LIVE, LOVE AND DON’T BE SORRY

Inspiration can come in all forms and even sometimes in the most tragic of ways.

Ella Pilc started a blog in September 2012 called Sharky and Willow, by April 2013 she had 12,000 followers worldwide. She never marketed her blog. Her stories are hilarious. Her writing is just wonderful. She has you sobbing and in fits of giggles within minutes. She makes you feel like you have known her all her life. She makes you want to live, to treasure every moment, every cup of mango sorbet, every flight of stairs you have to climb. She makes you want to read her blog over and over again.

Sharky and Willow is Ella's story, Ella's battle with cancer that so tragically took her life 2 weeks after her final post on May 1st 2013. I never knew Ella however I have spoken about this courageous girl more than I think I have spoken about anyone recently. Ella was diagnosed with terminal cancer and decided to take her life in her own hands and live. To do all the things that were on her bucket list. To do all the things you take for granted. To inspire so many people. To make you want to go out and buy diamonds!

I won't give away any of the little gems that are in Ella's blog because when you have a spare hour or so please make a cup of tea, get the tissue box at the ready and read Ella's blog, start from the first post and make your way back to the most recent. Not only is the blog so wonderfully written, Ella's frank, honest style of writing really empowers you as the reader. I promise you that you will be as inspired as I am to live, love and don't be sorry.

And if you want to know what this 'streak' and 'cards' are about you definitely must take a look!

Haunting

Last night I visited the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House. As an avid photographer I was really looking forward to viewing some of the best photography in the world and hopefully gaining some invaluable tips on creating that iconic image.

The exhibition was rich with talent across 15 categories but what struck me most was one trend amongst the contemporary photography. Subject matter. Even though the categories ranged from portraiture to travel to current affairs, the image may have been stunning but once you read the biog by the side of each picture, the sense of sobriety seemed to quadruple in seconds and give you goosebumps as you looked at the image again.

Take a look at this portrait by Andrea Gjestvang....

This lady is a young survivor of the Utøya massacre

I felt that the uncomplicated, uncontrived portrayal of each victim revealed a huge level of trust between the photographer and her subjects that enabled her to show the trauma that had shaken their young lives whilst maintaining a sense of respect and dignity.

As a visual person I love images that make you look twice or make you linger longer. For me this image by Christian Aslund does just that, it is beautifully graphic, perfectly executed, makes you wonder at the perspective and is simply, yet wonderfully humourous. It reminds me of a computer game!

My favourite image was by Valerio Bispuri from his multi year project, Jails Sud America, it sums up the whole mood and atmosphere of the series. It is incredibly powerful and evocative, with just the force and form of one pair of eyes, you feel the intensity and suspicion of those incarcerated thousands of miles away. His whole series impressed the judges for its consistent approach and style as he shot in prisons across many countries and years, you can really feel the ‘eye’ of the photographer in this work.

Just sublime.

LICHTENSTEIN

Roy Lichtenstein, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, his work was coming to London and I was very excited to see whether there really was anything in Life magazine's quote of 1964 'is he the worst artist in the US?'

And my conclusion: NO!

Actually, I think Lichtenstein's work inspired a generation of artists. In the early 1960s he broke the norm of abstract expressionism and hit upon a new concept of painting inspired by comic strips, advertising and mass culture imagery. It provoked, there was instant delight or outrage and the Retrospective exhibition at the Tate was perfectly curated to instil this. The journey from Look Mickey in 1961, his first painting to get instant recognition right through to his 1995 Chinese Landscapes showed the sheer dominance of his work. Some of the paintings are huge. Testament to the fact that his skill of imitating the industrial technique of comic books, using a palette of primary colours, heavy black outlines and dots that simulated shadows and tones, is quite fantastic.

Yes there are similarities to work by Picasso and Matisse, his work is often simply household objects or suggest the portrayal of women as an extension to the household appliance however to be able to change the scale of objects, cropping, eliminating detail, changing items to be horizontal rather than diagonal to sharpen the drama, when seen in person, is quite fantastic.

