I know we all need to be entertained and that creativity through music, writing and acting has a value (namely to take us out of our hum-drum lives and give us solace, entertainment and a future vision), but when I hear of that amazing aid worker who has been beheaded in Pakistan or the soldier killed trying to diffuse bombs in Afghanistan, I have to wonder in the bigger scheme of things who is really adding value and at what price?

It’s a sobering thought that many people do the most amazing things, they make a difference and add value to people’s lives in the most difficult of situations (probably for little financial reward) whereas others do good things too and get paid a terrific amount for what is in effect, just another public service.

My thinking is that it’s all upside down. Somehow, we’ve lost sight of the value of life and its meaning in our quest to make money. Money talks in a way it never has done before. Perhaps if we started to have a different discussion about what we deem to be meaningful, then we could take some steps to reward those who add more meaning to bridge this gap between worth, price and value.

Claire Chidley.

Brighton was yesterday and again, I was privileged to work with some gifted, warm women. What was really lovely was to see how the 360 WISDOM model helped focus attention on the strengths each participant had . Some people realised they were naturally creative and haven’t been doing anything about it for some time. Others understood their thinking skills were very sophisticated, yet they weren’t applying them to solve problems they faced in their life. Once you know what your strengths are, you can quickly work out whether you are living your life to them. By implication, you also understand what areas of your life are weaker and how to go about improving them to bring yourself into balance.

When we looked in the afternoon at our general ‘health’ within the 360 Wisdom model, I was able to offer some strategies for staying healthy in how you think and feel about certain situations.

What is fascinating, is how participants learn to apply the 360 WISDOM model to people they work with, family and friends. It can provide some interesting insights into how different ‘types’ in the 360 WISDOM circle communicate with each other and can provide strategies for looking at things from the perspective of ‘the other’ and how to engage with them in a more meaningful way.

We also worked on personal values from a 360 WISDOM perspective. (This is a far more cohesive and profound way of eliciting personal values than other models I’ve come across,) so that participants understand what drives them at the deepest levels. They also can find out how it feels to be in an environment that doesn’t honour these values and the impact this can have on self-esteem and confidence.

Here’s a bit of feedback from a sample of the 360 WISDOM participants so far. It’s really lovely to learn I am helping others to make a difference in their lives.

“Everyone should make the time to do this course.” A Lakin.

” A great starting point for my future. Good to identify my Home Quarters” and understand more of why I behave as I do and understand how to better interact with others more successfully” R Cheetham.

“I will be back next year to remind myself how far I have come and how great life can be when you are balanced.” N Jane.

” I feel much more hopeful and focussed. Also more thoughtful and insightful rather than out of control. Much to take away and build on. Thank you” J. Davies.

” It’s good to get a different perspective on things. Thank you.” K. Register

In her acceptance speech, she was almost embarrassed to win, stating that half of America would be saying ‘oh no, not you again!’ I always thought the USA respected success far more than we do. This time, I wondered whether Ms Streep hadn’t become a bit anglicised in her embarrassment of success. She really deserves it. In the gamut of movie history, I can’t think of another female actor with the breath and depth of range she possesses. If you can. please let me know. Keep going Meryl. Play roles right up until you can act no more (or don’t want to). In a world where older women don’t remain on TV once they hit 45, and there are scarce juicy roles for actresses apart from bit parts or elderly grandmothers, isn’t it wonderful to see an older women remaining great at her craft and getting better year on year? What a wonderful role model for generations of women around the world.

If you want to be a role model and empower women too, join me on my workshop tour. Next day is at the Old Courtroom Brighton on 4th March, MAC birmingham on 10th March and Arnolfini Bristol on 25th March. Workshops start at 10am and finish at 4pm. www.tiny.cc/360wisdom

It’s said February is one of the most depressing months because we’ve failed on all our get trim/lose weight pledges. If anyone is going to join a gym or a weight-loss scheme, they will have already done it. Just a few weeks into the New Year, almost 7 out of 10 of us are not sticking to our food plan and we are dropping like flies on our weekly public weigh-in’s and gym sessions.
It’s really hard in my opinion to stick to it because most of us don’t understand the calorific value of what we eat. I know from previous diets that certain fruits are 5 calories per 100 grams but what I’ve lost touch with is portion size. I blame my new dinner plates. They are square and twice the size of the old ones…and I am literally filling the plate!

