A Pitch In Heat

This week I have been staring at unwieldy forms; submitting an Arts Council England application on behalf of Original Theatre Company, navigating the wordy Register of Training Organisations due-diligence and quality assurance pages, drafting another bid on leadership & management training. I end up conquering, even befriending, these endless boxes but I have to set the right conditions. Glastonbury coverage and muggy heat are not helpful conditions.

I am a conqueror. Just a hot one.

This evening I have been at the first ever Brighton RSAEngage event, an event for current and prospective Fellows of the Royal Society of The Arts to gather and drink wine and talk about changing the world. I have been a Fellow for 3 days, but felt more included than I have ever done when muscling my way in to these sort of seemingly important chinwags. It was informal and friendly; I felt able to talk to anyone, and everyone was equally flagging in the evening heat. My elevator pitch is not yet refined and goes something like: “I am an education consultant and I also work with creative and cultural organizations and the non-profit and charity sector and I support growth and strategy and help leaders be brilliant at what that they do and that is at the core of my offer, to help organisations that want to make a difference be brilliant, and that is through strategy and fundraising and coaching and consulting, I am interested in values-led leadership and how education can be broken apart and restitched as well as how the arts can fulfill a mandate for social change and I like people and I like cheese and and and and”.

I could do with some editing.

It could have been an empty talking shop, a bit elitist, a bit privileged - I’ve done those before - but it avoided this. Most people seemed as wide-eyed as me, but with a ‘thing’ that they believe in to talk about.

I might have excitedly said I will do some things with some interesting organisations - and that's what is incredibly motivating at the moment; there are some really god things happening. I met the CEO of ditchthelabel.org, a high-profile anti-bullying charity and we’re hopefully going for coffee. I enjoyed picking the brains of Naomi, who is a community theatre specialist, working with BAC and the Old Vic, who wants to establish a People’s Theatre that appeals to the 92% of people who never go to the theatre. I chatted with Lewis, who is an intern at a management consultancy that wants to transform a kiosk next to a windmill in Rottingdean into a conservation and environment education centre. I caught up with Rose who trains school governors. I spoke with Nick, a former Ofsted director, who now helps run a mentoring network for vulnerable young women and we talked about setting one up for boys. I heard from Nigel, who runs a new arts venue in Haywards Heath. I briefly introduced myself to Rowan, Director of Research & Innovation at the RSA who compelled us all to stick our noses into the deals being made about Brighton’s devolved money (the City Deal that will bring millions to the city in exchange for rapid economic growth - she is expecting an email from me about wanting to get involved. Somehow).

I’ll write soon about ‘what’ I’m doing and the philosophies that underpin it, but the scoping is still very rewarding.

Happy Talk

The single best thing about my freelance role is the range of fascinating and interesting people I get to meet.

I'm aware that I'm doing a lot of ideas and concept building at the moment, which is always much more romantic than keeping the supporting pillars steady - but it's damn exciting.

Today, after lunch, I met with Mick Taylor. A Geordie mathematician, educator and businessman who is involved in setting up Goodmoney, a social enterprise concerned with the radical re-invention of how money works. A gift voucher that supports local businesses, a credit union that offers fair loans and a structured time bank that offers Sussex volunteers the chance to trade time/services for tickets/goods/services. I'll be hopefully playing around with them as an advisor, consultant and volunteer for the foreseeable and will see what happens; the connectivity and values-led experimenting of it all is appealing.

Then I moved straight, from hipster coffeehouse to a Costa 50 yards away, into a meeting with an account manger from JISC - the agency that supports the development of education technology in FE and HE. A great discussion that circumnavigated challenges and opportunities in the sector and how I might be able to facilitate the greatest impact with providers to test and analyse the impact of products on the market. The change of coffee shop tone is no accident.

For night-time connectivity, I took always possible associate James Turbull to London, meeting with with the great and good of charity/non-profit fundraising at a drinks reception in Farringdon. Hosted by the great James Newell of Kingston Smith, it was a good opportunity to discuss ideas of leadership, values and business with some intriguing and dynamic people; key players I enjoyed  boring with my whims were Mandy Johnson, Director of Partnerships at change.org; Paul Nott, Charity Recruitment Specialist; a freelance fundraiser called Sarah (who had kept her Minneapolis accent despite 10 years in Birmingham); Leanne from KS who partied with us near the samosas and many other warm and interesting people. 

It was quirky to have a summer party on a hot day in a windowless basement boardroom, but the beer was cool and the smiles were big.

More people, more connections, more joining up thoughts. I like this bit.

Brain Fizz

I've got that slightly fizzing, fidgety feeling that I get when my brain works its way up into an idea.