His war and romance paintings are the most well known, his beautiful art deco 'Modern Series' and brass sculptures were a surprise half way through the exhibition.

 I must admit though, if I were able to purchase one piece of his work, it would be this mirror. I think it would be better placed in a theatre or Radio City music hall rather than my little cottage, but I think it is just simply stunning.

We've notched up a 9th successive year of CPD accreditation

Every Monday morning we Woodies lace up our brain trainers and work our grey matter into shape for the week ahead with our fast paced 15 minute workouts.  One week we’re coming up with ads in 60 seconds, the next thinking about our most recent customer service experience and how well those employees were living their brand. 

This is just one of many initiatives we run for our people at Woodreed which has helped us notch up a ninth successive year of CPD accreditation from our professional body - the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

CPD accreditation reassures our clients they are dealing with professional, qualified and trained individuals.  After all our people are our business.

Just because times may be tough is no reason to draw back from investing in your people - in fact quite the opposite.  We achieved our results with minimal investment of actual cash - just time and carefully considered thinking to develop a training and development framework which supports our business objectives.

The result – an engaged, happy and productive bunch, working hard for our clients.

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?

Over recent weeks I've become aware of increasing debate about the EE words for example Neil Morrison's 'Nobody wants to be engaged'. EE - not the bizarrely rebranded telecomms company but Employee Engagement. A simple term which I think most people get - employee engagement as opposed to customer engagement or audience engagement, engaging the internal audience rather than the external.

There are discussions about whether EE as a term is an obstacle to the message. Whether we can think of other things to call it. Is it happiness, wellbeing, wellness or what?

This seems like so much noise, just at a time when a groundswell is beginning to build in the wake of corporate scandals and with the support of the Engage for Success movement.  To me this is typical of so many movements in the past which end up tearing themselves apart over semantics, focussing inwards instead of outwards.

What are we doing? When there is still such a mountain to climb to convince boards to invest time, resources, intellectual capital and understanding in the need for EE why do we create a distracting sideshow that can only undermine our pitch? Someone, the unerring advocate of the importance of the inside culture Ian Buckingham I think, said "Angels on pinheads" about this the other day and I have to agree.

How can we expect people to take the important concept and its practitioners seriously when we resort to squabbling amongst ourselves?

Of course debate is healthy and should be encouraged but let’s focus it where it can achieve results – on
helping overcome the barriers, on helping people see that EE isn’t something you do to people or have done to you, that EE isn’t a tick box exercise, or a series of 'initiatives'. That EE isn't an outcome. It’s about building a healthy culture within an organisation where every employee (which means all those who take a salary from the organisation so leaders and managers too) is motivated to give of their best more often that they’re not; an environment where the people with the skills to leave choose to stay.

Surely it's far better to have a word which, ok may not be perfect but at least we all understand? A word to badge the concept and act as a shorthand for something we all need to grasp - quite simply organisations with high levels of employee engagement outperform organisations who don't on so many KPIs - net profit, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, productivity, innovation, employee turnover...

These KPIs are the important evidence we have to use to convince board level decision makers of the need to take this seriously - but you know, irrespective of these I know what kind of an organisation I'd rather work in.

Kilimanjaro - an abundance of things that inspire and things that are dire....

On the 28th February 2013 at 8.40am I did it, I summited Mt Kilimanjaro! I must admit it was the hardest, most emotional experience of my life but also one of the most amazing.

I have raised an incredible £4,847.79 for Build Africa with your generosity - there is still time to sponsor me if you haven't done so already by clicking here. If it wasn't for the wonderful Ben Ogden whom this climb was dedicated to there were a couple of points where I simply wanted to sit on a rock and give up, but I wanted the photo with him at the summit even more!

