So a friend of mine just facebooked me and said they had read my blog and it had inspired them to run, well I haven’t been blogging or running here of late so here I am shamed into action.
Luckily and in a timely manner, yesterday I actually signed up to take part in Juneathon and started my Justgiving page for running the British 10k in July and the Run to the Beat half mara in October for Magic Breakfast so it’s probably time to get myself on the move again!
So I am doing my first monthly -ATHON. Juneathon! The aim is to run or do some kind of exercise every day in June and blog/tweet about it, which will be good practice for getting me into the writing mood and get me trained up for my races.
All that running will be good practice for the previously mentioned charity runs that I am doing and if you are feeling generous you can sponsor me here!
It is for a super duper good cause that provides breakfast for UK children who may only get one meal a day which is their state provided lunch and oftentimes arrive to school having not eaten since the previous lunchtime. How can they be expected to concentrate and learn and have the best start in life when they are hungry? So say BOOOOO to hunger and unmentioned poverty in our country in this day and age and sponsor me NOW (please).
It’s a race montage!
Sweet new running gear! Disco Disco!
BALMAIN MY LOVE
New Shoooooes
So last night, very late, we put up the Alternative Enterprise website. It’s not fully functional yet as our designer had to run off on a snowboarding holiday but we wanted to have it online so we could gather some feedback over the week about the look and feel of the website ready to prepare the edits for his return.
After the basic edits we will be uploading our two graduate blogs ‘Grad X’ and ‘Grad Y’ and our three start-up diaries.
Other elements being prepared for the site are:
Research Resources - Suggested reading, background research for the project, findings from our research so far.
Career Stories Directory - Career paths and insights from creatives across all sectors of the industry.
Test-Materials - Copies of our materials and workshop plans that can be used with comments and observations being fed into the final materials for the launch in September.
Is there anything we might have missed? Would you like to try out our test materials?
E-mail us at hello@altent.co.uk
As yesterday was the four yearly 29th Nike set the challenge to make the day count. I decided to beat my distance record for running and decided on 8miles. I thought the best way to do this was not to plan route but just go run wherever I fancied until 4/5 miles and then try to find my way back. This was actually fun and I actually found parts of Coventry I didn’t know were there including a teensy bit of countryside but it also meant that I got stuck running through a series of estates for ages which wasn’t so good. Not planning for good as a way for me to not be able to measure progress of be put off by the though of knowing I was about to hit a hard part of my regular routes.
The run took AGES. My overall average 12min miles (I walk at 12.5 minute miles) so this was not a victory for speed but within that average were a few photo stops, a stitch stop and slight detour into ASDA for a bathroom break (phew - bonus of running in urban places!). I also shared my first runner vs. runner smile and nod :D
This is a shire horse I saw on my stitch-break, those buildings look like a castle but actually they are some of Coventry’s delightful estate architecture.
This weekend I travelled down to London for my first experience of the Global Service Jam. The jam goes from Friday night through to Sunday late afternoon and entails coming up with a service and designing it through to pitch stage on the Sunday. My GSJ experience had a lot of highs and lows.
Our team had a few twists in our journey, we were all very passionate about one idea but in the team and mentor feedback the majority vote was for us to go with a different idea which was about showing the revenue streams related the the Olympics and it’s host area of Stratford. We were not sold on this but we took the advice and went to Stratford to do some research. At the end of this trip we had realised the idea was not suitable on the ground of wants, needs and ethical approach. After this our team decided to switch to a version of the initial idea but we only had a day two do the whole project.
In this blog I’ll tell you my personal experience, my list of Do’s and Don’ts and then give you a run down of the event for those who want to know more about the process.
1. My Experience
I decided to attend the GSJ as I had been quite stressed with the PhD of late, a lot of theory and data collection and I though that the GSJ would be a nice break and good for me to have some real Design-Time after quite a long while. This was probably my first mistake. The GSJ is not restive it is intensive and high-energy. This teamed with me staying 1hr40 from the Jam really left me exhausted.
On the Saturday afternoon we had lost our team-mate Janko who had also had a stressful time at work before the Jam and by the time we had done our switch to the Olympic idea he felt couldn’t give the group anything more and so left the jam. At the time I didn’t understand why he had left but then I hit the same wall. I had had to leave the group early on the Saturday night (to pick up accommodation keys) just as they were starting the new project. By the time I got back there I was completely exhausted and didn’t feel I could give much to the idea, I also though I might have been in a bit of a negative place which wasn’t great for the team. I decided wouldn’t return on the Sunday, let the team know and turned off the alarm but when I woke up on the Sunday I had slept for 11 hours and felt brilliant and I wished I had gone in that morning.