As I sit on this train from Hampden Park (in Eastbourne) to East Worthing via Brighton, I am having to calm myself with swigs of bottled water in order to contain thoughts. I probably shouldn't be trying to construct a blog post, instead mind-mapping my enthusiasm in big letters. 

I've just come out of a meeting with a very helpful and generous member of the Safe East Sussex Team - a former youth worker and police officer, she now leads on anti-social behaviour, hate crime, extremism and domestic violence education, policy and strategy with swathes of communities in East Sussex (a huge county). I was joined by always possible associates, Denis and Teresa.

We talked for an hour on values, projects, gaps, cuts, hope, despair - looking at where schools and local authorities sit within the cycle of policy and government diktats on issues such as the prevent agenda and local initiatives to tackle hate crime. 

East Sussex is not currently a target 'hot spot' for extremist activity, and therefore is not of direct interest to the Home Office, whereas Crawley (in West Sussex) and Brighton & Hove are high up the list due to recent high profile cases and a big increase in police referrals. Much of the feeling is, however, that if something frightening happened in Hastings sometime soon it might not surprise too many people.

At the core of our talks, of dispossession and youth alienation (what do these mean? where does this come from? where do we start with it?), were the recurring theme of human values, ethics and principles of community life. In schools and colleges the PHSE and PSD curricula are still unsteady, often unsure of how to tackle some of the big issues creatively - or, more realistically, some providers do it well and some don't do it all and everything in between. 

Teresa, Denis and I are interested in how conversations with young people can be structured to have impact and understanding over a long period. Even quick-fire workshops, that may have been energetic and dynamic, are a thing of the past with schools and regional agencies reluctant/unable to spend money on commissioning creative projects from outside facilitators. But we are looking at how - over time - story telling can be used to unlock some of the massive social, cultural, health conversations that teenagers NEED to be having with empathetic and open-minded adults (and each other). There are big gaps that schools, the police and social agency teams just can't fill - gaps where some of the more vulnerable (and most are in some way) 11-19 year olds should be debating what it is to hate, to respect, to be fearful, to seek comfort in online spaces, to offer friendship to strangers etc etc. Many young people don't have the benefit of a kick-ass youth worker or a family with time to just talk and think about the bigger things without prejudice.

My brain is fizzing because it wants to create. A BIG cross-county project with schools and FE providers, with film, web, theatre, debate, stories - asking big questions and getting under the skin of hate, bullying, power, otherness, the romance of ideology. Kids can cope with these conversations. There are ways of hosting and facilitating them; different approaches for different young people. I want those that feel utterly marginalised to get the most out of it, because they might start to understand why - and that knowledge is power, and that can be used for good.

My working title is The Human Values Project.

Watch this space.

What Am I Doing?

Hello. I'm Richard.

In November 2014, I registered self-employed and created the trading name 'always possible' as the genesis of an idea. I was still working full-time as the Operations Manager for a busy training provider in Brighton as well as juggling life as a father (a 5 year old and an 8 month old), a husband, a school governor and a human being who likes to eat, cycle, garden and sit down with my eyes closed and listen to sad music.

The urge to create was taking me over, and whilst my work was exciting, ever varied and valued - I was feeling stuck in a bubble and bogged in detail. I'm good at building networks and sniffing out opportunities, at advising and shaping new ideas, so every inch of my instinct was telling me to engineer that in a new way.

The name 'always possible' is intended to answer development questions - What about? Can I? Is there a way to?

It's always possible.

It's always possible to be brilliant and imaginative and successful. It's always possible to get things right and to make a difference. 

You just need to work out what's getting in the way and remove it. Always simple? Hell no. But I am confident I can help others - I have spent the past 15 years solving creative, business, planning, staffing and delivery problems.

I'm not an expert, or a guru, on anything. These lazy titles suggest that all the learning has happened and that curiosity is spent.

I am a specialist in a few areas, but a student of everything. I have experience , an analytical brain and an approach with people that works. The adventure and the challenge now is to see if these qualities can continue to help make lots of other organisations get better and thrive in a difficult market place. 

I'm keen to do this differently, and not on my own. I have already gathered some amazing associate consultants to join the biz, and there will be lots more on that later.

Why start this blog now?

My business cards arrived today, which seems to be symbolic - an old 'technology', but a new direction of travel for me.

I will blog regularly, documenting my journey, opportunities and challenges and the interesting people I meet and things I learn along the way. I'll not be betraying my clients' confidence, just mapping the discoveries of a new business finding its feet. Hopefully it will inform and entertain you.

Let me know what you think:

blog@alwayspossible.co.uk

Rich