A friend of mine has just joined a weight loss programme (I’m not going to name them, but it’s one of the well-known ones.) We thought we’d eaten a healthy meal on Saturday when I was round at her house. Three tacos shells with re-fried beans, low fat guacamole, low fat sour cream and a tomato and onion salsa (plus 2 small glasses of wine.)

When we added up the calories, we had a real shock. Our attempts to keep ourselves in trim had failed miserably. Then, we remembered the two cappuccinos and biscotti we’d had earlier in the day and it all seemed hopeless.

The other problem is that the more I eat, the more I seem to want. My stomach is expanding! If I could put this into auto-reverse (the less I eat, the less I want,) wouldn’t that be amazing? If I manage to keep things in check over a couple of days, I’m sorely disappointed that I haven’t lost 10 kilos. Losing weight and staying fit and trim is a long-term game.

Auntie Joan used to say she could make a lot of money out of a home truth. If you are fit and healthy and you want to lose weight , eat a little less, exercise a little more and turn down your central heating a couple of degrees.  Maybe the softly. softly approach might just work?

(If you want to learn how to get yourself balanced mind, body and spirit, come along to one of my Empowering Women Workshops at the Barbican (25th Feb) Old Courtroom Brighton (4th March) MAC Birmingham (10th March) and Arnolfini Bristol (25th March). All workshops start at 10am and finish at 4pm.

On the back of the untimely death of our great UK singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse and any number of stories circulating in the press about women singers struggling to deal with their drug, weight or alcohol addiction, it seems the pressure of fame causes these vibrant lives to end before their time.

It was ever thus. For those of us who like the jazz and blues, Piaf, Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith set the trend.

Why do these beautiful, talented women turn to fast cars, drugs, alcohol and binge diets in the first place?

I believe that often, fame comes fast and they are unprepared for it mentally and emotionally. Very quickly, like moths to a flame, they get surrounded by hangers on and people who tell them the things they want and need to hear, and over time, they lose touch with reality. For those that have strong families and friends, this too can prove to be difficult as these people are no more prepared for the change in their loved one’s life and their advice and support can be meaningless in the context of the adoration of strangers and constant media attention.

Another worrying factor in common is that many of these wonderful women get into relationships with unsavoury men who introduce them to the very addictions they die from.

If only they could have sought an independent view, to gain some all-round perspective on life. In my 360 WISDOM model, these women would be clear CREATives. When in their healthy CREATE state, they are the most fun, inspirational people to be around. But as they spend more time doing CREATE, without the balance of THINK, FEEL and BELIEVE the CREATE becomes unhealthy. Unhealthy CREATIVES believe in their own myth, feel an emptiness in their purpose and their relationships and spend little time focussing on their inner-development. To fill the deficit, it’s a classic to turn to artificial substances to gain a momentary balance.

If you want to explore the diva in you without the dying and how my WISDOM circle can help you live a full, joyful life, come along to my 360 WISDOM Empowering Women Workshop at the Barbican 25^th Feb, the Royal Pavilion Brighton, 4^th March, the MAC Birmingham 10^th March or the Arnolfini Bristol 25^th March from 10-4pm

Tickets £50/£40 from www.tiny.cc/360wisdom Information www.360wisdom.co.uk

Another anniversary! This time, we celebrate the bi-centenary of the great author and social commentator Charles Dickens, whose life was recently celebrated in a service at Westminster Abbey.
Dickens wrote novels that most of us at school studied as set texts. Many of them were bleak and were a social commentary on Victorian England, with its grinding poverty, poor houses, open sewers and sickness. In dark, pea-souper alleys, people lay sodden drunk from gin or spaced out in opium dens. There were regular runs on banks that ruined many. Small children climbed and cleaned out chimneys and sold matches. Stealing meant transportation for the smallest of misdemeanours.

As a result of his writings and the contribution of many other creative people, some of the most significant infra-structure projects our country has ever seen, were delivered.

Whilst Victorian England has passed from living memory and remains something we read about in history books, most of us wander through towns and cities that contain solid-built Victorian buildings. My first flat was in a Victorian building, constructed by craftsmen who were proud of what they built, full of swirling plaster mouldings, patterned architraves and tiles hand laid with care and attention.

In London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol and most of our fine cities, we walk on the bones of these ancestors who generated wealth for us from the industrial revolution and Empire.