I hadn’t worked on the new idea at all so I didn’t feel right re-joining the team but I was aware that they were working with a team that had lost three members and were developing an idea in half the time so decided that I would go back to Jam with some food for the team and maybe I could help out with a new eye at the end of the process or do a job that they might be running out of time to do. I’m glad I went back although I felt really guilty. I had booked an early train back so missed the final pitches but over the next day or two I got some texts saying the group had done a great job and that they had been awarded the Mentors prize for Bravery and won lots of cupcakes which they absolutely deserved for fighting through!
(surviving members of team ‘Beyond’)
2. Here are my GSJ Do’s and Don’ts!
Do Not think the weekend will be restful, be prepared for little sleep and try to have a fairly restive time before you go so you can be at your peak and have less chance of hitting the wall.
Do try to find accommodation near the venue. You may have to stay up very late and the time you lose travelling could be much better spent on the project or sleeping, not to mention that walking far and all that time on the tube are tiring in themselves.
Do Not dive straight into your initial ideas, there are so many ways the theme can be taken, try to push yourself in other directions using idea generation techniques.
Do go out and do real research, on the street, in relevant locations. Yes, this lead to us scrapping an idea but it was a true conclusion of an idea. Better that than wasting time and energy pushing though an idea that is not needed or wanted.
Do try to find a way for the quieter members of the team to have a voice. We had a few very vocal members alongside some naturally quieter and those who were non-native English speakers. The times when the louder members were off doing other jobs gave the quieter people a chance to put their ideas across. Similarly if you know you are more vocal try to make an effort to be quiet even if you want to butt-in, there will always be another chance to voice your opinion later.
Do Not take feedback as fact. Our team had the best response from other teams and the mentors to follow the Olympics idea. Despite the whole team being passionate about the ‘inspire boxes’ we decided to take the advice we were given which turned out not to be the best advice. This wasn’t however anyone’s fault, we should have taken the time to really think about the project we were working on and what was important to us. GSJ London did have judges and prizes but that wasn’t the goal. Perhaps our ‘inspire’ idea was slightly less worthy a cause in terms of social value but as a team we would probably have had a more successful and positive time so it’s worth, as team members, deciding what your aims for the weekend are.
Do be ready to learn from your experience. I reinforced some not-so-good things (bossy/don’t deal with stress well/impulsive) and good things (Idea generation, encouraging teams, sound business strategy/impulsive) that I already knew about myself and I learnt new things about how exciting it is to work with other people when you tend to work alone. I also learnt that I do not like doing street research and that you can make mistakes (leaving the jam) and if you can’t undo things you can always try and make the best of the situation.
Do Enjoy the freedom to push the boundaries and have fun! Try not to stress out, enjoy looking at areas you’d never have chance to normally and meeting new people (I learnt things from my whole team and especially my team-mate Irma who was an absolute pro at on-street research and @catisnotpretty was first in last out every day and unofficially led our group with diplomacy and light hearted positivity throughout).
3. GSJ Process
Roughly the weekend stages were:
Friday
Meet + Greet + Make teams
Reveal of Secret Theme + Brainstorm
Saturday
Come up with and pitch 3 ideas to the group
Select one idea and use on-street and desk research to develop
Pitch
Develop and prototype
Sunday
Test and Develop
Create Presentation and Pitch to Judges
On the Friday we were put into groups, we had 8 members and found out that the theme would be HIDDEN TREASURE. We brainstormed our initial thoughts which were about hidden treasures inside yourself (self-development and skills etc.) and treasures in your area (rediscovering your environment). This stage of the brainstorming also brought out quite clear ideas about the values and approach our team wanted to focus on such as connections and skills and eventually we used this brainstorm and further discussion to finalise our groups values as:
-Playfulness
-Disruption
-Discovery
-Transformation
We used these values to shape the design and conception of our service ideas and stop us from wandering too far off plan.
We then used forced association brainstorming (a concept used with the AT-ONE touchpoint cards, Rip + Mix and also general creativity techniques) where each team member names random objects and were forced to create ideas for services from these.
One example - Candle + iphone
Ideas: Flickering app to recreate candlelight ambiance, a romantic dating service app, no-electricity dating for the Amish!
On the second round (shown at the bottom of the photo) we added a third element which was taken from the original brainstorm. This helped to focus ideas towards the theme. Two examples are:
Olympics, Air + Zombies: We thought about zombies as tube users, this lead on the the idea of a ‘local’s’ experience of the Olympics. Could were design a tool for them to avoid the tourists or experiences Londoners Olympics even if they didn’t have a ticket. We also flirted with the idea of welcome packs for for foreign visitors about an ‘alternative Olympics’. These ideas eventually merged into the idea for the ‘be your own guide’ service and contributed foundations to our thoughts on the acknowledging the real locations of the Olympics.
