Professional Branding……… this is thrown about on sites which promote the ethos of work/money/success. I was never sure that it was a real thing. Then I read an excerpt from Milton Glaser and found out that it was/is. I’m too lazy, or maybe true to myself to create a separate work branded personae, however I can see that by being a subject specialist you have, in effect, created your brand.
My organisation is moving away from specialists. In a recent meeting, a group of the great, already branded by specialism/ style/ name/rank declared ‘we don’t use the words specialist teams’ and ‘it’s something we’re moving away from’ and ‘everyone is a specialist’. Sadly this is a deluded mind set, everyone is not a specialist. The most common gripe is ‘we don’t really know what were doing’ and the training was *****’ so much for personal branding then.
The other ethos is that we (as an organisation) are striving to be recognised as having the best customer service in the world (read here ‘our corner of the market’) sadly without specialists this. ain’t. gonna. happen. not ever, nada! In fact the opposite occurs. Somewhere the saying ‘Jack of all trades, Master of none’ to describe bad workmanship has been lost.
Writing………’go where the story/word take you ‘ is an excellent piece of advice/inspiration. I sometimes take a different route to work.. I walk past houses which pique my interest. I notice the birdsong, trees and flowers in this leafy, affluent corner of a busy city. Words fill my headspace, in short, somewhat poetic bursts. I never get chance to write these down because they are in the moment. A running commentary in my brain.
Royal Wedding………. Aside from the glorious day, one thing which sticks in my mind is Harry channelling Hilary Clinton with the wave, point, smile and nod at someone in the crowd. Doesn’t matter that there is no-one there you know. It creates a friendly, intimate ambiance to a potentially stressful event.
Bleugh……. This morning on the way to work, in the leafy corner of the city I spotted a deceased Hedgehog. Who’d have guessed they came so close into the city? Anyway as it was unmarked (must’ve been caught a glancing blow) I moved it from the middle of the road to the pavement as I really couldn’t face walking back and seeing it squashed into the tarmac.
a story forms my mind 