Whatever the moral rights and wrongs are from this wealth creation, as we move into a period in the present where we will be celebrating the life of a great artist, I ask you to consider whether much has really changed?

Of course we’ve benefited from technological advancement, but has this been shared with all the people?
Isn’t our drug and alcohol dependency is still as high as it ever was?
Our children and young people, do they aspire to bettering their lives through good jobs and a decent education?
Do people live in decent, affordable homes?
Do some suffer from food impoverishment?

Whilst some of the terrible diseases people suffered and died from 200 years ago have been eradicated (cholera, typhus, TB, smallpox) and you may say ‘yes’ to some of my questions and ‘no’ to others, the startling fact for me, is that when you pick at the surface, much remains the same, because human nature doesn’t change that much really. It’s just that our ‘toys’ and methods of communication become more sophisticated.

Where are the great social reformers for the 21st Century?  Who are the creative people waiting to take on the mantle of the great Dickens? Where are the leaders who will take a risk and work from conviction rather than personal interest?

WHAT THE DICKENS IS GOING ON?

A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have. Steve Jobs.

I have to say that Steve Jobs is one of my heroes. There’s a speech he gave on You tube to graduates at Stanford University that it truly inspirational. So, if you get the time today, have a look at this.

He talks about his life and no matter what happened in it (even when it appeared to be going badly), he kept on trying to do the things he loved.

He had to drop out of college because his family couldn’t afford the fees. So he slept on friend’s floors and snuck into classes he enjoyed. One of them was a calligraphy class.

Today, writing beautifully in different scripts seems arcane. (In fact, I use the computer so much that when I have to write in long-hand, a four year-old’s writing looks neater)! But Steve persisted and enjoyed every moment of this dying art.

When he invented the first Mac, he said his love of calligraphy came back to him and as a result, he put all those wonderful fonts onto it that we now take for granted…sans serif, Tahoma, Baskerville Old Face and Copperplate Gothic. What wonderful images those conjure up of plate setting and old-fashioned wood-blocking.

His approach chimes with my 360 WISDOM theory. In this busy, crazy, mad world, we must remember to do the things we love. Sometimes, that’s so hard to forget when we are caught up in day to day living with all its concerns (keeping warm, paying the bills, staying healthy, supporting our children and staying in touch with friends and family.)

Try to remember the things you love and find some space and time to re-engage with them. Somehow, they are your anchors in this ever-changing world. They ground and centre you and remind you of who you are and what makes you unique and special. If it’s cake-baking, writing poetry, going to the races, working-out, playing bridge, singing in a choir, or collecting matchboxes, it’s your love.

We all realise after the event why we did the things we did. Because we in the West see time in a linear way (many cultures in the east see things in a circular fashion and 360 WISDOM is about circles hence the 360 degrees of a circle), then it feels like we are on a fast track moving forwards with no time to branch out or revisit parts of the journey.

In Steve’s speech to the Undergraduates he talks about ‘joining the dots backwards’ as it’s all we can do unless we step off and do things differently.

He was successful because he had a different. Broader perspective on life and its challenges. Instead of trying to be like everyone else, we need diversity, broad experiences and view-points. I’ll be explaining in future blogs how we can design things differently and change our perspective, just like Steve did.

PS This is written in Calibri, but will probably end up as Times New Roman!

With the media highlighting the issue of banker’s bonuses through Stephen Hester at RBS, I don’t feel I can ignore the issue when I’m thinking about things from a 360 WISDOM perspective.

What’s going on here poses a series of moral and ethical dilemmas which I find both interesting and contradictory. I don’t want to sit on the fence on this one, but actually find that I am; I have no sympathy for ‘fat cats’, and yet have every sympathy for them at the same time.

Strange eh? Now hold your horses and your righteous indignation! It’s all about context and perspective.

First: the thorny issue of public sector pensions. When I joined local government in 1987, private sector wages were racing ahead (think back to stripy shirts, red braces and brick-sized mobile phones.) I joined for a few reasons namely; to make a difference, to serve people and for a good retirement pension. I do not joke! That was one (if not the only) perk at the time because the pay was significantly less than I could have earned in the private sector. And as pension was based on final salary, that created a bit of ambition in me to get promoted every now and again.

If the government can retrospectively try to alter my pension, by breaking the terms of my contract with them, why can’t they do the same with other public sector employees, like Bank CEO’s and MP’s? There seems to be a bit of a blind spot here.