Our trek was organised through Discover Adventure whom I highly recommend if anyone wants to go on an epic adventure. All 30 of us 'novices' were met at Heathrow by our incredible leaders Dave Matthews and Dom Rudd and our wonderful Doctor Freyja Brown. Without whom I don't think any of us would have made it to summit!

Our trek was 6 days long, day 2 was my killer day! The altitude sickness kicked in, headaches so violent I could hardly see but as soon as it passes... it's gone - with a little help from some magic pills I was given by doc! The terrain was so beautiful, from rainforest, to plains to alien world! The fact you were above cloud level pretty quickly was quite surreal too. The views were to die for, the Barranco wall of day 3 an incredible challenge, and the laughs and giggles priceless.

We were also supported by an incredible ground crew - all 90 of them! Our lead guide Whitey and my personal guide for summit night Aristide were just fabulous, we had endless Christmas songs to keep us going, I owe Aristide a pair of shoes after being sick all over his on summit night and how the porters, cooks, toilet boys, tent guys, guides and of course our ambulance man Michael (he carried the huge medical kit everywhere) made our trek seemless was faultless. You can only imagine how they managed to feed and water all of us on a mountain with 2 burners! Yup - I still can't imagine it.

My fellow team mates will all be friends for life, Brian brought his Olympic Torch all the way to the summit, the first one on Kili! Jaqui was my partner in toilet crime, altitude does wonders for clearing your bladder at the most inappropriate of places. John adopted my camera on the days when I didn't have the energy to get it out of its case! Katie, my fab tent buddy and earplug lifesaver - we did have a couple of epic snorers - no names!!! There are too many inspirational people to mention in person here, just know there is no way I could have done this without them all. Last but not least - our wonderful Benon Banya. Benon so tragically died on our last summit walk. It was a traumatic experience for all, it did make our summit bittersweet but we were all so proud to have met Benon, to have spent time with him, got to know him and to have climbed Kilimanjaro with him.

Summit, yes the summit! I knew it was going to be hard but nothing can quite prepare you for it. We were woken at midnight (after a day of walking) and in the pitch black with our high vis jackets started the long plod to the summit. The only way I can start to describe it to you was that it felt like walking with concrete boots on, with the flu, after drinking a bottle of whiskey and a plastic bag tied over your head. The last 40 minutes from Stella Point are truly horrific, I was just trying to stop myself from passing out - so thankfully Aristide had the kindness to grab my camera otherwise I may well have forgotten to get those all important photos at the top!!! Talking of photos, those that know me well, know I like my photos! I do have an album so if you click here you can take a look at them (i've edited them down don't worry!)

In all it's very hard to try and sum up my experience, it's definitely life changing. Africa is the most wonderful country, it has tested me to my limits, i've found hidden strength I never knew I had and confidence to go for things you never thought possible. As a person you realise that even when you take yourself out of your comfort zone, forgo materialistic items, don't eat, push your body, see tragedy unfold in front of you and a meteor shower the sky with light - anything is possible when you have your friends and family beside you, behind you, in front of you, supporting you all the way. Thank you to everyone who made this journey one I will never forget. And to Kilimanjaro - maximum respect x

Recognition and reward - the great missed opportunity

One of the best ways to create and sustain a brand-hearted culture and a motivated team

Yet Woodreed’s Brand Inside survey identified that 20% of participants had no recognition and reward process in place, while 37% simply offered adhoc, generic tokens.

So in an attempt to put that right we’ve added a leading online motivation system to Woodreed’s offer. iD points can be used to support a range of campaign objectives – from employee recognition, reward and behaviour change to sales/dealer incentives and B2B customer loyalty.
iD points takes the hard work out of building and running a reward programme. Branded and tailored to a client's needs, it's quick and simple to set up – with no ongoing management fees.  Participants redeem points from a wide choice of leading brands and experiences. 
The web-based system is flexible – simple enough to manage in house or it can be incorporated into a wider communication programme with strategic and creative help from Woodreed if required. For more details visit www.id-points.com