Robert Smyth Academy Enterprise Days 2014 - Part 1

I went back to school yesterday.  Yesterday was the first of this year's Enterprise Days at the Robert Smyth Academy in Market Harborough.  I was there between 1984 and 1987, doing my CSEs and O Levels.  It was strange but lovely to be back in my old school, and great fun working with the business students there. 

After a rousing assembly to get us fired up and ready to take on the day, we split into groups with a teacher and an advisor/mentor in each classroom.  ( I was lucky to pull double duties, as one advisor couldn't make it, which meant flitting between two rooms!) 

The challenge was to create a music festival, make promotional material, and to design and create a prototype of a product to sell at it.  The team with the most votes at the end of the day won.  Simple? Well, not quite so simple... 

As mentioned earlier, every room had an advisor in it.  The advisors were all from businesses large and small.  Our role was to help, advise and encourage the students, being able to give them real world advice and experience.  It was also interesting to see who was being most competitive, with students, teachers and advisors all wanting to win. 

First task of the day was name and theme the festival, after which, teams split up into design and product development.  My role was to help and encourage the students in these tasks.  Personally, I think my rooms had an unfair advantage here, as I was the only creative (by profession) advisor.  Students were coming up with some really good ideas, and I helped coming up with name ideas and developing products.  I also helped students to think about product purpose and appearance, price and promotion.  This was really good fun, with some of the teachers acted as shopkeepers. Students had to purchase resources to make prototypes, work to a budget, and be aware of unit cost and profit. 

After lunch there was a little time to fine tune prototypes, then done to 'The Max'  (the old gym...) to set up stalls and pitch ideas to the other teams.  Each student had a token to be spent on a stall they liked most, the stall with most tokens winning the first trophy of the day.  There were prizes for best pitch and an overall winner chosen by the judges (advisors included).  I am very proud to say that two teams I was working with came second and third overall.  I just need a first place next week! 

It was fantastic witnessing students pitching their ideas and products with plenty of confidence and energy.  As one of the judges, I visited every stall (about 30 in all), and was really impressed by how positive and confident they were in presenting their ideas, especially to a complete stranger.  14 year olds are usually confident with those of their own age, but an unknown adult can crumble that confidence.  I was proud of how the students handled themselves, were professional, confident and most importantly, believed in what they had created.  They were clearly enjoying the experience too. 

After a tense judging discussion, the overall winner was decide upon.  'The Welly Fest' with their convertible wellies won overall with a great product and excellent pitch.  (I was genuinely impressed with their pitch, which was clear and confident with plenty of enthusiasm.) 

The first of this year's Enterprise Days was a great success. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the students and seeing their creativity and hard work paying off.  It was great being back in my old school. I'm really looking forwards to doing it all over again next week, with the winners, of course! 

Thanks to all at the Robert Smyth Academy for a fantastic day, especially Phillip Sullivan for organising the whole day and Helen Sawkins (teacher with one of my teams) for her support in the classroom. 

The Baba Yaga

The heavy music magazine Archiv Hate has reached its tenth issue, which is a great achievement for any publication. Even more so when you realise that its creator Arturs Vilmanis pretty much puts the whole thing together himself. (With a little help from a select crew, of which I am proud to be a member.)

I feel that this is the strongest issue yet in terms of layout and design, with great use of white space and striking imagery and text.  There's going to be a short haitus for the summer festival season, but Arturs will be back in the Autumn with more heaviness.

You can read and download issue 10 here: 

http://www.archivhate.com/2014/06/archiv-hate-interview-magazine-issue-10.html

Under the weather

This might be a bumpy ride, so bear with me whilst I figure this out.

Mental health is a major issue in the workplace these days.  It’s a major issue everywhere. This is a good thing, as mental health has been overlooked and misunderstood for a very long time.  We’re just starting to understand what causes mental health problems and how they can affect people personally and professionally. Having seen friends and colleagues laid low by mental health and have little or no understanding of their condition shown by their employees, some of whom think that they are simply ‘making it up’, and are not really ill at all, it’s about time there was a change.

Just this morning, I was stopped in my tracks by anxiety, immobilised by thinking about what I had to work on first, and for a while I couldn’t do anything at all. Now, working for myself, you would think this is less of an issue than if I was employed. Well, yes and no.  As I’m in the midst of setting up our business, there is the juggling act between admin, promotion, and actually working.  I’m very mindful of generating income all the time, and that can cause stress, which can lead to anxiety, which can lead to depression.  And that’s when nothing gets done.  There are great organisations, like Blurt, for example, who offer incredible support to those with mental health problems.  They offer practical advice on how to cope with and raise awareness of them. We need more organisations like Blurt.

So, where am I going with this?  By writing about mental health in the workplace, I hope I can raise a little bit more understanding and support for it and the people that are affected by it. Just because someone appears okay whilst at work doesn’t mean that they actually are.  Some people can function better with mental health problems than others.  When I was first diagnosed with stress and anxiety 12 years ago, many people wouldn’t believe that I struggled with them and that I had a history of depression.  At that time, I could put on a front; seem happy and confident, so that’s what people thought I was.  Over the years, my depression has been better and worse, and I am now fortunate to have a very understanding GP who has been incredibly supportive.  Not everyone is this fortunate.

There is countless work days lost due to mental health problems.  Often, those with these problems simply cannot get up when the alarm goes off and are pinned to the bed, immobilised by depression.  When they talk to other people, they will often say they are fine, not wishing to upset or make a fuss.  People often cannot understand problems like this, telling others to ‘pull themselves together’, ‘get over it’ or ‘don’t let it get to you’… This doesn’t help.  And this is where you come in.  Don’t assume that everyone is okay, many of us aren’t, but choose to hide it.  If someone seems unusually quiet or withdrawn, maybe ask if they’re okay.  If they seem sad, offer a tissue and an ear if you can.  Talking about problems can really help people, even if you don’t understand it yourself.  Just listening to someone who is not okay is an amazing thing to do.  The more of us that can do this for others, the less of a problem mental health at work can become.  That’s a really good thing for all of us.