Second: As I and a few hundred thousand public sector staff feel rightly aggrieved about the changing of the rules after the event, why shouldn’t we also feel a little sorry for Mr Hester? We might not all like the size of his pay and bonus, but in good faith, like us, he too entered into a contract with agreed employment terms. Breaking this after the event seems an act of ill faith.

Third: We have our own ‘blind spots’; a warped sense of the worth or value of a person. In the paper today, I was reading about a star footballer whose weekly pay is £190,000. Many Premiership footballers’ salaries top £90,000 a week. So by my reckoning, in less than three months, they will have passed Mr Hester’s annual salary.

Whilst I get a lot of pleasure out of football and pop music, we perhaps should weigh up the value of the person, their talent and skill and then put a price on them. After all, we have billions of public money invested in the banking system overall and need to pay the very best people to turn things around. The consequences of this not happening could be dire.

Finally, it saddens me to think that people do everything for money nowadays. The pleasure I got from making a difference and improving the quality of people’s lives was immense. It’s an old-fashioned, outdated way of thinking I know. When recent studies said most people believe £50,000 a year would give them a good life-style, how many millions of pounds do people really need before they start to do things for the good of us all?

As part of the work to promote my 360 Wisdom: Empowering Women workshop series, I’ve been researching women’s groups and associations near to and in the cities where I’m performing. Because my work in the past has tended to be with organisations, one of the big challenges is to reach individual women who may get some benefit/enjoy the 360 WISDOM programme.

I’ve noticed there are a plethora of groups out there; a lot of them are to do with women in Business. They appear to be run like franchises where you pay an annual fee plus extra for lunches and talks and meet like-minded women to network and maybe do a bit of business together.   There’s so many similar set-ups, it’s difficult to pick a front runner.

I joined one (free ) group who are based in Birmingham (Women in Business Association) that has interesting talks and events (which I hope to attend one soon) . Kirsty who runs it seems to be brimming with ideas and enthusiasm.

I also went to a charity dinner for the Women’s Networking Hub (run by a female dynamo Shahida Choudhry). I met some really interesting women from all different backgrounds. Some worked at grass-roots in the community helping people get work, supporting their educational and/housing needs. Another gave advice on debt management , someone else worked in a college and others ran their own businesses.

Everyone was friendly, nobody judged and the one thing we all had in common was just enjoying being with other women for their company and to support various charities as well as join other women from across the UK on the Million Women Rise march on 3^rd March in London which is to highlight/raise awareness about violence against women.. I believe similar marches are being held in other countries e.g. Egypt.

It got me thinking. When I was growing up in the 1970’s and 80’s, for a time, women were afraid to go onto the streets at night. The Yorkshire Ripper had been murdering women almost with impunity and it made us fearful about our own safety.

I can remember going on a ‘Reclaim the Night’ March in Leamington Spa with a load of angry women who wanted to feel safe and for violence against women to be taken seriously. A lot of events took place like this with a lot of support form women in the NHS and the public sector.

With the years passing, my ‘political’ view has become dulled as other things have taken priority. I felt proud (and a little ashamed) that a new generation of women are standing up for their rights. A little bit of sadness was there too that 25 years on, there are still a lot of issues around how women are portrayed in the media (this is being considered now in the Leveson Inquiry) as well as how women are faring in relation to equal pay,   representation at senior levels in business and public life and issues around domestic violence. Has much changed over the years? The answer has to be ‘yes’ and ‘no’. It’s made me realise that we all need to keep up the pressure to maintain and improve human rights that took a long time to achieve.

My Empowering Women workshops go a little way towards doing this as does the support of the Soroptomists  in what I’m doing (they are a global network of  professional and business women who are committed to working with women and girls to achieve their potential, realise their aspirations and inspire action to create opportunities to help women transform themselves. ) I’m working in partnership with the UK Soroptomists to help promote the group and to raise funds for charities at home and abroad.

After my weekend of being subsumed in women’s issues from the past to the present, I could see how everything has connected up to help women. What can you do or are you doing to help?

My first two blogs have already been posted under WORDS OF WISDOM and I’ll be trying to put a daily post up with something topical and interesting to start off people’s day with something interesting and thoughtful.

Have a look at the links here:

http://www.nhsonline.net/discounts/

http://www.publicsector.net/main/index.asp