Wire, Light, Map: We discussed the idea of a map that lit up to show fundraising coming from different parts of the country or sculptures that helped track spending on encouraged on the street donations. This led us towards the idea of a sculpture or information pieces that showed what was being spent on the Olympics contrasted with what was being spent in the locality or looking at what was promised to London through the Olympics and what the true impact was. Where was the tourists money really going to end up?
We pitched our three ideas to the other groups and mentors
-Be your own guide - self initiated tour
-Revenue flow and hidden truths of Olympic spending
-Increasing happiness and productivity in the workplace through fun activity boxes and playful interventions.
(pitching our 3 ideas)
As a group we were all heading towards going towards the workplace idea which we had started developing into a postal subscription service until we got the feedback from other jammers and mentors who mainly thought we should go the Olympic route. I think this was because it was topical, quite different from the other ideas pitched amongst the groups and a clearer social focus. We were reminded by one mentor no to be self indulgent in out designs so we decided to go with the Olympic idea. Although we had decided to follow this route weren’t entirely sure how the idea would shape up especially in line with the core values of the team. The team though we needed to get real research so Irma and I headed out to Stratford to speak to locals and shop owners about their views of the Olympics, what they thought about its impact on them positively or negative, effects on trade, feedback into the community etc. What we found was quite surprising and really challenged the fact that as a group we had had preconceptions about what we would find and without doing the research we could have steamed ahead with an idea based on our own biases not the opinions and needs of the people involved.
(Irma discussing the Olympics and community in Stratford)
The outcome of this was quite daunting. We had just passed the 4pm pitch and phoned in our results to the group meaning that the idea we had pitched might not have legs. On our return to the venue we had meeting to decide what to do. One member of the team wanted to ignore the research and continue with the project as a way of following through with the service development process as a learning experience, I felt this would feel dishonest and that it wouldn’t be meaningful. In the end we were stuck until one of the mentors came to help us discuss it. In the end we decided that the energy in the group was better when we talked about out initial idea so with the help of the mentor we decided to use this idea of workplace rejuvenation but really develop it into a service delivery. This is where my involvement ended really as on the Saturday evening I had to leave early 7pm-ish.
(last minute pow-wow on day three)
After I left the team worked on till late, leaving between 9pm and 11.30 and dived straight back in at 9am the next day. During this time they had to work out the service offering including the customer engagement, their value and business structure. When I arrived back at just before 2pm on the Sunday they were getting ready to pitch and I helped out a little tightening up the timings and working out some of the finance and business elements of the idea.
The team can be seen here:
http://planet.globalservicejam.org/gsj12/project/1449
These were the two winning ideas from GSJ London
http://planet.globalservicejam.org/gsj12/project/1394
http://planet.globalservicejam.org/gsj12/project/1459
I will keep an eye out for a blog that describes a process that was a little more straightforward (and includes more details of the final stages of design development) so you can get a more complete view of the event.
Photo credits: Myself, team member Irma, Jose Ernesto Rodriguez and Rob Maslin
Pow!
So I finally hit my goal to lose 3stone and 20% of my bodyweight. This was not for aesthetic reasons (although, big bonus), this was because I was obese (initially thought the nurse had called me A BEAST) and I hadn’t even noticed because i’m tall and I ‘carry it well!’. Even after 3stone I am only 2lb within the ‘healthy’ range for my height although I don’t really hold with this as those charts were made a long time ago plus I have big muscles :D
Anyway, now that i’ve reached the target the weightloss is done and I can concentrate on my fitness and maintaining this new, far healthier and happier lifestyle. Not to mention how much I love clothes and my choices were limited when rocking the old 16/18!
Next up for me is running the 10k in Coventry for AgeUK and then hopefully run the Royal Parks Half for The Magic Breakfast if a charity place comes available.
Magic breakfast, my favourite charity, provide free and healthy breakfast to UK primary schools to help tackle the huge numbers of children who are living with severe income poverty. They need lots of help to reach all those children and help then to concentrate and learn whilst at school. You should all go check them out.
Go on then, here’s the before and afters…
Part 2 of my round up, here are my picks of LFW 2012 Day 4-6:
Day 4
Michael van der Ham
Erdem
Burberry Prorsem
Giles
Christian Blanken
and for the details…
Fred Butler
Day 5
Emilio de le Morena
Mary Katrantzou
Peter Jenson
Holly Fulton
and one of my favourites…
Ashish
