?

At the core opportunism is about self interest and making situations work for you, often by taking advantage of others. "One man's opportunism is another man's statesmanship" said Milton Friedman. Ken Livingstone was accused of political opportunism by blaming the riots on a growing social divide created by the Government's spending cuts.

It's very sad to think that we are living in a world where opportunism rules human behaviour. Let's rather look at the examples of intrinsically altruistic behaviour exhibited by such actions as the organised post-riot clean-ups, the Tunisians welcoming the fleeing Libyans into their homes in April, the German roofer Marcel Gleffe who jumped in his boat to help rescue the young people on Utoya.

One interesting thought advocated by researchers is that opportunism diminishes when individuals are part of an organisation with a shared purpose.

SO...We are as smart as we are going to get?

It appears that we, we being us humans, may not get any cleverer.  Recent research suggests that now we have pretty much optimum brain connections and any more increase in brain power from building new connections would require a massive energy consumption.  This energy requirement therefore limits the performance and design of our brains.  This makes for good discussions on intelligence!

BENEVOLENT SEXISM

What is this?

Radio 4 PM programme yesterday referred to research about how when men open doors or give up their seat for women they are indulging in benevolent sexism which is a form of domination by the implication that women are somehow less able or vulnerable.

What do you think?

Uncertainty in the Workplace

We are working in uncertain and changing times. Where once we had longer careers, security of tenure and a culture of entitlement, in the current economic downturn we are seeing  more redundancies, lower salaries and benefits and higher living costs.  On the one hand employees can feel isolated, insecure and draw into themselves and on the other, employers are battling with employee retention while streamlining in order to remain productive and profitable.

Uncertainty has the power to trigger fear, defensiveness, lack of self-worth, stress and anxiety, relationship issues, and to adversely affect efficiency and productivity.  Managing and recognising the journey of uncertainty, its emotional content and how to 'sit' with it can help us to identify measures to reduce its negative impact for employers and employees, turning it from a potentially destructive force into an opportunity. 

Isla will be speaking on this theme at the next Mindful Employer Network meeting on July 14th at Thring Townsend in Swindon. Also at the event  Jonathan Naess and Anna Kavanagh from Stand to Reason will be looking at the role of line managers on mental health in the workplace.

And if you want to explore how to deal with uncertainty in the workplace do get in touch with us.

Getting it straight on the Regional Growth Fund

The High Growth Solutions for Business Scheme provides valuable practical coaching support for growing businesses but what about getting the funding right?

The Regional Growth Fund is plugging some of the hole previously filled by the regeneration expenditure offered through the now defunct Regional Development Agencies.  This £1.4bn fund operating across England from 2011 to 2014 is targeted at supporting projects and programmes that lever private sector investment, create economic growth and pursue a policy of sustainable employment.   One of the main aims is make the transition from public sector to private sector led support easier. 

The scheme is expected to create over 27,000 jobs with a further 100,000 jobs developing from associated supply chains and local economies. 

The first round of bids is now completed and successful bidders for the £450m in this round include a proposal from General Motors to produce the next generation Vivaro van, the construction of a manufacturing plant in Teeside to develop packaging resins and a Manchester hospital development from former eye hospital to centre of excellence.  Bids for the second round are invited from businesses with plans for growth and job creation.

In April Nick Clegg said “Today is a step towards rebalancing our economy away from an unhealthy overreliance on a small number of industries and a few areas. We need to spread opportunity across the whole country, drawing on our many talents.”

However John Denham, the Shadow business secretary gave a different perspective with some interesting figures “Cutting funding for regional growth by two-thirds, the Tory-led government is choking off the funding needed for regions to grow and create the jobs our economy needs. The government is allocating £1.4bn over three years to projects, two-thirds less than the £1.4bn a year Labour were investing through the regional development agencies alone".

Just so we have our facts straight, if the RGF of £450m delivers 127,000 additional jobs that suggests a cost per job ‘created’ by the government of just over £3,500.  Again according to John Denham, the 464 projects submitted for  bidding in the first roun£450m funding were worth £2.78bn.

A lot of businesses looking for a lot of money.